Captian EO - You will be missed.

ACC's Top 30 Players

Heather Dinich finished her countdown of the Top 30 players in the ACC today, and Jonathan Dwyer came in at number 2. Ahead of him was Clemson's C.J. Spiller. The Spiller pick is mostly on potential, and people have been high on he and James Davis for years, but they've failed to produce consistently. This year, Spiller is by himself, so we should see who's better. I'll take Dwyer any day, though.

Here's what she had to say about Dwyer:

Why he's here: The ACC's reigning Player of the Year led the league in rushing last season with 1,395 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns, and he was just scratching the surface in Year 1 of Paul Johnson's offense. Consider this: Dwyer's 107.3 rushing yards per game ranked him 21st nationally, but of the 20 players who were ranked ahead of him, 14 were juniors or seniors. He's got the speed to escape for long runs, and his powerful lower body makes him tough to bring down.

Dwyer's combined rushing and receiving yards (1,604) were the ninth-most in the history of the ACC. He had nine 100-yard rushing performances, tying the school record held by Tashard Choice in 2006. He averaged seven yards per carry and had 19 carries of 20 yards or longer. Dwyer's 1,775 all-purpose yards were the second-most in school history. His 21 career rushing touchdowns are more than any ACC player returning this fall.

Why he's not No. 1: Not yet, anyway. First, let's see Dwyer sustain his success now that defensive coordinators have had an off-season to really key in on him and Georgia Tech's offensive scheme. Dwyer is a more complete pure runner than No. 1, but he's not as versatile.

And here's her whole Top 30:

No. 1 C.J. Spiller, Clemson
No. 2 Jonathan Dwyer, Georgia Tech
No. 3 Russell Wilson, NC State
No. 4 Jason Worilds, Virginia Tech
No. 5 Thomas Austin, Clemson
No. 6 Darren Evans, Virginia Tech
No. 7 Morgan Burnett, Georgia Tech
No. 8 Rodney Hudson, Florida State
No. 9 Willie Young, NC State
No. 10 Derrick Morgan, Georgia Tech
No. 11 Sean Spence, Miami
No. 12 Quan Sturdivant, North Carolina
No. 13 Thaddeus Lewis, Duke
No. 14 Bruce Carter, North Carolina
No. 15 Vince Oghobaase, Duke
No. 16 Stephan Virgil, Virginia Tech
No. 17 Jacoby Ford, Clemson
No. 18 Dekoda Watson, Florida State
No. 19 Nate Irving, NC State
No. 20 Chris Chancellor, Clemson
No. 21 Kam Chancellor, Virginia Tech
No. 22 Christian Ponder, Florida State
No. 23 Anthony Castonzo, Boston College
No. 24 Da'Quan Bowers, Clemson
No. 25 Sergio Render, Virginia Tech
No. 26 John Russell, Wake Forest
No. 27 Riley Skinner, Wake Forest
No. 28 Vic Hall, Virginia
No. 29 Da'Rel Scott, Maryland
No. 30 Matt Bosher, Miami

UPDATE: She just listed all the people she CONSIDERED, and Josh Nesbitt wasn't on there. Seriously? I can't wait until she does her postseason Top 30 and he's on there. Roddy Jones and Bebe Thomas did make the considered list.

Who Wears Short Shorts?

We wear short shorts!

The Institute announced today that the basketball team will wear throwback uniforms next year. Like all year. I had to re-read it to make sure they meant all year, and it seems they do. I have mixed feelings about this, and this being a blog with two Georgia Tech fans/graphic designers, you're getting to get an overly-long uniform breakdown! Can't wait? Scroll now!!!

The decision was made to honor previous Tech teams who accomplished something. It looks like they decided not to honor the team that had 4 NBA players on it, but got a 10 seed and lost its first NCAA Tournament game. Probably because that was only one uniform ago. Seriously, though, let's look at what we're getting and honoring.

This year's home uniforms, modeled here by Whitey McWhitenstein, simply say "Tech." I like the retro feel of these; kind of UCLA-like. Although, I don't know what I'll do when we play Virginia Tech. I always have to refrain from yelling "Go Tech!" at those games as it is. I'm assuming the updated version won't be in black and white like they used to be back in the day.

Had we been chosen to participate in this year's Big 10/ACC Challenge (and by "chosen," of course I mean not finish in last place in the conference), we could have played Michigan State and filmed a "Tech vs. State" Allstate commercial at the game.

The uniforms honor the 1960 team, which was Tech's first to make the NCAA Tournament.

For the road uniforms, we'll be wearing the gold uniforms you see on Mark Price here. You also have a nice preview up top of what Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors will look like in them. Intimidating, no? He knocked down a pillar for cryin' out loud! Instead of Lethal Weapon 3, we can call Gani and Favors "Hot Shots Part Deux."

I think these will look alright, but they lack the really retro feel of the home uniforms. Maybe it's because it's only a couple decades ago, but outsiders who don't know Tech is honoring past teams will just think, "Wow, Georgia Tech looks like they haven't updated their uniforms in 20 years."

I know, I know... you don't care what we wear as long as we win. But it's June and there's nothing else better to talk about. Plus, this is pretty interesting - I can't think of another school who wore throwbacks for a whole season. Anyone know of any?

The road uniforms will honor both the 1985 team, which won the ACC and made the Elite 8, and the 1990 team, which won the ACC and made the Final Four. Man, it must have been fun to be Tech student in 1990... football national champs and a Final Four.

So while I like the idea of throwbacks, I don't know if I like doing it for the whole season, especially when anyone that's not a Tech fan will just assume these are our permanent uniforms now/again. Although, I wasn't really a fan of what we wore the last 2 seasons (below, right), so a change isn't a bad thing. I much prefer the Final Four team's uniforms (below, left).


I won't bore you any longer with uniform talk, but let us know what you think of the idea, the choices for which teams to honor, and the how you think the uniforms will look. It'd be totally sweet if they made the shorts as short as the originals.

ACC's Top 30 Players Update

Heather Dinich over at ESPN has continued her Top 30 players in the ACC, and there are finally some Tech players on the list.

Derrick Morgan came in at no. 10:

Why he's here: Morgan has the talent to join his former teammates at the next level. Last year, he led all Tech linemen with 51 tackles, and more will be asked and required of him as the leader of the line this fall. Here's the key, though: Morgan was able to take advantage of the attention his teammates drew last fall, which allowed him to get the edge in a lot of one-on-one matchups. He's good enough, though, that he should still fare well even when the attention is on him.

Morgan ranked second on the team and eighth in the ACC in sacks (7.0), had 9.5 tackles for loss and led the ACC and tied for second nationally in fumble recoveries with four. He recovered a fumble in three consecutive games from Oct. 18-Nov. 1. Morgan also had one blocked field goal and three pass break-ups.

Morgan Burnett came in at no. 7:

Why he's here: He has excellent speed, vision, and no active player in the ACC has more career interceptions than Burnett. He was tied for third nationally last year with seven interceptions and he has 10 in his career. He had more interceptions last season than the entire team had the previous year (five) and more single-season INTs than any Yellow Jacket since 1991 when Willie Clay had nine.

As the last line of defense, Burnett had 24 more tackles than anyone else on the team. He finished 2008 with seven tackles for loss, eight pass break-ups and one forced fumble. He led the Jackets in tackles (93) and solo tackles (62).

All that's left to do now is wait and see where she puts Jonathan Dwyer.

And here's her Georgia Tech edition of reasons for Hope and Concern.

David Duval Defeats Doubters

...and everyone in the U.S. Open field except Lucas Glover. Duval finished tied for 2nd, two strokes back, and mounted a nice almost-comeback near the end with 3 straight birdies after starting the day with an early triple bogey. Hopefully this can start a more permanant comeback for Duval.

Here's a good article about his comeback, and here's a great video about how he's been working on his game (thanks to Javed's previous comment).


Fellow Jacket, Stewart Cink, finished tied for 27th at 6 over.

GT U.S. Open Update

Georgia Tech alum, David Duval, is in contention for the U.S. Open with most of the 4th round left to play on Monday due to rain. He's currently tied for 3rd at 2-under, 5 shots back of the co-leaders.

He's one of the feel-good stories of this year's open. For those who don't know/remember, he was once the number 1 ranked golfer in the world, and he's currently 882nd... I didn't even know they ranked that may players. No doubt, wherever he finishes tomorrow, he'll jump way up in the rankings. It's great to see him playing well again, and it's even better to see him appear friendly. Dude used to be a robot on the course.

Here's a good article about his transformation into nice David Duval while working to get his golf game back.

Fellow Jacket Stewart Cink is tied for 22nd at 1-over. The announcers on TV were saying today that they think Cink will win a major at some point in his career.

Matt Kuchar missed the cut at 8-over, and Cameron Tringale missed it at 7-over.

Friday Schmorgusboard - 6/19

This is two Friday Schmorgusboards in a row. Looks like we've got ourselves a recurring post! If I post one every day, do you think every day will be Friday? If only...

Onto the schmorgusboardesness!

Football

Former offensive lineman, Andrew Gardner, signed his contract with the Dolphins for $1.65 million over four years with clauses to increase it if he becomes a starter. Good to see him getting that after having to miss the latter part of his senior season for surgery.

Dwyer's not the only one gracing the front pages of websites... Josh Nesbitt is resting comfortably on the front of Yahoo's college football page:


It's fun to see the team getting all this preseason press. Now they've just got to live up to (/exceed) it. Here's the article about Nesbitt. CPJ set a goal of 2,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing for Nesbitt, something only 6 NCAA quarterbacks have ever done. Love it.

Speaking of Nesbitt, here's an AJC blog interview with him. The last question says all he had to.

Heather Dinich at ESPN is rating the top 30 players in the ACC. She's down to #13 and hasn't included a Tech player yet. No doubt, Derrick Morgan, Morgan Burnett, and Jonathan Dwyer are still to come, but I thought Nesbitt had a shot at the list. Maybe Roddy Jones and BeBe Thomas, too. If we passed more, BeBe would definitely be on there.

Sporting News rated Tech's backfield the best in the nation.

Nationalchamps.net rates Tech #12 this season and predicts a 10-2 record. Sounds about right to me.

Basketball

The AJC tells us why Lawal returning will help Derrick Favors. SPOILER ALERT: It's with the ladies. Derrick can't stop making this face:

Bradley's response

Photo Credit: Pouya Dianat - AJC

Yesterday Dwyer popped up on the main college football page of ESPN.com in an article that only subscribed "insiders" could read. If you couldn't read it, you can read Mark Bradley's response in the AJC - LINK

Also Jeff Schultz has a piece about Tech ticket sales. - LINK

In recruiting news Morgan Bailey and Catlin Alford (both OL) and Isaiah Johnson (safety) have committed. - LINK

Coley Harvey gives you Five Keys - LINK

Look who is on ESPN's College Football front page - Again

(click photo to enlarge)
Gotta be an "Insider" to read the story.
LINK

Also check out the latest from Heather Dinich on the Tech Offensive line
LINK

And, check out this rundown from Dr. Saturday
LINK

More News

I haven't done a very good job lately of bringing you the latest and greatest. Steven has done great stepping in and pushing the blog forward with updated information, a novel idea a know. Who would have thought that a blog that updates would be a good thing? More on this later. Lots of news has popped up lately that I wanted to share. Enjoy.

Paul Johnson's Flexbone Meets the Run and Shoot: Delightful
Good article by a blog I haven't seen before.

Tech lands Barry Bostic
QB? DB? Nice 4 star addition.

Johnson predicts “better” Tech team this season
Johnson weary of speculation about offense
Coley's Pigskin Preview with Paul Johnson
Coley Harvey continues to pump out good work over at the Macon Telegraph!

Paul Johnson has high expectations for young Jackets

Johnson's thoughts on the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at the Dome
Coach feels the game helps the teams playing in it, not us.

Nice 1990 tribute video


A Preview of The Georgia Tech 2009 Football Season
I never noticed that the Bleacher Report used the MOTG faux White Out pic. Funny.

Interview with Coach Johnson at the Pigskin Preview.


Jacksonville State game get's 1pm kickoff.
Ugh. Really? If it's not going to be on TV why not have this game at night when it's not so bloody hot.

Johnson talks about rival UGA - WATCH VIDEO
Johnson discusses competition - WATCH VIDEO

Dwyer ranked #9 on the Heisman Hunt
MOTG is looking into possible ways to help promote Dwyer for Heisman. Would you join the Dwyer Brigade? Seriously, would you? Drop us a comment to let us know if you'd be on board.

Richt's whine not fine
I've always enjoyed Adam Van Brimmer's work, but I sure hope the guy doesn't order a cheese burger in Athens anytime soon. The guy has big round brass ones!

Gani Not Gone at All!

Great news for CPH and the basketball program as Gani Lawal pulled his name out of the NBA draft today.

Sounds like he was getting uncomfortably close to the second round and thought one more year of college ball would help his stock. I definitely agree, and if Tech is as good as they can be next year, he'll get a lot more exposure than he did this year. He's got the skill, but he didn't dominate by any stretch last year.

Sharing the post with Derrick Favors will mean fewer touches for Gani around the basket, but it will also mean he doesn't have to do it all himself and will see MUCH fewer double teams than he did last year.

This is great news, and it has got me re-excited for Georgia Tech basketball. A Favors/Lawal combination down low is going to be tough to beat. If Mo Miller can regain what he had going late in his freshman year and Shumpert can mature a little bit, and if the freshmen can step in and contribute, this team could contend next year. Not just conference but nationally. I'm not going out there and saying we'll make the Final Four again, but the pieces are there, and it's time to see what Paul Hewitt can do with a deep, fully returning team.

Also, good luck to Alade Aminu in the draft. Gani just created one more spot for a big man to be drafted.

How do you think Tech stacks up next year with Lawal and Favors down low in addition to everyone else coming back plus the new freshmen?

Friday Schmorgusboard

Happy Friday. I know I can't wait for the weekend.

There's been a lot of Tech in the press lately considering how little is actually going on this time of year, so here are some snippets:

Football:
Paul Johnson is used to people doubting his offense, and now he just laughs.

"Oh, opponents have another year of film now; they'll be on it this year," Johnson cackles in his best analyst's voice. "Hell, we've been doing it for 25 years. There's 25 years of film out there. No team is ever going to line up in a way we haven't seen in the last 25 years."

I've been meaning to write a 3rd part to the "Triple Option Won't Work in Year 2" posts, and I promise I will. It led to some good discussion, and people had good points and further data to look up, and I'll do that soon...

ESPN did some fantasy matchups they'd like to see in 2009, and Tech made the list twice:

Ohio State vs. Georgia Tech
It's not hard to believe that Woody Hayes and Bobby Dodd never coached against each other, the lack of bowls being what it was in their era. There's one Big Ten-ACC bowl -- the Champs Sports -- but the Buckeyes don't appear as if they'll play in it any time soon.

Texas Tech vs. Georgia Tech
No two coaches live further apart on the offensive spectrum than the Red Raiders' Mike Leach and the Yellow Jackets' Paul Johnson. Leach lives to throw. Johnson remains unconvinced that the forward pass is legal. Would either defense have any idea what to do with the other offense?

Basketball:
Jeremis Smith is running a basketball camp in honor of a friend who was killed.

Also, John Salley is on some awful celebrity reality show, and apparently he said Bobby Cremins "saved his life" by telling him that if he went back to New York to avenge a friend's murder, he would never come back to Georgia Tech.

No new news on Gani Lawal's decision about the NBA Draft.

Baseball:
Matt Wieters mania continues. And he's hitting a little better after a slow start, too.

Four Tech players and five signees for next year's team were drafted in the recent MLB draft. We'll see how many we keep. Apparently, Tech recruits are "notoriously difficult to sign."

Golf:
Four Yellow Jackets will play in the US Open next weekend.

Matt Kuchar and Stewart Cink got 5th and 8th, respectively, in last week's Memorial Tournament.

Horray Friday. Go Jackets!

Wendy B. A-Town Dancer?

I could be wrong, but that looks like our own Wendy B. auditioning for the A-Town dancers. You can vote for the best audition group on the the AJC's website at this LINK. She's in group 8. Good luck Wendy, we hope you make the squad.

Georgia Tech vs. The Fighting Manginos

Baby... the other other white meat

Georgia Tech will play Kansas in 2010 and 2011. It's good to see us branching outside the Southeast. Kansas isn't the most exciting opponent, but it could be worse. They've had a few good years lately.

The 2010 game will be in Lawrence and 2011 in Atlanta. Who's up for a road trip to Kansas next year?! We can, you know... watch the game... and chill at the hotel... and like... come back.

I'm not that worried about Mark Mangino beating Paul Johnson, but I am worried about him eating him...

Interview with Roddy Jones

I didn't interview him, though. Heather Dinich of ESPN did. Check it out:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/acc/0-6-151/Q-A-with-Georgia-Tech-s-Roddy-Jones.html

UPDATE - Here's Part 2:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/acc/0-6-152/Q-A-with-Georgia-Tech-s-Jones-Part-II.html

and welcome to your Golden Years.

They say your musical taste is fully formed by your mid twenties. Is that why all music created after 1998 sounds like crap? You tell me. (Well, except for Butch Walker or course)

Discuss.

Memories - pressed between the pages of my Nintendo owners manual

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A

Live blogging from the baseball game

Remember my first post where I said I was good luck for tech sports? Not so true...

When I bought my ticket, it was 3-0 tech after 1. The SECOND I walked in, USM hit a 2-run HR that started a 9-run second... Still 9-3.

More to come.

Top of the 4th now. Just dropped strike 3 and overthrew the routine throw to first... Guy got to 2nd.

Enjoying my first baseball game otherwise, though. People are booing the home plate ump like crazy. Weather's nice at least...

Gave up 2 more runs in the 5th... 11-3... Not much to blog about.

3 run dinger in the 6th! 1 out! It's loud again

Promising 7th inning turned to nothing after double play... Running out of time

Not sure exactly what happened, but we were called out at the plate and we got to go back to third. I think a fan may have touched the ball by the fence? 1 run in the bottom of the 8th, 1 out, 2 on base

Nice catch by the USM 2nd baseman to end the inning. Jackets scored 1 more to make it 11-8 going into the 9th..

I hate when I do this. I had this weird feeling he was gonna hit a home run. And he did. And he plays for the other team. I need to stop having those feelings...

12-8 into the bottom of the ninth. Come on jackets.


Double play to end the game. And the season. Good season. Not so good postseason.

Go Jackets.

Gani Not Quite Gone Yet...

With less than a month until the NBA draft, it appears Gani Lawal may be leaning towards coming back to Tech for one more year (or two, technically), or at least Andy Katz of ESPN says so. And because he didn't hire an agent, he can.

The thought of a Lawal/Favors frontcourt is pretty exciting and could be pretty special I think. We could be looking at an 09/10 Tech team with two early draft picks down low. Although, one site has Lawal and Alade Aminu (!) getting drafted, and last year's team won two conference games. But Alade Aminu is no Derrick Favoris, and the combo next year could be pretty unstopable. But enough about the possibilites. Why is Lawal thinking of coming back?

He used to be projected as a lottery pick, but his stats weren't the same against ACC teams, and he's now fallen to a late first round projection. Gani says if he's projected in the 25-35 range, he would "have to do [his] homework, because that's cutting it close. That would be a crapshoot." Only first round picks are guaranteed money, so I don't blame him for not wanting to leave early if he may not get a contract. Especially with the players Tech has coming in.

Here's where various sites have Gani going:
25 - Oklahoma City (ESPN)
30 - Cleveland (Sporting News)
24 - Portland (nbadraft.net)
23 - Sacramento (Draft Express)
24 - Portland (Inside Hoops)
20 - Utah (My NBA Draft)

They've all got him in the first round, but 30's cutting it close. Like the last pick in the first round close.

You want what's best for the kid, but I would definitely love to see him stick around for another year. I really think if you add Gani to who we have returning plus who we have coming in, it could be another miracle one-year run of sorts. As for what's after that, who knows, but I'd like to see it happen.

Gani has until June 15 to remove his name from the draft, which is on June 25. More to come in two weeks...

In Atlanta? Go to the baseball game tonight!

Baseball coach Danny Hall and the Tech players weren't very happy with the Tech fans' turnout as they won a double header yesterday.

Of 1,300 fans at the game, about 600 were cheering for Southern Miss, and apparently much louder.

I live in Atlanta and have never been to a Tech baseball game, but I'm going to try to go tonight. Let's give the team someone to win their third straight game in front of.

See you there.