Derrick Morgan 1st Team All-American!

The awards keep rollin' in. Congrats to Derrick. I can't imagine he'll be back at Tech next season, but it's been great having him here. Finish strong with two more wins! (or, ya know, stick around for one more year)

Offense

Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	School	Coach	Hometown (High School)
WR	Golden Tate	5-11	195	Jr.	Notre Dame	Charlie Weis	Hendersonville, Tenn. (Pope John Paul II)
WR	Mardy Gilyard	6-1	187	Sr.	Cincinnati	Brian Kelly	Bunnell, Fla. (Flagler Palm Coast)
TE	Dennis Pitta	6-5	247	Sr.	BYU	Bronco Mendenhall	Moorpark, Calif. (Moorpark)
OL	Mike Johnson	6-6	305	Sr.	Alabama	Nick Saban	Pensacola, Fla. (Pine Crest)
OL	Russell Okung	6-5	300	Sr.	Oklahoma St.	Mike Gundy	Houston, Texas (Bush)
C	Chris Hall	6-4	295	Sr.	Texas	Mack Brown	Irving, Texas (Irving)
OL	Trent Williams	6-5	315	Sr.	Oklahoma	Bob Stoops	Longview, Texas (Longview)
OL	Mike Iupati	6-6	330	Sr.	Idaho	Robb Akey	Anaheim, Caiif. (Western)
QB	Colt McCoy	6-2	210	Sr.	Texas	Mack Brown	Tuscola, Texas (Jim Ned)
RB	Mark Ingram	5-10	215	So.	Alabama	Nick Saban	Flint, Mich. (Southwestern)
RB	Toby Gerhart	6-1	235	Sr.	Stanford	Jim Harbaugh	Norco, Calif. (Norco)

Defense

Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	School	Coach	Hometown (High School)
DL	Ndamukong Suh	6-4	300	Sr.	Nebraska	Bo Pelini	Portland, Ore. (Grant)
DL	Jerry Hughes	6-3	257	Sr.	TCU	Gary Patterson	Sugar Land, Texas (Austin)
DL	Jared Odrick	6-5	296	Sr.	Penn St.	Joe Paterno	Lebanon, Pa. (Lebanon)
DL	Derrick Morgan	6-4	272	Jr.	Georgia Tech	Paul Johnson	Coatesville, Pa. (Coatesville)
DL	Brian Price	6-2	300	Jr.	UCLA	Rick Neuheisel	Los Angeles, Calif. (Crenshaw)
LB	Rolando McClain	6-4	258	Jr.	Alabama	Nick Saban	Decatur, Ala. (Decatur)
LB	Greg Jones	6-1	228	Jr.	Michigan St.	Mark Dantonio	Cincinnati, Ohio (Moeller)
DB	Eric Berry*	5-11	195	Jr.	Tennessee	Lane Kiffin	Fairburn, Ga. (Creekside)
DB	Joe Haden	5-11	190	Jr.	Florida	Urban Meyer	Fort Washington, Md. (Friendly)
DB	Javier Arenas	5-9	198	Sr.	Alabama	Nick Saban	Tampa, Fla. (Robinson)
DB	Earl Thomas	5-10	197	So.	Texas	Mack Brown	Orange, Texas (West Orange Stark)

Specialists

Pos.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.	School	Coach	Hometown (High School)
P	Drew Butler	6-2	203	So.	Georgia	Mark Richt	Duluth, Ga. (Peachtree Ridge)
PK	Kai Forbath	6-0	192	Jr.	UCLA	Rick Neuheisel	Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Notre Dame)
AP	C.J. Spiller	5-11	195	Sr.	Clemson	Dabo Swinney	Lake Butler, Fla. (Union County)

*-2008 All-American

http://www.afca.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9300&ATCLID=204843538

Why Tech HAS to win Saturday

The winner of Saturday’s ACC Championship game will play in the Orange Bowl.

But to which bowl will the loser go? What will be the reward for months of work?

There’s no easy answer, but the bottom line is either Georgia Tech or Clemson might be unhappy when the bowl invitations are announced Sunday.

It’s possible that the Yellow Jackets or Tigers could fall all the way to the Music City Bowl in Nashville, which gets the fifth choice of ACC teams.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-tech/acc-title-game-loser-223406.html

The Music City Bowl?! If in the last two weeks of the season we go from 10-1 and #7 in the country to playing Kentucky in the Music City Bowl, I'm not gonna be happy.

Bowl politics are dumb, and it looks like this will actually happen to Saturday's loser. As if there wasn't enough motivation already, this is huge. The first 11 games of the season will be forgotten if we finish with losses to uga and Clemson and go to a crappy bowl.

So let's go Jackets! Punch our ticket to the Orange Bowl!

Jacket Marching Band Concert - ACCCG

I have very little info on this, but based on a comment left by a band member to an earlier post it seems the band will playing a concert down at the ACCCG.

Location: Channelside
Time: Friday, 8pm

Just wanted to pass it along. If anyone has more details please post a comment.

Jackets Beat the Dogs

The Saint Bernards... ok, they're just the Saints, but their mascot is a saint bernard.

Tech notched a quality win over a team that has won an NCAA Tournament game both of the last two years tonight, 74-61, thanks to 26 points from freshman Mfon Udofia and a solid night from both the stud big men.

Read about it here.

In other basketball news, the Big Televen finally won the ACC/Big 10 Challenge for the first time thanks to late flops by Duke and Clemson. And we didn't take part because we were last place last season... see?! The ACC NEEEEDS us!

GT vs. Siena - 7pm tonight (not on TV...)

Just a reminder, Tech takes on Paul Hewitt's former team, Siena, at 7:00 tonight. But it's not on TV...

You can hear it on 790 The Zone, WYAY 106.7, or XM 190 and Sirius 216.

For a good last-minute report on Siena, check out From The Rumble Seat's Q&A with a Siena blogger (there is one).

Tech is favored by 6. Siena's a pretty good team that made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year and is favored to win their conference again this year. Should be a solid test for the Jackets.

Derrick Morgan ACC Defensive Player of the Year

Congrats to Derrick! Nesbitt and Dwyer also finished 2nd and 4th respectively in the voting for Offensive POY.

I get Spiller winning Conference POY, but I'm not sure I get Offensive POY. He finished 2nd team All-ACC as a RB behind Dwyer and Williams (VT) because he's a much better return man and all-around home run threat than RB. I guess the voters thought if he wins ACC POY, he needs to win Offensive POY, too.

Nonethless, congrats to Morgan, Nesbitt, and Dwyer!

2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year Voting

C.J. Spiller, rb-spc, Clemson (29)
Josh Nesbitt, qb, Georgia Tech (8)
Ryan Williams, rb, Virginia Tech (2)
Derrick Morgan, de, Georgia Tech (1)

2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Offensive Player of the Year Voting

C.J. Spiller, rb-spc, Clemson (24)
Josh Nesbitt, qb, Georgia Tech (10)
Ryan Williams, rb, Virginia Tech (4)
Jonathan Dwyer, rb, Georgia Tech (1)
Christian Ponder, qb, Florida State (1)

2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year Voting

Derrick Morgan, de, Georgia Tech (21)
Robert Quinn, de, North Carolina (7)
DeAndre McDaniel, s, Clemson (7)
Nate Collins, dt, Virginia (1)
Quan Sturdivant, lb, North Carolina (1)

http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/120209aab.html

Championship Game Events

Just wanted to give a run down of some of the goings on down in Tampa this Friday and Saturday for those making the trip.


Friday, December 4

Noon
ACC Coaches & Awards Luncheon
Tampa Convention Center
The 2009 ACC Football Awards will be presented and participating coaches will discuss their seasons.
This is a ticketed event.
Call 813.218.3814 for ticket information.

4-6 p.m.
ACC Outreach Event with Tampa Pediatric Cancer Center
Channelside Bay Plaza

7 p.m. - midnight
Channelside's Toast to the Atlantic Coast
Channelside Bay Plaza

7-11 p.m.
ACC Night of Legends
Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay
Special event to honor outstanding legends from each ACC institution.
(Limited tickets available)
Call 813.218.3814 for ticket information.

_________________________________________________


Saturday, December 5

5-7:30 p.m.
ACC FanFest
South Lot of Raymond James Stadium

5:15 p.m.
Mascot Game at ACC FanFest
South Lot of Raymond James Stadium

5:45-6 p.m.
Clemson Pep Rally
at ACC FanFest
South Lot of Raymond James Stadium

6:15-6:30 p.m.
Georgia Tech Pep Rally
at ACC FanFest
South Lot of Raymond James Stadium

6:30 p.m.
James Otto Concert at ACC FanFest
South Lot of Raymond James Stadium

Muchos Linkos

Lots going on lately, and since we've written our part about uga and are ready to bring home an ACC Championship, here are a bunch of links:

FOOTBALL

Paul Johnson won ACC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. Congrats CPJ! Link

Daron already linked to it, but in case you missed it, here's the audio from CPJ's interview with 790 The Zone. Some real gems in there. Link

CPJ's not going anywhere, and Tommy Tubberville says GT is a better job than Notre Dame. Link

CPJ explains the 4 passes at the end of the uga game. Link

Special teams coordinator and A-backs coach, Jeff Monken, was hired to coach Georgia Southern. He will coach Tech Saturday and maybe in the bowl game. Link

Dr. Saturday called Calvin Johnson the #10 player of the decade. Link

BASKETBALL

Tech beat Mercer 85-74 on Friday. The next game is tomorrow night vs. Hewitt's old team, Siena. Link

Do not let someone else define who you are - Coach Johnson Interview on 790

I wasn't at the game. I was either in bed or had my head in the toilet. And no, it's not because I started drinking rum too early. Friday night Chinese takeout turned out to be a bad call. I may never order chicken & broccoli with brown sauce ever again. Food Poisoning, not good times.

But I have been able to witness the outcry after dropping one to UGA. Yes, it was there for the taking and they just flat out beat us. With that said, I still say Coach Johnson wins this game more often than not.

I feel the pain, Tech fans hate to lose to UGA not only because we hate UGA in general, but mainly because we hate to hear the crap we get from UGA fans. Yep, I was getting the text messages Saturday night as I laid in bed. Most of them defaulted to their standard "Go Dawgs" or maybe some form of text barking. One of them was even low enough to express glee over Nesbitt's injury. My Facebook page also blew up with much of the same. Yea, I hate it, but it's want makes a rivalry a rivalry.

With that said, many Tech Fans need to get over this little brother mentality and stop letting UGA define everything. I've actually heard people say seeing UGA lose was almost better than seeing Tech win. Wow, I gotta say, that's pretty sad. I mean honestly, why do you care so much what the Dogs down the street are doing? Does it really matter? I care so little about UGA and what their fans think I can barely express it. It's fandom of the lowest common denominator and I just choose not to give a flying flip. We all just need to move on and begin to understand that Tech is bigger than it's one game a year with UGA.

This season is not over, this team has a ton to play for. There is a ACC Championship and a BCS Bowl out there just waiting for the taking. And for those of you who are jumping ship and not heading down to the ACCCG simply because you feel the season is lost now that we've lost to UGA, once again, sad.

So let your UGA buddies beat their chest over their nice win. And maybe you'll be able to trump their win with 2 simple words, Orange Bowl. And maybe at the end of the day, their season will be defined by beating us, not the other way around.

Or you can do what Coach Johnson said and punch them in the mouth.

Don't believe me, follow the link below to listen to Coach Johnson's interview on 790 The Zone.

LINK

Folks, you want to listen to this. I'm not sure about you but now I'm excited about the ACCCG.

Georgia Tech Dominates All-ACC Teams

5 first-team players on offense, including the top QB, RB, and WR, and 1 first-team defender. Also a second-team safety.

Congrats, Jackets!

FIRST TEAM

Offense
QB–Josh Nesbitt, Georgia Tech (50)
RB–Jonathan Dwyer, Georgia Tech (67)
RB–Ryan Williams, Virginia Tech (63)
WR–Demaryius Thomas, Georgia Tech (63)
WR–Donovan Varner, Duke (50)
TE–George Bryan, NC State (39)
TE–Michael Palmer, Clemson (39)
OT–Jason Fox, Miami (57)
OT–Anthony Castonzo, Boston College (53)
OG–Rodney Hudson, Florida State (54)
OG–Cord Howard, Georgia Tech (47)
C–Sean Bedford, Georgia Tech (45)
K–Matt Waldron, Virginia Tech (27)
K–Matt Bosher, Miami (27)
Spc–C.J. Spiller, Clemson (76)

Defense
DE–Derrick Morgan, Georgia Tech (76)
DE–Robert Quinn, North Carolina (69)
DT–Nate Collins, Virginia (47)
DT–Allen Bailey, Miami (38)
LB–Cody Grimm, Virginia Tech (65)
LB–Luke Kuechly, Boston College (53)
LB–Quan Sturdivant, North Carolina (44)
LB–Alex Wujciak, Maryland (44)
CB–Kendric Burney, North Carolina (59)
CB–Brandon Harris, Miami (41)
S–DeAndre McDaniel, Clemson (57)
S–Deunta Williams, North Carolina (53)
P–Brent Bowden, Virginia Tech (57)

SECOND TEAM

Offense
QB–Thaddeus Lewis, Duke (18)
RB–C.J. Spiller, Clemson (62)
RB–Brandon Harris, Boston College (39)
WR–Torrey Smith, Maryland (25)
WR–Jacoby Ford, Clemson (24)
TE–Greg Boone, Virginia Tech (16)
OT–Ed Wang, Virginia Tech (31)
OT–Chris Hairston, Clemson (26)
OG–Thomas Austin, Clemson (39)
OG–Sergio Render, Virginia Tech (37)
C–Matt Tennant, Boston College (29)
K–Casey Barth, North Carolina (21)
K–Will Snyderwine, Duke (21)
Spc–Torrey Smith, Maryland (17)

Defense
DE–Patrick Sapp, Clemson (29)
DE–Willie Young, NC State (24)
DE–Jason Worilds, Virginia Tech (24)
DT–Marvin Austin, North Carolina (32)
DT–John Russell, Wake Forest (29)
LB–Vincent Rey, Duke (29)
LB–Darryl Sharpton, Miami (21)
LB–Bruce Carter, North Carolina (17)
LB–Colin McCarthy, Miami (17)
LB–Dekoda Watson, Florida State (17)
CB–Ras-I Dowling, Virginia (26)
CB–Patrick Robinson, Florida State (26)
S–Morgan Burnett, Georgia Tech (51)
S–Kam Chancellor, Virginia Tech (24)
P–Matt Bosher, Miami (37)

http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/113009aaf.html

Time to shift our goals a little?

The team has, and that's good for the upcoming ACC Championship Game.

Last year, the top goal on the team's list was beat georgia. Done. This year, it was win the ACC. Not done yet, but still there for the taking.

THE GAME

Look, the game's over and we lost. We couldn't stop uga, plain and simple. They didn't stop us, either, until the last drive. We couldn't ask for more than the ball with 3 minutes down by less than a touchdown (+ PAT).

The three consecutive passes to the end zone were the first time I've ever disagreed with Paul Johnson. They hadn't stopped us all day. The clock was somewhat of an issue, but didn't require THAT. Sure, like FTRS said, if we catch one, he's a genious, but we didn't.

But in the bigger picture of the game, if we force them to punt just ONCE, we win! That type of defense isn't going to win any big games. Our defense isn't good, but we've certainly played better than that at times this year. The uga coaches put together a brilliant game plan to not let Joe Cox lose the game for them, and they thrashed our run defense. Now I know how other teams feel watching us get what seems like 8 yards every carry (or 14 in the second half...).

SHIFTING OUR GOALS

This season is still special. It's just a little tainted now. To be 10-2 right now is fantastic. We're still no. 12 in the country. It just hurts that one of those 2 is to the team we want to beat most. This is where the goal shifting comes in.

I hate georgia. I hate losing to georgia. I hate how often we lose to georgia. But we can't make a season ABOUT beating georgia. Sure, let them be the team we want to beat most. They are our no. 1 rival, even if we're not theirs. But the game needs to come off this pedestal we've put it on; or at least the pedestal needs to be lowered.

Every single play of the georgia game makes me sick to watch. The day before (and after when we lose) are gut-wrenching. This has got to stop (or lessen). It should remain one of our goals every year, but it shouldn't be no. 1. If we want to do big things here, we HAVE to win our conference regularly, no matter how weak some people perceive it to be. We're not winning anything bigger without winning our conference first.

Once we're to the point where we're competing for national championships (which I believe we can with Paul Johnson + a defense), sure, the georgia game at the end of the year will be even bigger, but every week will be huge at that point.

I don't want to look back at 2009 in a few years and say, "Yeah, we went 12-2, won the ACC and a BCS bowl, and finished in the top 10, but we lost to georgia." I just want to say, "2009 was a great year. We went 12-2, won the ACC and a BCS bowl, and finished in the top 10." We did lose to georgia, but it doesn't require us to put an asterisk on our whole season.

I want to talk about this upcoming weekend, but first...

TO BEBE

I can't imagine how terrible the guy felt after the game. He certainly looked shaken up. But BeBe, this loss isn't your fault. We wouldn't have been in it at all without his ridiculous stiff arm touchdown and blocking all game. It shouldn't have come down to a 4th down play, and it isn't his fault we lost. Even if he catches that, we're still 30 yards from the win. I hope he gets his head up and plays a great game Saturday.

MOVING ON

Looking at Saturday, we still have a chance to make this season great again. The only thing that will leave us with a great taste in our mouths after this season is winning the ACC and a BCS bowl. We need to for Georgia Tech and for the ACC. Both's reputations took a hit Saturday. We don't want to finish in a bowl the way we did last season. We need to notch a quality non-conference win to finish strong.

More on the ACC Championship Game later, but for now, we need to let the georgia loss go and get re-excited about the possibilities ahead. I'm sure CPJ will get the team ready. We as a fanbase just need to follow suit and realize that this championship game is more important. Sure, we're not as emotionally attached and our coworkers will get to say all year that their team beat ours, but so what? Let it go, and let's cheer on the Jackets to a conference and BCS bowl championship. Bigger things than the georgia game are ahead for this program still, and the team knows that. So should we.

Another note - Do yourself a favor and don't read georgia blogs, the AJC comments section, or their comments on Tech blogs. It just fuels it all over again. They claim this game isn't important to them, and while that's not true, let's move on and make it a little less important to us.

Spoke too soon

Can't seem to find the flags. Tiffany and I are packing to move and we seem to have boxed up the MOTG flag already. So if you wanna stop by just yell out Mash On The Gas and we'll find you and bring you a cold one.

MOTG Tailgate

Just wanted to let everyone know that MOTG will have a small group of

tailgaters in our normal spot near the Campanile Sat. Stop by and say hello.

Just look for the flag.

Don't forget - Bring a toy tomorrow

Happy Thanksgiving!

The image I want to see Sat Night.

Engineers touchdown!
Engineers yell!
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets!
Fight like hell!

and now we bring you, The Hate Week Video Collection

Learn It, Love It, Sing It

To Hell with Georgia
(to the tune of Glory, Glory Hallelujah)

Don't send my boy to MIT
The dying mother said,
Don't send my boy to Emory
I'd rather see him dead,
But send my boy to Georgia Tech
'Tis better than Cornell.
And as for the University of Georgia
I'd rather see him in hell!

chorus
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
The cesspool of the South!

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the stomping of the Dogs
We will teach the poor dumb farmboys
They should stick to sloppin' hogs
When the Jackets are triumphant
There will be a mighty cheer
We'll do the same next year!

On the Field between the hedges
There arose a mighty stench,
In the Dogs' machine the engineers
Had thrown a monkey wrench.
When the Jackets are triumphant
We will raise a mighty yell,
Them Dogs can GO TO HELL!!

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the N.C. Double-A
They're investigating GA players
To see how much they're paid
After counting all the cars
And the loans Alumni made,
They out pay F.S.U.

Cute

I guess I should never start a blog post during hate week with the title "cute."
Oh well, too late.

This is nice for a chuckle.

If I Could Be Serious for a Moment....

Well, here we are at the corner of Hate and UGA streets. The long wait for the in-state rivalry game is inching to a close and I am a bit let down by the lack of sheer kick-ass-ness that I was expecting from Georgia Tech. I know, I know, we all enjoyed watching UGA lose to Kentucky **coughturnoverscough** but it appears that there is a bit of delayed reaction to this weekend's game. Honestly, it appears that Georgia fans are beginning to hate the Bulldogs almost as much as Tech fans. Is that even possible? Yes, and I would like to submit the post by Steven with appropriate viewing material.

In case you don't know, I live outside of the Atlanta area but am fortunate enough to have a decent sports radio station (AM) that provides not only a nice selection of national shows but also one local show, the Bill Shanks show. To give a bit of background on Bill, he is a Atlanta Braves writer (and a good one at that) and he loves his UGA! On his daily show, it is about 65% UGA talk and roughly 25% Tech talk. So that means I get to hear from an insider about UGA and how the Bulldog nation (lowercase) feels about their team.

Strangely enough, there are a good deal of fans out there that expect UGA to get beat by Tech and even WANT them to get beat! What?!?!? Are you guys kidding me??? Apparently not. Even though they hate Tech, they also hate the fact that they are mediocre, they still long for the days of Hershel Walker (all 4 of him - sorry, couldn't resist) and Buck Beleu. There is a feeling of malaise from UGA that makes it hard to really hate them as much as I want. It is kind of hard to hate someone who hates themselves.

People laugh at Tech fans because they think we are fair weather, which is sometimes true, but UGA fans are just as bad. When things are good, they think they are Oklahoma or USC, when things are bad, they give up. It is very much a either/or situation. I think that is the nature of sports. No one wants to be associated with a losing team, so what do we do? We distance ourselves from it.

Want more proof? Check out the comments on the UGA vent, READ IT!

What made 45-42 so sweet was the Tech beat Georgia when Georgia thought that they were so superior. Seeing Tech rack up points and yards in the second half was made sweeter by listening to the radio guys be dumbfounded as they watched it happening. This year won't be the same. Can we get just as excited watching a game between a 10-1 team, ranked #7 in the country versus a 6-5 team ranked at the bottom of the SEC?

Um.....Yeah! Come on! This is UGA people, the darling of the state of Georgia. This is the team that thinks 1980 happened AFTER 1990! Their fans bark during the kickoffs and tell their own quarterback to F*%# off! I don't want to beat Georgia for the sake of beating Georgia, I want to beat Georgia to show their fans that the Yellow Jacket Empire (my creation, thank you) is up and coming and will step on their throat.

This week, I wanted to change it up, so I present to you the AJC GEORGIA TECH VENT OF THE WEEK!
"Thanks, Dawgs, for ruining our strength of schedule."

Basketball team back in the states

Tech ended up going 2-1 overall in the tournament in Puerto Rico after losing their opening game to Dayton.

Their final game was an 85-67 win over Boston University, who previously lost to Kansas State and then beat Indiana.

The big men led the way again, this time with Zach(ery) Peacock outshining the others by shooting 10-12 from the field for 22 points. Lawal and Favors both had double doubles.

With two of the games being on ESPNU, I haven't seen the team play much, but it's clear already that we're much more talented than last year. The team needs to work on finishing games out, in addition to the same things they've needed to work on for years: limiting turnovers and improving free throw shooting. The first, however, they'll be able to do, and will be dangerous at times this year.

The next game isn't until Friday at home vs. Mercer.

Hate Week has officially begun

With the bye week, I guess Hate Week was kind of two weeks long this year, but now with both teams only left to play each other this regular season, Hate Week is officially upon us.

I hate uga every day. This week it's just ramped up.

I wasn't fortunate enough to see last night's meltown by the dawgs [sic], but I've seen enough screenshots to know how awesome it in fact was. So to begin Hate Week on a good foot, I leave you with these:

To Hell With georgia!

And my personal favorite...

Tech gets a quality win

I criticized Paul Hewitt a good bit after our loss to Dayton, and my mind isn't changed, but it was good to see Tech come out and beat a quality team today. A team they should beat, but still a quality team that took Villanova down to the wire yesterday.

This one was on ESPNU, so I didn't get to DVR it, but it sounds like our defense was great, especially down low. It's going to be tough for people to score in the paint when they're met there by Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors.

Speaking of those two, they led the team in scoring with 18 points each, both having 3 blocks, and Gani outrebounding Favors 14-7. Favors, however was 6 of 6 from the field AND 6 of 6 from the free throw line. It sounds like both had a number of dunks today and forced their will inside.

The video in this recap has a good bit on Favors at the end. The guy's going to be a beast.

Again, I didn't see the game, so I'm assuming we're still lacking a set half-court offense, and we still shot 56% from the free throw line, but our defense is playing great and our studs showed up on offense today.

As it should be, our three McDonald's All-Americans led us in scoring (Shumpert added 12 to the big guys' 18 each) and our other stud freshman (Mfon Udofio) chipped in 8.

We're going to win some games this year with all this talent; it's just going to be sloppy. We went on a 15-0 run in the first half and a 13-0 in the second, but went on another 4+ minute scoreless streak late in the game, allowing George Mason back into the game. Those have got to stop, but overall, sounds like a good win that will help the tournament resume come March.

New season, same old story

Some things never change. Apparently the predictable nature of our basketball team is one of those things. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

• 20+ turnovers
• Roughly 50% free throw shooting
• Lack of half court offense
• Lack of inbounds plays
• Scoring runs due to our athletic ability and quality players, but no sustainable offense

The Jackets fell 63-59 to Dayton today in Puerto Rico, and I could tell just from reading updates online that it was the same old story. We have THREE McDonald's All-Americans on this team. THREE! How many do you think Dayton has? I'll tell you what they do have. A coach who makes his players better. A coach who makes his team play as just that - a team.

It's getting really old seeing uber-talented teams underachieve. I know this is the second game of the year, and I know Dayton is a quality, ranked team that won an NCAA Tournament game last year. I also realize that we only lost by 4 on a neutral floor. It's the way we lost. It's the same way we lost so many close games last year. We had a 7 point lead with 4:30 to play and scored 2 more points in the game, those coming with :30 left. That ain't gonna win basketball games.

It's not all on Paul Hewitt. I know we're young, and I know Paul Hewitt isn't out there shooting free throws. But he is the one teaching them to do so. And he is the one that's supposed to be installing some sort of set offense. I don't know what he does in all our practices, but I know what Dayton's coach spends a little time doing. This is what the Dayton player who went 4-4 from the line in the final minutes to seal the victory:

"All summer we were working out, shooting free throws, a thousand after a thousand, and that shows you I can hit it," Williams said.

I want to see our players say that.

So... it's only the second game of the season. We play George Mason tomorrow at 1 pm (on ESPNU). There's time to improve. I just don't have any confidence that we will in a significant way. Not after seeing the teams the last few years. This isn't our first team with 3+ NBA players on it...

We'll see what happens tomorow and beyond, but my optimism for the season took a big shot today when I remembered that adding quality players doesn't matter if you can't put them in a position to succeed.

I sure wish it wasn't a bye week in football. In any case, go Jackets and prove me wrong, starting tomorrow!

Watch the basketball game online!

Here are a few links that should be streaming the 11:30 am game vs. Dayton:

http://www.rajangan.net/template_live.php?ida=2425

http://www.justin.tv/jabbing

http://www.thesportschannel.info/day...ellow-jackets/

It's gonna take all I've got not to sit here and watch the whole thing at work...

Did you know basketball season started?

Shump Daddy in his new throwback uni.

I forgot for a few hours. I didn't even look to see if we beat Florida A&M in the season opener until about midnight that night. We did. 100-59 in fact.

For years I was a bigger basketball fan than football. Paul Johnson can change that about a person. I am excited about this basketball season, however. Paul Hewitt has definitely underacheived most years, but this year there's no excuse. The talent is there. Talent some people feel could compete with UNC and Duke for the ACC. If we aren't dancing in March, someone's going to pony up the dough to fire Hewitt. Fortunately for him, he's a much better recruiter than in-game coach and has the talent this year to do something special.

Why the optimism after an 11-18 season with only 2 ACC wins? Mostly Derrick Favors (if you don't know by now, we got the no. 1 ranked recruit in the country). But the rest of this year's freshmen are very good, and we return most of last year's team, as bad as it may have been. The biggest returnee is Gani Lawal, who toyed with going pro after last season. Add in another year under Iman Shumpert's belt, actual depth at point guard, 3 McDonald's All-Americans on the roster, and the return of Deandre Bell after a year out for medical issues, and we were actually ranked in the preseason polls, coming in at 19th and 21st.

Derrick Favors has been getting press as a potential All-American, and good ol' Dickie V picked Tech as his sleeper team and Favors as his diaper dandy of the year.

As far as actual basketball goes, after an overtime scare in an exhibition and a throttling of FAMU that we hope is closer to what we should expect this season, the team faces its first real challenge tomorrow in Puerto Rico against a ranked Dayton team. The tournament also includes a potential date with #5 Villanova if we win. Even if we lose, we're guaranteed 3 games, and the field is pretty stacked. George Mason, Kansas State, Indiana, and Ole Miss are just a few of the other teams there.

The game is on CSS, but it's at 11:30 am ET... so I'll be DVRing it.

So now you're all caught up. Here's to a good season this time around, and perhaps a magical run a la 2004.

Other tidbits:

Paul Hewitt joined Twitter. Follow him here: http://www.twitter.com/GTCoachHewitt

And if you're into that sorta thing, I started using Twitter, too: http://www.twitter.com/steven_little

Our team will be wearing throwback uniforms, not once, but all season. They're not bad.

1/2 Price ACCCG tix!

Hurry, you can get 1/2 price tickets to the ACCCG while they last.

http://www.theroadtotampabay.com/

Click on PURCHASE TICKETS
and use the promo code ACC1

You can still get tickets for $25 each!

Yes, I know the old argument about getting them through Tech so Tech gets the credit for "traveling well." If that's truly the case then it's a stupid way to determine who travels well. If you really feel bad about it take the difference in the ticket price and write a check to the AT Fund.

Coastal Division Champs!

Punched our ticket to Tampa with 49 unanswered points at Duke. Congrats to the team!

To hell with georgia and then onto Tampa!

CNNSI's front page (and article):

Tomorrow is HUGE.

The Sports Illustrated picture is pretty awesome

Behold (click picture for full size):

At last, the publicity comes

Georgia Tech has been receiving what seems like little national press for being the #7 team in the country this late in the season. Perhaps this is due to being the highest ranked team with a loss, thus not in the "what-if" discussions reserved for the undefeated teams.

Tech is definitely a long shot (if even a shot) to make the national championship game. Nonetheless, coverage of our games has been been slim since joining the Top 10. This is definitely due in part to our weak schedule as of late. All of our big games were earlier in the season.

All that said, this week, the coverage has seemed to pick up a little bit. A win at Duke Saturday means a date in the ACC Championship game, and more major outlets are starting to take note.

Someone pay attention to me!

Sports Illustrated was on campus taking pictures of Nesbitt, Dwyer, Bebe, and Allen recently for an article on our offense. The print version is yet to come out, but here's the article. It's a good read.

ESPN the Magazine recently included a short interview with Josh Nesbitt about running our offense (issue also included short writeup on bball player Derrick Favors - more on that later).

Derrick Morgan is turning scouts' heads with his performance: Read it

Dr. Saturday looked at if Tech can make it to the national championship game (and concludes that they can, but won't - sounds about right): Read it

Paul Johnson got a lot of attention for going for it on 4th down in overtime vs. Wake Forest: ESPN, SBNation (see "R")

The Best of the One Losses

Here we are after the 10th week of the season and a quick check of the latest BCS rankings shows us a nice little tidbit of information. Georgia Tech is the top 1 loss team in the country. Now before we get all soapbox and overly trashtalky, the case could be made for a lot of the other 1 loss teams to be where we are. Let's take a look to see what at the other 1 loss teams in the BCS Top 25 rankings:

Iowa, Pittsburgh, Houston

Not a bad group but none of them really is making a case to be a major player. I know that Iowa was having a real miracle season so far and if they hadn't lost their quarterback, they might have won that game and remained in the top ten. That is the beauty and frustration of college football in a nutshell.

So Tech is now the number 7 team in the country. Those that do not like the Yellow Jackets will always find a reason to show how they don't deserve this ranking. "They don't play in the SEC" is always one of my favorites, for example. However, the fact remains that in the current BCS set up and scheduling, Tech is a solid top ten team with a real chance to do a lot of things that were considered unrealistic to many, even some in our past athletic administration and coaching. The Jackets have a shot at winning the ACC, beating Georgia (twice!) and playing in the Orange Bowl in front of a captive national audience.

Now a lot can happen before any of those take place, but as I stated, Tech has a real chance at proving a lot of the critics wrong.

More witty remarks and thought provoking articles coming soon.....

InfoGraphics 102 - GaTech Explained

It seems EDSBS has been on a roll spitting out the charts lately. Good stuff.

Also the MashOnTheGas tailgate crew will have a very small group whipping up some Philly cheese steaks tomorrow. Stop by and say hello, we're over near the Campanile.

The Paul Johnson Pie Chart

Not sure who came up with this, but major thumbs up to you sir, madam.

The TO and pommes frites

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Wake Forrest has elected to wear white jerseys for Saturday's game down at the flats. Leaving the Jackets forced to forgo our traditional white for a darker color. Of course the speculation has been that that darker color would be Blue or Gold. Either is fine with me, I don't really care. But what I can tell you is that we will not be wearing gold jerseys with gold pants. When asked Johnson about that color combo Johnson had this to say,

"Looks like a giant French fry"

So don't expect to see those Saturday.

Johnson also said he couldn't care less which color the players choose, he just wants to win the game. I feel the same way. I know it's fun for the fans and the players to mix it up a little but becareful not to focus too much on this type of thing. We see what happens we you do.

Quote courtesy of the AJC

New "ADDITION" to your UGA collection

Hummm.

Corner approaching... Turn Now.

Photo Credit: Brant Sanderlin / AJC

There are a lot of little things that go into coming to the conclusion that a football program has "turned the corner." Be it negative or positive, there are moments when you look around and realize that somewhere on the recent road behind you, there was a turn and things are now either better or worse than before. If you have been a loyal Tech fan in the post O'leary era, then there was probably a point where you understood that the wheels have officially come off and this program wasn't heading in the right direction.

Some of you saw that turn early, some late. Maybe it was the time Reggie threw the ball out of bounds on 4th down against UGA? Maybe it was only scoring 6 points in an ACC Championship Game when Calvin Johnson is on you team? There were moments when I felt the dread, the dread that only comes with the lack of hope. The hope that things will get better. Coach Paul Johnson has been here almost two full years and at sometime during these last two seasons you may have gotten a glimpse, a ray, a twinkling of what the future could hold. Maybe it was watching as Roddy tight-roped the sidelines in Athens last year? Maybe it was storming the field against FSU last year? Maybe it was taking a hacksaw to the goalpost after the VaTech game this year. Moments that define the experience. It's really what you live for, those single moments.

Well, I was taking a break to check out the musing of the message boards today when I ran across a single solitary sentence that for me, shows the corner being turned. After discussing the recent controversy that VaTech has stirred up regarding GT's apparent "illegal" blocking schemes the topic has a habit of turning to Johnson's perceived response to said controversy. Waiting the see what Coach Johnson is going to say is a joy and lead to this message board response that tales the tale.

"I can't wait for PJ's call-in-show tomorrow night."

Simple, elegant, truthful. A fan excited about more than football. More than tailgating, more than wins. A fan excited about a 1 hour Q&A session with our head football coach just based on the anticipation of what he might say.

Corner. Turned.

A Good Saturday

I think everyone wants to have a good Saturday. For each of us, that may mean something completely different. A good day with the family, a restful break from work, maybe a chance to visit friends and loved one or even a day to be at one with the earth. For the rest of us, its football.

I know, I know. There is football on Sunday, but does this look like an Atlanta Falcons blog to you?!?!? No, no it doesn't.

Moving on.

In the football world, a good Saturday is a thing of beauty. It is the day that brings to life the dreams you have had since the end of the previous Saturday. It all started so innocently, does it? We turn off the game after the adrenaline starts to slow down. Or, if you are lucky enough to go to the game, the long walk back to the family car usually does it. Nevertheless, your mind begins to slowly leave from the memories of the victory and shift to the next week. It starts innocently at first, a couple of thoughts that make the edges of your mouth curl upward. "Wouldn't it be cool if...." or "Man, if we could only......next week."

So for the rest of the week, those thoughts start to become more solid in your thinking. You start reading the message boards, yours and the other teams (because you are a college football ninja) so that you can dissect the other team's chances. you listen a bit more closely to the AM Sports radio guys when they mention your team's name and start to expound on next week. You text message your friend and say, "I think we can do this!", but not while driving of course. As the days tick by, you start seeing a real shot at glory. Your mind begins to envision a good Saturday.

So what is a good Saturday? First, obviously, it means that your team wins. There is no good in losing. It doesn't matter how they win but the bigger the score difference, the sweeter the victory. The fact is that they win. Second, your arch-rival ***coughUGAcough** loses. Some thing a good Saturday is when your team wins and there is truth to that. But a special Saturday is when your team is now two steps ahead of the rival. That is what makes a good Saturday. There has been many a late Saturday evening when I text Daron with those three simple words.

A Good Saturday.

But now comes a great Saturday. This is past the normal "good" in that it had potential season altering effects. This last weekend definitely fit that bill. The only true negative was that Georgia had its bye week. Had they played AND lost over the weekend, then I am sure I would have to come up with a whole new category for a Saturday.

Over the weekend, we had some fantastic things happen if you are a Georgia Tech fan. And if you are not, then reading this blog is like torture, sweet, sweet torture. Anyway, the Yellow Jackets won and not just won, they dominated. If you read Steven's entry recently about the great breaker of streaks, Paul Johnson, then you know that Tech has ended several curses recently that plagued up for many years (Thanks Chan). We can now add another to that list.

Tech dominated Virginia. Plain and simple. They controlled the time of possession and held the Cavaliers to three field goals. And this was a Virginia team that people said had a real shot at being good. Well, here you go Virginia, you were 9 points of awesome. The recent BCS poll has Tech now at #11, which puts us in a really good spot if you hate the number 10. But that victory, which was joyous was followed by another one by Clemson.

I want to thank you Clemson. Really. You guys really are out of it but you played your hearts out at Miami and did the one thing that we wanted you to do, beat Miami. Once Miami fell, Tech has now become the front-runner in the Coastal conference. This now puts an end to the "Iron Triangle" as Sports Illustrated had coined it. Because Miami now has TWO loses and Tech beat the Hokies, we now control things.

I know, I know. It is far too early to start celebrating. But Tech has earned the right to be in a good place. With two more games in conference against quality (but lesser) opponents, Tech has the chance to be 6-1 in conference. With Vanderbilt on Halloween, Tech has a good chance to be 10-1 heading in to face the Bullfrogs.

So I think that makes it a good Saturday, don't you?

And now, the brand spankin' new Ridiculous AJC UGA Vent of the Week!
"I understand that Tech will receive rings for the chemical spill on their campus last week."

Really, is that the best you guys got?

Tech top of the Coastal, Miami Falls

Well, I get home from a midnight showing of Paranormal Activity which now seems to have been a mistake in movie selection because the thoughts of sleeping in a dark room anytime for the next 6 months now seems like a impossibility. Freaking creepy movie.

Well, since I'm too chicken to sleep I thought I'd check out the latest news from the college football world. So I swing over to the AJC site to see what coverage they had on today's Tech game and low and behold they found a way to get UGA on the front page. Now I'm not a AJC pro UGA conspiracy theorist. In fact I've been very happy with their coverage this year, but seriously folks...?

With Clemson pulling the upset and knocking off Miami that puts Tech on top of the ACC Coastal. Get by Wake Forest and Duke and we are on our way to Tampa Bay. Sadly I doubt anyone other than Miami, above us in the BCS rankings, will fall. In fact I expect to see very little change except to see us move up one to take Miami's spot. But not to worry, play the games, win the games and don't take anything for granted. Do that and everything will take care of itself.