Archive for April, 2010

Georgia Tech’s T-day game will start at 11:30 a.m. at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday. The game was originally supposed to begin at 12:30 p.m., but concerns about the weather prompted the change.

The fan festivities will start at 11 a.m. as originally scheduled.

There’s a 50-percent chance of rain at noon on Saturday, increasing to 60 percent by 2 p.m., according to the the website weather.com.

The T-day game is an intra-squad scrimmage traditionally held as the finale to the spring practice schedule.

Continue reading T-day game time changed to 11:30 a.m. »

Derrick Morgan seemed slightly aggravated and Demaryius Thomas slightly relieved after being selected in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday in New York.

Morgan, projected to be a top-10 pick, slide to No. 16 where the Tennessee Titans snagged him. Thomas, who was surprised to be invited to New York for the shindig, was picked by the Denver Broncos at No. 22.

“I did think I was the best defensive end in the class, but Tennessee is a great situation for me,” Morgan told the Tennessean newspaper. “… It’s a huge chip on my shoulder. The teams that didn’t pick me are going to see that.”

ESPN analysts said Morgan was the complete defensive end in the draft, but two more ends were selected ahead of him. Morgan had 12 1/2 sacks last year as a junior to earn ACC defensive player of the year honors. It’s not clear why he slid, but Morgan said he wasn’t going to let that slow him down.

“I want to make an immediate impact,” he said.

Because of his size (6-3, 224 pounds) and …

Continue reading Morgan, Thomas react to the draft »

Former Georgia Tech wide receiver Demaryius Thomas was selected by the Denver Broncos with the No. 22 pick in the first round of Thursday’s NFL draft in New York.

Thomas caught 46 passes for 1,154 yards and eight touchdowns last season. He averaged a whopping 25.1 yards per catch to be the first wide receiver selected on Thursday.

At 6-3, 224 pounds, Thomas has the size and speed (4.38 in the 40-yard dash) that NFL teams coveted.

He wasn’t able to participate in the NFL combine in Indianapolis in February because he broke a bone in his foot while training.

However, he was able to hold a workout on Sunday in Atlanta where he ran an untimed cone drill and caught passes for scouts from 10 teams.

Continue reading Broncos select Demaryius Thomas »

Former Georgia Tech defensive end Derrick Morgan was selected by the Tennessee Titans with the No. 16 pick in the first round of Thursday’s NFL draft in New York.

Morgan had 12.5 sacks and 55 tackles for the Yellow Jackets as a junior last season to earn All-America honors from a variety of organizations.

At 6-foot, 3-inches tall and 266 pounds, Morgan ran the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine in 4.79 seconds. He has the size to stay at defensive end or the speed to move to outside linebacker.

Morgan improved each of his three seasons at Tech, posting seven sacks and 56 tackles as a sophomore after seeing spot duty as a freshman.

He is the most recent first-round selection from Tech since wide receiver Calvin Johnson was chosen by Detroit with the No. 2 pick in 2007.

Tech’s two other first-round prospects, wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and running back Jonathan Dwyer, hadn’t been selected yet.

Though the Broncos could be in the market for a wide receiver after trading Brandon …

Continue reading Titans select Derrick Morgan »

Derrick Morgan greets Demaryius Thomas in New York earlier this week. AP

You’re looking live at my sister’s basement, which is an homage to the Steelers, I’m sad to say.

Nevertheless, might the Steelers select one of the Georgia Tech’s three first-round prospects in tonight’s NFL Draft?

Depending upon which mock draft you read (there really should be more of those, btw), it’s really hard to predict where Derrick Morgan, Demaryius Thomas and Jonathan Dwyer will go tonight. Though the Steelers with the 18th pick are a possibility for all three players.

But it should be a banner day for the Yellow Jackets, which only once before has had more than one player selected in the first round of the draft. That came in 1979 when the Packers selected running back Eddie Lee Ivery with the 15th pick and the Los Angeles Rams selected Kent Hill with the 26th pick.

Demaryius Thomas and other draft prospects ring the bell at the NYSE. AP

Georgia Tech’s first round selections:

Year, Player, …

Continue reading Georgia Tech and NFL draft…live »

Logan Walls leads the defense through drills. JOHNNY CRAWFORD/AJC

When Al Groh was hired as defensive coordinator and the switch to a 3-4 defense realized, many of you immediately began asking about the defensive line. Presumably for two reasons: Derrick Morgan wasn’t on it anymore and last year’s squad had its issues slowing down folks with four guys up front, how would they be with three?

So far, things seem to be looking up.

While Saturday’s T-Day Game (12:30 p.m.) will provide a much better measuring stick for progress, defensive line coach Andy McCollum said last week that he likes what he sees so far.

“It’s been a day-by-day process but I like the character of it, I like the worth ethic,” said McCollum, a Marietta native whom Paul Johnson hired away from N.C. State. “We’re eager and they want to learn a new system.

“We’ve got some older guys that are handling it a little bit better and some younger guys that need to get caught up.”

One of those older guys, defensive end …

Continue reading Tech’s defensive line making progress »

Former Georgia Tech running back Jonathan Dwyer has been cleared by the NFL to take a prescription medication that will result in positive drug tests, his agent, Adisa Bakari, said on Sunday.

In e-mails and text messages, Dwyer said he takes the  medication to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and has done so since he was a kid.

“It’s a non-issue,” said Bakari, who also declined to say what the condition is because of legal reasons. Georgia Tech knew about the condition, as now does the NFL.

Dwyer was one of several players who were reported by foxsports.com as failing drug tests at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in February. The website said Dwyer tested positive for amphetamines, but did note that the failure was a result of the prescription medication.

Dwyer, a Marietta native, rushed for 1,395 yards in each of the last two seasons. He is projected to be a late-first round or second-round pick in the NFL draft, which begins on Thursday.

Editor’s note: Here’s is the original …

Continue reading Dwyer’s drug test a result of approved prescription medication for ADD »

Many mock drafts have Demaryius Thomas being selected by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday in the first round of the NFL draft. JOHNNY CRAWFORD

Demaryius Thomas worked out for 10 NFL teams on Sunday at a closed session in Atlanta.

This was his first workout since breaking his left foot in February while training for the NFL combine.

Thomas, a wide receiver from Georgia Tech, said his foot is about 90 percent healthy. He participated in some cone drills on Sunday that weren’t timed, and ran routes for the scouts. Thomas said he caught every ball thrown to him by Damarius Bilbo, a former wide receiver at Georgia Tech who was the quarterback on Sunday. Thomas also interviewed with several teams after the workout.

“It felt good,” Thomas said. “I’m glad it’s over with now.”

Thomas caught 46 passes for 1,154 yards and eight touchdowns last season for the Yellow Jackets. At 6-3, 230 pounds, Thomas has the size and speed (he was timed at 4.38 seconds at a training camp in Arizona) that …

Continue reading Demaryius Thomas’ work out goes well for NFL scouts »

After what could be described as an uneven performance during Saturday’s practice, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson challenged his players to pick one thing and work to improve it during next week’s final spring practices.

The offense scored eight touchdowns, including a 70-yard run by B.J. Bostic, and the defense scored three of its own during a scrimmage on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Not satisfied, Johnson wants improvement before next week’s T-Day game.

“We did enough to lose on both sides,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to do better to be more consistent and more focused.”

Johnson was pleased to see a few individual players make improvements on Saturday, including Bostic, an early enrollee from Jefferson County.

Toward the end of Saturday’s practice, Bostic took a pitch to the right from his spot at A-back and saw a crease between the cornerback and the linebackers – he said it’s the first one he’s seen in a while – and scored the offense’s last touchdown.

“I think I helped …

Continue reading Tech coach Johnson wants to see improvement next week »

Nick McRae and Omoregie Uzzi are doing their best to make Georgia Tech’s fans forget that the starting guards from last year’s ACC championship squad are gone.

And that’s not easy to do. All-ACC performer Cord Howard and Joseph Gilbert started every game as a tandem last season and helped pave the way for the Yellow Jackets to average an ACC-best 295.4 rushing yards per game.  Howard exhausted his eligibility and Gilbert is transferring to further his education.

Uzzi, a Lithonia native, got a lot of playing time last season after redshirting as a freshman. McRae, a Dublin native, also redshirted as a freshman but wasn’t able to crack the lineup as much as Uzzi last year.

But McRae is seizing his spot with the first unit this spring, consistently holding off challenges from redshirt freshmen Will Jackson and Ray Beno.

“Coach Sewak and I, with both guys [Uzzi and McRae] we see incremental development,” co-line coach Todd Spencer said. “They are making progress, grinding through …

Continue reading Tech’s new guards hoping for similar results »