Tech’s T.J. Barnes kicking it into gear
Of all the testimonials given to Georgia Tech nose tackle T.J. Barnes’ improvement, perhaps none carries more credence than one from a teammate who has spent much of the past two weeks colliding with him.
“T.J., he used to not be much of a threat to rush the passer,” guard Will Jackson said, “but now he’s getting back there and he’s a lot quicker and a lot more explosive off the ball.”
The wait for Barnes, blessed with an easy laugh, quiet personality and immense size, to measure up to his potential may be over. This much is certain – now heading into his senior season, he can’t wait much longer.
“I think he realizes right now he’s got 12 games he’s guaranteed to play,” strength and conditioning coach John Sisk said.
The hoopla over Barnes began soon after his arrival from Enterprise, Ala. He was a terror on the scout team in his redshirt season. It led coaches and fans to imagine what he could do against actual opponents.
“He’s got the ability to one day be a great player,” former defensive line coach Giff Smith said during Tech’s 2009 spring practice, Barnes’ first. “How quick he gets there will be determined by how hard he continues to work.”
The fervor grew when coach Paul Johnson hired Al Groh as his defensive coordinator following the 2009 season. Barnes, 6-foot-7 with weight that hovered around 340 pounds, seemed an ideal fit to be an anchoring nose tackle in Groh’s 3-4 defense. However, in his first three seasons, Barnes’ most estimable opponents were not Georgia or Virginia Tech, but his stamina and weight. He missed only one game in his first three seasons, but made the starting lineup only three times.
Logan Walls has graduated and Barnes’ backup, Shawn Green, is promising, but has only played four games. Tech, it appears, has no choice but to start Barnes, who has in turn shown teammates and coaches that he is ready to accept the challenge.
“T.J. wants to do very well,” Groh said. “He’s got a very strong want-to.”
In the summer, following the team’s morning strength and conditioning workouts, Barnes voluntarily returned in the afternoon three to four times a week for extra training with Sisk. Barnes used the time for stretching, elliptical machine, core-strength work and kettle-bell exercises. When the team had a week off at the end of the summer term before the start of fall camp, Barnes did two more workouts on his own.
Said Sisk, “I think he took ownership of his work ethic this summer.”
Teammates noticed his work in the morning workouts. Just before the start of fall camp, inside linebacker Quayshawn Nealy gave Barnes credit for his conditioning work, for managing his weight and for keeping up with smaller teammates in speed drills.
Barnes “kicked it into gear,” Nealy said. “I can’t honestly say what made him kick it into gear, but I’m just glad that he did.”
Asked that question, Barnes pointed at a finger at Nealy and other teammates.
“You’re just looking to your left and to your right and behind you,” Barnes said. “You’re fighting for those guys.”
Another is Julian Burnett, whose neck injury in the Sun Bowl ended his career.
“You don’t want to let them down, especially since we lost ‘Rambo,’” Barnes said. “He’s still counting on us. Being a senior, you have to be able to push through.”
A superior season from Barnes could shape Tech’s route to an ACC championship as perhaps any player. As a nose tackle, Barnes’ responsibility is to stalemate centers and guards and disrupt offenses. Groh has described the position as being “the pillar or the rock in the middle.”
“There’s nothing better than having somebody who can just stuff the middle every time,” defensive end Izaan Cross said. “Just eliminating that from the game plan is awesome.”
At last check, Barnes’ weight was a manageable 342 pounds and his summer labors appeared to have had the desired effect on his endurance and flexibility. Tech will start the season Sept. 3 against Virginia Tech.
Will Jackson can hardly wait.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech notes
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326 comments Add your comment
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:07 pm
@ Mock 1…….if you don’t think there was any improvement by TW between the 2nd half of the 2010 VT game, when he had to replace Nesbitt and the 2011 VT game, then you are blind as a bat. TW had a good enough game in 2011 to win, and had already led the Jackets back from a 13 point deficit, when Attaochu let his emotions get the better of him and pretty much gave the game to VT.
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:07 pm
Scoring 7 points on offense is a good game???
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:08 pm
Wins and losses Super. That’s all that matter.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:09 pm
What game did he only score 7 points? If you are talking about 2010 VT, then I repeat, he only played after Nesbitt got injured. How many points do you think you would score if you replaced the started half-way through a game against a quality opponent?
Yeller Bug
August 19th, 2012
1:09 pm
4 yrs: TW is a team leader. He has poise and confidence in the offense and is the best player that we have at the QB position. Your comments about TW’s passing accuracy is valid. He started the season well last year, but perhaps under a greater pressure/pass rush he seemed to get “happy feet” and not get set before he threw the ball. THe receivers were open, he just overthrew them–badly in some cases. So we’ll just see how he does this season. A strong arial attack would make GT far more dangerous, but even without it—a strong o-line and 300+ yards on the ground will do well with a mediocre passing game.
uafuneman
August 19th, 2012
1:09 pm
Lets quit drinking the koolaid like our brethern to the north. Tech will not go 12-2 and to a BCS game. More likely to go 9-5. IMHO
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:10 pm
@ Mock 1……..since when is the QB the only player on the field? Do you think that Nesbitt was responsible for the Orange Bowl loss to Iowa? Hell no, he wasn’t. The Iowa defense was responsible for that, because they are the only team a CPJ-coached Tech team has played that actually stopped the TO.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:11 pm
@ uafuneman…..if Tech goes 9-5, that means we play in the ACC championship game and a bowl game, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:12 pm
The miami game last year Duh.
dawghater1
August 19th, 2012
1:14 pm
mock, mock off
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:15 pm
Nesbitt passing against Iowa was atrocious. So yes, he was a big reason why they lost the game. You can’t win too many games against good teams when you can’t throw and since pj has been here, gt hasn’t had a good passer at all and THAT explains why they lose to top 20 teams so often
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:15 pm
@ Mock 1……so TW was the only Tech player who was on the field against Miami, huh? No running backs who were stopped and no defense that gave up points. It was all TW all by himself, huh?
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:16 pm
@ Mock 1……I was at the Orange Bowl, and yes, Nesbitt’s passing was atrocious, but that game was over long before he had to start passing.
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:16 pm
And it also means another bowl loss super lol
George Stein
August 19th, 2012
1:17 pm
For a team, wins and losses matter. Imputing team success or failure to an individual (or vice versa) is fundamentally wrong.
Wal-Mart Retards
August 19th, 2012
1:17 pm
O-line was definitely playing on their heels against the Miami thugs last year.
George Stein
August 19th, 2012
1:17 pm
Iowa’s defense didn’t allow much against anyone that season. It wasn’t just Tech.
dawghater1
August 19th, 2012
1:17 pm
anyone who is against a tech player is not a tech fan, =
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:19 pm
Using your logic (and I am being very gracious referring to it as logic), Joe Hamilton lost the Clemson game I went to AT Clemson in 1996. I’m sure you don’t even remember the game, but Hamilton had a fantastic game, but Tech still got beat. All his fault, huh?
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:20 pm
It was not over. It was like a td game in the 3rd qtr
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:20 pm
@ Wal_Mart ….. according to Mock 1, though, the O-line’s performance was TW’s fault.
Wal-Mart Retards
August 19th, 2012
1:20 pm
I got my season passes on Friday. Did anyone else get a GT flag sown upside down and inside-out? What a sacrilege!
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:21 pm
Qb’s are the team leader. Why do you think matt ryan and coach smith get the vast majority of the blame for playoff losses! Doh!
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:21 pm
@ Wal-Mart……my tickets should be here tomorrow. What kind of flag? Did it come with the tickets?
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:22 pm
QB’s lead the defense, huh? RIGHT
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:23 pm
I never said it’s all on the qb just as I never said that a few days ago super. But the qb is the team leader. And don’t give me this the o line blah blah. Sure the o line has it’s bad moments but so does the qb and it’s up to a qb to make adjustments and not make boneheaded plays. And tw has plenty of them against better or equal comp
dawghater1
August 19th, 2012
1:24 pm
everyone that wears a hat or has a gt t-shirt, wants to blame the qb – in reality if sneez had not tried to punch out thomas last year we would have most likely have beaten vt and played for the acc crown, up until the point when sneez threw a left hook, tw was rolling the offense against the turks, but idot tech want-bee’s only blame the qb.
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:25 pm
That’s an asinine comment super re the defense.
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:26 pm
TW could do nothing after that play happened dawg. Why is that?
Yeller Bug
August 19th, 2012
1:27 pm
People blame Sneezy for our loss to VT last year. That wasn’t the sole reason, but it was a distinct contributor. It demonstrates that a play here, a stop there, a lunge for a first down can change the outcome of a game. If Tech’s special teams which have been at the bottom of the FBS just becomes average—ranked about 50 or so and if our D makes one or two more third down stops per game and if our offense simply runs as well as last year and improves 5% in it’s passing accuracy, then yes Tech can go from a 7 or 8 win season to a 9 or 10 win season. The difference between winning and losing is not that great. So this isn’t blind emotional preseason optimism on the part of Tech fans—it is a quantitifiable goal that has a legitimate chance of being fulfilled.
Wal-Mart Retards
August 19th, 2012
1:29 pm
@Super – hate to spoil the surprise for you, but my tickets came with one those car window flags.
dawghater1
August 19th, 2012
1:30 pm
i agree yeller
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:30 pm
@ Mock 1……READ what you have been posting, and it is obvious to anybody that you are, at least implicitly, claiming that the QB is responsible for ALL wins or losses, no matter how anybody else on the team plays. WAS TW responsible for some of the losses last year, quite likely he played a major part in them, but he was not SOLELY responsible for them. AND if Tech had had any kind of consistent defensive play (such as actually tackling the opposing teams’ ball carriers), even with a bad day, Tech could have and probably should have won. Whether you think you are or not, you are laying every single loss at the feet of the QB, whether it is TW or somebody else.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:31 pm
@ Mock 1……did you ever stop to think that maybe TW couldn’t do anything because (1) his O-line wasn’t blocking or (2) because VT’s defense rose to the occasion?
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:32 pm
@ ole yeller…….I agree also
dawghater1
August 19th, 2012
1:33 pm
super- that is a supersize comment, thank you
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:33 pm
oops…..sorry, I meant Yeller Bug, not ole yeller…..but regardless, I agree with what you said
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:34 pm
Thanks, dawghater
flamboyant defense
August 19th, 2012
1:35 pm
Keep fighting for those guys T. J.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:35 pm
@ Walmart……have you heard from any others as to whether they got faulty flags or not?
Wal-Mart Retards
August 19th, 2012
1:41 pm
I’ve not heard from anyone who has received their season ticket package yet.
flamboyant defense
August 19th, 2012
1:42 pm
Clemson beat Virginia Tech twice and they fired the DC
because West Virginia put up 70 in the Orange Bowl.
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:44 pm
@ Wal-Mart, I guess I will find out tomorrow
flamboyant defense
August 19th, 2012
1:49 pm
It’s time for Al Groh to produce.
Yeller Bug
August 19th, 2012
1:52 pm
@Walmart & Super: My flag is correct—guess I had a better QA inspector.
Yeller Bug
August 19th, 2012
1:54 pm
Strongly agree—flam D!
dawghater1
August 19th, 2012
1:55 pm
it is time for the football (team) to produce!
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
1:55 pm
You’re wrong super. I never said nor implied that. Obviosuly a lousy defense loses games but gts did was not lousy last year. I am just talking about tw’s performance against the key big opponents. The d ranked near the top of the acc last season. I believe 4th. Offense was #1 yet tw lost to the same teams in 2011 that he lost to in 2010. The difference is scoring!!! Remember gt use to rack up 40 points week in week out Remember the clemson games in 09 and the fsu game and miss st? The d stunk those years but the offense was scoring . Now it’s down to a 25 point avg. You think that’s the defense???
Supersize that order, mutt
August 19th, 2012
1:59 pm
You sure saw a different D last year than I did. They were better than 2010, but they still stunk it up most games…..VT one of them. And no, I don’t think the D is the reason point-production was down last year; I think it was a combination of factors, and TW was only ONE of those factors. O-line play and B-back play was FAR inferior to what it was from 2008-2010.
Mock 1
August 19th, 2012
2:00 pm
Oh ok super. So when gt loses, it’s the opponents defense “rose” or the o line didn’t play well. Ok . Keep making excuses. It’s disgusting how so many tech fans now make excuses for losing.
It use to be tech was better than uga. Then it was on equal footing. Then in the 70’s and 80’s uga moved to a win 65% of the time. Now the past 15 years it’s well tech can win once every 8 years and that’s ok. Pathetic to think that way. What should p i i s you off is when navy and air force have qbs that run the offense better than gt does. And they have over the past 5 years.