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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > December > 01
Monday, December 1, 2008
Gailey outcry led to Tech to find ‘perfect fit’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taz Anderson remembers how it was four months ago. Georgia was No. 1 in the country, and his little school had a new coach with a weird scheme. “My Georgia friends would say, ‘Do you really think that offense will work?’ Then they’d say, ‘We hope you have a nice year.’ It was condescending.”
Contrast that attitude with the one expressed by Georgia grad Saxby Chambliss, who saw Anderson at a fund-raiser Sunday night and, without mentioning an impending Senate runoff and without an iota of condescension, said: “Wasn’t that some game?”
Two days after Georgia Tech took down the mighty Bulldogs, Taz Anderson is smiling still. He’s having lunch at a restaurant across Paces Ferry from his Vinings office, and he’s trying hard to be magnanimous — “I played in the game where Theron Sapp scored and they broke their drought [against Tech], so I know how it feels,” he says — but sometimes it’s a losing effort.
Just once in our lives, each of us deserves to be as right about something as Anderson, who’s 70 and who played and served as a captain under Bobby Dodd, was about the state of Tech football. It was Anderson, the forthright Atlanta entrepreneur, who publicly griped about the extension of Chan Gailey’s contract in 2005 — “I’m disappointed Georgia Tech would expect mediocrity in anything,” he said — and has long touted the merits of Paul Johnson.
In 1999, Anderson made the trek to Chattanooga to watch Johnson’s Georgia Southern Eagles beat Youngstown State (coached by Jim Tressel) 59-24 for the Division I-AA championship.
“I wanted to see his offense,” Anderson says. “It was a cold and rainy day, and they didn’t fumble once. And [GSU’s] Adrian Peterson made one of the greatest runs I’ve ever seen.”
Anderson admits he doesn’t know Johnson well — “We played golf together,” he says — but figures he knows a leader when he sees one. “We’ve got two good ones at Tech,” he says. “[Athletics director] Dan Radakovich is very good at what he does. I told him after he fired Chan, ‘That took some guts.’ “
As for Johnson … well, Taz can and will talk all day. “He’s had to take a lot of grief [for that offense]. You really have to have faith in what you’re doing.”
Back to golf. Johnson and Anderson were paired together in the Bobby Dodd Classic, and they faced 240-yard second shots on a par-5. Anderson suggested laying up. Said Johnson: “I don’t think we should do that.”
Says Anderson, laughing: “And he knocks the ball on the green. He’s a good golfer.”
For all his prescience, Anderson doesn’t feel particularly prescient. Speaking of Gailey, he says: “I’m not a very good liar. I thought it was obvious we needed some changes.” Speaking again of Johnson: “Look what he’d done at the Naval Academy. His offense allows a team to be decent if it plays smart and doesn’t make any mistakes, and that was a perfect fit for Georgia Tech.”
Anderson didn’t make the trek to Athens for the game. “I have a 92-inch TV and a little bar and a bathroom. That’s all I need.”
He watched along with Ben Smith and Joe Delany, former Tech teammates. The Jackets trailed 28-12 after two quarters — “A long half,” Anderson said — and then everything changed. “We got the ball on the 40 and we were in the end zone one play later and then we were ahead. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Having seen it once, he doesn’t really care if he does again anytime soon. Says Tazwell Anderson, happy at last: “I’m not really worried about next year. Until then, we’re still No. 1 in the state.”
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