Tech’s Joshua Nesbitt: The most valuable collegiate player?
It takes at least four Hokies to handle Joshua Nesbitt. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Ankle surgery having precluded his participation in spring practice, Joshua Nesbitt had the chance to study Georgia Tech from the sideline. And what he saw, he said, was a team just as talented as last season’s ACC champs. Which is, not to put too fine a point on it, a big ol’ fib.
Because the Jackets with Nesbitt on the sideline aren’t one-tenth as impressive as Tech is when he’s on the field. He’s not quite the best player in college football, but no one means more to a program than this quarterback does to his.
Paul Johnson’s stylized option-based spread starts with Nesbitt, and often it ends there. He has to make every read, every pitch, every throw. He also has to take 30 hits a game, and therein lies the issue. With backup Jaybo Shaw having transferred to Georgia Southern, Tech can’t afford to lose Nesbitt for a single snap. But even a man as conspicuously robust as this — he appears bigger than his listed 217 pounds — is going to feel some pain.
The good news: Nesbitt said last week he feels better than he has “since high school.” The bad: Every Tech opponent won’t be so concerned with defending the option this season as with simply smacking Nesbitt.
But here’s the thing: Nesbitt is capable of smacking back. He has a linebacker’s approach to playing quarterback. If you come hard at him, he’ll come harder at you. Apologies in advance for again using the I-word — “indomitable” — but with Nesbitt no other adjective is half as applicable.
Said Nesbitt, speaking of Tech: “We understand what it means to fight until the clock says zero.”
Much of this comes from Pugnacious Paul, the head coach. Nearly as much emanates from the quarterback he inherited on arrival, a young man after PJ’s fighting heart.
And these Jackets, picked to finish third in the ACC Coastal Division, figure to need all the orneriness they can muster. They lost four gifted juniors to the NFL, and their road schedule — trips to Kansas, North Carolina, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Georgia — is a fright. Or it would be, were Nesbitt the sort to get nettled.
“People are looking for us not to be the same team,” Nesbitt said. “We know we’ve got a bull’s eye on us. … We need to prove everybody wrong.”
Someone asked if Johnson imparts that very message to his players. “Only every time we talk,” Nesbitt said, and then he laughed.
Another source of some amusement: The two letters at the shank of his first name. He was born Joshua Leonard Nesbitt, but for 21 years he answered to Josh. He and his mother decided to ask Tech to list his name as Joshua for his senior season: “More businesslike,” he said.
Which isn’t to say everyone has gotten the memo. Heck, sometimes his mom even slips and forgets the “u” and the “a.” “It doesn’t faze me,” said Nesbitt, who isn’t easily fazed.
And what does Tech’s coach call his quarterback? “He can call me whatever he likes.”
We know Johnson has the utmost faith in his offense — he should; he designed the thing — but even a man as proud as PJ will acknowledge that an option cannot run itself. Somebody has to take the ball from center and send it the right way and absorb those hits, and there’s nobody on Tech’s campus who can do it the way Nesbitt does.
Still, the cult of Joshua hasn’t yet found national traction. We saw it again this week when the assembled ACC media voted him sixth in its preseason player-of-the-year balloting. Yeah, that’s part of being an option quarterback in 21st century football, but still … sixth!
Maybe his low standing had something to do with Nesbitt skipping the ACC’s media days in Greensboro. Both Tech and conference officials implored him to come, but he was adamant. He had to attend a family reunion in Miami. (And no, it wasn’t an agent-funded soiree.)
And there’s just another reason to like Joshua Nesbitt. In an age where hype knows no restraints — hello, LeBron James — the most valuable Jacket had better things to do than talk about himself. Talk about a throwback.
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555 comments Add your comment
BG
July 28th, 2010
3:25 pm
Mark, Is this an april fools joke??
HugoStiglitz
July 28th, 2010
3:26 pm
Yes JayDawg, GT fans are everything UGA fans have convinced themselves they are. We are all terrorists, nerds, play video games 24 hours a day, none of us have ever gotten layed, we live in our moms basement, and we all have social disorders. We are every UGA fans dream. Now that that is out of the way maybe you can come up with something creative to say or maybe something more on an adult level.
DawginLex
July 28th, 2010
3:28 pm
He is a good player and also appears to be a good kid. I wish him well every Saturday except one.
UGA and GT are both in the same boat depth wise. An injury to Nesbitt or Murray and we are both in serious trouble.
SILLY UGA FANS
July 28th, 2010
3:29 pm
Good to see all the UGA fasn so worried about nesbitt that they feel the need to lokk up stats and post about him all day. Nesbitt is a beast and hopefully he has a better season with passing with better o-line protection. I can’t say he will be drafted as a QB or not, but I am sure seceral teams would look at him as a athlete.
Greene County, Georgia kid does good
July 28th, 2010
3:31 pm
Joshua Nesbitt
is definetly the most valuable collegiate football player.
SILLY UGA FANS
July 28th, 2010
3:31 pm
Hugo,
I actuallt talked my parents into converting the garage to a nice loft for me.
Mark Bradley
July 28th, 2010
3:32 pm
Can’t imagine that anyone would seek to rate Joshua Nesbitt solely on passing numbers. Kind of like judging Barry Sanders on his blocking.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
3:33 pm
Must be a slow day to quote some UGA fans on here. The UGA blog only has 214 Hits. I guess The dawgs feel the neet to commment about Nesbitt more than how Lil Man Murry will be great because of all the experience the o-line has.
Nice post DawginLex.
Mcdawghna
July 28th, 2010
3:33 pm
Wow!….saw it again, Tech fans marvelling in the 45-42 score from almost 3 yrs ago…..Will they still be posting that score after this season too?….probably so……but I won’t bother posting the score from the ga-fla game 3 yrs ago….I have more recent items to attend to……Now, as far as Nesbitt is concerned, yes, he probably is Tech’s MVP and very well could be nationally as well…..but the same will be said about their next QB too……The QB means more to techs offence than any other player on the field just simply due to the offence that is ran……Probably moreso than the QB of a pro-style offence…..just because of the running aspect……He, if he stays healthy will have a very good year….
BG
July 28th, 2010
3:36 pm
8 out of 9 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fillin' up @ Juniors
July 28th, 2010
3:36 pm
I personally think Tevin Washington is a step up from jaybo…making conclusions off of half research leads to half right conclusions. We all assume Joshua is not replacable, but none of us have any idea what Tevin is capable of. Add in some more elusivness and a better passer rating and someone could run this offense with the same proficeny as joshua and Tevin is more elusive. So the question is, is he more accurate, we might just see…
supersize that order, mutt
July 28th, 2010
3:41 pm
Mark, good to see you finally checking in. Did you read through the posts? Did you catch my earlier one (as well as one by another blogger) that surname is the family or last name, not the first name. So Josh(ua) did not add two letters to his surname; he did to his first name. Just thought you would like to know
VegasGT
July 28th, 2010
3:50 pm
What’s the old saying? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In this case, “participation” (by the Dawgs commenting on a GT Blog) is the sincerest form of both flattery and fear.
Glad to see so many of you guys here with what can be construed as comments driven by fear, lack of self-confidence, a small Johnson, take your pick.
The more of you that post here, the better. It just makes me believe we might have a better team than has been billed.
michael
July 28th, 2010
3:53 pm
kevin…your mascot is DEAD. remember?
CPJ Disciple
July 28th, 2010
3:54 pm
Supersize,
They joined the big 10 in 1950, but were not allowed to participate in bowl games until 1953.
Scott W.
UGA split in 1942… It’s hard not too when there are too many polls. I’ll take 2.5 over 1.5.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
3:55 pm
Please leave our blog you bad UGA fans. Let us have our little pleasures without someone picking on us as usual.
GTMatt
July 28th, 2010
3:55 pm
AJC’s Mark Bradley: Sport media’s most valuable writer?
Ornary Gatuh
July 28th, 2010
3:56 pm
When youre as bad as tech has been the last 10 years, youre just glad to have a couple winning seasons and have something to talk about.
GTMatt
July 28th, 2010
3:56 pm
Once Georgia gets their ducks in a row, they’ll be back competing for Peach Bowls once again, I’m sure.
so many dog fans on here.....
July 28th, 2010
3:57 pm
…..glad to see broadband has made it to the trailer parks.
JayDawg
July 28th, 2010
3:57 pm
This is not a GT blog! What don’t you understand about that? Did is say GT blog when you clicked on it? He does all the Georgia teams you jack@sses!
jacket backer
July 28th, 2010
4:01 pm
Glad to see you hydrant sniffers enjoying yourselves today, just remember come November Joshua is gonna lay some wood on your sorry asses. If you guys promise not to cry too much and be good little mutts, we may be generous and leave you enough of those ridiculous hedges so you can replant for 2011. Make no mistake, every Tech player will have a hunk of hedge in his dorm room the Monday after Thanksgiving.
GTMatt
July 28th, 2010
4:01 pm
JayDawg:
Get off your sister and scroll up. It’s a Tech article.
HedgeHumper
July 28th, 2010
4:02 pm
DawginLex – well said.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:02 pm
Yo yo yo JDAWG layz down da Lawz. Yuz be cop’n da blogz 2bez keep it real.
jacket backer
July 28th, 2010
4:03 pm
No jaydawg, this is not a GT blog, but it states clearly that it is a GT article. Don’t try to engage semantics to justify your fearful obsession of all things GT. Now get back to the drive thru, there are orders stacking up.
HedgeHumper
July 28th, 2010
4:05 pm
JayDawgPoop – calm down, boy! The rubber bands on your braces are gonna pop and those coke bottle glasses are gonna fog up!
P City
July 28th, 2010
4:05 pm
Who would ever thinka QB should be judged by things like:
Accuracy?
Passing yards per game?
Passing td’s?
Pass completions per game?
I’m just saying, those are where a QB needs to be great to be MVP of the NCAA. To rank near last in all 4, makes one the LEAST valuable player.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:07 pm
P City didn’t you say that like 8 hrs ago? Don’t you think we read your crap from earlier? Get something new please before I close the office.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:08 pm
Looks like there are a few people who cannot come up with their own ideas. Please cease and desist!!!
JayDawg
July 28th, 2010
4:08 pm
So b/c its a tech article no one else can read it?…. You people are a bunch of sissy cry baby nerds if you can’t take the heat leave. You nerds are on the UGA “BLOG” yeah the actual UGA blog all the time talking crap and now you can’t take it so you want us to leave your little article alone and a crappy article at that
Money
July 28th, 2010
4:08 pm
Compared to Tech’s last QB (Mr. Ball), Nesbitt looks like freakin’ Peyton Manning…
jacket backer
July 28th, 2010
4:10 pm
Like I said get back to the drive thru….I am headed over to the tickle pile to show them how i am the #1 jacket backer!!!!
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:11 pm
Mark Bradley who is in charge of the VENTS? They don’t do enough of the Sports, Gt, and UGA vents. When the season starts the GT and UGA vents shoould be from Thursday to Monday can you talk to the Sports vent person.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:13 pm
JayDawg WTF is “IMPLEMENT”?
JayDawg
July 28th, 2010
4:13 pm
Well I have pissed enough of you nerds off that’s all I wanted…. Thanks till the next time douche bags
GTMatt
July 28th, 2010
4:14 pm
Whereas I wish I had a sister. My parents had me and decided they knew why tigers eat their young.
JCH
July 28th, 2010
4:15 pm
Nesbit doesnt get National attn, becfause he pays in the weak ACC, NOTHING COmpared to a grueling task of running offense as such as the SEC, or the Rest of Repectable Divisions. Mark Ingram Deserved last years MVP, No Question because of Such Opponents as Texas, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Miss State, Teams which Crunch littletykes playing in the ACC.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:15 pm
Ignore the fact that I do not know how to spell should in my blog, JayDawg. But you are free to ask me how smart I am…..I will let you know even if you do not ask.
MB-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!
July 28th, 2010
4:16 pm
Bradley:
can you find out from the State of Georgia Board of Regents…
…the reason(s) why UGA currently has an undergraduate enrollment
that’s 65% Females, and 35% Males.
jacket backer
July 28th, 2010
4:18 pm
jaydawg,
A. Never said you could not read it or even comment, simply pointing out that you are in here obsessing away. And do not try and say you read this because you appreciate college football and a rational discussion thereof, you say nothing positive. You come in here for the express purpose of sling s**t and stirring things up. Sad.
B. Never commented on a UGA blog or article, rarely read them. I am sure there are Tech fans that do and I am sure they get as irrational, nasty and idiotic as you do in here. Never has been nor will it ever be me. I’m not responsible for the actions of others, only myself. I feel the same about any Tech fan who would defile a UGA blog/article just as I do about you. Pathetic and lacking any real redeemable social qualities.
Now, you may go back to your UGA blogs and enjoy. You won’t because you simply crave the attention that you get from being a naughty boy in here slinging inflammatory rhetoric with no basis in fact. You are a true child.
Dawgs Rule
July 28th, 2010
4:20 pm
What a shocker…Nerd fans mentioning red panties and a score from 2 years ago!!! Tee Hee Hee.
only one douchbag inhere.....
July 28th, 2010
4:22 pm
……and he gos by jaydawg. Enjoy your afternoon loser.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:23 pm
Hedgehumper’s name would IMPLY he humps hedges. Why would his name implement?
Fake POAD you are funny a double hit on an O is a typo not a misspelling, but the use of IMPLEMENT is freaking wrong.
Delbert D.
July 28th, 2010
4:24 pm
@George Stein -
“I’m ringing the bulls–t bell on Delbert D. No way can you throw a football more than 50 yards. Try again, chief.”
Not now, George. That was 45 years ago. From the 50 yard line to the end zone in HS practice in shorts and tee shirts. I used to warm up the receivers because our option QBs didn’t have strong arms. We didn’t pass much running the T-formation triple option. As a 2nd team end, I caught 3 passes for my career, as a junior. All in one game, three plays in a row. Never had one thrown to me as a senior. By the way, I could also kick a field goal in practice from 37 yards max. We never tried one in a game.
However, I can barely throw a tennis ball 25 feet to my dog now, and I broke my right toe kicking off barefoot in my senior year. Had to go back to the shoes, with reduced range.
So, no bullsh-t.
HedgeHumper
July 28th, 2010
4:24 pm
JayDawg – man, you are one quick and funny guy. And Very original. Yes I humo hedges, hence the name and I will come do the landscape in front of your house if you get your wife out of there first.
POAD
July 28th, 2010
4:27 pm
MB AAAA ask why UGA only had 2675 african americans out of 26K+ enrolled for the 09-10 school year while you are at it.
jacket backer
July 28th, 2010
4:27 pm
hate to let you down jaydawg, but you fail again. Have not succeeded in pissing me off. You have clarified what your purpose is in this article, you are simply here to create drama and stir things up. As I said earlier, no redeeming qualities at all, just a flamethrower looking to incite. Sorry, but you need to be dealing with people with much lower IQ’s to get them riled up with your silly nonsense. You simply failed again. Pathetic excuse of a human being.
PTC DAWG
July 28th, 2010
4:29 pm
Is there a date set for the Fish Fry yet?
FORTY ONE POINTS to your seventeen points
July 28th, 2010
4:29 pm
Seems to be a lot of the red panties, 7 arrests (just this year), scum on this blog……to them I say:
((((((((((((((((((((((41-17))))))))))))))))))0
7 out of 9
17 out of 20