ESPN: Tech’s Dwyer is the nation’s second-best back
I tried to make the point last week, but nobody ever listens to me. But maybe you folks will take heed when somebody employed by the Worldwide Leader says something. So here goes:
Bruce Feldman of ESPN.com Insiders presented his list of the nation’s 10 best backs, and he ranks Jonathan Dwyer of Georgia Tech No. 2. (Who’s No. 1? Caleb King? Uh, no.) Since this is one of those links that requires registration, I’ll provide Mr. Feldman’s top 10:
- Jahvid Best, California
- Dwyer, GT
- Quizz Rodgers, Oregon State
- Charles Scott, LSU
- Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State
- LeGarrette Blount, Oregon
- C.J. Spiller, Clemson
- Evan Royster, Penn State
- MiQuayle Lewis, Ball State
- Noel Devine, West Virginia
It’s a nice list, as lists go — heavy on the Pac-10, which is fine by me. And Georgia fans should note that the Bulldogs will face three of the top five. But it’s from Feldman’s description of Dwyer that I find my sustenance:
“Despite playing in a major college football media market, Dwyer still is a bit under the radar. But he has everything necessary to make a Heisman run: power, excellent speed and a system (the Triple Option) where it’s hard to key on him. In 2008, he ran for almost 1,400 yards while he and his teammates were still in the incubation stage of Paul Johnson’s system. The scary part was this 233-pounder still had runs of at least 58 yards in four of Tech’s final five games of the season. Putting a talent like Dwyer in the Triple Option feels a little when Steve Nash met Mike D’Antoni.”
The Nash/D’Antoni comparison is pithy and apt, but the point I sought to make last week is that Dwyer isn’t just a “system back.” He’d be great in the “I” or the veer or the single wing. But in this system he’s all but unstoppable. If he’s not a Heisman candidate, my name isn’t Pepper Rodgers.
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162 comments Add your comment
Jacket Nation
August 5th, 2009
7:02 pm
LizDawg, I do admit that there are those in the fold who can be a little obnoxious. It is however present on both sides.
However, what you are hearing from us is great relief and enthusiasim, that the 7-8, 51-7 you reference and years of inconsistency may be behind us. The lay of the land has completely changed at GT due to a new AD and CPJ. Remeber those days with fondness because they are history.
Bozydeco
August 5th, 2009
8:01 pm
As a college football fan who graduated from another university other than Tech & UGA, one has to appreciate and enjoy watching Jonathan Dwyer every time he runs. Fast, big, and strong – you sense he can break a long run on a lot of plays. Watching players like him on a Saturday or Thursday night is the fun part of college football.
BetweenHerHedges
August 5th, 2009
8:43 pm
I think Bark Madley fans the flames to increase post counts on his blogs that the AJC can count as “subscribers” to advertisers and pull a better bonus based on this ad revenue. Ooops, I just contributed to Bark’s bonus. I guess those homeless looking folks on the corners aren’t selling enough papers. At least the downturn of the AJC got rid of the racist sports writer.
Not Disappointed
August 5th, 2009
8:44 pm
Oklahoma St’s Kendall Hunter is a legit running back. I Watched him last year in three games. He’s something to be concern with for the pups.
Jonathan “The Diesel” Dwyer is a Mack Truck! He can pull some cargo or run over you on the highway! “It’s your choice!”
I’m afraid this is my last year enjoying him at the Flats, but it’s going to be fun. He is one of the top run back in College Football.
Football is in the air Gents! Ramblin Wreck!
My Johnson is better than your Willie
August 5th, 2009
8:51 pm
Who was the DB of uga that fell on his butt after Dwyer punk’d him last year? All a uga fan needs to do is check out Dwyer’s third quarter highlights from last year in cow town to start trembling and look forward to 2010. Oh, nevermind, I think Allen and Jones will make 2010 scary for them as well.
Dwyer's future agent
August 5th, 2009
8:54 pm
Cha ching!!! When I sign Dwyer, I will be set for life. He will be the top RB in the draft this year and will be a premier NFL back with his size, speed, and strength. Man, if he could only jump a Div. 2 player lol.
Another Day in Paradise
August 5th, 2009
9:10 pm
As a die hard Dawg fan, I tip my hat to JD. He’s a class act and one heck of a football player. Unfortunately, the fan base he plays for is the antifhesis of a class act and for whatever reason will not support the team by purchasing a ticket to the game. Come on, 26,000 season tickets! Tech graduates should be ashamed of themselves.
BetweenHerHedges
August 5th, 2009
9:25 pm
Another Day, if you look at ticket sales based on “graduates,” you will find that Tech has been doing better then uga recently. From a post on stingtalk.com, Tech has 12,744 undergrads with an average football attendance of 47,489. uga has 25,163 undergrads with an average football attendance of 92,746. Thus, Tech football attendance is 3.73 times undergrad enrollment while uga’s football attendance is only 3.69 times undergrad enrollment. Factor in the intellects at Tech that do not like sports and the competition with pro sports that cow college uga doesn’t have, and I think Tech does very well with football attendance. Oh, and Tech’s season ticket purchasing is trending upward even in this depression while many other teams (including sec teams) are trending downward.
snapshot
August 5th, 2009
9:35 pm
Works for me! Go Jackets!!!!!
Joe
August 5th, 2009
10:45 pm
To add on to BetweenHerHedges point, Tech’s got about 1/4 the student body that UGA has. So there are about 1/4 the number of possible die hard fans. Then once you consider that many GT grads live out of state (I’d bet it is a significantly higher percentage than UGA grads), you see why GT’s attendance is pretty respectable. Winning will help GT gain more non-alumni fans.
Herschal Who?
August 5th, 2009
11:07 pm
Dwyer is in the same league with Herschal Walker, and he’s one step below Bo Jackson (maybe the greatest ever). All three have the same style. For this reason, I think he will earn the Heisman trophy this year with a 1800 yd season, 10.0 yds/carry and 20 TDs.
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:36 pm
Hey UGA: You all are a bunch of redneck dumbazzes. Your academics suck azz, your football team is overated every year. Woops, Roddy Jones just scored again and your basketball team suxs azz. Your city of Athens sux azz and your doublewides are over priced. Hey, at least you have the GymDoggies. LMFAO! THWG! Go Gators 49-10 and go Jackets 45-42. As for LizDawg, try 8 wins in a row, then start bragging. Also, you can’t beat Florida ever! You all suck azz!
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:37 pm
Roddy Jones just scored again!
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:38 pm
Woops, I forgot………..Favors and Lawal and Shumpert and Bell and Miller just passed the ball around and Favors dunked on your sorry azzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz basketball team. Maybe you should consider hiring Jim Harrick again. LOL!
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:42 pm
The dawgs still suc azz. Hey, is UGA VI or VII or whatever still alive? You better get extra bags of ice for him to sit his sorry azz nuts on, as he and your team are going to need it after you lose 5 or 6 games with Joe Phallic at QB! LMFAO! THWG!
Another Day in Paradise
August 5th, 2009
11:43 pm
BHH and Joe. Nice dialogue.
BHH. Your logic seems flawed for your math does not factor in that UGA fans are constrained by the stadium size as you’ve accurately noted at 92,746 which just happens to also be the average attendance. Every game is sold out.. Truth is, they could increase the stadium size to well over 100,000 and the stadium would still be sold out. Conversely, your denominator used in the Tech calculation is the “average” attendance which I believe is less than the stadium capacity. You need to compare apples to apples.
Joe. Are you suggesting that over the last 40-50 years, GT does not have enough local area graduates to sell more than 26,000 season tickets? That’s hard to believe especially if you keep in mind that the 26,000 more than likely includes many non-alumni.
The bottom line is that UGA fans (alumni as well as non alumni) are passionate about the Dawgs and SEC football, while Tech fans seem to be preoccuppied with trying to insure that they get equal respect by the media. Unfortunately for the Tech program, until it becomes a consistent winner in “big time games” (and that’s somewhat problematic as a result of playing in the ACC) they’re going to struggle getting the respect that the fans so desperately want. Instead of playing the Jacksonville States and Gardner Webbs, the program will need to try and compete at a higher level. UGA has traditionally been a huge boost to the Tech schedule, but they’ll need to fill in the gaps with some other strong programs.
Lastly, the Tech faithful do their program a disservice when they jump up and down and beat on their chest after defeating UGA for the first time in 8 years. As the old saying goes, “act like you’ve been there before”, and you will soon gain the respect of not only UGA but other surrounding schools who might bear witness to such sophomoric acts.
mtraininjax
August 5th, 2009
11:47 pm
ADIP, just win baby, everything else will take care of itself. Good luck against OSU, I hope your team loses, but good luck none-the-less. All you have to do is win and have some luck, at 14 in the rivals poll, Tech could win-out and have a very good shot at the Nat Champ game. Of course they would beat UGAg at home, which would be sweet just the same, but win baby win!
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:47 pm
Another day in loserville: hey numb nuts, the reason you sell out every game is because there are 500,000 beer drinking redneck UGay fans in Georgia. Of the 500,000, 450,000 of them can’t read, write or work at a decent job. Of the remaining 50,000, 49,999 are illiterate. There might be 1 smart dog fan or alum, but I doubt it. Your school is a joke, as are your fans. GO GATORS AND JACKETS> THWG!
Another Day in Paradise
August 5th, 2009
11:49 pm
Thank you DH. Your comments were very insightful. You can go to bed now.
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:49 pm
Roddy Jones just scored again! Wait, was that Dwyer, Peoples, Allen or Thomas. No, it was Stephen Hill catching the call with one hand over your louzy secondary. Nesbitt is the man and GT will DOMINATE your louzy team again this year. THWG! By the way, is Larry “old azz” Munson still kickin? lol!
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:51 pm
Another Day in Paradise: Do you have power in your doublewide?
DAWGHATER
August 5th, 2009
11:54 pm
Woops, I mean’t camper instead of doublewide. You better get to bed so you can get to your paper delivery job in the morning.
gt_blume
August 6th, 2009
12:00 am
Barry Sanders was a total “system” back as well.
DAWGHATER
August 6th, 2009
12:02 am
Dwyer for Heisman and Joe Cox (Phallic) for BJ’s. LMFAO!
Tokyo jacket
August 6th, 2009
12:55 am
Harley Dawg, Caleb King would not be good in the ACC. One, the ACC has more of the top 10 RBs in the nation than the SEC. Two, the ACC is a defensive conference. Check the draft, we send more defensive players to the NFL than the SEC. Don’t buy into the hype…the SEC is great, with the best top 4, maybe even top 6, teams of any conference. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best at everything.
Also, to Another Day in Paradise. We sell only have sold 26,000 tickets because all of us don’t live in Atlanta. I’m not going to throw out a lot of mean stereotypes, but most UGA grads wind up within 100 miles of UGA. Personally, I live 50 miles south of Tokyo, Japan. I flew 14 hours and paid $1400 last year to watch GT beat The U and UGA. When was the last time you put that kind of investment into a UGA game?
Also, you guys have twice as many alumni as we do, it makes sense that your stadium is twice as big.
biggbuzz
August 6th, 2009
1:00 am
No LezDawg 8 of 8 is DOMINATION !!!
Jonny Diesel Dwyer
August 6th, 2009
1:26 am
Caleb King… LOL!
Buzz
August 6th, 2009
7:56 am
Lizdog – How do you think you guys acted the last couple of years in close games with GT?
GT
August 6th, 2009
8:38 am
The Jacksonville States and Garner Webbs are fill ins for teams that backed out (Ole Miss and Army). We play 3 sec teams this year, 2 on the road. I guess that does make our schedule a little weaker than normal. Also, uga always plays at least one or two scrub teams. I don’t care to look at the schedule, but I would be willing to bet there’s at least one mixed in there this year as well.
Brad
August 6th, 2009
8:48 am
Blackwell Bears suck
Boss Hogg
August 6th, 2009
9:53 am
GT: There is. Tennessee Tech.
Another day in paradise
August 6th, 2009
11:21 am
BH. I think you meant “There are: TT and GT.” Don’t flatter yourself by thinking the GT program is even close to being on the Dawgs radar at this point as a big game or a must win game. The Dawgs are focused on the SEC. Win consistently and you’ll get their attention, but 1 in 8 is hardly even competative.
Buzz Belle
August 6th, 2009
11:50 am
Dawghater – just leave, you have no class – end of story. Dwyer is an awesome back and Tech is very lucky to have him. He makes us proud. I can’t wait to see the games this year. I do think McCoy will take the Heisman and I hope Dwyer stays at Tech, if so, he will have it next year. Let’s all hope, not just Ga. but every team we play stays healthy and we should see some really good football this year! Good luck to all, but THWG!!! Let the games begin!
DAWGHATER
August 6th, 2009
1:10 pm
I’m such a tool that I am going to hide behind Florida because my team cannot beat UGA on a regular basis!
WOW
August 6th, 2009
1:17 pm
“Dwyer is in the same league with Herschal Walker, and he’s one step below Bo Jackson (maybe the greatest ever). All three have the same style. For this reason, I think he will earn the Heisman trophy this year with a 1800 yd season, 10.0 yds/carry and 20 TDs.”
Did you really just say that Dwyer is in the same league as Walker??? Dwyer is an outstanding back, but you are comparing him to the one player who most experts agree is the best college football player EVER! Dwyer was not even the best player last year, that would be Tim Tebow. Now, if you want to argue about whether Tebow or Walker is the greatest player in college football history, I will listen, but Dwyer has a hell of lot more to accomplish before his name can even be mentioned in the same breath as Walker, Tebow, or Jackson.
GT FAN FOR LIFE
August 6th, 2009
1:19 pm
45-42…..lets say almost 400 yards rushing…ouch….
WPXI.com – College Football – Conf: Big Sky
August 6th, 2009
4:08 pm
[...] High praise for Jackets’ Dwyer Jonathan Dwyer scores another touchdown for the Institute. I tried to make the point last week , but nobody ever listens to me. [...]
gte268p
August 6th, 2009
5:56 pm
Why do people always start counting at 2001? If you go back a few more years, than uga only has a 7-4 advantage. All this talk about past wins and streaks is pure crap.
Please tell me: How did winning 7 in a row against Georgia Tech help UGA win last year?
macrotech
August 6th, 2009
6:31 pm
BankerDawg, your objectivity is a most welcomed and appreciated change of pace. One wouldn’t have to go very far to find the moronic fans…passionate, but moronic for either team. I respect your thoughts and will be more keen on reading your future post. I tend to skip the posters that fit the moronic! GO TECH!
No Homer
August 6th, 2009
6:55 pm
Everyone knows Dwyer is the total package: Talent, Character, and Effort.
http://accgtsecuga.blogspot.com/2009/07/jonathan-dwyer-on-cj-spiller-for.html
macrotech
August 6th, 2009
7:03 pm
harleydawg, JD had 144 rushing yards against your uga (sec) defense and RJ had 214 rushing yards in the same game with the Jackets topping off with a total of 409 rushing yrds. Tech had 438 rushing yards against Miss. St. (sec) with JD collecting 141! LSU (sec) caught us with our pants down (opinion), but we managed 164 yrds and managed to hold JD to 67 yrds…. Tech (ACC) vs. the ‘tough’ sec defenses…988 yards in just three games. By comparrison, Moreno had 94 yrds and uga only managed 88 total rushing yards against Tech (i know stafford lit us up in passing). A. Dixon of Miss. St. had only 94 yrds. with a team total of 108 (Of course, they had to abandon the run and go to a toothless passing attack that only yeilded 3 pts. C. Scott had only 65 yrds and lsu ran for a team total of 161 yrds. Comparrison? Tech 988 rushing yards and sec vs. Tech… 357. The sec’s glory days are waning and the ACC is on the rise….bout time….but it is what it is!
Good grief, CincyJacket ?
August 6th, 2009
7:37 pm
CincyJacket, I’m about sick of your ignorance. This is CPJ’s team now. You can stop writing about three losses this year, you dope.
Go Jackets
August 7th, 2009
9:47 am
Why are the Georgia fans so hyped on Caleb King??? He hasnt had to carry the load a whole game yet… you all think hes gonna be some great back or something… He’ll be pretty good… but nowhere near Dwyer…. Oh and by the way good luck stopping Kendall Hunter, Tim Tebow, Charles Scott, and Dwyer… That should be interesting. TO HELL WITH GEORGIA
Richard a Tech Fan
August 7th, 2009
1:25 pm
Opps be careful Georgia fans, There goes Roddy Jones around right end again. LOL! 45 to 42 Great isn’t it.
Pi$$onaDawg
August 7th, 2009
4:30 pm
WOW H. Walker was great but to compare the HYPE is a JOKE. The ESPN MEDIA has their fovorite and will sell them everyday. DWYER will not get the media pub for a reason, but that does not mean he is not the best at what he does. Please tell me that Peyton was not the best player in the NCAA when Woodson won. Joe Hamilton was the best player too when he came in 2nd. Wait, Joe did more for his team to get them in the spotlight than Ron Dayne. That is arguable, but Joe ment more to his team than Dane.
Pi$$onaDawg
August 7th, 2009
4:44 pm
KNOSHOW couldn’t finish a full drive while playing at UGA. How is he going to do better in MILE HIGH STADIUM? Just asking. Take me out coach. Take me out coach. I know UGA is in the RED ZONE but i need a break. Did UGA write the play book in crayola for KING and EALEY?
GOJACKET5
August 7th, 2009
6:52 pm
i would rather see our staduim empty then have 95,000 rednecks in the stands
copper
August 7th, 2009
11:29 pm
jdawg…r u really a dawg fan or just another gnat playing games (we all know how some dawg and nerd imposters get on blogs and show their stupiidty)? In any case, have fun showing your football knowledge.
Flowery Branch Yellow Jacket
August 8th, 2009
9:13 am
Dwyer is definitely one of the premier backs in the country, but I’m equally excited about Tech’s prospects for the future. Daniel Drummond from Flowery Branch has the potential, I believe, to be as good as … or better than … Dwyer. In CPJ’s offense, I foresee a lot of potential for Tech to have a dominant running attack for years to come.
BankerDawg
August 8th, 2009
9:45 am
FBYJ-
Daniel Drummond is a freak of nature.
As I understand it, he is already one of the strongest kids on the team as a true freshman and some of his high school weightlifting numbers are just sick.
Do you guys see him as a B, or do you think he gets in the mix at one of the LB positions? On that note, are you guys now in a 4-2-5, 3-3-5, etc? I ask because I have heard the “wolf” position will be featured this year.