Archive for November, 2010

Mercifully, Georgia Tech fans won’t have to watch the video of Georgia Tech’s special teams specialists dancing to a rap song anymore.

In the video, which airs during games, kicker Scott Blair, holder Chandler Anderson and snapper Jeff Lentz “dance” to the song, “Scotty’s calling me.”

“We always saw the defense had their videos, so we got together and thought it would be fun to do something before my senior was over,” Blair said. “Probably once was enough.”

Thankfully, fans got to see it a few more times on Saturday because Blair kicked three more field goals to help the Yellow Jackets defeat Duke 30-20 on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Blair hit from 41, 43 and 44 yards to improve his season totals to 15 of 17, including 8 of 10 from at least 40 yards.

“I want to put as many points as I can on the board and take pressure off our offense and defense,” he said.

Blair also handled punting duties for the first time since 2008. Sean Poole injured his knee and required surgery …

Continue reading Blair hits three more field goals, two more punts »

Georgia Tech’s defensive line and linebackers tried a new tactic in the first half of the 30-20 win against Duke that defensive coordinator Al Groh said was designed to confuse the Blue Devils’ quarterbacks.

On third-and-long plays, a few of the front seven would walk around the line of scrimmage, weaving around each other in cyclical patterns. It’s something that the New England Patriots, coached by Bill Belichick,  a Groh mentor, have used in the past.

The idea worked for the Yellow Jackets. It led to a false-start penalty, two incompletions, and a sack by freshman outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu.

“You see teams have a lot of guys on offense go in motion, this was our way of going in motion a little bit,” Groh said.

Continue reading Tech’s front seven dances to success »

Quotes after Georgia Tech’s 30-20 win against Duke, courtesy of Tech’s sports information department:

GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Paul Johnson

Opening Statement

“Glad to finally get a win, it has been a while coming, and it didn’t look good for a while there. There is still a lot of stuff to clean up, we still made some mistakes, but I was proud of the guys. They made some plays. We had a couple of guys step up big and make some plays and it was the difference. We had a chance to really bury them early on and we couldn’t get out of our own way. It was almost déjà vu of the way the season was. We would get down to their side of the field, we would get penalties, we would fumble the ball; we would do whatever to stop us. Then they dropped the kick and we tried to pick the thing up knowing you can’t advance a muffed kick. I guess I know, but I’m not sure they do, so I didn’t do a very good job getting that across to them. I was proud of the way they fought through some adversity …

Continue reading What they’re saying after Georgia Tech’s win »

Georgia Tech did a lot of shuffling along its offensive line against Duke on Saturday, using its sixth different combination this season.

The changes included Nick Claytor moving back into the starting lineup at left tackle, where he had started seven games this season. Jay Finch, a redshirt freshman, started at left guard, which he has done two times previously this season and Austin Barrick played at right tackle, where he has started two times previously. Barrick, a redshirt senior, started the previous two games at left tackle.

Center Sean Bedford, a senior, said it would be nice to be able to use the same five players every game, which the Yellow Jackets were able to do for most of last season, but “we’ve played enough and practiced enough that we all feel comfortable with whoever is out there.”

The Yellow Jackets rushed for 320 yards as part of a 410-yard effort.

The only drawback is the inability of the redshirt freshmen to stay on the field. Finch left the game in the …

Continue reading Tech shuffles its offensive line again »

Tevin Washington said he wasn’t nervous in his first start last week against Miami. But he did admit to some nerves in Georgia Tech’s 30-20 win against Duke on Saturday.

Washington and Tech coach Paul Johnson said that preparing for Duke was a different challenge than last week’s opponent, Miami, because the Blue Devils like to jump around before the snap to try and confuse the reads. Washington thought he did good with his run reads. He rushed for 94 yards on 21 carries.

But he looked nervous when dropping back to pass, often leaving the pocket before his receivers could run the routes.

“I need to do a better job of staying in there and hanging with my linemen,” Washington said.

However, he found his feet at the right time, completing a 79-yard touchdown pass to Stephen Hill in the fourth quarter to preserve the win. It was the longest catch this season for the Yellow Jackets. Washington completed two of his seven passes for 90 yards to earn the first win of his career as a …

Continue reading Washington hits pass when he needs to »

Continue reading Video: Tech vs. Duke »

3 storylines

Tevin Washington’s development. Washington said he’s less nervous this week than he was in his debut last week, when he rushed for more than 120 yards and passed for more than 100 in the loss to Miami. Coach Paul Johnson said that Duke may actually present a bigger challenge than Miami, which has the best defense in the ACC, because the Blue Devils like to jump around before the snap, whereas Miami lined up and stayed mostly in position. “It’ll be a challenge to get the read right on every play and execute the offense,” Washington said.

Stopping the big play. Tech’s defense and special teams have had issues giving up game-changing plays during the three-game losing streak . The Hurricanes had a 79-yard touchdown pass, Virginia Tech a kickoff return for a touchdown and Clemson touchdown runs of 55 and 42 yards. There are various reasons why, but Johnson said the bottom line is the players need to line up correctly and execute their assignments. The Blue Devils have …

Continue reading Breaking down Tech vs. Duke »

Senior wide receiver Kevin Cone, who caught three passes last Saturday against Miami and scored his first touchdown, is benefitting from extra work he’s gotten in with sophomore quarterback Tevin Washington. They spent plenty of time on the practice field together even before Joshua Nesbitt was injured Nov. 4 at Virginia Tech, often working together with the second unit.

Those three catches were one more than he caught in Tech’s first nine games.

“We got a lot of reps, and sometimes in the offseason me and Tevin would come out and throw a little bit,” Cone said. “I think we’ve got pretty good chemistry.”

Tech coach Paul Johnson said Tuesday that if the other 10 players on offense were to play as effectively as Washington did last week in his first college start, that Tech would be well off.

– Matt Winkeljohn, for the AJC

Continue reading Cone making most of last few games »

Georgia Tech (5-5) will host Duke (3-7) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.com. Here’s a statistical breakdown of the game, with NCAA ranks in parenthesis:

Category……………………………….Georgia Tech………………Duke

Rushing offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319.3 (1) . . . . . . .119.9 (95)

The Blue Devils rushed for 4 yards on 24 carries in last week’s loss to Boston College. Their longest run was 7 yards.

Passing offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85.9 (119) . . . . . . .265.9 (26)

Tevin Washington passed for more than 100 yards last week, completing 7 of 16, which included a drop. Duke’s Sean Renfree has picked up where Thaddeus Lewis left off last season, reinforcing the notion that coach David Cutcliffe knows quarterbacks.

Total offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405.2 (47) . . . . . . .385.8 (60)

Scoring offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26.7 (63) . . . . . . . .26.4 (64)

This is perhaps the most surprising stat about Tech’s …

Continue reading Stats that matter: Tech vs. Duke »

Georgia Tech quarterback Tevin Washington said he feels less nervous this week than he did last week when he was preparing to make his debut against Miami.

Tech coach Paul Johnson said Washington played well, and that if his teammates played as well as he did the result may have been different. Washington rushed for more than 120 yards and passed for more than 100 in the 35-10 loss.

Johnson said his redshirt sophomore will take on a bigger role this week because of the “jump-around” nature of Duke’s defense, but don’t expect much more than last week.

“I said last week going into the game we weren’t going to ask Tevin to do anything that he hasn’t done in practice and it will be the same this week,” Johnson said. “Once again, you have to play the game.”

Washington said he thought he did well on most of his passes (he completed 7 of 16) but said, “I can do a lot better.”

Johnson described Washington this way: “He stays relatively calm. he can throw the ball. He doesn’t …

Continue reading Washington ready for round 2 »