Georgia Tech begins bowl practice
Greetings-
Some notes, including coach Paul Johnson’s response to rumors/speculation about freshman quarterback Vad Lee transferring after Monday’s practice. Some other stuff first.
1. The team began a full week of practices on Monday. There will be three practices next week, two the week after that and then players will be released Dec. 20 and go to El Paso for the Sun Bowl Dec. 26. There will be 15 practices total.
2. The first stretch of bowl practices is mostly about working on fundamentals. Out of about 20 periods in Monday’s practice, only about six involved scout teams. That means that for most of the practice, all of the players, including the redshirt freshmen, were getting repetitions in Tech’s offense and defense.
3. Johnson said he doesn’t have any plans to make any changes on the staff. That would mean a second offseason in a row without any turnover. Defensive coordinator Al Groh said “for sure” he intends to be back for the 2012 season.
4. Johnson doesn’t expect any players to miss the bowl game because of grades, “but you never know,” he said. “That won’t be for a couple weeks.”
5. Johnson said he’d heard “a lot of really good things” about the Sun Bowl and is looking forward to it. Johnson went to El Paso when he was an assistant coach at Hawaii as Hawaii and UTEP were in the same conference.
“It’ll be a good game against a real good opponent,” he said. “Utah’s real good. Especially defensively, they’ve been good for awhile.”
6. Finally, Lee. At the risk of giving this more attention than I sense is worthy, I’ll provide the Q&A from the post-practice scrum with Johnson and let you draw your own conclusions.
Q: How was Vad Lee at practice today?
A: He’s fine. No problem. He worked hard. I coached the quarterbacks today. Coach (Brian) Bohannon wasn’t there today. He worked hard. All of them did.
(Bohannon was out recruiting, which is pretty typical for early bowl practices. Several questions later, the topic returned to Lee.)
Q: Is there any reason to think that he wouldn’t return?
A: Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t see anything today that made me think he was leaving. But guys could leave tomorrow. I don’t know. It happens all the time.
Q: Has he talked to you about it?
A: I talk with Vad every day.
Q: But has he talked with you about transferring?
A: I’m not going to get into what I talk with the players about. You’d be surprised sometimes. I talk to them about a lot of things.
Q: Homesickness seems to come up with players, particularly those from out of state. Do you have a particular way you address it with players?
A: It’s part of growing up. Everybody gets homesick. It’s part of it. You know what 18- and 19-year-olds are like. It’s something different every day. It is what it is. Just move on.
A couple points of note. I’m guessing it might read that Johnson was being defensive or curt, but he was at ease. I’d say he was trying to downplay the matter but obviously he didn’t say nothing is happening, perhaps to some degree because it’s not for him to say.
That said, if something were really moving forward with a possible transfer, I think Johnson would have answered questions differently. The fact that he’s practicing isn’t a guarantee of anything, but it would indicate that he’s not exactly packing up his boxes.
I’ll say this: Players considering transferring because they’re homesick is not uncommon. You may remember I wrote that David Sims went through the same thing as a redshirt freshman quarterback. I dug back into my notes and found a quote from Bohannon in August regarding the matter.
“I’m sure that goes through a lot of their minds,” he said. “When you deal with these young men who are the life of their town and their school and all of the sudden, they come to college and all of the sudden, they’re just another guy in the mix, it’s a tough adjustment.”
All this to say – I’d take all this with a grain of salt.
Thanks for reading. I’ll have something up Wednesday morning. (I’m off this week, technically.)
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
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296 comments Add your comment
Dawg48
December 6th, 2011
9:37 pm
Enter your comments here
superDawg
December 6th, 2011
10:08 pm
Enter your comments here
superDawg
December 6th, 2011
10:10 pm
Free hot dog with gun purchase.
GT-UT
December 6th, 2011
10:24 pm
I’ll echo the “Great Job Ken” bandwagon. I thought I would not be reading at this time, but I keep coming back…so thanks. The only thing I disagreed with you on is your comparison of GT to a country club mentality.
This bowl game is a direction changer, period. This shows that this young team will show up and demand to be a top 25 team. I like Big Time JF line up. Wow, if our O-line can get to 300lbs in our offense…wow, look out. I have hopes for Vad and Synjin. These are warrior QB’s who can punish. Tevin is a manager QB who will absolutely kill an equal or lesser team, but get smashed against a physical defense. But, who knows…its a long offseason and he’s a hard worker. I just have dreams of a Tyrod Taylor at QB for GT. WOW…can you say Heisman?
Marietta Buzz
December 6th, 2011
10:34 pm
Vad Lee Will Be The Starting QB Next Year, Days Back-up. But I still prefer two QBs in this game plan. I love Tevin, but he will be running the practice squad. That will hurt him. That is life. No participation trophies here.
Marietta Buzz
December 6th, 2011
10:37 pm
Amen GT-UT. The Utes are in for an ass kicking. Synjin Day – Player of the Game.
Merciless
December 6th, 2011
10:43 pm
No crying allowed. This is football. Tech is in the best position I have seen since Pepper Rodgers early days. I predict 460 rushing yards and 250 passing yards for the Jackets. The Sun Bowl will launch a GT dynasty. Thanks CPJ. Thanks Al Groh. Thanks Tevin. And thanks Ken for great coverage, reasoned reporting. I’m still not going to subscribe to the AJC, but you are the reason I come to the site.
Masters Champion
December 6th, 2011
10:47 pm
Bham Jacket is right: Half the problem with our program are our ignorant fans.
We’re going to hope Vad Lee stays when he’s a junior. After all, he just won the Heisman!
GT-UT
December 6th, 2011
10:54 pm
Merciless…I hope you are right. That the sense I have in the back of my mind.
Marietta…we’ll see about the QB’s, but I lean toward your way of thinking….but part of me feels sad about it.
I’m out guys…thanks for posting.
Tradition is .......
December 6th, 2011
10:59 pm
Tech has a bowl tradition but not a major bowl tradition. Here is why:
1955 GT in the Sugar Bowl and I think they beat Rice.
NEXT MAJOR BOWL was in
1967 Orange Bowl loss to Florida and their next major bowl was the
Orange BOwl in 2009 and another loss to Iowa.
Tons and tons of Bluebonnet Bowl trips or Gator Bowl ( I recall Joe PA Whuppin Dodd in 65 or 66) and tons of Boise Bowl games or Emerld City, etc. BUT ONLY THREE MAJORS in 56 years. Look it up.
NOW UGA, as only one example, has been to 3 Sugar Bowls in the last 11 bowl seasons and about three Capitol One bowl games and two Outback Bowl games. These last two are considered NY’s day type of major bowl games, unlike the Sun, played at 4 AM on 12/20th or whatever.
Tradition is defined many ways ………….. and GT does have a bowl tradition, just NOT a major bowl tradition with ONLY three majors in 56 years. In those same exact 56 years, UGA has been two about four or five Cotton Bowl games, about 6 or 7 Sugar Bowl games, one Orange Bowl and Capitol One three times and the Outback twice or three times, counting 2012. See?
Two teams, two bowl traditions and two very different histories over the same era.
Merciless
December 6th, 2011
11:10 pm
Tradition is ……. Who won the last conference championship? Who won the last National Championship?
Now, who’ll win the next? Don’t forget, there are 120 other teams and thousands of players standing in the way of both teams. My money is on the Yellow Jackets. A class act.
1 4 GT
December 6th, 2011
11:14 pm
You go Merciless!
Supersize that order, mutt
December 6th, 2011
11:14 pm
Tradition is…., that is about the most ignorant post I have ever read here. Although Tech does not have a very good bowl history since the mid 60s, Tech was the first team to win all four major bowls (Rose, Cotton, Sugar, and Orange) as well as the second oldest bowl (Sun Bowl). Tech was the first team to win 7 bowl games in 7 years (Georgia still hasn’t accomplished that feat). Until the beginning of this bowl drought, Tech had the highest winning percentage in bowl games of all colleges in the country. THAT, my friend (and I use that term lightly) is tradition. Couple that with 16 conference championships and four national championships, and you have yet another example of what tradition is. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, along with whatever else you’ve been smoking.
1 4 GT
December 6th, 2011
11:23 pm
You get ‘im too Supersize! Color me gone for the night.
Supersize that order, mutt
December 6th, 2011
11:26 pm
Tradition is….., something else that might interest you, in a list of the top 100 college football teams of the past 100 years, the 1952 Tech team was ranked #16, the 1956 Tech team was ranked #50, and the 1955 Tech team was ranked #66. NO UGA team from any year appears anywhere in the list.
Check it out for yourself —— http://www.footballoutsiders.com/varsity-numbers/2010/top-100-college-football-teams-last-100-years-part-v
bugsquacher
December 6th, 2011
11:36 pm
bring your brushes
since you will be going to the toliet bowl…
Flounder
December 6th, 2011
11:48 pm
@bugsquatcher … OH MY GOSH THAT IS FUNNY!!! did you make that up all by your widdle self?? Or did you hear it on the school bus on the way home from 3rd grade?? You’re a child.
Beano Cook's underpants
December 6th, 2011
11:59 pm
I think Vad Lee leaves Tech.
Really?
December 7th, 2011
12:03 am
Ken I see you have gone from defending techies that post on your blog to defending paul (Ima) johnson when he is a rude ahole right to your face. I understand it’s tough to find work these days but come on man this turning a blind eye to all the hate that techies spew from the coach on down just makes you look like a hack.
Who can blame vlad lee for transfering? cpj runs a silly offense that is only successful until rivals have played it twice. Lee wants t win which tech can’t do, he wants to get antional exposure, which tech can’t provide and he wants to be taken seriously which is impossible for anything or anyone associated with the north avenue trade school. The best techies can hope for is that lee doesn’t go to an acc school where he will carve the bug defense apart every year bu then again who doesn’t do that to tech?
Supersize that order, mutt
December 7th, 2011
12:05 am
Talk about spewing hate. Get a life, little girl
Really?
December 7th, 2011
12:13 am
I find it so laughable that techies whine about people pointing out facts such as gt’s fanbase is either bandwagon newbies or non existant, but have no problem with trash like 5150 making jokes about Larry Munson passing away or laughing when a coed was raped at UGAS.
I have never seen as many malicious evil comments on any site as there are from the tech fans on the ajc. It is obvious that the majority of techies are classless friendless sociopaths who couldn’t care less about football.
tampadawg30
December 7th, 2011
12:45 am
oh wow. that is how we do it.
srschirm
December 7th, 2011
12:45 am
I like to post under many different screen names. So what if I look like Harry potter?
srschirm
December 7th, 2011
12:48 am
My favorite trick is to switch screen names multiple times to talk to myself. Mainly I will act as a tech fan. Then post as the “alum” who has been a tech fan for 50 years. I don’t know why I obsess so much over GT. Mainly because I have a little tiny wee wee of a pen!s and girls laugh at it all the time
first name jason last name marcus
December 7th, 2011
12:51 am
Enter your comments here
first name jason last name marcus
December 7th, 2011
12:52 am
Did someone mention sexual misconduct AND sociopaths in the same post? I love me some good r.ape jokes! Hilarious! Time to hit the hay so I can do some lawyerin tomorrow.
Supersize that order, mutt
December 7th, 2011
1:16 am
Really? you are a pathetic loser. Get over yourself. You come on here saying Tech fans spew hatred, and that’s the very thing you do. You are a total hypocrite. You want to know what a lack pf class is? It was when Vince Dooley said, “HELL NO,” when asked if UGA should honor Al Ciraldo after he died. I never saw anything that UOAD said about Munson. Maybe he said something bad; maybe he didn’t. But the Tech athletic administration chose to honor Munson in a pre-game tribute. Why was not the same thing done in Athens after Ciraldo died? And you refer to somebody laughing about a coed being raped in Athens? What about all the crap that is posted in here everyday of the week by some of your classless UGA trolls about all the crimes that happen on and around the Tech campus? And that would include the garbage that was posted about the rape of a Tech coed behind a fraternity house several weeks ago. There are a few UGA fans who post intelligent, insightful, even complimentary remarks on the Tech blogs, and they are always welcome on here. But trolls like you who have nothing to say but hypocritical, hate-spewing, xenophobic, misogynistic, racist remarks deserve anything said back at you that you get.
Merciless
December 7th, 2011
1:54 am
AJC should require proof of season ticket ownership to post here.
Mark my words,
the Golden Tornado has three weeks to prepare for the Utes
AND
the Golden Tornado will Mercilessly Kick Ute Ass in Ole El Paso!
quaterbacked by Synjin Days.
William
December 7th, 2011
3:46 am
I’m a Georgia fan, but I will be pulling for GT in the Sun Bowl. It would make Georgia look better if Tech wins. Go Jackets.
asia_jacket
December 7th, 2011
6:33 am
ken i’m surprised you/AJC haven’t done a story on this kid from the GT baseball team
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/health/2011/12/06/hf-colby-wren.cnn
superDawg
December 7th, 2011
7:39 am
Tradition is being on probation and thinking your not.The yearly bug squashing is tradition.
IL Jacket
December 7th, 2011
8:24 am
Should be an interesting basketball game tonight between the Jackets and Dawgs. Both teams have had some tough losses and need to get a win. It will be important for us to cut down on the turnovers that have affected us early in the season and to play a full 40 minute defensive effort. Hope there is good turnout for both teams.
Go Jackets!!!
Reality
December 7th, 2011
8:29 am
Ken…any truth to Vad Lee being talked into transferring to Va Tech by his girlfriend’s Mom?
CPJ should have played him this year.
Reality
December 7th, 2011
8:36 am
Crowell not going to class. Will not qualify academically in the Spring.
Old Dawg
December 7th, 2011
8:45 am
GT, good luck with Vad staying; it’s tough loosing a next level player. We know, we’ve lost our share.
Unlike a few of our “special” fans the majority of the Bulldog Nation pulls for all GA schools when they represent ALL of us in competition, no matter the sport.
good luck in the Bowl game; put an LSU whippin’ on them (OUCH!!).
Chuck Allison
December 7th, 2011
9:03 am
It’s good to see a group of comments without some moron having nothing to say but “First!”. Of course, it is probably too early for UGA fans to be out of bed.
George P Burdell, NE
December 7th, 2011
10:00 am
If Vad leaves, you can start the PJ watch. The program is not making major strides forward in a down conference. I have been a fan of PJ since his days at GA Southern, but this is not GA Southern. The players at this level have to be bigger, stronger and faster. After the loss to LSU in the bowl game, PJ admitted this in his post game comments.
This situation is starting to look a lot like that in the basketball program with Paul Hewitt.
I hope that I’m proven wrong.
scott
December 7th, 2011
10:24 am
Come on tech fans let’s wake up and comprehend what we have seen.
1) washington can throw the ball but so what.no matter how good a QB can throw
if we don’t have a passing game too not many passes will be completed.
don’t get me wrong, l love the triple option but it can be over used.
2) in the georgia game the bulldogs came out all pumped up with sprit, sorry but our guys didn’t.
it was way to easy to see that georgia wanted that game alot more than we did.
our A game is good and that is what we beat clemsen with and we came so close to beating va tech. if our guys played their A game every week we would be undefeated. don’t tell me how many games ga won cause l couldn’t care less, our A game could have beaten them.
our coaches know how to teach the guys but they suck at motivating them and keeping them sprited enough to stay with it and win the tough ones.
we need to start holding coaches acountable, from the head coach on down.
coaches get paid alot of money so high expectations and demands are well justified
macrotech
December 7th, 2011
10:31 am
Tradition is superDork opening its mouth and stupid falls out! Seriously, does ANYONE on here REALLY think that they are going to lead the other to a grand epiphany (someone explain ‘epiphany’ to superDump)?! Out of ALL the vitriol that fills these blogs daily, someone is going to say, “Hey! You know…they are on to something! I’ve been pulling for the WRONG team!”. Good luck with that! GO TECH!!!
ormewood
December 7th, 2011
10:38 am
I don’t see Lee transferring to Va Tech. He’s not going to play ahead of Logan Thomas.
tn jacket
December 7th, 2011
10:40 am
I know this is disappointing to some, but Vad Lee will not be transferring. He made the official announcement this morning. In fact, his exact words were: “It’s amazing what type of rumors that people can start as if they know me but I have to say it’s a blessing to be in the mind of so many!”
LMAO at the UGA fans that don’t have a life. This must be the best part of their day, trolling on internet message boards.
superDawg
December 7th, 2011
10:43 am
macriod don’t be mad hell all these years and you still think tek can beat GEORGIA.
the schirmster
December 7th, 2011
10:52 am
Has anyone seen my glasses? I can’t seem to find them. I can’t see all of the guys and girls visiting my dating profile http://www.okcupid.com/profile/srschirm
I have a busy day of eating cheetos and jerking it on the internet ahead of me!
JSS
December 7th, 2011
11:16 am
@ Ken Sugiura…
Take that love young writer!
I told you Tech fans that you were getting the best that the AJC has to presently offer. Have a great holiday season.
TW Fan
December 7th, 2011
11:27 am
Good luck to the whole team on 12/31! I hope Tevin shows up and out for all the undeserving, pseudo-fans who refuse to acknowledge anything positive (even in an 8-4 season!) and for those of us who continue to endure the waves with them!
Wonder how it must feel to suit up for a team that clearly appreciates nothing you do! Everything was great at 6-0 and the sky is falling at 8-3??
Take note Vad!! You’re the second coming today but they’ll be calling for your head after 2-3 losses! After all… you’re dubbed for multiple Heisman’s and NCAA Championships – before even playing 1 game!
BigTimeTechFan
December 7th, 2011
11:40 am
TW Fan
My take on TW is he’s a good QB, a little above average. But I really feel Tech will need a special QB to take it to the next level.
TW is QB that can just run the offense as designed. If play is there he makes it
What Tech needs is just that, but to add that little extra instinct that when a play is not there he will make a few extra plays a game. Think D Robertson at Mich, sometimes plays break down and he will turn it into something big at lest once a game
TW passing, For a Div 1 QB i would say he’s below average, sometimes showed nice soft deep ball, sometime nice touch, then other times he was way off.
Don’t know if Vad or Days is that special QB but:
Days, you can see more energy in his runs, From what I’ve seen there is no dought if he had the game time TW has had he would make a few extra plays, but I can’t tell if he would make the standard plays/reads TW makes
V Lee, Only seen HS film, pre-season scrimmages. From film there is no question he can pass the ball, scrimmages he looked real good running. Coaches talk how he willed team to undefeated season, even in preseason coach Jonson talked about how he was exceptional for Freshmen with only 3 week into system
Only issue is playing time and I think Days should have go a lot more this year.
If Vad wins job we may see Days move to safety or RB, with TW and D Smith and the Frosh this as backups.
5150 UOAD
December 7th, 2011
11:44 am
GT is doomed. I just spent some time on the UGA blog discussing the UGA RB’s. The blog has commanded over 20 pages – our best is like 6 or 7.
UGA kicks our butt every year and they continue to recruit better every year. We need a total shakeup. We need to replace CPJ now before he makes us completely irrelevant.
Wow UOAD
December 7th, 2011
11:52 am
How many screen names can you post under today fake UOAD? Does your boyfriend have some lawyering to do today? Or will he have time to pound you in the rear before UFC comes on tonight?
1 4 GT
December 7th, 2011
11:56 am
Once again I come here to see if there is anything new on GT athletics and what do I see but more of the same old garbage spreading butt sniffing mutt trolls. I would like to call them far worse, but decorum prevents me from doing so because it would dishonor the woman who taught me right from wrong. I really do understand and appreciate the need/desire for well earned time off. But, someone needs to stop these trolls posting such garbage as you from “the schirmster” @ 10:52 AM on Dec 7, 2011. Come on AJC! Can’t you do better than this. Don’t you want better than this representing your publication. This entity is losing respect because of the garbage you seemingly ignore and continue to allow people to denigrate the memory of MEN like Ralph McGill, Jesse Outlar, Furman Bisher, Harry Mehre & Jim Minter. HOW LONG?
Supersize that order, mutt
December 7th, 2011
12:06 pm
1 4 GT, for the most part I totally agree with you, but remember it was Ralph McGill who was most instrumental in not counting the Tech wins in ‘43 and ‘44. He was just another dawg homer. Even Mehre, who was a former dawg coach, was more objective than that. Regarding these blogs though, if it were not for the fact that this is about the only place you can come and get factual info about Tech athletics and meet (sometimes in person) some really cool and faithful Tech fans, I would quit visiting this site at all.