Jackets for All-American

Georgia Tech’s sports information department put out a snazzy release touting the accomplishments of a few key players for All-American honors on Wednesday.

Here are the stats and a few of the notes from the release:

DERRICK MORGAN

2009
P-A    TKL        TFL        Sck        FC   FR Int PB BK

31-14 45    17.0-95 12.5-81    0      2    0     1   0

Career

P-A     TKL        TFL       Sck        FC   FR Int PB BK

66-39 105 28.0-153 19.5-131 0     6   0     5    1

• Has 12.5 sacks, which ranks first in the ACC and are the second-most nationally.

• Has 17.0 tackles for loss, which ranks first in the ACC and tied for the seventh-most nationally.

• Has six career fumble recoveries including two this season.

• Named the ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week (Sept. 14) and the Lott Trophy National Player of the Week for his performance against Clemson.

• Had three sacks in a game twice this season — …

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Switching to hoops

The Tech men’s basketball team will get its first test of this young season when it takes on Dayton at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Should it get by the flyin’ Flyers, George Mason or Villanova await the next day.

So, coach Paul Hewitt should find out fairly quickly what is working well, and what needs to be worked on in December before the conference season begins on Dec. 20 against Florida State.

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Back to football:

On CNNSI.com earlier today they posted their weekly Heisman watch, which is being dominated by running backs. Of course, Jonathan Dwyer’s name isn’t on there, despite the fact that his stats are easily comparable, and in one case, surpass the favorites.

Summarizing a few of their favorites:

Alabama’s Mark Ingram

194 rushes  1,297 yards  10 TDs

25 receptions  225 yards  3 TDs

Stanford’s Toby Gerhart

262 rushes  1,395 yards   19 TDs

8 receptions   87 yards

C.J. Spiller, Clemson

153 rushes   836 yards   6TDs

24 receptions     382 yards    3TDs

6 …

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Howard, Anderson honored by ACC

Georgia Tech offensive lineman Cord Howard and defensive tackle Ben Anderson were honored by the ACC on Monday for their performances in the Yellow Jackets’ 49-10 victory against Duke on Saturday.

Cord Howard

Cord Howard

Howard, a senior who received his second ACC award this season, helped Tech generate 519 yards of offense, including more than 300 yards rushing.

Anderson, a junior, picked up his first weekly award after posting two sacks and helping limit the Blue Devils to 25 yards rushing.

Ben Anderson

Ben Anderson

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Let the smacktalk begin

I’ll be taking a short blog break because Tech is off this week. I’ll be picking it back up again when the team resumes practice on Wednesday.

However, I open it to you to bring your best smack to UGA fans. A few caveats: no cursing, no personal insults, nothing unnecessary. Keep it clean, but make it fun.

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Oghobaase out, ticket updates

Couple of important updates to the starting lineup:

No. 1 Duke defensive tackle Vince Oghobaase will not play today.

No. 2, neither will Omoregie Uzzi for Tech.

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Should Tech win today and clinch a spot in the ACC championship game in Tampa on Dec. 5, tickets can be purchased on ramblinwreck.cstv.com.

The No. 7 Yellow Jackets will have an allotment of 14,000 tickets.

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You can follow the game live on Jeff Schultz’s blog on ajc.com.

Continue reading Oghobaase out, ticket updates »

Weekly records watch

Another big day for Jonathan Dwyer, a gutsy call by Coach Paul Johnson and the Jackets live to fight another day. Let’s see how that tense nail-biter affected the record books.

Rushing Records

Most rushes in a season

Name Rushes Year

1. Tashard Choice 297 2006

2. P.J. Daniels 283 2003

3. Joe Burns 282 2001

4. Robert Lavette 280 1982

5. Eddie Lee Ivery 267 1978

6. Tashard Choice 261 2007

7. Robert Lavette 260 1984

8. Jerry Mays 249 1989

9. C.J. Williams 245 1995

10 Josh Nesbitt 209 2009

11. Lenny Snow 202 1966

Josh Nesbitt is officially the first quarterback in Tech history to be in the top 10 for rushes in a season. With a paltry 10 carries a game between the regular and postseason, Nesbitt should end up around eight on the all-time list.

Most rushes, Career

Name Rushes Career

1. Robert Lavette 914 1981-84

2. P.J. Daniels 707 2002-05

3. Jerry Mays 695 1985-89

4. Tashard Choice 675 2005-07

5. Joe Burns 614 1998-01

6. Eddie Lee …

Continue reading Weekly records watch »

Duke injury report

Duke Football Injury Report, courtesy of Duke’s Sports Information Department

QB Thaddeus Lewis (leg) — Probable

LB Damian Thornton (neck) — Probable

WR Donovan Varner (knee) — Probable

WR Conner Vernon (head) — Probable

WR Johnny Williams (knee) — Probable

LB Abraham Kromah (leg) — Questionable

OG Mitchell Lederman (foot) — Questionable

LB Vincent Rey (leg) — Questionable

K Will Snyderwine (leg) — Questionable

DT Vince Oghobaase (leg) — Doubtful

RB Kyle Griswould (leg) — OUT FOR SEASON

WR Tyree Watkins (leg) — OUT FOR SEASON

S Anthony Young-Wiseman (knee) — OUT FOR SEASON

Continue reading Duke injury report »

They get no respect, I tell ya

I played this game on my facebook page a few weeks ago (yes, that was a shameless plug, it’s AJC Ga. Tech).

I’m going to give you the stats of two players. You tell me whose stats are who’s:

Player A: 175 carries, 1,148 yards, 8 TDs, 5 100-plus games

Player B: 169 carries, 1,093 yards, 9 Tds, 5 100-plus games

One of these players is a Heisman candidate. One’s not.

So, can you tell me who are the players, and which one is the Heisman candidate?

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Since some of you may be making travel plans to Tampa for the ACC championship game, here are the home and aways in the next few years for Tech football. Dates haven’t been set:

2010
ACC Home: NC State, Virginia, Miami, Duke
ACC Away: Clemson, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Nonconference Home: South Carolina State, Middle Tennessee State
Nonconference Away: Kansas, Georgia

2011
ACC Home: Clemson, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
ACC Away: NC State, Virginia, Miami, Duke
Nonconference Home: Kansas, Western …

Continue reading They get no respect, I tell ya »

CPJ wants a playoff system

I’ll have more on this later, but Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said a playoff system would be the way to go in Division I-A football.

However, he said he understood why some schools and conferences are fine with the status quo.

Paraphrasing what he said, if a team wins the Big Ten, for example, it’s almost guaranteed a spot in the championship game. Why would they want to change?

Johnson said he’s not saying it now because his team is ranked No. 7 and may not get a chance to play for the title this season. He said he brings it up because it makes the most sense.

Had teams not been slotted into spots before a game was even played, today’s rankings might look a lot different.

This is my take on it: LSU is a top-10 team, even though it has two losses. It’s two losses came to Alabama and Florida. There’s a lot of teams that would lose to the Tide and Gators, so who does that make them a top-10 team?

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Backups, Sports Illustrated, and practice

I asked coach Paul Johnson on Monday if he was at all concerned that his team hadn’t blown out an of their opponents, which would have given him a chance to give some meaningful snaps to some of the backup players, such as quarterback Jaybo Shaw.

Johnson gave a two-part answer, with both responses true to form (and paraphrasing begins now):

1. We’re winning. Nothing else matters.

2. We’re not good enough to blow any one out.

Johnson had talked about last week how beat up his team was. They have been particularly on defense, with numerous players on the two-deep having to miss games.

On offense, Tech has been a bit more fortunate, particularly at the skill positions. Wide receiver Kevin Cone was lost for the season, but I’m not entirely sure his playing time wouldn’t have eventually eroded throughout the season once Tyler Melton came back from his injury.

Tackle Austin Barrick is out for the season, but Tech had quality depth on the line.

Jonathan Dwyer was able to play through …

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