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Saturday, October 4, 2008
Trying to put fire back in old rivalry
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This was once one of the classic college football series of the South. From the very first, in fact, when a quite ordinary Georgia Tech team knocked Duke out of a trip to the Rose Bowl in 1933. Oh, those Blue Devils were a powerhouse in those times. “Iron Dukes,” they were called, when games were won or lost by baseball scores.
Times have taken a harsh turn; oh, how they have turned. The Rose Bowl gets in line with all those other bowls, like a commoner, in this Bowl Championship Series. Conferences have been scrambled like eggs, old traditions wiped out. Geography cast to the winds. But Georgia Tech and Duke have kept up the tradition, faithfully making their annual date in the fall, though the old rivalry has long since run out of steam. Matter of fact, in the past 18 years, Duke has beaten Tech only twice. Meanwhile, the mighty Engineers haven’t been keeping up with the Joneses, or a lot of other old rivals they carried on with.
So they met again at Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field on Saturday afternoon, carrying on in the faith, but this one had some new pizazz in it. Georgia Tech was panting over its new romance with Paul Johnson, and Duke was going ga-ga over having taken up with David Cutcliffe, who has had some high times — at Ole Miss and lately on Phil Fulmer’s staff at Tennessee. Tell the truth, Duke is already getting nervous about keeping him on campus. You’ve read the news of Fulmer’s travails, and the gossip is that should PF get the ax, Cutcliffe’s the Vols’ choice. You know, rumors.
Georgia Tech had been warned that this was not the same old Duke kind of team they’d become accustomed to taking to the cleaners for years. “We’re playing the Duke of 2008,” Darryl Richard, the senior spokesman, had warned. The Blue Devils were coming to town winners over Navy, Virginia and James Madison, and a heartbreak loser to Northwestern, a ranked team.
Well, for the first 30 minutes all the forewarning was looking legit. First place, Tech was starting an actual freshman, Jaybo Shaw, who’d had a bit of indoctrination, but today the saddle was on his back. Josh Nesbitt, still sitting out the injury he suffered against Mississippi State, never even suited up. The kid from Flowery Branch was put through the wringer in the first half, but did manage to stir up some offense between all the gaffes, throwing to Bay-Bay Thomas and handing off to Jonathan Dwyer. Each time the Jackets approached the end zone, they stepped on their own foot, kicked a field goal and were lucky to go to the break with a 3-0 lead.
By this time you are aware that they turned up the heat in the second half and put Duke to rest. Strange thing, Thomas was the only pass catcher Shaw could locate, and say this, Thomas had to be an acrobat on some of those catches. He collected 230 yards’ worth. Dwyer turned on the steam for 159 yards, and the defense finished its day’s work in style.
It was a peculiar match of coaching styles, and situations, not that Johnson came in to save a sinking ship, as did Cutcliffe at Duke. But both are putting together damaged programs and both have gotten away to good reviews. It’s obvious that Johnson has made the most of it, and neither spent a lot of time exchanging secrets after it was over. Their handshake lasted about 1.2 seconds, after which the two teams took to their knees and had a prayer.
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