Home > Furman Bisher > Archives > 2008 > November > 22
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Stage is set for classic Tech-UGA game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ah, now comes the reckoning. While Georgia Tech has been critically involved with those powers of the Atlantic Coast Conference — not to mention Jacksonville State and Gardner-Webb — Georgia has been wrangling with such geographical powers as Georgia Southern and Central Michigan, not to mention Alabama and Florida. But all that is backstage stuff. They get down to some pretty danged important business if you’re going to survive in this state.
For seven years in a row Georgia has left Georgia Tech bleeding and suffering, and Chan Gailey on the ropes. This kind of streak has happened only once before in the series, from 1949 through 1956, when Tech won eight years in a row. This time these two deal from a fresh deck of Bicycles — that’s a brand of playing card — and it’s pretty darned important in Athens that Mark Richt win again, especially so since Georgia Tech is on the rise and fears no one.
This will not be Paul Johnson’s first trip to Athens. But this time it’s different. When he appeared then in 2000 he was driving an underpowered Georgia Southern machine, good enough to win the NCAA Division I-AA championship, but not geared to match the rich and powerful. He lost 29-7. He comes armed now with a level of talent he has never known before, either at Georgia Southern or Navy.
He is a man of uncommon presence. One time you see him in the face of one of his errant chaps, then you see him patting one on the head, then you see him strolling casually along the sideline, seemingly detached from what’s taking place on the field. Mark Richt, by contrast, is often vigorously and emotionally involved, floating Draculian plots around in his head. This is a match worth walking the Appalachian Trail to watch. I can hardly wait.
Both teams have won when they should have lost, and lost when they should have won. Georgia has its plaintiffs, injury and police action; Tech has had its own defendants, mainly dealing with incapacitated personnel. Thursday night, “Whiteout Night” at Bobby Dodd, began with a flight of Georgia Tech alums streaking across the heavens in a spacecraft, quite visible and dramatic. What followed was a performance hard to believe. The team that almost lost to Gardner-Webb punished a toughening Miami team severely, could have been 41-10, was 41-23, mainly because Johnson played everybody who showed up for the team meal.
Tech is a confounding football team. You always wonder which one is going to show up. Johnson shocked all the “whiteout” crowd, opening with three passes, one thrown by a receiver. With opposing defenses it’s usually like one of those “shell” games shown at the ballpark. It’s called the “triple option” because the defense must guess which one of the three it will be, with an occasional pass thrown in, all coming out of the computer in Paul Johnson’s head. If it hasn’t already been indicated earlier, this is a kind of Georgia-Georgia Tech never seen before. And I repeat, I can hardly wait. Besides, there’s nothing like a noon kickoff.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
