I have to say that I’ve never felt so bad about a grown women before in my life but I feel so sorry for Sarah and her family.  I feel like she jumped into this without realizing how deep the muddy political well is and she only thought about the positives of being the Vice President of the United States and neglected everything else.  I feel sorry for her because she probably thinks that there is no way out now considering she is already in the spotlight and taking the backdoor out of the spotlight will make her look like a quitter.

On the other hand, after watching the debate between Joe and Sarah, I was surprised that she didn’t make any ridiculous mistakes and I applaud those that planned and coached her for this debate because they clearly had a plan.  Oddly enough, she basically stated her plan within the first few minutes of the debate; she said that she may not answer questions as the moderator or Joe would like her to answer.  She did exactly that.  Sarah rarely responded directly to the questions at hand and instead made the points that she wanted to make.  This is smart for two reasons.  First, it forces Joe to be on the defensive side of the fence because he wants to respond directly to her answer which may not be the same thing that the moderator had asked.  Second, due to the fact that she forming her responses regardless of the question asked most of the time, highlights of the debate to be played over and over again until next Tuesday’s second Presidential debate will portray her in a better light than this past week with her interview with Katie Couric.

So who do I think won the debate?  Well, let’s see… if there was a rubric of all questions asked as rows and two columns for Senator Biden and Governor Palin, I think I would have more relevant notes jotted down in the Biden column while I would have more questions marks on the Palin column.  If you cut out each candidates replies and replayed them randomly without the moderator’s question, I think both did a good job of getting the point across that their Presidential candidate would have liked them to get across but I still would give Biden the edge.

In the end, why even bother reading this?  I’m sure it’s on YouTube by now so go watch it and make your own decision.

Allow me to continue my sarcastic tone; operating refineries in the hurricane prone Gulf Coast isn’t like finding the cure for cancer or finding the Holy Grail, is it?  A refinery that is shutdown due to a Hurricane isn’t a mysterious puzzle, it should be an expected technical problem that any decent company should be able to resolve with the only question being how many man hours it would take to get it done.  In stark contrast, it would be a completely different thing if the monster from Cloverfield popped up out of the Gulf of Mexico and destroyed all the refineries there.  That would be considered, say it with me those that are responsible for managing these refineries, un-ex-pect-ed because no one in there right mind would have ever imagined that scenario.

So my rant on refinery operators is done.  Of course, I’m not trying to shift the blame away from consumer panic caused by what seems to be a rumor but coming up on the third week of the gas shortage in Charlotte, I can’t help but think that there is some flaw in how the gasoline is distributed in the Southeast.

Less than two years away from 2010, where are the flying cars?  Better yet, where is Mr. Fusion?

GT is now 2-0 and 1-0 in the ACC conference.  I realize that beating Jacksonville State and BC (in such an ugly way as Paul put it agreeably) doesn’t really match up to some of the ranked teams in the nation.  Yet still, considering that earlier this year and probably up until the final play clock ticked down in Chestnut Hill today, there were plenty of sketics questioning Tech’s chances of being successful; I think our offense did okay.

A win is a win regardless of how ugly of a win it was but obviously with three fumbles, two of which I attribute to the poor execution of the offense, we still have a long road of improvement ahead.

GO TECH!  THWG!

Again, one of the most unique things about the triple-option offense is that a play can be called without anyone knowing who is going to end up with the ball and where because there are several ‘options’ the quarterback has when running the play from center.  It’s in no way foolproof but if executed properly, it’s a system that can chew up a lot of yards on the ground and give the offense the ability to control the clock.

First half was good, we had some good runs and decent passes so we gained a lot of yards.  Our defense was able to hold the Gamecocks to a few 3-and-outs by shutting down Perrilloux’s passing game.  Regardless, the second half was a different story.  Not exactly sure what happened during half-time, maybe the defense got a bit apathetic because we were leading by so much and relaxed… we gave away 258 yards.  That is a bit disappointing because once we start facing conference opponents, not only would you expect yardage multiplied but also points on the board.

Five fumbles; two lost.  Those are pretty big numbers too.  Good thing about the fumbles (weird to say that) is that the fumbles were caused by tackles instead of offensive miscues.  It was good that we didn’t have any botched handoffs and pitches in the option.  In the end, I would consider this a modest win at best.  I am hoping that our team makes some more adjustments and improve on both sides of the ball starting from our next game at Boston College because I expect the margin of the score to normalize.

Considering that the core of our offense is so young (and seemingly eager to learn and improve), Georgia Tech is going to have a good season and even better future.  GO TECH!  TO HELL WITH GEORGIA! 

• I want Canon to release the next full-frame digital SLR.  The 50D looks nice but I want a full-frame now.
• Oh… GT opening game day tomorrow… I am psyched!  GO TECH!  STING ‘EM!
• Is it just me or is our Economy going down the drain.  Everyone is all happy because gas is under $4.00 per gallon.
• I wanted to vote for Barack but the Democratic National Convention is making me doubt.  Who’s manning Congress while all the democrats are working on speeches?
• The 2008 Olympics were awesome.  Usain and Michael are inhuman.
• Don’t care if the Chinese gymnasts were underage, Nastia and Shawn still delivered against the wind.
• Chinese divers have the ability to control water so it doesn’t splash.
• South Korea is a baseball powerhouse.

Instill Confidence
The future of Yellow Jackets football is bright.  Why?  It’s not because of the option-based offense that is often called ‘gimmicky’ by American football followers.  It has more to do with the new Head Coach that is not installing this so-called gimmicky offense but because he is instilling new and pure confidence to his new football team.  Everyone whose ever asked Paul Johnson about his “system” or heard him talk about it understands how much rock-solid confidence he has in it that some would even go as far as calling it being stubborn.  I wouldn’t argue with that whatsoever but what I like reading and seeing is Paul making the players believe and build faith in something that they are not used to.  He’s like an powerful evangelist for the experience he gained over his college football career.  Confidence flows from the leader to the followers; from the head coach to the assistant coaches and players.  Paul Johnson exudes confidence and it will show in our football team.

Turn-around Winner
I even have caught myself questioning where this confidence comes from but a quick google to see Paul Johnson’s history in college football shows his impressive résumé of turning around programs and being a winner.  The thing that impresses me most is his ability to find ways to win with the tools he’s been given which so far has been limited at best.  There’s always been doors that prevented him from recruiting the best in the nation and that door has been kicked wide open.  Right now, I don’t think it’s the question of whether or not he will maintain his winning record because I have no doubt that he will at Tech.  The question is how far will he be able to surpass that by winning the games that matter: bowl games, championship games, and rivalry games.  With Paul’s track record, I have faith that as the Yellow Jackets matures, the fans will savor the answer to that question.

MacGyver of Football
Paul Johnson is the MacGyver of American Football.  It’s funny to metaphorical say that but it’s true.  He takes whatever is available to him as a resource without taking anything for granted and maximizes the usefulness of everything to come out with wins.  PJ is always quoted as saying that he needs to learn what his team can do.  From what I can find, he uses that and molds his “system” so that it fits.  The Naval Academy lead the nation in rushing last year because that is what they were best at; he saw no point of putting balls up in the air and risk interceptions.  At Georgia Tech, he technically has better resources in the rushing and passing attack so I would be very surprised if we don’t see Calvin come out for snaps or see designated option-pass plays from Josh and Jaybo.  Naysayers, be aware of Paul Johnson’s MacGyver-ism.

GO JACKETS!
THWG!

Why just eight events?  I counted sixteen men’s swimming events.  With such talent, I would think Michael could have won more medals.  I’m just saying’. 

The Old Regime
Under former Head Coach Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech ran an offense predominantly known as the “pro-style” offense in College football.  This type of offense pivots on two types of plays, a passing play where the quarterback snaps the ball under center or in shotgun and throws it to a wide receiver or a running play where the quarterback hands off or pitches the ball to one of his backs.  The question that the defense needs to answer is… is the offense going to pass the ball or are they going to run the ball.  Chan ran this type of offense during his entire career at Tech and it was a decent offense but as we found out over the past five years, it was never consistent due to talent that wasn’t spread across the field on both sides of the ball.

The New Regime
Paul Johnson, on the other hand, runs predominantly an option-based offense in flexbone formation that tries to spread the defense out across the field.  The core of such an offense is a strong dual-threat quarterback that has the ability to run the ball himself as a carrier and at the same time have the arm to throw the football.  The triple option is quite an elusive offense because no one really knows where the ball is going to end up, not even the offense, until the whistle is blown.

Snapped under center, the QB receives the ball and has to make multiple decisions based on how he reads the defense.  First option is to hand it off to the B-back who will run it up the middle.  If he sees the linebackers in the path, he will hold onto the ball and start rolling out to either his left or right and be flanked by an A-back.  If he sees that a defender is shadowing him, his second option is to lateral to the A-back right before the defender commits to tackle him in which case the A-back will have the ball to run the ball.  Otherwise, if the quarterback sees that a defender is shadowing his A-back, the third option is to keep the ball himself to run the ball.  Technically, there is also a fourth option which is for the QB to throw the ball to a receiver down the field but this is rather called the option-pass play rather than a triple-option because the wide receivers on a triple-option play are usually used as blockers instead of running routes.

The key to this offense is not brute strength or speed, it is execution.  Every time a play is called, every single person on the offense will have a job that they have to execute flawlessly because no one knows who the ball carrier will be or where the ball is going to go.  Paul Johnson has had a lot of success with this type of offense so far at his previous coaching positions at non-BCS schools.  So when Paul was hired, there were plenty of opinions by practically everyone that this type of offense will not work as effectively at the BCS level.  The primary argument seems to be that the defense is faster so that the elusiveness of the triple-option becomes null.

My (maybe biased) Opinion
As a Tech fan (so I may be guilty of bias here), I think the criticism has been overdone.  No one knows what this offense is going to look like; Paul Johnson was quoted as saying that they ran the ball at Navy because it was what his team at the time was good and he was taking advantage of what he knew the team was capable of.  Yes, he likes and has absolute belief in his offensive scheme (a.k.a the “system”) but this certainly does not mean that the system is not flexible to fit the profile of the team.  A good Head Coach will take advantage of the available talent and get the victory.  If Paul believes that he can do this at GT without throwing the ball, I’m not going to argue with him.  Otherwise, if Paul sees good things happening when the ball is in the air, I am confident that he will not neglect to pass the ball.  It is simple as that.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yellow Jackets came out in the first game and pass the ball often to give those sports columnists something to write about for Friday.  On that same note, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Tech never threw the ball in the first game and keep it on the ground 100% to give future opponents a false sense of security by letting them think that they will only have to worry about defending the ground game.

Either way, as you may be able to tell, I am very excited about this season.  I had very high expectations last year and was let down pretty hard.  I think we will have some surprising wins this year and also unexpected losses but I will be a happy fan just to see the critics proven wrong whether it be this season or the next.

External Links

• Georgia Tech’s Johnson explains spread-option offense
• Johnson, Ga. Tech proving option can dominate at highest level