Archive for January, 2013

Beginning Friday, the blog has moved to a new location on the AJC sports website. Other changes have been made that we hope that you all will enjoy.

Game stories, features, news stories and profiles will no longer be on the blog, but will be on the Tech news page, which you can find here.

The posts to the blog will be of the analysis/opinion nature. You’ll be able to post comments to both, but you’ll be asked to register before you can post comments, something I know many of you have asked for.

You can find the blog here. You’ll have to update links for bookmarks and RSS feeds.

Thanks for being a part of the blog and your continued participation. Please ask questions here or at my e-mail.

Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog

Continue reading The Tech blog has moved »

Georgia Tech will play a second consecutive road game at Clemson this fall, a move that will address its scheduling issue that has had Clemson, Georgia and Virginia Tech on the same home-away rotation since 2006.

Tech will also play home games against both ACC newcomers, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Pitt will be in the Coastal Division with Tech. Syracuse will be in the Atlantic Division and is on the schedule as the one rotating Atlantic opponent.

Tech’s other home games will be against North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Elon and Alabama A&M. The other road opponents will be Duke, Miami, Virginia and BYU. Tech will have seven home games and five road games.

Tech officials have sought to fix the scheduling quirk that has placed the Yellow Jackets’ three biggest rivals – the Bulldogs, Hokies and Tigers – on the same pattern of coming to Bobby Dodd Stadium in odd years and hosting Tech in even years. It has caused unbalanced season-ticket sales, which has made budgeting …

Continue reading Clemson flips to Tech’s even-year schedule »

Before I depart from my gargantuan hotel room in Raleigh, I dug up some before/after numbers for soon-to-be Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Ted Roof at his last four stops. I compared total yards, points, takeaways, yards per play and third-down efficiency.

Obviously, numbers don’t tell the whole story, and in a year-to-year comparison like this there’s the noise of different opponents, different players, the team’s offense, etc. This past season at Penn State, Roof’s defense this past season at Penn State played under extremely unusual circumstances whose impact is impossible to quantify. Further, the change in performance in one season is only one marker in the total evaluation of any coach.

That said, first impressions – Roof has done well at mending disasters, as was the case at Minnesota and Duke. The numbers went up at Auburn. Two things – one, 2009 was also Gus Malzahn’s first year at Auburn as offensive coordinator. His up-tempo scheme that created …

Continue reading Ted Roof by the numbers »

1. There wasn’t a lot of mystery to Wednesday’s game. Georgia Tech hung in and played fairly well, but didn’t have enough playmaking to match N.C. State and stay in the game. In the final six or seven minutes, the Wolfpack made stops and hurt Tech in transition, making five consecutive shots at one point. That’s what’s going to generally happen when a team ranked 20th in the country and is the preseason conference favorite plays at home against a team picked to finish ninth.

“This is probably the third game against a high-quality opponent that we got the game into the last eight minutes,” coach Brian Gregory said. Cal and Illinois were the other two instances.

Tech had a small chance to win Wednesday, but it would have taken everyone on his game and few slip-ups defensively, and that didn’t happen. Marcus Georges-Hunt had a tough game (2-for-10 from the field), there wasn’t a ton of help from the bench (16 points) and the 3-point defense could have been …

Continue reading 5 thoughts from Tech-N.C. State »

Updated, 12:30 a.m. RALEIGH, N.C. – To have a chance against N.C. State, Georgia Tech needed 40 excellent minutes.

The Yellow Jackets were capable of about 33. Against a superior opponent on its home floor, Tech gave a credible effort before falling 83-70 at PNC Arena Wednesday night.

The Jackets continued to withstand the Wolfpack’s attempts at knockout punches before a 14-4 run put them on the mat. Turnovers and misses gave N.C. State the opening to score in transition and put the game away.

“We played a tough, hard-fought game,” guard Mfon Udofia said. “Sometimes you don’t end up on top.”

In the game, Tech led for nearly the entire first 10 minutes of the game and, until the final six minutes, never let the Wolfpack get ahead by more than four points. The final result was Tech’s second consecutive loss, which dropped the Jackets to 10-4 overall and 0-2 in the ACC. However, the game’s course in reaching the result reflected far better upon Tech than its …

Continue reading UPDATED: N.C. State too much for Tech »

Ted Roof, once a Georgia Tech star linebacker and later an accomplished assistant, is returning to Tech once more.

Roof has been hired as the Yellow Jackets’ new defensive coordinator as the full-time replacement for Al Groh, fired in October. Roof leaves Penn State, where he had coached one season, for his alma mater.

In his only season at Penn State, the Nittany Lions ranked second in the Big Ten in scoring defense (19.1 points per game), fourth in total defense (356.3 yards per game) and first in sacks (34).

“I’ve known Ted for a long time and I’m excited that he has decided to come back to Georgia Tech,” coach Paul Johnson said in a statement.  “He’s one of the most respected football coaches in the nation.”

Roof served as linebackers coach for former Tech coach George O’Leary for one season (1998) and then defensive coordinator for three. He left to become defensive coordinator at Duke in 2002 with the changeover in head coaches. During that time at …

Continue reading Ted Roof hired as Tech coordinator »

Ohio running back Donovan Wilson, a Georgia Tech commit, has begun classes as an early enrollee. He’ll be eligible to take part in spring practice later on in the semester and get a head start on his freshman season.

Wilson committed to Tech last May over Purdue, Boston College and Air Force. He was recruited by special-teams coordinator David Walkosky, who has been able to open up the Ohio area for Tech with significant coaching experience in that fertile state. Recruiting service Rivals rated Wilson a three-star prospect and the No. 57 player in Ohio.

In May, he was listed at 6-foot-0 and 215 pounds and projected to play A-back. He is the only 2013 Tech commit who has enrolled early.

Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog

Continue reading Donovan Wilson enrolls early at Tech »

Former Maryland offensive lineman Nick Brigham has transferred to Georgia Tech. He will be a walk-on to the team and have the opportunity to earn a scholarship. Brigham, a Marist School grad, withdrew from Maryland in September, citing personal reasons. He began classes Monday.

“He looks good and seems happy and ready to go and excited about Georgia Tech,” Marist coach Alan Chadwick said. “I think he’ll definitely fit into that offensive system extremely well.”

ESPN.com rated him the No. 28 player in Georgia and the No. 24 guard in the country coming out of Marist, which has also sent former B-back Preston Lyons and current backs Matt Connors and Sam McNearney to Tech, among many others. Marist runs an offense similar to Tech’s.

Tech recruited Brigham in high school, but Brigham committed to Maryland shortly after the end of his junior season and remained firm to the school. Chadwick said that “it just didn’t quite work out for him there.”

Ken Sugiura, …

Continue reading Tech takes on Maryland transfer »

Former Georgia Tech wide receiver Jeff Greene will stay at Tech for the spring semester and transfer at the end of the school year, according to Greene’s high school coach. Cincinnati and Arkansas are possible destinations for Greene, Starr’s Mill High coach Chad Phillips said.

Greene left the team following the ACC Championship game. He led the team in receptions and receiving yards at the time with 18 and 284, respectively.

If he were to transfer to another FBS school like Arkansas or Cincinnati, Greene would have to sit out one year and then would have two more years of eligibility starting with the 2014 season.

Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog

Continue reading Greene considering transfer options »

Former Georgia Tech A-back Orwin Smith will play in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, a pre-draft all-star game to be held Jan. 19 in Carson, Calif.

Smith finished the season with 682 rushing yards on 79 carries, an 8.6 yards-per-carry average. He led the team in receiving yards with 288 on 18 catches, a 24.0 yards-per-reception average. He fell just 15 yards short of leading the team in both rushing and receiving yards.

Other players committed to playing are Virginia Tech linebacker Bruce Taylor, Miami running back Mike James and defensive back Vaughn Telemaque, N.C. State defensive end Brian Slay and Georgia running back Richard Samuel.

The game will be broadcast at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog

Continue reading Orwin Smith chosen for all-star game »