Archive for February, 2009

The ACC came out with its Spring Football Prospectus on Thursday. It’s a 35-page production loaded with information.

Georgia Tech leads the conference with 62 returning lettermen, and 19 returning starters. (The ACC includes punters and placekickers in returning starters).

Here’s a rundown of returning starters by division.

COASTAL

Tech: 19

Miami: 18

Virginia Tech: 16

North Carolina: 16

Virginia: 13

Duke: 12

ATLANTIC

Boston College: 16

Clemson: 15

N.C. State: 15

Wake Forest: 14

Florida State: 13

Maryland: 11

For what it’s worth, Tech put 10 players on the ACC’s all-star watch list:

QB Josh Nesbitt, RBs Jonathan Dwyer and Roddy Jones, WR Demaryius Thomas, G Cord Howard, DE Derrick Morgan, LB Sedric Griffin and DBs Morgan Burnett, Rashaad Reid and Cooper Taylor.

Every team has a bunch of guys on there. In fact, Duke has 11, including two tight ends.

Here are some other tidbits that jumped out at me:

The ACC led D-I conferences with a 72 percent graduation rate for football …

Continue reading Spring football tidbits »

Good morning, all. Hope you’re finding the new location okay. Thanks for your patience as we work out some bugs.

You likely know that Tech has a new president, G.P. “Bud” Peterson. You may be interested to know that he walked on to the Kansas State football team and eventually earned a scholarship as a wide receiver. So, I think we can deduce that, while he was a research scientist for NASA at one point, he isn’t a pointy head who’s going to steer clear of Bobby Dodd Stadium.
So, what will his role be with the athletics department?
From his tenure at Colorado, it isn’t easy to deduce how he’ll approach the athletics department at Tech, because the one he inherited at Colorado was nothing like the one run by Dan Radakovich.
When Peterson was hired as chancellor in July 2006, the school was reeling from a sex scandal with the football team. The team was accused of using alcohol and sex to lure recruits. Two women had sued the school, alleging they were raped at a 2001 party by …

Continue reading What will a new president mean for Tech athletics? »

Welcome to the new blog site, and thanks for the suggestions on what to ask Morgan Burnett. I’ll put together a full Q/A that will run online soon, but here are some highlights:

Burnett said he hadn’t heard Mike Mayock’s criticism of defensive end Michael Johnson. The NFL Network analyst strongly questioned Johnson’s desire. Burnett called Johnson “a very, very hard worker who shows a lot of passion on the field.” He added: “You don’t like to hear anything bad about your teammate, so you really don’t pay attention to it and just keep your encouraging your teammate to do well.”

Incidentally, a Green Bay Packers beat writer chimed in here on MJ.

Tech starts a series of brutal conditioning drills Monday morning. The schedule says the drills start at 6 a.m., but Burnett knows better. “You better be out there at 5:45 ready to go,” he said. “Coach Johnson is known to start 15 minutes before the time that’s on the paper.”

He mentioned defensive tackle T.J. Barnes, B-back Richard …

Continue reading Morgan Burnett on Michael Johnson and other topics »