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!

As for Georgia Tech fans, don’t fret. We have a spectacular Class of 2007 coming in and our outlook is pretty good.

p.s. Boo, what a boring BCS ‘Championship’ game but in the end, good job Gators.

I have yet to see in my life a college or NFL football game where the referees do not blow the whistle as soon as a pile is created by players after a fumble. There was a referee already there at the pile ready to pull off the players to see who recovered the ball but no one blew the whistle. Why? There was no possible way to determine whether or not the ball was still loose or not in the pile; I have never seen officials not blow the whistle when a pile is created after a fumble. Yes, it looked like the most likely team to have recovered the ball was U(sic)GA but the fact that there was a fumble and no whistle within seconds of a player pile is, to me, ridiculous. And it’s not like the SEC officials are going to admit to this mistake.

It’s okay though. In the end, we still deserved the loss because our offense wasn’t clicking – we seem to do that every few games. It’ll just mean that our offense be good to go on December 2nd, for the ACC Championship game against Wake.

Final Four:
Illinois vs. Georgia Tech
UNC vs. Kentucky

Championship:
Georgia Tech over UNC (76 – 72)

The selection committee recognized the talent our players showed against UNC and Duke this weekend.

I was sad to see the clock running down and none of our 3-pt attempts falling through for the tie… now I felt how McCants felt when his 3 didn’t go in for the tie.

Tech was trailing Duke throughout the entire game but they came back within the last few minutes of the game to show what they were made of…

Yes, Tech’s shots just weren’t falling… but the most amazing part of the game is that Duke’s shots WERE falling in and Tech’s defense maintained its integrity to keep Duke’s offense checked. I was very proud of that fact – it’s a fact that paved Tech’s road to the National title game last year.

Paul Hewitt was right; Tech’s victory over UNC was most definitely not an upset just as Tech’s loss to Duke wasn’t a blow out as some would have expected before this past Friday.

Congratulations to Duke on the ACC Tournament championship and the #1 seed.
Congratulations to UNC on the ACC regular season championship and the #1 seed.

NCAA tourney’s going to be crazy this year March Madness… no other phrase for it!

Georgia Tech (#4 seed) defeated UNC (#1 seed): 78-75.

I couldn’t watch the game but according to those watched it (even the UNC fans, mind you)… most thought that the refs’ calls were very unfair to Georgia Tech. Even Vitale, who would be normally all over UNC (or Duke) commented on the possibility of the refs favoring UNC.

You gotta hand it to both teams – it was a ferocious fight throughout the entire game but GT wanted it far more than UNC did… Tech had something to prove, UNC already proved it throughout the regular season. Tech deserved the win and I am sure they will be able to show college hoop fans that GT has what it takes to make heads turn after tomorrow’s game…

Now, I know Tech wants far more than what they worked for so far… they will work hard for it tomorrow.

GO JACKETS!

What’s wrong with this picture?

Wait, maybe you can’t see what’s going on… here’s a wider shot:

Yes, Ish is dunking over a defender.

Yes, Georgia Tech #2 Isma’il Muhammad showed some ultra-hops during the NC State game by dunking over a defender. This is no joke, my friends… not a doctered photo here. Sort of like how Vince Carter flew over a defender in the Olympics. You don’t see many of these dunks during an actual game, you might’ve seen them during dunk contests but that’s planning ahead of time. Look at the first picture again and you’ll see what… well, WHO is below Isma’il.

Ish is a showstopper.

(Well, too bad we lost the game…)

I think it has to be said that Georgia Tech has become the most disappointing team in the NCAA. At one point, we were ranked #3 in the polls… now, our team will have to play flawlessly in order to make it to the NCAA tournament. All GT fans were sort of pointing at BJ Elder’s injury as the reason for all the losses we’ve had – this is rightfully so considering we started losing games after BJ was injured.

I don’t think it was BJ’s not being able to play that caused Tech to lose games we should have won… I think it was Tech’s attempt to fill in the hole BJ left (attempting to stabilize) PLUS Tech’s inconsistency that we saw last year during the ACC play. Tech’s basketball team was never consistent… even last year. You’ll see us blazing a ranked opponent and a few days later, get burned by an unranked team.

This was one of the reasons why GT’s road to the National Championship game was so much of a shocker to everyone.

I was disappointed in Tech’s losses… but I believe Tech will jump out of this hole and make a difference in both the ACC and the NCAA tournament.

While watching the second half of the Clemson vs. GT game, I finally saw the smiles of the Tech players during the game – something which I have not seen in a long time. I am going to take it as a sign that the smiles represented the relief of the team as both Elder and Smith returned back to the court after recovering from their respective injuries.

I think the FSN analyst said it best when he said this win on the road for Tech will turn a lot of heads in the league. I believe Hewitt and his team will work hard to get back into the race to contend for the National Championship.

Yellow Jackets are opening their road toward March Madness.

I even see the frustration in our player’s faces after a loss. It seems like they just aren’t clicking well together. We don’t see to have as many assists as we used to as a team. There were talks last season about different players stepping up and at every game it was a different player. Now it seems like every player is trying to do not – not sefishly – but to try to step up and win the game for the team.

Tech’s OT win against Wake Forest showed that the skill and talent is still there but the three games we’ve lost prior to that win and the game we lost to Maryland shows that there is an inconsistency there that the Yellow Jackets aren’t comfortable with.

I must admit, among all the losing, I had a lapse as a GT fan after our 3rd loss at home against an unranked Virginia Tech team. But at the Wake Forest game, I saw that Tech players still had it in them to contest against higher ranked teams in NCAA Division I. I am still looking forward to March Madness and Georgia Tech’s representation there.

Personal Analysis
[Team play] I see sometimes players get the ball in-bound, penetrate the defense, and attempt a shot… without getting the ball passed around. Where’s the unselfish play calling that amazed so many espn commentators last season?

[Free-throws] With most of the games we have lost, if we hit those free-throws – we would’ve had more than enough points to have made up the difference in the final margin.

[Three pointer] Wow, we can’t seem to hit as many of these as before… and the problem is, we are down in points in the first half and this continues to the end of the game because our attempts to climb back with 3-pt attempts don’t fall through.

[Turnovers] We don’t have many of these… but all those missed free-throws and missed 3-pointers are basically turnovers that aren’t counted in the turnover stats. But it certainly hurts the chances of winning a game.

[BJ Elder] I think Tech has more than enough game to have beaten some of those teams we’ve lost to – not saying that Elder is not important, but we’ve lost 4 games now without Elder and it doesn’t look like the players are clicking without the missing puzzle.