Georgia Tech

Greetings-

Who gets off the draft board first – Stephen Hill or Cordy Glenn?

I’ll be on the blog shortly. Thanks for stopping by.

Continue reading Round 2 live blog »

A quick trip around Georgia Tech athletics in the form of facts and news.

1. Baseball pitcher Alex Cruz has won five of Tech’s last eight games. The sophomore reliever has a 1.27 ERA (third best in the ACC) and, in league plays, has a 0.86 ERA (first) and opponent batting average of .137 (also first).

2. Sophomore shortstop Mott Hyde is hitting .406 in Tech’s last nine games, including a 3-for-4 performance against Georgia in the Yellow Jackets’ 4-3 win over the Bulldogs at Turner Field.

3. According to the website boydsworld.com, Tech’s RPI is 30, a jump of 11 spots after beating Georgia. They have three games at home this weekend against Clemson, which is No. 37.

“You start picking off teams that are either ranked or ahead of you (in RPI), you start moving up the depth chart, as they say,” coach Danny Hall said.

4. Football season-ticket sales moved past 20,000 recently. The total at the March 30 renewal deadline was 19,000.

5. Golfer James White was named the …

Continue reading Georgia Tech odds and ends »

In an entirely different venue, Michael Peterson is feeling the same butterflies that he did prior to playing a big game for Georgia Tech.

“It’s definitely the same,” said the former Yellow Jackets cornerback Thursday night. “It actually may be a little bit more nerve-wracking because it’s just me and there’s no team.”

Peterson’s solo act has nothing to do with football or sports. Saturday night at a gallery in the Castleberry Hill district directly southwest of downtown Atlanta, Peterson will have his first individual showing of his artwork.

“I’m nervous because no one’s seen the new work, because it’s my first show,” he said. “It’s been a fun ride.”

My colleague Doug Roberson wrote a story about Peterson’s painting a few years back, as did my good friend and former AJC staffer Michelle Hiskey for the NCAA’s website. Back then, he stuck to portraiture. He has evolved as a painter to a style that he calls “a little less literal and a …

Continue reading Former Jacket holds gallery showing »

Former Georgia Tech wide receiver Stephen Hill slipped out of the first round of the NFL draft Thursday night. Many draft projections pegged Hill, who left Tech after his junior season, to go to San Francisco at the No. 30 spot. The 49ers did take a wide receiver, but it was Illinois’ A.J. Jenkins, projected as an early second-round choice. Overall, four wide receivers were taken in the first round – Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon to Jacksonville at No. 5, Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd to St. Louis Arizona at No. 13, Baylor’s Kendall Wright to Tennessee at No. 20 and Jenkins.

Hill, invited to New York for the draft, will likely go early in the second round, which begins at 7 p.m. Friday. The first 10 picks of the second round – St. Louis, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Denver, Cleveland, Jacksonville, St. Louis, Carolina, Buffalo and Miami. Hill visited with the Ravens prior to the draft. (He also reportedly visited with the New York Jets, Philadelphia, Tennessee and …

Continue reading Tech’s Hill slips out of first round »

Greetings-

I have to run out and may be out for a minute, but if you want to talk NFL draft, here’s your space.

My two-player mock: 1. Indianapolis Colts – Andrew Luck. 2. Washington Redskins – Robert Griffin III.

Continue reading Live draft blog: Waiting for Stephen Hill »

Georgia Tech offensive tackle Tyler Kidney has been disciplined by coach Paul Johnson for his involvement in a fraternity house fight April 13.

Kidney will be required to perform 25 hours of community service and complete extra conditioning work to remain in good standing with the team. He wrote a letter of apology to other students involved in the incident of his own accord, Johnson said in a statement.

“I am extremely disappointed in Tyler Kidney’s actions on the night of April 13 and have spoken to him about the consequences of his poor decision-making,” Johnson said in the statement. “This is an unfortunate incident and is not reflective of Tyler’s attitude and actions during the time he has been in our program.”

According to an incident report from campus police, Kidney entered the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house and ripped a “T” from a wall of the house. After being told to leave the house, Kidney shoved a fraternity member into a wall. When another …

Continue reading Kidney disciplined after campus fracas »

An interesting week for former Georgia Tech A-back Roddy Jones. Wednesday night, he was at the Fox Theatre as a finalist for the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup. Thursday morning, he’ll be a guest host on 790 the Zone’s Barnhart & Durham show. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he plans to be in WREK’s broadcast booth for the Georgia Tech baseball team’s games at Russ Chandler Stadium. He’s also got his MBA classes. And then he’s hoping to get a phone call from one of 32 NFL teams telling him they want his services.

“I’m excited about what this weekend’s going to hold for me,” Jones said prior to Wednesday’s awards ceremony.

To answer the first question, Jones did not win the award, created to honor a sports professional and a student-athlete for their character, leadership on and off the field and contribution to sport and society. The winner was Aleca Hughes, a former Yale ice hockey player who started a foundation to honor a teammate who had died from …

Continue reading Busy week for Roddy Jones »

SI.com draft expert Tony Pauline believes former Georgia Tech wide receiver Stephen Hill could go late in the first round when the NFL draft begins Thursday. San Francisco looks like a possible landing spot with the No. 30 pick.

“If he doesn’t go late first round, I can’t see him getting past the first six to eight picks of round two,” he said.

Pauline said Hill could go as early as No. 16 to the New York Jets. He believes the Jets are trying to trade out of that spot, but if they don’t, “People say (Notre Dame’s Michael) Floyd would be a tough pick for the franchise with the state it’s in now.”

(Floyd had a DUI arrest and two underage-drinking offenses.)

About half of the mock drafts I reviewed give Hill to San Francisco, which is going into the draft with proven receivers in Mario Manningham and Michael Crabtree but question marks in Randy Moss and Ted Ginn Jr. Others give him to Houston at No. 26 and the rest to teams in the first five or six picks of the …

Continue reading Tech’s Hill could be a 49er »

Greetings-

Hope you were able to make the spring game Friday night. It was a strong turnout and it wouldn’t surprise me if the GTAA stays with Friday, or at least re-visits it, in years to come. Some thoughts from spring practice.

1. No change at quarterback spot

It was a much anticipated competition between Synjyn Days and Vad Lee, but it doesn’t appear that much changed in the pecking order. Both improved over the course of the spring and shrunk their flaws, but neither made an unimpeachable case to be the No. 2 behind Tevin Washington, let alone a challenger to the top spot.

“The other guys are both very talented and good at certain things,” coach Paul Johnson said. “As I said, they’ve got to get better at what their weak spots are.”

In this offense, and probably any other, limiting mistakes and turnovers is crucial, no matter what a quarterback’s big-play potential is. That is where Washington’s advantage is, developed over four years in the system, a …

Continue reading 6 Tech spring practice observations »

The Georgia Tech golf team continued its lock on the ACC Sunday, winning its fourth consecutive league championship by seven strokes over second-place Virginia.

For the second consecutive year, the Yellow Jackets led wire-to-wire, taking a first-round lead Friday at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C., and keeping it through Sunday. The Jackets have won six of the past seven ACC titles and eighth in the last 13 years. Tech’s 14 ACC titles are second behind Wake Forest’s 18. Coach Bruce Heppler has now won nine league championships, seven outright.

The field included five teams in the Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking’s top 25, including Tech at No. 8. The Jackets placed all five players in the top 16. Anders Albertson led Tech by shooting a 7-under-par 209 to finish in a tie for fourth, followed by Bo Andrews, Ollie Schniederjans and Richy Werenski in a tie for seventh at 5-under.

Four-man scores of 18-under and 14-under on Friday and Saturday, respectively, gave the …

Continue reading Tech wins fourth consecutive ACC golf title »