Georgia Tech: Ramblin' On

So…how do you lose to a Kansas Jayhawks team that just lost to North Dakota State?

You fail in all phases of the game…that’s how.

Offensive Fails:

• 4 of 13 on third down conversions, including a fumble on third and 2 just outside field goal range at the end of the game.  Convert the first down on that play and you’re likely going to score and tie things up in spite of all the other failures.
• 5 of 15 passing for 116 yards.  About 80 of those yards occured on the last scoring drive that pulled the Jackets within three points of tying things up.  Dropped passes and poor throws seemed to be the preference today.  These were  most evident on the last GT drive of the second quarter as Nesbitt first overthrew a WIDE OPEN Embry Peeples before having Stephen Hill drop a ball in the endzone that hit him right in the stomach.  Those two miscues resulted in four points being left on the field…in a game that was ultimately won by a three point margin.
• Failure to account for #45 on …

Continue reading Jackets Fail in All Phases of Game, Lose »

The ACC - Week One

The first weekend of the season is now behind us.  Lots of cupcakes have been beaten and a few marquee games have been contested.

Contrary to Doug Roberson (and Colin Cowherd), I don’t think the ACC embarassed itself this past weekend.

The conference as a whole collected nine decisive wins from Wake, Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech, BC, Clemson, NCSU, Virginia, and Duke.

The tenth victory was secured when a Maryland squad that lost ten games last season managed to beat a Ricky Dobbs led Navy team that won ten games last season.   If you’ve been paying attention to college football the last few years, Navy has become VERY relevant since our own Paul Johnson rebuilt the program in Annapolis.

Most of the media pundits (Cowherd included) will focus on the fact that UNC lost to LSU and Virginia Tech lost to Boise State.

Lets look at those games a little more closely.

The Tarheels took LSU to the wire, despite the fact that they were missing more than a …

Continue reading Week One Ramblin’s: ACC, Boise, Kansas »

A few thoughts from today’s scrimmage against South Carolina State…

The Good

• Most obviously, the score…41-10.  A solid, if unspectactular effort, resulted in a thorough beating of a team Tech was supposed to beat.
• 25 first downs and 372 rushing yards for the Jackets.
• 8 of 12 on third down conversion efforts for the Jackets.
• 130 yards rushing and 3 TDs for Josh Nesbitt in about three and a half quarters worth of work.
• Lots of work for the a-backs on toss sweeps and option pitches today.
• Washington and Sims both got live snaps in the fourth quarter, after Nesbitt was done for the day.
• A great tailgating scene over on the west side of campus, with crowds that one would normally expect to see for a conference opponent.
• South Carolina State dedicated their halftime show to Nick Rogers and his family.  Very classy.

The Bad

• The Jackets only went two of eight passing for 12 yards.
• Very little work for the b-backs today.
• Turnovers killed the last two GT possessions of the first …

Continue reading Jackets Defeat SC State 41-10 (Updated) »

Just recently, the Georgia Tech Athletic Association announced the launch of a new fan initiative.

The program is called “The Gold Standard” and is an effort to gather good sportsmanship pledges from Georgia Tech fans.

The official site can be found at RamblinWreck.com…or by clicking this link.

The “mission statement” follows:

OUR MISSION:
The Gold Standard is a campus wide effort of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association to raise awareness of sportsmanship at all Georgia Tech Athletic events by increasing positive Yellow Jacket support; creating a sense of pride in Georgia Tech venues, events, and traditions; promoting appreciation for the spirit of competition and providing a safe, healthy and respectful game day environment for all.

In short, they’re asking Georgia Tech fans to cheer for the Jackets rather than against opposing teams.

This is a good common sense approach.  There seems to be a common thread that runs through athletic fandom at various levels, where “fans” …

Continue reading Thoughts on The Gold Standard? »

Like most collegiate season ticket holders, this past week included my own personal vigil for the FedEx delivery truck.

I was rewarded, on Tuesday, with my 2010 Georgia Tech season ticket package.   Tossing aside the various fillers and advertisements, I quickly found what I’d been waiting for…the tickets themselves.  The tickets showcase the helmets of both GT and the day’s opponent while also specifying the “theme” for the day.

• September 4 - “Opening Day” against South Carolina State.  Another ubiquitous “bulldog” team and our first chance to see Al Groh’s 3-4 defense in action.
• September 25 – “Family Weekend” against North Carolina State.   By the time we face the Wolfpack we’ll have already gone on the road against Kansas and North Carolina.  We’ll have a pretty good idea about how good this 2010 team will be.  NCSU will be coming off a Thursday night game against Cincinatti.
• October 9 – “Homecoming” against Virginia.   The sixth game of the season will be both …

Continue reading Season Tickets, the Home Schedule, & AP Poll »

The last two weekends have been pretty entertaining for Tech fans.

On the 7th, we had the 2010 Fan Day celebration.   There were easily seven or eight thousand fans there taking advantage of the chance to meet the team and coaches.   I was able to grab some video and still images from the event, which can be seen at the Youtube link below:

2010 Georgia Tech Fan Day

This morning, we had a chance to get at look at the offense and defense.  For most of us, it was the first real look at the Yellow Jacket team that will take the field in 2010.  Nesbitt didn’t participate in the Spring game and Groh hadn’t had time to really implement much of his defense at that point.  We also didn’t have all the new recruits on campus.

Before I get into any specifics, I need to make one statement.

Actually, you could consider it an apology of sorts.

So…here goes…

I’d like to apologize to all the fans of our opponents this season.  Josh Nesbitt and this Georgia Tech offense are going to run …

Continue reading Images from Fan Day & Scrimmage Thoughts »

Coaches’ Polls

As the AJC has reported, the USAToday Preseason Coaches’ Poll has been released:

The most important teams to focus can be found below:

3. Florida – Hosts UGA in Jacksonville on October 30

6. Virginia Tech – Hosts GT on November 4

10. Iowa – The team that defeated GT on the recent Orange Bowl

13. Miami (Fla.) – Visits GT on November 13

17. Georgia Tech – Clean Old Fashioned Hate…’nuff said…

18. North Carolina – Hosts GT on September 18

19. Arkansas – Visits UGA on September 18

21. Georgia - Clean Old Fashioned Hate…’nuff said…

23. Auburn- Hosts UGA November 13

A few things jump out at me pretty much immediately.

1. The week of October 30 – November 4 pits UGA and GT against the #3 (UF) and #6 (VT) preseason teams.
2. September 18 is huge for both Tech and UGA with games against UNC and Arkansas.
3. November 13 is huge for both Tech and UGA with games against Miami and Auburn.
4. Iowa is considered a Top 10 team.  GT’s BCS loss wasn’t against a push over.

The Jackets and …

Continue reading Coaches Polls, Party Schools, and a Video of the Week! »

Prologue…

The long hot summer is winding down and Sunday (tomorrow) marks the first day of August.

This is important for two reasons:

1. The 2010 Yellow Jackets start practice on Thursday, August 5th.
2. The 2010 Yellow Jacket Fan Day will be Saturday, August 7th at 3:00pm.

A third and relatively minor reason August is important is the fact that this blog will once again become active.   Doug Roberson and Chip Towers have done a good job covering the beat stories and recruiting updates.  My goal, as I rejoin their blogging efforts, will be to provide a “fan” perspective from now through the next several months.

Opening Act…

The 2010 freshmen football recruits reported to campus on June 23, 2010. Thursday of this coming week (August 5) they’ll get their first taste of real college football practice.  I’m sure they’ve been working out and attending meetings and getting accustomed to collegiate life.  But now begins a stretch of practices during which we’ll learn if any of these …

Continue reading August Means Football Practice & Fan Day! »

So I return from a family cruise in the Caribbean and all hades is breaking loose in college football.

Colorado bolts to the Pac 10, Boise State joins the Mountain West, and Nebraska jumps to the Big Ten(?).

The most interesting move there may actually be Boise State to the MWC.  Why?  Because that gives the MWC ten teams and shores up a conference that includes TCU, Utah, and BYU.  All three of those schools would have been potential Pac 10 or Big 12 targets…but the addition of Boise State to that league gives them a core of teams that can easily lobby for a BCS bid.  That reduces the likelihood that TCU, Utah, or BYU look elsewhere.

So if TCU and Utah are off the table as Big 12 replacements for Colorado and Nebraska what do the Texas and Oklahoma schools do?

This thing is getting to be a mess…and ironically, Notre Dame doesn’t really figure into the equation right now.  They may have sat idly by for too long, stroking their NBC contract and muttering “My Precious” …

Continue reading Making “Sense” of Expansion… »

Mark Fox should send the ACC offices a Thank You note after Marcus Thornton’s recent commitment.  He’d be a Yellow Jacket if the ACC had a bit of sense about how to handle recruits who get hosed when the coach that recruited them gets fired.  I figure Fox is a good enough coach without that sort of assistance from our conference.

Losing out on Knox after missing out on Thornton really puts Paul Hewitt in a bind.  Looks like we’ll be running a guard heavy offense this coming hoops season.  On the bright side, at least we won’t be confused about who is supposed to be playing what position in the post for the Jackets.  Lets hope the players and coaches aren’t confused either…

Rumors of conference expansion continue to swirl around and  I remain convinced that Tech is a better fit for the Big Ten (than the SEC) for a variety of reasons.  The biggest reason would be the money, honestly.  How would UGA fans react if GT were suddenly a member of the top power conference in …

Continue reading Jackets Facing the Hokies in Greensboro… »