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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > October
October 2008
Halloween football picks: Spurrier smashes Great Pumpkin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In perhaps the greatest border conflict between Georgia and Florida since Florida demanded they keep stealing our water in order to save a species of clams, two sides of shrimp scampi and the endangered water slides of Orlando, there’s kind of a big football game Saturday.
The Bulldogs haven’t been this pumped since Alabama week. Let’s assume for a moment they’ve changed tailors since then.
Funny what one moment of temporary insanity can do. When Mark Richt orchestrated the goofy sideline-exodus-and-end-zone-celebrationus in Jacksonville last year, 17 years of mostly Gator domination seemed forgotten. It was like an historical eclipse.
Urban Meyer was so shaken up, he lapsed into third person in his book, saying: “It will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team. We’ll handle it, and it’s going to be a big deal.”
Is that all it took to unnerve these guys? Maybe if Ray Goff had emptied the sideline back in ‘90, he wouldn’t be making chicken fingers today.
On second thought, probably not.
The Dogs began the season ranked No. 1. It took only nine weeks to look like it. In Baton Rouge, they went from potential lunch to potential Miami. An offense with Stafford, Moreno and Green actually looked like an offense with Stafford, Moreno and Green.
The defense? Still stinks. But Florida’s isn’t much better. Besides, I figure the first time Georgia scores, all the players need do is light a bonfire or start dancing the hula and Meyer’s head will explode.
Florida: Keep the water.
Here’s your big deal, Urban: Take the 5 1/2, but Dogs pull an upset.
Late-Fall Blowout!
(Buy three games and win a copy of, “North Texas: We’re 0-8, and I’ve Got the Munchies.” The (Smoking) Mean Green confirmed 15 players recently failed drug tests. The school won’t identity the players or the drugs, but safe to assume the words “performance-enhancing” are not in play.)
• FSU at Wreckage: Tech had a clear road to ACC title week. Then against Virginia, it was like somebody lit a match in the dark, not realizing the barrel next to their feet said, “gun powder.” The rest of the schedule: FSU-Carolina-Miami-Georgia. Season go boom? Maybe not. But this week: Take FSU in an upset (and hug the 2 1/2).
• Slowburn at Mississippi: Auburn’s only win in the past five games came against Tennessee, which doesn’t really count. Actual factual: The defense has allowed 459 yards rushing in the past two weeks. Methinks Tommy Tuberville fired the wrong coordinator. But for some reason, I’m feeling an upset. Take the 6 as a gift.
• Great Pumpkin at Spurrier: Phil Fulmer is 5-8 all-time vs. Steve Spurrier — and that was with good teams. The Vols rank 113th in total offense. One less touchdown, and game tickets would be tax-deductible. Cover your eyes, children. Tennessee: meet 1-5. South Carolina covers 6.
• Tulsa at Arkansas: Tulsa (8-0) is averaging 56 points and 601 yards per game under Todd Graham and threatening to crash the BCS. Arkansas (3-5) leads the SEC on fourth-down attempts under Bobby Petrino, I guess because he’s not getting much accomplished the first three downs. Golden Hurricane cover 7.
Pros and Conmen
• Falcons at Raiders: I just took the rollercoaster through DeAngelo Hall’s cranium in the AJC. He said he considered not playing football anymore. Funny. I thought he quit last season. Bounce-back week: Falcons cover 3.
• Cowboys at Giants: Do you think at his lowest point, Brad Johnson ever imagined being part of a quarterback controversy with Brooks Bollinger? Giants cover 9.
• Patriots at Colts: Robert Kraft’s family just became title sponsor of the Israel Football League. Question: Are there actually players in this thing, or is it all agents? Meanwhile: Peyton Manning threw three touchdowns last week. It’s a miracle! Indy covers 5 1/2.
• Steelers at Redskins (Monday night): The last time Washington hosted a game on the eve of a presidential election was in 1984. Results: Redskins over Falcons; Reagan over Mondale. But like, who didn’t beat the Falcons and Mondale that season? Take the 2 and Steelers in a mild upset.
Accounting Dept.
(An economic upturn last week)
• Last week: 8-3 straight up, 7-4 against the line.
• All together now: 59-30 straight up, 42-45-2 against the line
Permalink | Comments (91) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL, Tech/ACC, UGA/SEC
Baseball’s postseason going down in flames
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10: I believe in karma. I believe in playoffs starting before 10 p.m. I believe this baseball postseason going down in flames is just what the sport deserves.
9: I know. It’s not baseball’s fault it’s raining in Philadelphia. But it is the owners’ fault for so completely selling out to television for the short-term bucks that it starts World Series games at 8:30 p.m. in the East. It is baseball’s fault for starting Game 3 after a 90-minute rain delay, which caused a 1:45 a.m. finish - and won’t that be great for ratings. Baseball has lost a generation. When this deal with Fox is over, it’ll be a wonder if any major network touches this product.
8: Final piece of evidence: I was in Philadelphia Saturday night/Sunday morning. I walked out to the parking lot in the fifth inning. Saw a few dads and sons walking to their cars. The score was 2-1 in a World Series game — and they were leaving.
7: Grady Jackson tested positive? For what — Cool Whip?
6: Seriously, the man’s a some-400 pound nosetackle. He is thundering blubber. The only thing that constitutes “performance-enhancing” substance for Jackson is the entire right side of the menu. The thought of him on steroids doesn’t jibe with the reflection in the mirror.
5: Ty Willingham has resigned at Washington. If you’re the Seattle Seahawks, you don’t stop Jim Mora from pursuing that job. You let him use your copy machine for his resume, and then drive him to the front gate.
4: If Urban Meyer doesn’t want anybody to make a big deal of Georgia’s touchdown celebration last year, why was he quoted in his book, saying: “It will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team. We’ll handle it and it’s going to be a big deal”?
3: Nice recap by our Mike Knobler on the Thrashers’ attendance problems. But Don Waddell avoided stating the obvious: Season-ticket sales have plummeted because of years of losing. The team can’t get walkup sales because all except the same group of 3,500 hardcore fans don’t feel there’s a compelling reason to go. Bottom line: Even in tough economic times, people will invest to watch a product worth watching. And by the way, whoever has been counting those crowds either needs new glasses or fewer hallucinogens.
2: The Hawks won 37 games last year. Bodog, an online sportsbook, just released their over/under for wins this year: 36 1/2. Somebody’s not feeling the love.
1: It’s raining again in Philly. What are Fox’s World Series promos tonight? “Watch Game 5! Inning Six! At midnight!”
Permalink | Comments (40) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB, Falcons/NFL, Hawks/NBA, Thrashers/NHL
Falcons fumbled their chance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Philadelphia — The goal-line call backfired. The franchise cover boy was intercepted twice. The coach burned his last timeout, and a few seconds later suddenly looked like the loser in a pie fight.
At some point, there figured to be a market correction in this Falcons’ season. It came Sunday.
They weren’t humiliated. They don’t do anything that left you to think, “Wow, that win over the Lions — such a fluke.” But they reminded us where they really sit in this reconstruction process. Better, but not there yet.
“There were some questionable things that happened out there,” Lawyer Milloy said, using a veteran’s politically correct reference to officiating. “But the fact is, we didn’t help out the situation.”
Philadelphia won, 27-14. The fact the Falcons had an opportunity to win this game probably equally boosted and dented their egos.
A team goes to Green Bay and upsets the Packers, then comes back home and upsets the Chicago — suddenly it goes into the bye week at 4-2 and everybody’s darlings. It’s easy to forget at some point that things will go wrong. People will look bad.
Adam Jennings, the Falcons’ punt returner, has looked so bad so often that even officials are just starting to just assume he fumbled. He looked timid most of the day. With less than three minutes left and the Falcons having closed the Eagles’ lead to 20-14, he picked a strange time to take a risk. Jennings ran up on a short punt and lunged to catch it, then pulled back at the last moment. Philly recovered the ball, believing Jennings had touched it. Officials agreed. TV replays confirmed otherwise.
Head coach Mike Smith screamed. He ran onto the field and demanded a replay challenge. He clutched the red replay flag, which brought out the red in his face. But he was told there would be no replay. Why? Because the play clock wasn’t inside of two minutes — there was 2:28 left — and the Falcons were out of timeouts. Smith had used the team’s last two following the Eagles’ two previous plays, preferring to stop the clock twice before the two-minute warning.
Now, we can debate all day who is most at fault for this potential game-changing moment: 1) Jennings for being anywhere near the ball. 2) The official who made the erroneous call. 3) Smith for spending timeouts on consecutive plays before the two-minute warning, taking away a replay challenge.
But if you’re the head coach of the team, what are you probably thinking off after the game? Smith watched as the Eagles’ Brian Westbrook turned the blunder into a game-clinching touchdown. He can say publicly later, “My thing was to try to conserve as much time as possible.” But bottom line: the decision backfired.
“You can never say there’s one play in a football game that makes the difference,” Smith said. “There are a number of things we’d like to have back.”
He is right about that. Ryan would like to have back two throws. He forced the ball into coverage in the first quarter, leading to an interception by Asante Samuel.
In the third, the Falcons trailed, 17-7, but had a second-and-goal on the Eagles’ 1-yard line. Coaches gave Ryan the option to throw to Roddy White on a fade route in the end zone if there was single coverage. Ryan took the option and under threw the pass. It was picked off by Lito Sheppard.
About the play option: Why? When a team has a 244-pound running back, Michael Turner, to hand the ball to, isn’t simplicity the best option?
Milloy had his own issues. He leveled tight end L.J. Smith with a shoulder to the face while trying to break up a pass play, knocking the player out of the game with a concussion. The personal foul penalty led to a field goal. The Eagles were measured with their comments. But there’s a chance Milloy will get fined.
He defended the hit later, saying: “If he catches it and I make the hit and cause a fumble, then I look like a superstar.”
That’s not the way it folded. Not on this day. A market correction was overdue.
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Braves have reason to admire Phillies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Philadelphia — The Philadelphia Phillies hitched their World Series hopes in Game 3 on Saturday night to a 45-year-old pitcher who somehow managed to win 16 games this season.
That’s the difference right now between the Phillies and Braves. Atlanta’s pitching relics wind up on Dr. James Andrews’ reassembly line in Birmingham, submarining seasons and bankrupting HMOs. The Phillies bring in Moyer, who should be retired and possibly mummified by now, and watch as late-career fantasy becomes reality.
This is the third consecutive postseason without the Braves. If that’s something that remains difficult to stomach, you should at least be prepared for something the next few seasons.
Philadelphia: not going anywhere.
It’s the team the Braves used to have, the team they thought they had this past spring, the team they now only project to have again when squinting at a spreadsheet, just right. The Phillies’ have youth. They have a core. They have stars with power and stars with arms and most important, stars whose contractual commitments mean they won’t be changing area codes any time soon.
Jamie Moyer isn’t the biggest reason the Phillies won 92 games and their second straight National League East Division title this season. He is merely symbolic of a franchise that keeps making the right decision at the fork in the road while others, particularly in the division, end up on dirt and rocks, with no directional signs.
“They’ve done a really good job there,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said Saturday. “They play the game aggressively. They’ve developed a club of home-grown players. That’s what we’re trying to do. From our perspective, we feel like we have our next wave of young talent coming, and that will give us long-term stability and success. The Phillies have benefited from the Burrells, the Utleys, the Howards. They’ve groomed players in their system.”
Remember when everything went right? Look at the Phillies. The infield includes Ryan Howard (28), Jimmy Rollins (24) and Chase Utley (29). Howard and Rollins have won the past two MVP awards. Utley? He is only the third second baseman in history to have four straight 100-RBI seasons.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz is in only his third season. He homered in the second inning Saturday to give the Phils a 2-1 lead over Tampa Bay. Rollins singled in his first two at-bats and scored the game’s first run. Moyer struck out Evan Longoria in the first and fourth.
Remember when the Braves could do no wrong?
Wren is scrambling to rebuild a rotation that hasn’t experienced such disaster for two decades. Meanwhile, the new kings of the East started Cole Hamels (24) and Brett Myers (28) in the first two games of this Series. (Moyer threw off the curve.)
The Braves won 14 straight division titles. When streaks grow that long and implausible, it’s easy to dismiss a third-place finish, like the one three years ago, as a hiccup.
But three seasons have provided clarity. The 2006 season wasn’t a hiccup — it was more like the first crack in the ice, when somebody tries to drive the family station wagon across a newly frozen lake.
This is all the Braves needed to know about the new pecking order in the East: Since their run of division titles ended, the Phillies have won 266 regular-season games. The Mets: 274. The Braves: 235.
Your cold slap of reality: In the past three seasons, the Braves are closer to the Florida Marlins (233) than the Phillies or Mets.
Philadelphia fans have had their share of torment. Their baseball franchise is the losingest in the sport’s history, passing 10,000 losses last season. The Phils last won a World Series in 1980. It’s no guarantee they will win this one.
But one thing does seem certain. Next year, they’re the team the Braves will be chasing.
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Football picks that won’t shrink your boobs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mr. Dow Jones, whom I’ve never personally met and seems as stable as Lou Holtz doing standup at a mikvah, continued his acid trip Thursday. The market finished up 172 points, which follows a 700-point decline, which followed a 400 rise, which followed the pits of hell.
And did Mr. Dow Jones tell you that Georgia wouldn’t cover against Vandy and the Raiders would upset Brett Favre and everybody in his Fave Five? No. That would be me.
But there is a bigger concern now than the housing market or the economy. A study in Sweden indicates that drinking three cups of coffee a day can shrink breast size, news that may crush Starbucks, particularly locations close to country clubs or any home tuned to, “The Real House Bubbleheads of Atlanta.”
For the record, I drink seven cups of coffee a day and my boobs haven’t shrunk. But, quoting Helena Jernstroem, a lecturer at Sweden’s Lund University: “Drinking coffee can have a major effect on breast size. Coffee-drinking women do not have to worry their breasts will shrink to nothing overnight. The breasts aren’t just going to disappear.”
This doesn’t really have a lot to do with the Georgia-LSU game, but I really hate breaking down blocking schemes. Then again, the Bulldogs may want to treat the Tigers’ defensive front to some French roast.
Georgia is out of time. Step up or get out of BCS fantasyland. This week won’t be easy. Next week will be worse. But one DD monument at a time.
Oh Barista: a mild upset please. Dogs win (and take the 2).
School Daze
• Virginia at Tech: Shouldn’t take long for Virginia to come down from the high of a three-game winning streak. They’re the Jackets’ homecoming opponent. They’ve also lost their only two road games (Connecticut and Duke) by a combined 76-13, give or take an appendage. Buzz rolls on. But they won’t cover 12.
• Alabama at Tennessee: Ken Stabler, former QB and winner of the Bathtub Gin Invitational, was somehow found not guilty of DUI by a smalltown Alabama judge — despite a state trooper testifying he had slurred speech, his car stunk of booze and he refused a breathalyzer. Judge James Sweet left the court without comment. Something about a game to get to. Roll, Justice! Tide wins, but take the Vols and 6 1/2.
• Petrino and the Little Piggies: Arkansas has won four straight over Mississippi by scores of 35-3, 28-17, 38-3 and 44-8. But its coach was Houston Nutt, who was run out of town and is now the mayor of Oxford. Bobby Petrino? He said Arkansas “will grow from giving away a game” to Kentucky. Suddenly, Beelzebub is a gelding. Rebels cover 5.
• Kentucky at Florida: Don’t even look, little Doggies. Gators cover the 241/2 by “… and the home of the brave.”
• Virginia Tech at FSU: If this V-Tech falls and the G-Tech wins, the Jackets have a clear path to the ACC title game. Next thing you know, things will really get crazy and they’ll sell out a home game. Noles cover 5.
Matt Ryan Swoon Over America Tour
• Falcons at Eagles: Ryan returns home to Philly. Something tells me this isn’t going down as easily as mom’s meatloaf. The Eagles get back Brian Westbrook, and Jim Johnson has had a week to prepare his defense for the NFL’s hot little team. Check? Eagles cover nine.
• Chiefs at Jets: The Jets waited all last week. But Brett Favre never phoned to tell them how to beat the Raiders. New York wins, but give me K.C. and the 13.
• Bucs at Cowboys: Wade Phillips says he is taking over defensive plays. How long do you think before Jerry Jones tells him his headset isn’t plugged in? Bucs in an upset (but take the 2 1/2).
• Giants at Steelers: Hines Ward threw a block last week and broke somebody’s jaw. I’m fairly certain he’ll never have to pay for a meal in Pittsburgh ever again. Pitt covers the 3.
• Raiders at Ravens: They were going to hold this game at Attica. But 78 percent of the convicted felons felt it would interfere with their rehabilitation. Baltimore covers 7.
Blue-chip indicators
Last week: 9-1 straight up, 5-5 against the line.
Progress report: 51-27 straight up, 35-41-2 a.t.l.
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UGA isn’t going to win unless it improves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens — Mark Richt reminded everybody Tuesday that he is not into style points because, in his words: “Winning to me is pretty stylish.”
It was a fine, catchy phrase to help keep players focused. It will be even better as an opening shot if Georgia wins out and Richt is trying to lobby pollsters to help push his one-loss team into the BCS title game.
There’s only one problem: If the Bulldogs don’t get better, they’re not winning out. They’re not winning at LSU on Saturday. They’re not winning against Florida next week.
They’re not giving Mark Richt another chance to tell the world, “Winning to me is pretty stylish.”
“We’ve been really shooting ourselves in the foot, one or two plays a game in the red zone, and that’s hurt us,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “The positive thing for us we’re still putting up 24. If we get everything ironed out, we’re scoring 45.”
Yes, well, right now they look like a nice dress shirt that’s been stuffed in the corner of a suitcase for two days. Iron away.
The Dogs’ touchdown percentage in the red zone is 64.3 percent (18 for 28). That would be respectable, except for the fact they were eight for eight in the first two games against Georgia Southern and Central Michigan. In the Southern or Mid-American conference, they would rock. But they’re only 10 for 20 in the five games since.
There is an advantage to playing LSU and Florida in consecutive weeks. If Georgia defeats the last two champions, nobody will complain, “Yeah, but they should’ve scored 40.” Style won’t count as much.
But isn’t it safe to conclude that there are things Georgia has gotten away with against South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt that it won’t be able to get away with in Baton Rouge and Jacksonville?
“Probably not,” Stafford acknowledged.
Even Richt seems to understand the Dogs have been walking a fine line, saying of the LSU game: “We might be able to get a field goal here or there.”
We have heard a lot about the season-ending injuries at left tackle, first to Trinton Sturdivant and then to his replacement, Vince Vance. Richt echoed remarks Tuesday, when he said: “We’re not gonna sit here and cry about it and make an excuse. But when your left tackle has been through his [freshman] year and plays at 285 pounds, and shows up the next year 310 pounds and has confidence and then he goes out, guys start losing their continuity. You have to shuffle people around, and it’s not easy.”
Those words would carry more weight if Georgia was struggling to move the ball this season. But that hasn’t been an issue. Further, this is still an offense that starts three crown jewels: Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and A.J. Green.
Yes, things naturally get more difficult closer to the goal line. That’s on Richt and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. It’s still football.
It’s the 20, not “Checkpoint Charlie.”
“Kicking field goals when you’re 40 yards out, that’s OK,” Moreno said. “But when you’re on the 15 or the 10, that’s when you want to put touchdowns on the board.”
LSU this week, Florida next week. Now is the time to start impressing people.
The Dogs were a preseason No. 1. The drive to that spot actually started in game eight a year ago. They were 5-2 after a loss to Tennessee and a narrow escape at Vanderbilt. Then they rolled up 42 points on Florida, 45 on Auburn and 41 on Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl.
We haven’t seen anything remotely close to that since Central Michigan week.
Richt: “I think people equate a lot of points to being a superior team. If one team is scoring 45 points a game and the other team is scoring 32, they think, ‘That one must be better.’ But that’s not always true.”
This would be a good time to prove it.
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Singletary will prove his worth with 49ers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10: Mike Singletary interviewed for the Falcons’ head-coaching job two years ago (before Bobby Petrino’s hiring) but not this past year (before Mike Smith’s). Why? Because they, like other NFL franchises, weren’t completely convinced that there’s much to Singletary besides a Hall of Fame player who can make great speeches. Well, we’re about to find out.
9: It’s true that great athletes don’t always make great coaches. But nobody deserves the chances more than Singletary, who has been an assistant coach in San Francisco. He takes over a flawed team and a franchise that used to define excellence in the NFL but generally has been a train wreck for the past decade. But new coaches seldom take over great teams. Now is his chance to prove everybody wrong.
8: NBA commissioner David Stern will have a pre-season media conference call Thursday. I’m not sure but I think it’s to clarify which games will be fixed and which ones will just be naturally poorly officiated.
7: Jose Canseco now says he never realized outing steroid users “was going to blow up and hurt so many people.” Huh? Look, far be it for me to pat Canseco on the back and say, “There, there.” And I get the whole “locker room code” thing. But the cheating players hurt themselves. The fact Canseco wrote it in a book might go against what many believe is right, but the present and future of the game is better off for it. Nobody should weep for Mark McGwire or any other juicer.
6: Question: If it’s such a joke that the Tampa Bay Rays are in the World Series, as some seem to think, why is it that they’re favored over Philadelphia? Of the eight possible outcomes — from sweep to 4-3 for the two teams — posted by BetUS.com, the shortest odds are for the Rays to win in six games (odds: 4-1), and then five or seven games (odds: 9-2). That’s followed by Phils in seven (11-2).
5: Prediction: Rays in whatever. Why? I dunno. Probably just the thought of prolonging the agony for Philadelphia sports fans is influencing me.
4: In an era of the broadcast booth being filled with either former athletes or mid-round draft picks from the Comedy Store, Pete Van Wieren was a rarity. A professional broadcaster - short of shtick, but long on class and knowledge and an ability to tell a story like a guy sitting on the front porch. He’ll be missed.
3: And I’m so glad that Van Wieren’s retirement announcement made the front of AJC.com, just above the headline, “Dare to wear on Halloween? Princess or Porn?
2: The Thrashers are 2-2-1 through five games and, more importantly, Kari Lehtonen hasn’t attacked anybody in the locker room yet. The team is yielding 34.6 shots per game - second-most in the league.
1: Larry Johnson has been charged with assaulting a woman for the fourth time in five years. I’m sure his defense will be that he plays for Kansas City, and they haven’t hit anybody all year.
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Nesbitt shows resilience of winner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clemson, S.C. — When a young quarterback misses a month in a new offense, the last thing to expect in his return is art. He’ll miss some reads. He’ll miss some throws. He’ll look left and right and left again and not realize that he is about to run into a wall with arms.
Do you know what you can’t always expect? What Josh Nesbitt did Saturday.
“I don’t know what it is, but he just keeps finding ways to make a play when you need one,” Georgia Tech quarterbacks coach Brian Bohannon said. “In the several big wins that we’ve had this year, it’s really been because of his effort.”
The Yellow Jackets won again Saturday, 21-17 over Clemson. They blew a 14-3 lead but came back. They have evolved from a cute little story into a resilient bunch that suddenly is 6-1 going into home games against Virginia and Florida State, who haven’t intimidated anybody in some time.
“I think the kids have shown some toughness and some character and that makes you proud as a coach,” Paul Johnson said.
No, Clemson is not a national power. This past week, it was closer to a national embarrassment. The Tigers lost their coach (Tommy Bowden) in the middle of the season and then saw a high-profile player, quarterback Cullen Harper, gloat about it.
No, this game won’t be packaged and proudly shopped by the ACC to the networks for a new TV deal. The teams combined for eight turnovers (six by Clemson) and 12 three-and-outs. If offense was art, this was finger painting — with thumbs.
But that doesn’t diminish the win in general and Nesbitt’s late-game performance, in particular. With Tech trailing, 17-14, he rolled right on third-and-14 from the Tech 36 and hit wide receiver Demaryius Thomas just inside the right sideline for a 23-yard gain. Three plays later, a 4-yard gain on a quarterback sneak gave the Jackets a first down. Three plays later, he again found Thomas, this time alone in the end zone, for a 24-yard touchdown pass to put Tech ahead with 5:22 left.
“I knew I would be a little rusty this game,” said Nesbitt. “But once the game wore on, I felt I was getting back on track. I’m just happy it turned out the way it did.”
Nesbitt nearly gave Tech the lead earlier in the fourth quarter. On third-and-long from the Clemson 47, he lofted a perfect pass into the end zone — but it went off Thomas’ fingertips. (The receiver’s admission: “I had alligator arms.”)
“When he didn’t catch it,” Nesbitt said, “I just told him, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m coming back to you.’”
Nesbitt has shown a flare for late-game dramatics. He had a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion to tie Virginia Tech, 17-17 (Tech eventually lost by a field goal). He had a touchdown run and a key first-down carry at Boston College to secure a win.
Nobody quite knew what to expect Saturday. Nesbitt suffered a right hamstring strain four weeks ago during a 21-yard run early against Mississippi State. He missed the next games and a bye week.
“He was starting to get the hang of the option before he got hurt,” Bohannon said. “But I thought he had a pretty good week of practice and he did some good things after he settled down.”
Clemson seemed more than willing to give the Jackets time to get comfortable. Five days after Bowden’s exit, the Tigers played one of their worst first halves in history. They had three interceptions, three fumbles (one lost), four three-and-outs on offense, 18 yards rushing and a shanked punt. The Jackets had a touchdown — Dominique Reese’s 34-yard interception return — before they had a first down. They led 14-3.
The half ended shortly after Cullen Harper had a pass intercepted at the Tech 16. Somewhere, Tommy Bowden was probably sending a text message, reading: “He deserved that.”
Harper had two third-quarter passes. But his final pass was intercepted. Nesbitt’s final pass was a touchdown. One guy found a way.
Permalink | Comments (88) | Post your comment | Categories: Tech/ACC
Saving the economy with football picks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In yet another sign of how the economy is crushing the small business owner, a man in Vero Beach, Fla., this week went to the drive-thru window at a McDonalds and tried to pay for his food with marijuana.
The transaction never was completed and the man was arrested, but it did give McDonald’s the idea of test marketing the, “Really Really Happy Meal,” of which, of course, the average Vero Beach drive-thru customer would eat, oh, I dunno, 27.
Hey, it’s business.
This week at Clemson, Tommy Bowden “resigned” just as the athletics director was painting over his name in the parking lot. Bowden got $3.5 million to just go away. Hey, it’s business. Factoring for inflation, the Tigers used to pay at least that for players when Danny Ford was winning titles.
Now they’re honest. But they stink. Clemson hasn’t won the ACC in 17 years. The football team is so bad that admissions is starting to worry because students are beginning to realize, “Aaagh! We’re in Clemson!”
This week, the Tigers will be coached by Dabo Swinney, who might be a really nice guy, but has no shot with that name. Clemson is a home underdog (2 points) to Georgia Tech, which is just happy to not be playing another 1-AA team (more like a 1-C-minus).
Paul Johnson said he expects Clemson to “play like their hair is on fire.” Safe to assume somebody is about to get lit up. What’s that smell?
Give the two. Jackets cover.
College Mini-Pack
• Vandy at Georgia: The Bulldogs have been penalized 64 times for 513 yards. Given Mark Richt’s spiritual beliefs, isn’t it time to put a confessional booth on the sideline? Dogs win. But give me the 15 and the smart team.
• The U(gly) at Duke: The ACC question of the week: Which program has more cache, Miami or Duke? The Canes are still looking for their first conference win. Lose this and they’ll be bolted to last place. Miami covers 41/2.
• Old Ms. at Alabama: Just pencil in 9-0 and seven parades until LSU week. And then a prediction that will astound you! (Marketing made me do that.) Tide covers 13.
• Arkansas at Kentucky: Bobby Petrino returns to the state where he went 4-0 against Kentucky and held job interviews in an airplane hangar. Petrino actually won last week at Auburn. But he remains winless against programs that aren’t melting down. Cats over Porkpies and cover the 8 1/2.
NFL Value Menu
• Matt Ryan: Off. Swooning to resume next week.
• Pompei at Rams: Pacman Jones has entered an alcohol treatment center. I wouldn’t want to be the security guard at the front door. Meanwhile, Atlanta attorney Manny Arora has gone underground while he negotiates Jones’ next signing bonus — a carton of cigarettes at Leavenworth. Dallas covers 7.
• Jets at Raiders: Brett Favre, ESPN’s director of content and pandering, told the network that he phoned Tony Romo after learning of Romo’s broken finger, offered his support, and I believe recommended 37 Vicodin. Take the 3, but Oakland wins this straight up.
• Steelers at Bungles: Ben Roethlisberger is a native of Ohio. He is 10-0 in the state. It sounds pretty impressive until you realize he’s playing only Cleveland and Cincinnati. The ‘Burgh covers 9 1/2.
• Seagulls at Bucs: Seattle has gone from Super Bowl to grease fire in three years. Jim Mora’s defense is allowing 30 points per game. Then again, it’s hard coming up with gameplans when you’re playing ring-and-run all night at Ty Willingham’s house. Bucs cover 10 1/2.
• Titans at Chiefs: About this bunk that the Chiefs owed it to Tony Gonzalez to trade him: The dude has $17 million in guarantees in his latest contract. He can throw himself a sympathy party. Tennessee goes to 6-0, but won’t cover the 8.
Bonus Picks
• Deer Hunting: Bambi Blasting season opens in Georgia.
Several more “retirements” have once again decimated the Furry Peaceful Happy Joyful Prairie-Prancing creatures’ roster and forced the team to rebuild.
The coaching staff is switch to Chicago’s old 46 Defense but lacks a true pass rusher.
Meanwhile, the Georgia DNR has set up a hotline to capture poachers, because:
“Poachers rob you of hunting opportunities.” And dang it, you deserve the right to hide in a tree dressed in full body armor and have an opportunity to blow off Bambi’s head with assault weapons because LORD KNOWS THE DEER MIGHT TWITCH HIS NOSE AND THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW WE’RE ALL SPEAKING RUSSIAN!
I feel better now. Bambi’s going down. Easy cover.
Turnover ratios
• Last week: We had very nice weather.
• So far, so feh: 42-26 straight up, 30-36-2 vs. the line.
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ACC is there for the taking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This might not be the best time to point this out, given that Georgia Tech just made Gardner-Webb look like Oklahoma-Texas, Alabama-Florida, the U.S.-Great Britain-Soviet Union.
But if the Jackets ever had aspirations of becoming more than merely a subplot in the ACC, the window has never been this open.
Have you looked around?
Florida State and Miami are so removed from dominance that their game against each other — once the biggest non-bowl event of the season — barely registered with the populace this year. Clemson just lost its coach — and, really, talent and expectations notwithstanding, the Danny Ford stories are starting to get a little old.
The Jackets won at Boston College this season. They almost won at Virginia Tech. Virginia hired Al Groh thinking it could grow into a power. Time’s up. This is year eight, and the Cavaliers have been blown out this season by Connecticut (45-10) and Duke (31-3). North Carolina might be the next conference power. But if that’s the biggest thing Tech is battling, things suddenly don’t look so daunting.
This week’s game: Clemson. It’s time for the Jackets to ring the bell.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be on top of the ACC,” coach Paul Johnson said Tuesday. “Can we compete every year? Well, I hope so. If I hadn’t thought that, I wouldn’t have come here. There’s no reason why Georgia Tech can’t be right there in the conference.”
Scholarship limits have leveled the playing field in college football. (That’s probably the greatest argument for a playoff system.) Everybody has players. Every coach of a perceived power is forced to watch recruits sign across the street.
There’s also this: The best recruits aren’t growing watching Miami and FSU battle at the top of the rankings. They’re watching Miami struggle and Clemson implode and Bobby Bowden say he feels re-invigorated — only to then lose his conference opener to Wake Forest, 12-3.
Except for “not having a marquee team” currently near the top of the rankings, Johnson doesn’t believe the ACC is any different from others. He views the strength of other conferences or schools, particularly in the SEC and Big 12, as more perception than reality.
Is he just sticking up for the ACC? Maybe.
But Johnson makes an argument: “Ole Miss loses to Wake Forest and people say, ‘Well, they’re a bottom feeder of the SEC.’ But then they go and beat Florida and the same people say, ‘Oh, that’s how tough the SEC is.’ It’s perception. Georgia’s a great example. Georgia’s a very talented team. They’ve got some great individual players. But the perception and the expectation level before the season started was unbelievable. And what warranted it? Because they blew out Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl?”
(Just in case Mark Richt needed some early bulletin board material.)
Johnson seldom is at a loss for words. Struggle to beat Gardner-Webb and just watch him make paint peel. He blistered his players at halftime and following the game.
He warned them again about sleeping on opponents. He berated them for being smacked by a team that had lost to Charleston Southern.
So they should be grounded again by Saturday.
Tommy Bowden is out at Clemson. Johnson said the Jackets should expect the Tigers “will play like their hair is on fire.” But this is a greater opportunity for Tech to establish its footprint in the conference.
Senior tackle Andrew Gardner said, “I won’t be here for much longer. But I don’t see a reason why Tech can’t compete every year, even if all of the teams get better. Obviously we’ve shown in this offensive system that there’s points to be scored. So why shouldn’t Tech be in the hunt ever year?”
When people questioned early whether Johnson’s spread offense would work in the ACC, he joked, “It’s not like we play in the NFC East.”
That is more apparent than ever — and the window is wide open.
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Championship aspirations? Hmm …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens — Two weeks ago, they were on a high of a No. 2 ranking and coming off a dominating win at Arizona State. On Saturday, they walked into Sanford Stadium ranked 10th, with many wondering whether they could shake the humiliation of the Alabama game.
This must have been the average.
If nothing else, a bye week following their self-immolation on national television seemed to do wonders for the Bulldogs’ psyche. But if you were hoping for some sort of reaffirmation that Georgia is a BCS title team, keep waiting.
They’re good, but not great. They could leave the weekend ranked the same as they started it, and nobody would have an argument.
The offense? It moved the ball at will against Tennessee (458 yards) but managed only two touchdowns in seven red-zone possessions.
The quarterback? Matthew Stafford threw for a career-high 310 yards. But he had two red-zone interceptions — one from the 13-yard line and one from the 9 — that the Volunteers turned into touchdowns and 14-point swings.
The instinct that so many great teams have, knowing how and when to step on an apparent doormat like Tennessee? Sorry. Not this week.
“It’s hard to blow teams out in this league,” Georgia receiver Mohamed Massaquoi said.
And he is correct. But Saturday’s 26-14 victory over Tennessee, while not without its redeeming qualities, kind of went down like a generic light beer.
The thirst for a win? Satisfied. The performance? Eh.
When a team has championship aspirations and it is still at this point through six games, you wonder if it’s going to get any better.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating being in the red zone and not being able to get touchdowns,” said Mike Bobo, the Dogs’ offensive coordinator. “The most frustrating thing was the two turnovers [near] the end zone. We want to take care of the ball down there, and at least get three points. But the good news was it never really got us down. We kept playing.”
Yes, that counts for something, especially when a team is coming off such misery. The Bulldogs have had to wait two weeks while that loss to Alabama swirled in their craniums before playing again. They played hard. They played well on defense, creating pressure. As a bonus, nobody had any nervous twitches.
“You can’t change history,” said Massaquoi, who came back from a helmet-to-helmet hit and finished with five catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. “So there’s no point in dwelling on the last game. You just have to try to learn from it and move on. That’s what we’ve done.”
The Bulldogs certainly had the opportunity to melt down Saturday. And they nearly did. At one point, they led only 13-0 despite outgaining the Volunteers 159-20. After Stafford’s first interception and a 60-yard pass in the other direction that set up a touchdown, Tennessee trailed by only six points.
On the ensuing kickoff, Dogs returner Richard Samuel overran the ball, then had to backtrack and got buried at the 3-yard line. But two key passes by Stafford and a sequence of penalties against Tennessee led to an unlikely 97-yard touchdown drive in the last two minutes of the half, making the score 20-7. From that point, the Dogs never looked back.
“We needed to capture momentum there,” Stafford said. “They put seven on us, and that was tough. I feel like we kind of gave them all of their points.”
Tennessee was held to 209 yards in offense. The time of possession battle looked like a typo: 42 to 18. But this is not the same team that tattooed the Dogs for 86 points in consecutive upsets. The Volunteers’ only two wins this season: over UAB and Northern Illinois. So how much post-game strutting does this win really warrant?
“I’m so thankful for this win, I can’t even tell you,” coach Mark Richt said.
He is not into grading wins, just getting them. At this point, maybe nobody should expect more.
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It’s only one win for Thrashers, but …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Playoff berths aren’t clinched on opening night. Even guessing direction can be risky.
So what did the Thrashers really want Friday night? Signs.
Something to suggest the offense will not be overly dependent on the one star, Ilya Kovalchuk. Something to suggest the goalie, Kari Lehtonen, can make the difference. Something to suggest one of the NHL’s lowest-payrolls and coast-to-coast projections of doom might be slightly overstated.
All three: check. What does one win mean? We’ll find out over the next 81 games. But the fact the Thrashers opened the season with a 7-4 victory over the Washington Capitals counts for two points and a second-look.
They scored seven goals — none by Kovalchuk. They blew a 3-0 lead but Lehtonen kept them in it, even stopping Alex Ovechkin on a penalty shot, after Washington rallied to even things at 4-4.
And they won — something they had done only twice in eight previous season openers. Also something they didn’t do until game seven last season.
“Last year we had a bad start and it just kind of sat around in our heads,” said Bryan
Little, who scored twice after having only six goals in 48 games last season. “You win a game like this — now we believe we can have a good season.”
“Look at the way we played,” Colby Armstrong said. “Look at the character we showed coming back after they tied the game. That’s going to be the mentality of this team. Things are changing around here. That’s how we’re going to play this year. We’re going to battle. We’re going to be a tough team to play against.”
That would be a change. They started 0-6 last season. They fired a coach and finished 28th out of 30 teams. They missed the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years. They allowed the most goals in the league. They traded their second-best player (Marian Hossa) at the trade deadline. They entered the season with one of the league’s lowest payrolls.
How many ominous signs can one team start the season with?
But Friday they won, with John Anderson standing behind an NHL bench for the first time as a head coach. They won, beating Washington, generally believed to be one of the up-and-coming teams in the league.
So that’s one. Was it perfect? Hardly. They led 3-0 — and everybody looked around to see if they were in the right building.
They never actually looked as dominating as 3-0. It’s more like the game was being played at 78 speed and Capitals goalie Jose Theodore was at 331/3. (He was finally pulled for backup Brent Johnson after Atlanta’s fourth goal.) But given that early 3-0 leads have been a rarity for the franchise, Anderson wasn’t going to complain.
Problem was, the Thrashers’ play never caught up to the score and it didn’t take long for things to unravel. The Capitals scored four of the next five goals to tie it, 4-4, heading into the third period.
One Washington goal came short-handed when the Thrashers got caught in a line change. Two others came within a span of 52 seconds on a power play after Marty Reasoner — who was signed to kill penalties, not take them — was given a double-minor for high-sticking the Caps’ Tom Poti.
The Thrashers’ hope was that the preseason wouldn’t qualify as foreshadowing. They went 1-5. They allowed 27 goals in five straight losses. What happened Friday seemed to indicate that wasn’t an aberration.
But then Lehtonen stopped Ovechkin on a penalty shot. He stopped 26 of 30 shots through two periods and 39 of 43 in the game. Little broke the tie with 6:03 left. Two more goals followed.
“We competed, we battled,” Little said. “We never got down.”
They won. A sign.
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Lehtonen ready to prove he’s grown up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If acceptance is the first step to recovery, maybe it also can be the first step toward prominence.
Kari Lehtonen came into the NHL as a talented goalie more than three years ago. He is still a talented goalie, just not a great one. Granted, there are issues associated with being the Thrashers’ starting goalie. Psychotic episodes, for example. But there have been questions about Lehtonen’s work ethic, mental toughness and a seeming tendency to assume that talent alone would carry him to success.
There’s no reason to guess any more. Lehtonen acknowledges everybody else was right. He needed to grow up.
“I got here with just talent,” he said with remarkable candidness the other day. “It feels great, you know, when it’s like you don’t have to do that much to get here. But that doesn’t last long. You have to work hard. Sometimes I think it’s easier for the players who have to go the other route — when you have to work harder and you’re a late bloomer. You already know it’s not going to be a walk in the park. I know that now.”
The Thrashers open the season Friday. It will be Lehtonen’s fourth full season. He is playing on only a one-year contract. They call that a crossroads.
Even Lehtonen acknowledges, “I wasn’t in a position to go in there and say, ‘I want 10 years. I want this and that.’ I know that I have to have a solid year.”
Even with an improved defensive corps, expectations for the Thrashers are generally low. The team is young and thin at forward, with little to support the talents of Ilya Kovalchuk. They have one of the league’s lowest payrolls.
The team’s best hope? That Lehtonen makes up for the roster’s deficiencies, which means becoming the difference-maker he was expected to be when he was drafted in 2002.
Goalies always have been the X-factor in hockey. It’s just more pronounced on some teams than others. Lehtonen was drafted second overall. He had size, skill and potential, connected qualities that had eluded his Atlanta predecessors. He was projected as a star, and former Thrashers coach Bob Hartley still says, “He has the potential to be one of the top five goalies in the league.”
But he isn’t. His career numbers (2.82 goals-against average, .913 saves percentage) are solid, especially given he plays behind one of the league’s most porous defenses. But extended absences with groin strains have led to questions about his strength and conditioning, and general goofiness — even dying his hair blue on the eve of the Thrashers’ first playoff series two years ago — illustrated what already had been suspected by teammates and Hartley: Lehtonen needed to grow up.
Hartley was tough on the goalie. Lehtonen didn’t always take it well. Funny how hindsight can be educational. Lehtonen now acknowledges Hartley was right all along.
“When I got here, I thought it would be a little easier,” he said. “Here was this guy [Hartley] who was — not yelling at me, but talking to me about everything. I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ It was hard. For the first time in my life, somebody was tough on me, pushing me every day. That took awhile to get used to. But now I realize that’s what I really needed.”
Asked if he held any grudges against Hartley, Lehtonen laughed and said, “Not at all. I don’t think I would’ve gotten better if he didn’t do that.”
Hartley believes the pressure of coming into the NHL so young was difficult on Lehtonen, adding: “It’s not as hard for a young forward to be a stud. But it’s hard for a young goalie because there’s so much pressure.
“I would have Patrick Roy talk to Kari two or three times a year about things like how to bounce back from a loss. I told Kari many times, ‘You have the same tools as Patrick Roy. What you need to work on is your mental strength.’ “
We learn in life that words don’t carry the same weight as actions. But Lehtonen is saying all the right things.
“It hasn’t gone the way I wanted,” he said. “But I still have many years left and hopefully I can take my game to the next level. I think I grew a lot.
“Skill-wise, I think there’s 100 goalies who can play here. But the top guys, whether they come to the rink after a loss or a win, they have the same mind-set. They’re not thinking about the past, they’re thinking about the next game. So much of it is mental.”
Reality hits at the age of 24.
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Football picks that won’t get you fired, even at Auburn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the fastest anybody at Auburn has moved since reports of grade-fixing two years ago led to the disappearance of files, computers, desks, cellphones, a half-eaten sandwich, secret whistles only linebackers could hear and adjunct professors who suddenly found themselves in Cabo San Lucas answering only to the name “Pablo,” Tommy Tuberville fired his offensive coordinator this week.
Auburn’s offense ranks 104th in the country, just behind Mississippi State and one spot ahead of the 1869 Rutgers team, who are all dead. So there is some explanation of the sky-is-falling panic.
Imagine if Tuberville coached in Knoxville. There wouldn’t be anybody left except for Phil Fulmer, who has 97 lives, largely because he eats all of his vegetables and maybe the table.
Fulmer hasn’t been fired yet. Tennessee is 2-3, but you can’t assume anything until after the Georgia game. The Vols won the past two years 51-33 and 35-14. Eighty-six points in two games? Methinks Fulmer needs to put Willie Martinez in his will.
No talk of jersey color in Athens this week, just limiting penalties to a few simple assaults. That’s a start.
The line is 12 1/2. Seems like a lot. For a bye week does wonders for the ego, and PumpkinHead is running out of good-luck charms. Dogs cover.
GameDaze
• Lunch at Tech: Poor Jackets. They can’t crack the Top 25, and now they’re stuck playing Gardner-Webb because the scheduled opponent, Army, retreated. Maybe next time Tech should pre-schedule a tougher outfit. Like the Salvation Army. Or the Swiss Army. They can put up a good fight, and all they’ve got is a bottle opener and a plastic toothpick. Where was I? No official line. We’ll set it at 27 1/3 and call it a cover. G-W gets $300,000 for medical expenses.
• LSU at Florida: Tim Tebow spent part of spring break last year in the Philippines, helping circumcise impoverished children. Is it just me, or is his coach, Urban Meyer, suddenly calling plays like a nervous Moyel? Gators have lost their bite — and they’re going down at home. Take the seven, but LSU pulls an upset.
• Arkansas at Auburn: Know the biggest difference between Bobby Petrino now and every other year? He already wants another job; he’s just not getting offers anymore. (I’m sure there will come a day when Petrino jokes get old. On second thought, probably not.) Tigers by 19? Hey 19, we can dance together.
• Oklahoma vs. Texas: A Longhorns upset and Alabama probably slides into the top ranking. My ears hurt just thinking about it. And so: Okie covers 6 1/2.
Pros and Ex-Cons
• Bears at Falcons: The Falcons are 3-2, which means if they go 7-4 in the next 11 they’re in the playoffs, which means the next president should be able to balance the budget in his first 17 months, give or take a week, depending on how quickly Sarah Palin realizes a frozen mooseburger tailgate fundraiser on Dupont Circle probably isn’t going to cut into the deficit much, even if she is hotter than Arlen Specter. The Falcons are a nice story. But they’re not there yet. Michael Turner leads the league in rushing. Chicago leads the league in dismembered running backs. You can fantasize, but: Bears cover 2 1/2.
• Cowboys at Cardinals: Adam “Pacman” Jones got into a fight with the security guard whom the Cowboys assigned to babysit him, and it just happened to be in the same hotel where Roger Goodell was staying. Think of: running over a policeman’s foot. Still: Boys cover 5.
• Raiders of the Lost Mind: If everybody bought Al Davis shots on Bourbon Street this weekend and then ditched him in a transvestite strip club in the Quarter, do you think he’d make more sense the next day? Saints cover 7 1/2.
• Packers at Seahawks: Before Seattle turns over the coaching reins to Jim Mora next season, they might want to notice that his secondary has only one interception in four games and the defense ranks 27th. Take the Cheese and two on the road.
You will bow
• Last week: I was so pretty. (8-4 straight up; 7-4-1 against the line.)
• Overall: Kinda treading water. (38-21 straight up; 28-29-2 against the line.)
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Army out, Gardner-Webb in
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And now for the Tuesday Countdown:
10: Congratulations, Georgia Tech fans. Your tax dollars went to Gardner-Webb.
9: Tech plays 1-AA Gardner-Webb this week. Why? Because Army - maybe just the grunts on KP duty - decided to increase the wimp factor on its schedule and bought its way out of this week’s scheduled home game against Tech. Army refunded Tech $125,000 for its contracted share of the gate. So the way I figure it, tax dollars went from us to Army to Tech and then to Gardner-Webb, which had to be paid to come here.
8: I hesitate to criticize anybody in the armed forces. But this is weak. Tech and Army had a home-and-home deal. Each would get $125,000 to play in the other team’s stadium. But before last year’s game at Bobby Dodd, Army athletic director Kevin Anderson approached Tech AD Dan Radakovich. “He came up to me and said, ‘We’re changing our scheduling philosophy,’” Radakovich recalled. “Then he hands me a letter saying they are pulling out of the game and there’s a check for $125,000 [as the forfeiture fee] in the envelope. I was a little stunned. I thought it was going to be a typical pre-game athletic director greeting.”
7: Understand something: Teams seldom pull out of these deals without warning, let alone give up a home game. Tech gets hurt in the process. It’s nearly impossible to negotiate a home-and-home deal with another 1-A school so late in the process because schedules are made far in advance. The next opening in a Jackets’ schedule wasn’t until 2012. To bring a 1-A school for one year is cost prohibitive ($600,000 to $800,000). So …
6: Tech was left with bringing in little G-W (at a cost of $300,000). The Jackets have already played 1-AA Jacksonville State. So this dents their credibility. But Radakovich declined to take a shot at Anderson, other then to say, “A lot of our people were disappointed because they were looking forward to going [to West Point].” Just wondering how military guys feel about their schedule being stuffed with set-ups.
5: And now for something completely different: With franchises struggling all over North America, the NHL decided to open the season in Prague and Stockholm. The yutz factor just went up again.
4: Once again, this time with feeling: It’s not sad and pathetic that people still support Michael Vick. It is sad and pathetic that people use that support as an excuse for race-baiting and Matt Ryan-bashing. I wrote a column on Ryan off the Green Bay game, never typed the words, “Michael Vick,” and yet reader responses mutated into another pro-Vick/anti-Vick grenade toss. Please. Everybody just take a breath.
3: Just guessing here, but if John McCain dumps Sarah Palin and adds Tina Fey as his running mate, he could probably get the swing votes.
2: The Thrashers open the season Friday night. I’m not sure how many tickets have been sold. But I know this: I went to Ticketmaster on the guise of wanting to buy 10 tickets. They were on the first level, Row T, on the faceoff circle.
1: Army plays host to Eastern Michigan Saturday. It’s homecoming.
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Ryan calmly leading the charge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Green Bay, Wis. — During warm-ups before his first game in the most storied stadium in NFL history, Matt Ryan reacted with something less than a meltdown.
“This is pretty cool,” he said to his coach.
Now, most of us can’t relate to what a young starting quarterback must be thinking the first time he walks into Lambeau Field. But if it’s similar to a young starting pitcher walking to the mound at Yankee Stadium or a young starting soprano walking to center stage at The Met, then most would not expect what happened Sunday.
Calm. Followed by a 37-yard pass to Roddy White on the first play of the game.
Calm. Followed by the Falcons’ first touchdown in a road game this season.
Calm. Followed by three scores in the team’s first four possessions.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Todd McClure, the veteran center. “His composure in the huddle is amazing.
“There are some times like today when I tried to ask him during a TV timeout, ‘What’s the next play?’ and he just snapped, ‘Just wait! Hold on a second!’ So we had to rag him about that a little bit. But he takes charge. That’s how you have to be as a quarterback.”
Five games into the season, the Falcons are in a place few expected them to be: not last. They are 3-2 and getting better.
We have learned it’s dangerous to assume too much about the future with this franchise. Particularly at quarterback. But the manner in which Ryan jump-started the Falcons to a 27-24 upset over Green Bay in his fifth NFL game certainly would lead most to view the future with, well, calm.
In the first half, when the Falcons took a 17-7 lead, Ryan completed 13-of-18 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Here is a breakdown of the five incompletions: two drops; one spike to stop the clock; one wise flip out of bounds as he scrambled to avoid a certain sack and lost yardage; one short toss to Roddy White that was broken up by a Packers’ defender.
No misfires.
He wasn’t perfect Sunday. Early in the fourth quarter, after his 17-yard run and later a personal foul on the Packers helped set up the Falcons at the Green Bay 12, Ryan had tight end Ben Hartstock ridiculously open in the end zone, only to underthrow him and have the pass intercepted. (Green Bay then drove to a tying score.)
But the way he reacted was rare for a rookie quarterback.
“Nothing,” McClure said. “I didn’t hear him say anything.”
“He just came over to the sideline and looked at me,” coach Mike Smith said. “I said, ‘Hey, we’re going to get an opportunity to get another one.’ And we did that.”
The Falcons drove to a field goal and a touchdown on their next two possessions. Ryan didn’t have to do a lot: the field goal was mostly set up by a long kickoff return by Jerious Norwood; the touchdown that made it 27-17 followed an interception at the Packers’ 19.
But he functioned. He ran the team. Players react to their quarterback.
“Obviously I was a little frustrated [after the interception],” Ryan said. “I guess that’s part of the learning curve.”
Small curve.
He completed his first six passes of the game. He ran a perfect bootleg pass on fourth-and-goal from the one on the opening possession, hitting tight end Justin Peelle in the end zone. He perfectly ran a no-huddle offense for four plays in the second quarter against the befuddled Packers’ defense, finishing with a 22-yard touchdown to Roddy White.
There was significant debate following the draft about whether the Falcons made the right decision to select Ryan over LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey. Time ultimately will provide the answer. But Ryan showed something special in a stadium that has seen its share of greatness.
Asked later about Lambeau, he said, “It has an aura about it. The coolest thing for me was when you’re able to walk down that tunnel, and all of a sudden you’re out there. It’s Lambeau Field.”
The awe ended shortly thereafter.
• More coverage: Matt Ryan page
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High School football in Valdosta is a different game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Valdosta — The old football coach is sitting in his usual seat on the 50. Funny thing about old football coaches. Twenty years into retirement and they still sound like an old football coach.
“I’m worried about this one,” Joe Wilson says as he watches Northside from Warner Robins go through warm-ups. “What are they — like 35-0? I’m worried.”
As he speaks, more than 13,000 fans are squeezing into a stadium for a high school football game. There is tailgating in the parking lot. There is national media coverage.
There is a school, Lowndes — once the gum under Valdosta’s shoe and now with five state titles and 5,000 season-ticket holders — preparing to play a game billed as one of the biggest in the history of Georgia high school football.
“It’s come a long way in the last 30 years,” said Wilson, the former Lowndes coach who started all this with a state championship in 1980. “When I got here this stadium was like a band box. But now, look.”
Yes, look.
High school football is different in Valdosta. Always has been. Buck Belue, the former Georgia quarterback who grew up here and starred at Valdosta High, tried to explain earlier in the day: “I can just tell you what it was like when I was 9 or 10 years old, looking forward to going to the game every Friday night. It was like going to a town hall meeting every Friday.”
Yes, look.
Somebody is going to need a bigger room.
Lowndes will need at least a couple of decades to catch Valdosta’s record of 23 state titles. But the Vikings certainly look on track for a sixth title after Friday’s 24-7 victory against Northside, which had a 35-game winning streak.
If nothing else, Northside cheerleaders took pre-game smack talk to a new level. They held up a banner reading, “Hey Lowndes. The Real State champs are ‘N’ town.”
Northside players ran through the banner.
Then Lowndes ran through Northside.
High school football in Valdosta used to be big because of one school. Now it’s big because of two. Valdosta High built a powerhouse under the late Wright Bazemore, who won 14 state titles (of the school’s 23). The tradition and the atmosphere merely were squared when Lowndes, mocked as “Plowboys” for their location in the relative country, rose to power under Wilson.
It’s with some irony that Wilson, a former Valdosta player and assistant coach, was the one who helped create this. He left Valdosta not long after being spurned for the opening there when Bazemore retired. He left the school where players sang the lampooning tune: “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be Plowboys.” The country bumpkins morphed into a power, winning the first of five state titles in 1980.
But the game everybody remembers was in 1977, when Lowndes defeated Valdosta for the first time, 7-2.
Wilson points down to the field, near the 30-yard line.
“Right down there is where we tore Buck Belue’s jersey off,” he said.
They talk about that game like it was last week, not 31 years ago. Belue is no different.
“I had to play the rest of the game with a different number,” he said. “After the game, I remember sitting on that yellow school bus and all the Lowndes kids are around the bus chanting, ‘7-2, we beat you.’ We were devastated.”
David Parker smiles.
“I was in the stands,” he said. “I was in the eighth grade.”
Three years later, he was Valdosta’s starting quarterback, when Lowndes won its first state title. It’s still a painful memory. He went on to play at Princeton and attended medical school there. When he returned to the area, he and wife moved into the Lowndes’ district, one mile from the Valdosta dividing line.
Parker has two children at Lowndes. But he wore a Georgia red shirt to game, standing out among the mostly maroon-clad Lowndes crowd.
“I still can’t wear maroon,” he said. “I’m just now getting to the point where I can say ‘we’ when I’m talking about Lowndes.”
Yes, look. Valdosta recently was named as “Titletown USA” by ESPN. Even Parker called the designation “a little hokey.”
But the city was only in the hokey discussion because of high school football. Valdosta High put the city on the map. Lowndes has changed the landscape.
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Time warp: This isn’t Falcons-Packers ‘03
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The last time the Falcons were in Green Bay, Michael Vick outplayed Brett Favre in a playoff game.
It was such a significant moment in their respective careers that Vick is now in prison and Favre is now a New York Jet, and I think we would all agree that Vick got the better of that deal, because one day he’ll be free and Favre will always be an ex-Jet.
The Packers are going through their own transition problems.
They have lost two straight, Aaron Rodgers can’t lift his arm, and the defense looks like the Scarecrow after he was visited by flying apes (lacerated spleen, torn biceps). Also, fans apparently are trying to blow themselves up.
A man from Mukwonago, Wis., was arrested after turning himself into a walking brat roaster. His SUV was running low on gas. So he tried to siphon some from a parked van. It was dark. He couldn’t see well. He had a lighter.
You know where this is going? Boom.
He survived. At least he didn’t burn any brain cells. But he had the same stunned look on his face that Wile E. Coyote did after realizing the Acme dynamite was wired to his big toe. Sort of like how the Packers might look Sunday.
The Falcons are 0-2 on the road and haven’t scored a touchdown. This didn’t figure to be opportunity week.
But Rodgers is doubtful, and the Packers’ defense has been wrecked by injuries. Key matchup: Michael Turner vs. the No. 26 run defense.
Can’t believe I’m doing this. Must be the fumes.
Upset revisited.
Almost Famous
— Georgia: Blacked out.
— Duke at Tech: The Jackets received votes in the AP poll. That puts them ahead of Clemson. The Blue Devils received a vote in the coaches’ poll. That puts them ahead of Tennessee. Can we all just stop and take a picture?
Tech covers 14.
— Florida State at Miami: And you wonder why the ACC has an identity problem. I had to stop to think before deciding which game was more important, FSU-Miami or Tech-Duke. Actually, I’m still not sure.
‘Canes cover 2 1/2.
— Florida at Arkansas: Bobby Petrino has been outscored 101-24 in the past two games, during which time his offense has scored two touchdowns and allowed three (on interception returns). But the good news: After the Florida and Auburn games, the athletics department should be eligible for a government bailout.
Gators cover 241/2.
— South Carolina at Mississippi: The afterglow from beating Wofford and UAB the past two weeks will wear off as soon as Steve Spurrier realizes his team is Mississippi’s homecoming opponent. Assuming the Rebels avoid a post-Florida nosedive:
They win 9-2.
— Kentucky at Alabama: Are they really making ‘Bama play the rest of the season, because I keep getting these e-mails asking if there’s any Cracker Barrels in Miami?
Tide wins but won’t cover the 16 1/2.
— Auburn at Vanderbilt: The Commodores are 4-0. The next thing you know, every school in the SEC is going to fold its athletics department, hire a I-AA coach and make players study. Naaaaah.
Tigers cover 4 on the road.
NFL Five-Pack
— Bengals at Cowboys: Possible matchup of the week: Chris Henry, coming off five arrests and a drug suspension, running routes against Adam “Pacman” Jones. The two haven’t met since the wild-card game between Attica and Leavenworth. I don’t like giving 17 in the NFL, but Cincinnati’s not really in the league.
Dallas covers.
— Redskins at Eagles: Washington hasn’t made the playoffs in the past three election years. I’m not sure what that means, but wouldn’t either ticket take Jim Zorn as a running mate right about now?
Eagles win, but give me the Skins and 5 1/2.
— Colts at Texans: Not sure how much better Indianapolis will be after a week off. But given Peyton Manning (73.1) is sandwiched between Marc Bulger and Gus Frerotte in quarterback rating, there needs to be a market correction or it’s a sign we’re all going down.
Colts cover 3.
— Titans at Ravens: Kerry Collins is 3-0 with one interception and one sack. Now Vince Young is really crying.
Tennessee covers 3.
— Chargers at Dolphins: Ricky Williams was tempted to get high during the bye week. But he said he passed. He also mentioned something about time being relative.
San Diego covers the 6 1/2.
Sub-prime results
(Hey, where’d everybody go? I was just kidding last week, honest!)
— Last week: 5-4 straight up, 3-6 against the line.
— Bottom lines: 30-17 straight up, 21-25-1 against the line.
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