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September 2005
Greatest final weekend vindicates Selig
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
This just in: You can add steroids to the mighty list of things (Black Sox Scandal, dead-ball era, labor battles, designated hitters, the Pittsburgh drug trials, no day World Series games, the NFL) that have tried and failed to kill baseball. Not only did the game break its all-time attendance record this week for the second consecutive year, but with two days left during the regular season, a couple of playoff races are wonderfully chaotic.
So you know what? Bud Selig is vindicated again. The supposedly overmatched baseball commissioner of the early 1990s is the suddenly omniscient baseball commissioner of all time. That is, if we’re talking about his ability to discover ways to keep September from becoming only an NFL thing.
Baseball has countered touchdowns and tackles with drama and more drama. At the start of the week, only one of eight playoff spots in the American and National leagues were decided. Plus, with the ongoing thrills at Fenway Park between those legendary archrivals from the Bronx and Boston, the best is yet to come.
“When I think of the abuse that I took way back when about [adding a wild-card team to the playoffs] — about what I was doing to the sport and all of that, but now, of course, everybody is just in love with it, and those detractors seem to forget that they were detractors,” Selig said Friday from his office in Milwaukee. Actually, he was speaking to one of those detractors. I thought his wild cards and his decision to change each league from two divisions to three smacked of Satan.
Now look at the heavenly results: You still haven’t a winner in the AL East, courtesy of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. You have the Cleveland Indians with a chance to join that Fenway loser in a showdown for the AL’s wild-card berth. You also had the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies entering the weekend in search of the NL’s wild-card berth. In other words, with apologies to Bobby Thomson, baseball is in the midst of its greatest final week ever.
“Oh, I think so,” said Selig, a noted baseball historian. “Certainly people talk about 1951 [as in “The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant”], and they talk about 1964 [as in the St. Louis Cardinals surging by the collapsing Phillies], and they talk about 1978 [Bucky “Bleeping” Dent], but this has been a remarkable season. Everything has worked.”
Well, sort of. Congress was not amused this spring when a lying Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger at committee members and said he never used steroids in a sport that has been dominated by the stuff during recent years. It hasn’t mattered to fans, though, and neither has Barry Bonds’ aborted home run chase of Babe Ruth’s 714 and Hank Aaron’s 755. Despite word about his alleged steroid usage courtesy of leaked grand jury testimony, Bonds still is huge at the plate and at the gate. He missed most of the season with various knee surgeries, but the game’s popularity continued to roll without him.
In fact, even with baseball’s weak but effective new drug testing contributing to a slew of incredibly shrinking sluggers, that roll hasn’t stopped. It has lasted from the Montreal Expos looking spiffy after becoming the Washington Nationals to Andruw Jones’ bat and the Braves’ overwhelming youth spurring the turnstiles at Turner Field to these Yankees doing something that all of those other Yankees couldn’t do, and that is attract more than four million folks at home.
It’s ultimately about the game. It’s always about the game, especially when you have excitement like this.
“I’m going to St. Louis Sunday to help them close their ballpark, which is going to be a wonderful experience for me, because everybody’s going to be there,” Selig said. “But believe me, I’m in the great position this weekend of not knowing what to watch. Cleveland and Chicago. New York and Boston. Philadelphia. Houston. This has just been a wonderful, wonderful season with a stunning last week.”
And get this? Baseball still has October, usually its best month. “Wow,” said Selig, with a soft chuckle.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Mazzone the backbone in the background
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
We say, “14 in a row,� and we think, “John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox.� A Hall of Fame GM finds the players for a Hall of Fame manager to turn into a functioning and seamless whole. We ask, “How do the Braves keep winning?� Well, we figure, that’s it.
Actually, that’s 66.7 percent of it.
Given that ballpark estimates hold that pitching is between 75 and 90 percent of baseball, we need to add a name and thereby render the great managerial pairing a triumvirate. If pitching is the key to baseball — and we all know it is — then Leo Mazzone merits at least 33.3 percent of the credit for these 14 in a row. He’s the third leg of the tripod that has served as the greatest foundation the grand old game has seen.
Ten days ago, ESPN.com ran a story in which Jeff Merron posted that Mazzone is the best assistant coach in any sport ever. As outlandish as such a claim might sound — what, you’re wondering, about Mickey Andrews? Bill Guthridge? Jim Harrick Jr.? — it’s an argument that can be made and substantiated. The Braves have built themselves on pitching and their pitching coach has a particular (some would say peculiar) method of instruction. This method has yielded results with talents great and small, tarnished and freshly minted.
The 2005 Braves have a middling ERA — 10th-best in the big leagues — by this team’s exalted standards, but it’s a wonder these pitchers have done this well. Every starter has been hurt and the bullpen has been patchy and too many rookies have been rushed to the front (Joey Devine in particular), and still these pitchers have held up their end. Come what may, the Braves’ pitchers always do. The 2004 staff led the majors in ERA without a No. 1 starter. It is at such times that Mazzone has given lie to the label that some in baseball have attached to him: Leo Mazzone, the luckiest man since Ringo Starr.
Detractors say that anyone could look clever with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine headlining his rotation, and it’s true that Maddux and Glavine are as close to self-taught as any pitchers could be. But somebody had to keep them healthy. The Mazzone mantra: “Your horses have to go to the post.� Maddux and Glavine did without fail, and whole years have passed without any Braves starter missing significant time. When three members of the rotation were ailing four months back, it only served to remind us how fragile arms really are and how rare it has been, over these last 15 seasons, for even one Braves starter to come up achy.
For sake of this discussion, let’s forget Maddux and Glavine. Let’s focus instead on the reclamation Mazzone has done with John Burkett and Chris Hammond and Jaret Wright and now Jorge Sosa. Let’s ask how many of his pitchers have gotten appreciably better elsewhere. (The answer is one: Jason Schmidt. It’s two if you count either Jason Marquis or Odalis Perez, which I don’t.) Let’s note the number of Braves pitchers who have fizzled when separated from Mazzone’s care. (Think of David Nied, Kent Mercker, Damian Moss and the once-wondrous Steve Avery.)
From 1992 through 2004, the Braves ranked either first or second in ERA among big-league teams every season but one. Even Ringo Starr didn’t get lucky for that long. Yeah, Leo Mazzone makes an odd paradigm — he tells the worst jokes and laughs really hard at them — but he has strung together a run of coaching excellence the likes of which we haven’t seen before and won’t see again. He has won big when he had the horses, won big when he didn’t. As smart as Schuerholz and Cox are, the little man rocking back and forth has made them seem that much smarter.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
All of a sudden, I get smart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
As we come to the end of a three-day school week, courtesy of Gov. Globey Head (inflate to 12 pounds), please take a moment during this light college week to recognize the comedic talents of Maxwell Smart and the Harris Interactive poll.
For if Don Adams hadn’t passed on to that great Cone of Silence in the sky this week, I’m sure he’d be asking … “Would you believe me if I told you this poll is surrounded by 200 Control agents?â€?
No.
“Would you believe a German Shepherd with an overbite?�
No.
“Would you believe 0-4 Idaho was given five points?�
No.
“No really. I’m serious about that one.�
The inaugural Harris poll, the BCS’s road to credibility — Ha! Yeah, I got a million of ’em — came out this week. Congratulations to the 114 voting members, some with a pulse (although it was John Mackovic, the former coach, who observed: “To tell the truth, I did not know a couple of them were still alive.â€?) The Harrisians voted USC No. 1. Visionaries.
Most of the yuks centered on those schools also receiving votes. Illinois tallied 13. Illinois is 2-2 and coming off a 61-14 loss to Michigan State — at home. Its defense is ranked 106th in the nation. That’s two spots behind Custer.
Idaho is 0-4. It lost to Hawaii, which had lost two games, 105-31, give or take an organ. The Vandals received five points in the Harris poll. If they lose to Utah State this week, they’ll move into the top 20 and become BCS bowl eligible.
One of two things likely happened. Five Harris voters ranked Idaho 25th in the country. Or one ranked the school 21st. Harris officials hope it’s the latter. It’s a lot easier to hide one body.
Georgia and Tech are both off this week. But we do have some leak-proof investments.
Would you believe …
Florida at Tuscaloosa Correctional Institute: What is this — Talk Stupid week in Alabama? Presumably heady from the Tide’s best start in several prison terms, linebacker DeMeco Ryans said, “We always win big games here.� Umm. Huh? Actually, factually, Bammy has never beaten a Top 5 team at Bryant-Denny Stadium (0-5) and is 1-7 against ranked teams in the last two years under Mike Shula. He’s done a nice job this season, but Florida is ranked, unlike four previous opponents. Reality check: Gators cover 3 1/2.
Middle Tenn. St. at Vanderbilt: Turns out dissolving the athletic department was all the football program needed to take off. Win this and the Commies are 5-0 for the first time since 1943 and will be one short of bowl eligible for the first time since ’82. Must be cocky. Even scheduled softy Georgia as their homecoming in two weeks. Nurse: oxygen! Vandy covers 16.
South Carolina at Auburn: Last week Steve Spurrier beat up Troy. In a previous life, Troy was a chance to fatten stats. Now it’s a diversion. Like ’shrooms. Spurrier (0-2) has never lost three SEC games in a row, but then he had never coached in Columbia, either. Since losing to Tech, Auburn has outscored three opponents, 128-17. Tigers, your Troy just arrived. Auburn covers 13 1/2.
LSU at Missy State: After blowing a 21-0 lead at home last week to Tennessee, LSU coach Les Miles defied all odds. He made it out of the parking lot. Forget living up to Nick Saban. Suddenly, he’s living down to Gerry DiNardo. Losses like this sting a while. And Starkville’s not the place to be with a hangover. LSU wins but take the Bulldogs and 15.
Colonel Sanders at Tennessee: Nothing gets past Phil Fulmer. After Rick Clausen came off the bench to lead the comeback at LSU, Fulmer said he doesn’t plan to rotate quarterbacks anymore. Genius. Mississippi, meanwhile, will be missing a quarterback and a linebacker this week, both of whom suffered broken middle fingers. So now there’s two less players flipping off the coach. Vowels win, but won’t cover 20.
Virginia Tech at West Virginia: Marcus Vick. Not bad for a right-hander. Hokies cover 10 1/2.
REPORT CARD Last week: 5-1 straight up, 3-3 against the line. To date: 21-5 straight up, 14-12 against the line. Lock of the week: Deadbolt.
Permalink | Comments (80) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
In praise of Fulmer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
He has won a national championship. He has won the tougher half of the nation’s toughest conference four times in the last eight seasons. He has won 10 games or more eight times in 12 full seasons. He has won 78.3 percent of his games. And if he looked as sleek and stylish as, say, Steve Spurrier (who has won 77.1 percent of his games as a collegiate coach) or Mark Richt (82.1 percent), nobody would ever suggest he can’t actually coach.
But Phillip Fulmer, who played offensive guard, looks like an old offensive guard. He’s plus-sized and rumpled and, owing to the dictates of his surroundings, he’s usually clad in orange, which not even Cary Grant could bring off. His record suggests — nay, screams — that Fulmer is among the absolute best at what he does, but somehow his name never comes up in any discussion of the nation’s best and brightest. Indeed, more than a few folks seem to believe Fulmer is, not to put too fine a point on it, a dim bulb.
We should all be so dim. He won a national championship the year after his best-ever player (Peyton Manning) left for the NFL, the year his best-ever back (Jamal Lewis) tore up his knee at Auburn. Fulmer won the SEC East last season with what was manifestly the division’s third-best team, and this week he won maybe the greatest game of his distinguished career. Down 21-0 at LSU, his offense having managed 24 points in the season’s first 10 quarters, his team clearly addled by the game’s logistics (due to the lack of hotel rooms in Baton Rouge, the Vols had to fly in the day of the game) and postponement (due to Hurricane Rita)…well, there was no way Tennessee could win.
But it did.
Truth to tell, Fulmer wins more than his share of such games. There was no way Tennessee was supposed to win at Florida in 2001, no way it could beat Georgia in Athens last October, no way it was going to upset Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl with the national championship at stake.
And maybe that’s his secret. Maybe opponents expect a team coached by a rumpled old offensive guard to play like a team coached by a rumpled old offensive guard. The cold truth is that you underrate Phillip Fulmer at your peril. He might not look like anyone’s notion of a mastermind, but he knows his business. He could coach for me anytime anywhere.
Permalink | Comments (72) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Falcons fans get louder, and defense gets happier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Flowery Branch — Lest we get carried away with the Georgia Dome’s transformation into a noisy mess for opponents during Falcons games, it still has a ways to go. For instance, it isn’t the Frozen Tundra South with an artificial surface. “In Green Bay, it’s tradition, and it’s weather and that kind of stuff,” said Ed Donatell, the former Packers defensive coordinator who works in Atlanta these days. He chuckled, adding of Lambeau Field, “I mean, there are ghosts walking around up there.”
They just have weirdos walking around the Black Hole, where visitors to Raiders games discover in loud and ugly ways that Halloween never ends near the Oakland hills. Defensive tackle Rod Coleman shook his head, when he spoke of his old days with the Raiders and his current ones with the Falcons. “No, I don’t think any other place can be like it is out there,” said Coleman on Wednesday after practice before he qualified his remark.
After all, with the Minnesota Vikings coming to town on Sunday, Coleman remembered when the rocking and rolling Georgia Dome helped the Falcons win their first and only home game this season on a Monday night against the PhilaÂdelphia Eagles. With racket pounding its ears, the Eagles’ offense earned three false-start penalties, and the racket got louder. “It was just, oh, man, ridiculous,” Coleman said with a smile. “Me and everybody else on the defense, we were just loving it, because we were feeding off the crowd noise. It’s just great, man.”
Actually, it’s about time. Before the 2004 arrival of Jim Mora and his ability to extract passion from a chin strap, the Falcons were a rarity. They were the only domed team in NFL history to lack an overwhelming advantage at home with crowd noise. That’s because the Georgia Dome only had spurts with crowd noise, and here’s the strangest thing: Such was the case only when the Falcons were playing. During Peach Bowls and SEC championship games, the Georgia Dome’s Teflon roof always threatens to rip from all of the high decibels.
Then, just like that, with encouragement from towel-slinging coaches on the Falcons sideline and players frantically waving everything from their arms to their tongues on the field, something began to happen in the Georgia Dome stands last season on a consistent basis. Yep, noise, and it didn’t hurt the situation that the Falcons kept winning at home, all the way to their current seven-game streak. According to team officials, 23 of the false starts committed by opposing offenses last season were due to a bunch of folks yelling as if they were watching the Bulldogs, the Gators or the Vols or something.
Good thing for the Falcons. During these days of parity in the league, where you have the usually pitiful Cincinnati Bengals looking more potent than the New England Patriots, owners of three Super Bowl rings during the past four seasons, every little bit helps. To hear the Falcons tell it, having the Georgia Dome as a mad house helps the home team a lot. And get this: “They’ve actually been packing the place for the last couple of years, but last season is when I really began to fill the electricity inside the dome, because they’ve become educated fans,” said Falcons defensive end Patrick Kerney, in his seventh season.
That’s long enough for Kerney to recall how the Falcons had the only NFL fans who performed The Wave when the home team had the ball. Not good. Not when your offense is trying to hear signals from your quarterback. Even so, Falcons fans continue to get louder and wiser. They just have to remember when the game starts. They leave thousands of empty seats before the opening kickoff, and that often delays the Falcons’ dome-field advantage.
“We couldn’t feel better about what the fans are doing in Atlanta. It’s awesome, because it takes away the ability for the other team to audible, but we just want them to come about 30 minutes earlier and start heckling the other team while they’re warming up,” Donatell said.
Then he laughed, adding, “Come early, and we’ll reward you with gifts.”
Donatell didn’t specify what kind of gifts, but here’s a guess: How about victories along the way to championships?
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Cox the best of all-time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
I’ve written this before, and I’ll do it again: Bobby Cox is not only the best manager in baseball of his time, but of all-time.
One world championship? Yes, I know, but there are a couple of things to consider here. First, the late Gene Mauch was called the game’s best manager for decades by many of his peers, and he won zero world championships. Second, beyond that solo world championship thing, there is everything else involving Cox as a manager, and we’re talking about a lot.
If you include Cox’s last season managing the Toronto Blue Jays, he just won his 15th consecutive division title. Nobody has come close to such a streak — in any sport. And, unlike Cox’s predecessors to managerial greatness such as Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, Cox strung together this run during an era of changing rosters through free agency.
Cox has won with veteran teams, youthful teams and injured teams. Not only that, I’ve never heard a past or current player ever say anything negative about the guy. Even Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa have had their public detractors.
All of that said, another world championship for Cox would just send his astronomical legacy from earth toward the farthest planet.
Permalink | Comments (96) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Fresh chance granted to team, its fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The season opened with John Smoltz allowing a grand slam in the first inning, exiting not long after with a 32.40 ERA stamped on his forehead, and the Braves losing, 9-0, at Florida.
“You want a mulligan,” Smoltz would say later.
See. This is why we don’t compute magic numbers after Opening Day.
“I guess the cowbell rang a little late for us,” Chipper Jones said Tuesday night.
Smoltz got his mulligan — he went on to win 14 games, pitch over 200 innings and lower his ERA by more than just a digit (3.06).
The Braves got their mulligan. What they completed Tuesday night borders on fantasy.
Feel good about this one, because No. 14 is different. Yes, players and coaches and the manager and the general manager will tell you: they’re all different, they’re all special. But seldom do seasons start with such a disaster, evolve so improbably and finish like this.
“Everybody had a reason why we weren’t gonna win,” Smoltz said.
Feel good about this one, but feel even better about what’s about to happen. The Braves go into this post-season with a commodity they didn’t have a year ago: a starting pitcher.
Tim Hudson threw the first pitch of Tuesday night’s 12-3 win over Colorado. How appropriate. Smoltz, returned to the rotation to give the team some power in the post-season, has been stored in bubble wrap until Game 1. Hudson was acquired to give the team a second threat (and briefly a more certain one, given Opening Day.) He went six innings and won his 14th game, tying Smoltz.
“I knew coming in we were gonna clinch it,” Hudson said. “I took this as a playoff game. I went out there with the kind of mentality and the kind of fire you need in a playoff-type atmosphere. You need guys who are able to turn it on in that atmosphere. I don’t know if I did anything special, but I wanted to be out there and I wanted to let guys know that I wanted to be out there.”
Feel good about this team because of this: The first three pitchers in the playoff rotation will be Smoltz, Hudson and Jorge Sosa. Last year, they went into the post-season with Jaret Wright, Mike Hampton, John Thompson and Russ Ortiz. That was their downfall against the Astros.
Since 1991, this team has been about starting pitching. Suddenly against Houston, starting pitching was the four-headed question.
Wright was pounded in his two starts. (Hey Yankees: You can have him.) Hampton looked strong but left his start with forearm tightness, ominous foreshadowing. Thompson’s oblique muscle decided the playoffs would be a great time to blow up. Ortiz was smoked for five runs in the second inning of his start. After the inning, he was told to sell his house.
Feel good about this — even if Braves’ officials didn’t seem to start the celebration.
Officially, the team clinched at 10:08 p.m. when Philadelphia lost to the New York Mets, 3-2. But there was no immediate announcement in Turner Field. The out-of-town scoreboard still indicated the Phils and Mets were in the eighth inning. (The team didn’t even show the game on the screen during the rain delay.)
It wasn’t until 10:24 that an announcement was made — after pitching changes, after “Kiss Cam,” after a camera shot of a fan banging the drum in center field, after a fan hung a makeshift “2005” title pennant in centerfield, after the playing of “Y-M-C-A.” (The dancing old couple was cheered.)
When the announcement was made, the crowd stood and gave an ovation.
The mulligan was complete.
“I don’t think people understand what we’ve been through,” Smoltz said. “Leaving spring training with the team we had, then with the team we have now. This has to be the most special in my 14 years.”
Last year the Braves won two playoff games. The winning pitchers were relievers — Antonio Alfonseca and Smoltz. The Braves didn’t bring either one back to their bullpen.
Fireworks went off after the final out Tuesday night. This one was special. Enjoy it. And feel good about what may come next.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
McCann’s value unmatched
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
When the Great Historian sits down to write of the Braves of 2005, it’s my hunch that he may settle on the 8th inning of the 154th game as the key to the season. They had lost seven of 10 games. They hadn’t scored in 19 innings. Their division lead was dwindling. These “Our Gang” kids had never been under such a load as this. Were they folding in the stretch?
This was crunch time. Down 3-0 last Friday as they came to bat against the Marlins. This is how it worked out: Rafael Furcal doubled. Marcus Giles singled him home. (The drought was broken, at least.) Chipper Jones singled. Andruw Jones walked, probably unintentionally intentional. Adam LaRoche struck out. Jeff Francoeur grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Giles scored. Ryan Langerhans lobbed an infield single over second, Chipper scored and Francoeur wound up at third on an error. Brian McCann singled to center field, scoring Francoeur and the Braves had a 4-3 lead. It held up as the final score.
Now the pursuit is over. No. 14 is in their satchel. (You’ll notice I avoid the use of “consecutive” here, which means “in a row,” for it isn’t true. It does injustice to the Montreal Expos of 1994, the year the players struck and stuck a knife in baseball’s back. Season ended suddenly. Year of the hollow autumn, no World Series, but in the National League Green Book the Expos are shown in first place. But they were done for the season, and forever, but you can’t take first place away from them.) But… the Braves and No. 14, consecutive or not, a record to behold. One to be cuddled to your breast, the choicest of them all.
I say this, for it was done running a shuttle between Turner Field and Richmond, and of all places, Pearl, Miss., which strikes me as a misnomer. It was one emergency after another, and when the crisis arose, John Schuerholz went to the warehouse. His projected outfield including Brian Jordan and Raul Mondesi fell apart. Here came Kelly Johnson, then Francoeur. Langerhans was already in reserve, but now he came off the bench. And the pitchers, ye gods, where did they all come from? Kyle Davies was 21, Macay McBride was 22, Blaine Boyer was 23, John Foster had been reclaimed from the junk yard, and who was to catch them? A 21-year-old kid who had never yet suffered razor burn, McCann. Another “town boy,” so to speak.
Schuerholz had one other reserve starter in place, though the deal for Jorge Sosa hadn’t been a popular one. He gave up Nick Green, another local who had tidied up around second base when Giles came down wounded the year before. But the GM was exercising his craftsmanship. Right now, Sosa is the leading pitcher in the house. Not that all of Schuerholz’s deals work out so charmingly. There’s Dan Kolb, lost somewhere in the bullpen. And Mike Hampton, the highest paid pitcher in town, gone until 2007. Oh, well, as the woman who shot her husband explained to the judge, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
As the sun sets on the Braves, there comes a time to take a stand. True, Andruw Jones is on the ballot for Most Valuable Player in the league. Good, but unlikely to make it. We turned here to Most Valuable Brave, and the finger points to Furcal, with apology to no one. Statistics don’t play a part in this choice, though Furcal’s offensive production sparkles for a shortstop. There is no way to measure in statistics Furcal’s value to this team. Likely, Francoeur will be the people’s choice for Rookie of the Year, and who’s to quibble with that?
But we’re talking value here. It says something when crusty old John Smoltz selects McCann as his catcher of choice. He is a mere lad of 21 handling everything this crew of pitchers, old and young, can throw at him, lumps, bumps and all. A catcher is in on every play, a sort of unofficial quarterback. And it isn’t just defense, how do you like his .275 batting average, the key hits — as in that 8th inning — and his five home runs? McCann has aged under fire and passed all tests. Maybe not the flashiest, but most valuable rookie.
Permalink | Comments (35) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: OK, so Ashton Kutcher is 27 and Demi Moore is 42. That basically means that by the time he’s 35, no amount of surgery she gets will make a difference.
9: Item: The baseball players union has offered to increase its penalty for first-time steroid users to 20 games. Comment: It’s still a joke. Is there any reason why any athlete taking performance-enhancing drugs should be shown any leniency?
8: Seriously, we’ve had drug scandals, threats, promises, congressional testimony, more threats, more promises. Why after all this should anybody think, “Wow! Twenty games! What a concession!�
7: The answer to your next question: First offense: 50 games. Second offense: One year. Third offense: Bye-bye.
6: Gov. Knucklehead has canceled school for the first two weeks of October. Threat of rain.
5: Item: New England tackle Matt Light lays on the field with a serious leg injury, but coach Bill Belichick shoos Pittsburgh trainer John Norwig away when he offers medical assistance. Comment: There’s NFL paranoia and then there’s taking things overboard. Billy, you think the other team’s trainer is going to give Light an injection of truth serum and make him spill his guts on blocking schemes?
4: Martha Burk: Get a job.
3: It’s one thing to pressure Augusta National to have a women member. It’s a private club but hosts a very public golf tournament with PGA golfers and TV dollars, advertising, etc., etc. But to make a stink because the NHL’s TV commercials are too racy?
2: Yo, Martha. You really want to make this an issue? Start with the NFL. Every team’s website has a link to soft-porn cheerleader pages. But in the big picture, I mean, who freakin’ cares? This isn’t about women’s rights or equality.
1: By the way, that girl in the commercial may be as close to playing an NHL game as Ilya Kovalchuk.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Winning theme bears repeating, even for the 14th consecutive time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
No writer in Cleveland has ever faced this dilemma, nor has any scribe in San Francisco or Cincinnati or anywhere else. Only here is it an issue: How do you write about a team about to clinch its division for the 14th consecutive full season without repeating yourself for the third time, the fifth time, the 14th time? How, at this ridiculously late date, do you say something new about the Braves finishing first?
“I don’t envy you that one,” said Frank Wren, the assistant GM, but Wren had an indirect hand in offering a partial solution. The former journalist John Schuerholz — his column for the Towson State Teachers College student paper was headed, “Under The Bench” — passed along an analogy made by the broadcaster Josh Lewin that Wren had relayed to his boss.
Said Schuerholz: “Lewin said, ‘I’ve run out of ways to describe the Atlanta Braves, and all I can think of is a stone crab. If a stone crab loses one of its claws, it regenerates another one. That’s what the Braves do — they regenerate themselves.’”
Here Schuerholz, not entirely modestly, offered his own editorial comment: “When the rest of baseball thinks the end has come, we regenerate ourselves.”
They do. They do it every year. They’re incredible that way. And how many times have these fingers typed this exact same paragraph? Five? Ten?
(Yeah, yeah. The Braves wasted a four-run lead and lost Monday night. Courtesy of the Mets’ late, late comeback against Philadelphia, the Braves also clinched a tie for the NL East title. They’ll win it outright tonight. And now, back to today’s topic.)
Said Jeff Porter, the trainer: “I know you’re trying to write something different, but there’s a pretty big common denominator.”
Yes. He wears No. 6. He’s the best manager we’ll ever see. (And yes, that’s a sentence that was written last September.) Porter again: “How many other guys could have taken all these rookies and made them into a team?”
The longer this run of titles goes, the clearer it becomes that Bobby Cox is a disproportionate part of the winning. Put it this way: If you handed the hugely gifted Florida Marlins to Cox, where would the Fish be today?
“Popping the champagne,” said one voice in the Braves’ clubhouse, and that’s a powerful image but not really a revelation. We said the same about the Phillies last season, when Cox managed circles around Larry Bowa, and about the Mets when the preening Bobby Valentine was in charge. News that Cox is without peer at running a team and a clubhouse no longer stops any presses. So where’s the novelty in No. 14?
Said Bill Acree, the equipment manager: “You start with all the new faces this year, but everybody’s going to say that.” And there have been, truth to tell, new faces almost all along. Acree again: “The first four or five [division winners] were pretty much the same guys, but not since.”
Sure, there have been more rookies than usual this season, but rookies have always been a part of this. (Chipper in 1995, Andruw in 1996, Furcal in 2000, Giles in 2001.) Even the improbable success of Jorge Sosa has antecedents in the pitching restorations of John Burkett and Jaret Wright. Put simply, the Braves have been doing this for so long there’s no way they can do it completely differently.
But if every regular season ends the same, each one takes a separate track to reach its appointed destination. This season could have been lost in May, when 60 percent of the rotation was hurting and Raul Mondesi was released, except that Braves’ seasons are never lost. They are only won. No, there’s nothing new about it, but there’s something majestic. Who knew the stone crab could be such a handsome creature?
Permalink | Comments (38) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Vick’s road to maturity begins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Orchard Park, N.Y. — Nobody can project when a quarterback matures. In Michael Vick’s case, we see a bottomless well of talent, and there’s a tendency to sit back and think, “OK, he wins. But when will he look like a quarterback?”
If at some point that moment arrives and doesn’t go away, remember Sunday’s game in Buffalo. It was the starting point.
Remember the times he read a defense, saw the blitz coming, stood in the pocket and completed a pass. Remember when he moved his feet, not to run but just enough to elude a pass rush and find an open receiver. Remember him not getting sacked — after being dropped seven times in the first two games.
Remember Thursday. Three days before the Buffalo game, Vick told coach Jim Mora, “You’re going to see a different kind of quarterback this week.” Mora didn’t know how much to make of it at the time, but the significance of the words became apparent almost from the outset Sunday.
“Let’s be honest,” Mora said. “He hears the things that are said about him. He hears: ‘You can’t play from the pocket. You can’t do this, can’t do that.’ While he doesn’t respond to it, he holds it inside. I don’t know if this is sort of an ‘I told you so.’ “
Vick’s final numbers in a 24-16 win over the Bills masked the significance of his performance. Completing 15 of 27 passes for 167 yards is, like, just OK. But on the Falcons’ first two possessions, he completed 6 of 8 attempts, including two touchdowns against a blitz-happy defense. He didn’t get rattled when the Bills twice were penalized for roughing the passer on Atlanta’s first drive, one of which resulted in his helmet getting knocked off.
Then Vick leveled off. On the Falcons’ next three possessions, he went 2 for 9 with an interception. In similar situations in the past, errant passes would continue flying and frustration would take over. Didn’t happen this time.
With the Falcons clinging to a 17-16 lead in the third quarter, Vick stepped up. On third down from the Falcons’ 7, he drilled a 17-yard pass to Brian Finneran. It wasn’t a scoring drive but it voided potentially disastrous field position.
That rescue was followed by another. On their next possession, Vick drove the Falcons 65 yards on nine plays for a touchdown, restoring an eight-point lead. He dug out of a third-and-11 hole again with a 17-yarder to Finneran.
Vick did things we’ve seen before. On the third play of the game, he scrambled 14 yards. On the crucial fourth-quarter touchdown drive, he had a dizzying 27-yard run in which he ran away from defensive end Ryan Denney, considered going out of bounds, then decided to cut back across the field.
Quoting: “The end who was chasing me, I thought he was faster than he actually was. I wasn’t even running full speed because I was still cautious about the hamstring. I saw there were still another 5 or 6 yards I could get. Then I almost rolled my ankle trying to do too much.”
But he also did something we seldom have seen: 5-for-5 passing — and the five completions went to five different receivers: Dwayne Blakely, Finneran, Alge Crumpler, Michael Jenkins and Warrick Dunn.
Vick remembered the words he told Mora during the week. He knew the significance at the time, and he certainly knew what this game meant to him.
“I didn’t know how my hamstring was going to feel,” he said. “I told him I would be a different quarterback. I was gonna keep my poise. I was gonna stay in the pocket. I was gonna make sure that what I was seeing was legit.”
In a strange way, the injury helped Vick.
“I learned a lot,” he said. “I was patient. I was getting guys the ball. It was me understanding the offense and learning what it takes to beat the blitz. I spent more time doing that this week. It was a big game for me. It’s going to help me in the long run.”
Mora said Vick is “developing,” calling him, “a neophyte” in this offense. “But you get glimpses of what he’s capable of.”
It was more than a glimpse Sunday.
Permalink | Comments (39) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Flyspeck burg aptly named
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Starkville, Miss. — There’s really no way to describe this place. How do you describe nothing? Think of it like this: Alongside this far-flung outpost, Auburn, Ala., seems as big and bustling as New York, N.Y.
In a way, it’s nice that Mississippi State plays football. Without the mid-sized stadium rising above this low-slung burg, you’d miss Starkville altogether and go motoring off into Arkansas. With gas the price it is, who can afford such an overshot?
Other means of transport are problematic. You can’t fly into Starkville itself. You have to land at the ambitiously named Golden Triangle Regional Airport, which sits 20 miles east on Highway 82 and is no beehive of activity itself. The Georgia cheerleaders arrived on a 50-seat plane Friday night, and one among their number was heard to ask, “Where are the other terminals?”
And someone said: “There are no other terminals.”
Georgia doesn’t play here often — Saturday marked only its fifth visit ever — and for that everyone can be most grateful. It’s a long haul to a flyspeck town to face a program so devoid of glamour that its signature is the cowbell. If you’re a Georgia fan and you made the trek, you deserve a big wet kiss from the beauteous UGA VI. (Who, owing to “travel difficulties,” didn’t make it himself. Smart dog.)
Even State fans didn’t seem to hold much hope for this game against the nation’s No. 7 team. The stadium, which seats only 55,082, was conspicuously unpacked. (Attendance was announced as 49,903.) To be fair, remnants of Rita had spawned tornado watches in the area, but the first 2 1/2 quarters were played in nothing more than a brisk breeze. Then it rained. Then it stopped. Then it rained again.
The whole night had a weird feel to it. The isolated setting made this seem less an ESPN showcase than a high school game played under Friday night lights in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And the game itself was nothing special, either.
Georgia did as Georgia usually does against an overmatched opponent: It played well enough to get ahead but not so well it could put State away. It passed more often than it ran — will there ever again be a game where these Bulldogs just try to pound somebody? — and D.J. Shockley was good enough to throw for 312 yards but not so good he could produce more than two touchdowns. Two missed field goals and three Red Zone fizzles kept the score theoretically close. It was 14-3 at the half and 23-10 at the end, and never was there a doubt that Georgia was the superior side.
After four games, there is some question as to how good Georgia really is. The Boise State rout seems now to say more about Boise than about the Bulldogs, who a week later couldn’t put away a South Carolina crew that Alabama subsequently thrashed. The temptation is great to suggest the Bulldogs are wildly overrated, but if they win in Knoxville two weeks hence — and they could — we’ll all feel silly for yielding to it.
The cold truth is that Georgia has played four games against teams it should have beaten and has, to its credit, beaten all four. In a time when Louisville, touted as a BCS team, can be humbled by South Florida, holding serve is impressive in itself. By making it through September, Georgia has positioned itself to play for the SEC East title and a BCS berth. In its first month without David Greene and David Pollack and Thomas Davis and Brian VanGorder, Georgia has kept it going.
And if there was no majesty in this dismissal of middling Mississippi State, there was at least this sweet reward: When their business was finished, the Georgia Bulldogs got to leave. The stark reality of Starkville always looks nicest when viewed via the rear-view mirror.
Permalink | Comments (111) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
A glaring difference between Techs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Blacksburg, Va. – It was obvious early and often on Saturday at Lane Stadium that Georgia Tech isn’t close to the level of that other Tech from the ACC or of anybody else in college football that considers itself among the elite. The Yellow Jackets are what they are, which is a team only flirting with goodness. And, no, this revelation had nothing to do with Reggie Ball spending the orange-flavored evening failing to handle his quadruple battle.
Reggie Ball didn’t cause his team to have that blocked field goal returned for a 78-yard touchdown. Reggie Ball wasn’t much of a contributor to those nine penalties, most of them either putting Georgia Tech in horrible situations or Virginia Tech in wonderful ones. Reggie Ball had little to do with an offensive line that couldn’t stop mostly a four-man rush, which kept smacking the Georgia Tech quarterback against the stadium floor.
The Georgia Tech quarterback was Reggie Ball, by the way. Or whatever was left of the poor guy. “I’m healthy, and I’m not sick,” he said later with a smile, referring to his recovery from viral meningitis. That was opposed to the bruises he had physically and mentally after Virginia Tech’s 51-7 blowout. According to Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey, “Oh, we’ve got multiple issues in this ball game that have not shown in other ballgames.” Then, after Gailey sifted through the carnage some more, he added with emotion, “In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that’s who we are.”
This is who the Jackets are. Among other things, their absolutely thorough lashing by a quality opponent tells us that their upset at Auburn to start the season was a fluke or one of those cases in sports where one team just has another team’s number. After all, Georgia Tech also beat Auburn two years ago. What the Jackets have done beyond Auburn in recent years is mostly tease. They didn’t have time to tease against a Virginia Tech team that overpowered the Jackets in every aspect of the game — with lots of help, of course, from those on Georgia Tech not named Reggie Ball.
Even so, if the Jackets expected to avoid such ugliness, they also needed Ball to prosper inside of a rocking and rolling place during what technically was a fairly significant game between ACC opponents from the same division.
There was that eternal noise from virtually 65,000 folks with orange shirts that proclaimed, “Who needs a Benz when you’ve got a Beamer (as in Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer)?” There were those relentless Hokies, ranked fourth in the country to the Jackets’ 15th. There was that other Vick at quarterback for Virginia Tech instead of the Falcons. There also was Ball trying to shake the possible aftereffects of spending two days in the hospital last weekend after falling ill.
Not good for Ball, especially after a bunch of his near interceptions evolved into a couple of definite ones on consecutive drives in the third quarter. Both interceptions gave Virginia Tech touchdowns. Prior to those picks, Ball spent the early part of the quarter helping wide receiver Calvin Johnson evolve into Houdini again. First, he delivered a perfectly crafted pass of 59 yards to Johnson deep into Virginia Tech territory. Later, from the Hokies’ 11, he floated a pass to the corner of the end zone that Johnson drifted under and caught.
It’s just that the other Vick (Marcus, not Michael) kept looking ready to follow his brother from this campus to the NFL. He didn’t flash Michael’s legs (seven carries for zero yards), but he was in Michael’s vicinity or beyond with his arm. He completed several pretty passes (13 of 18 for 223 yards and a touchdown) while guiding the Hokies’ with composure.
Those two interceptions notwithstanding, the Ball of late in the game was better than the earlier version. Still, there was the first quarter, when his throwing pushed Georgia Tech inside the Hokies’ red zone after Virginia Tech took a 7-0 lead. Then came that blocked field goal that evolved into a touchdown along the way to Georgia Tech’s worst rout in three years.
“How close are we to becoming Virginia Tech?” said a wide-eyed Johnson, repeating my question. He chuckled, saying, “I think that, well, uh. Hmmm. I don’t know how to answer that question.”
Johnson just did.
Permalink | Comments (90) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
‘Classics’ prosper as a package deal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
According to a Web site that tracks football teams at historically black colleges, there are 43 games this season with the word “Classic” in the title. We’re talking “Atlanta” Classic, “Orange Blossom” Classic, “Bayou” Classic and, I believe, the “We’re Leaving The Farm To Your Brother But At Least We’re Going to Name Next Tuesday’s Game After You” Classic.
Some call this tradition. I call it presumptuous.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff got drilled 41-10 the other day. But afterward players could say with smugness, “We played a classic.” That would be the Arkansas Classic (an oxymoron if there ever was one).
“It’s not about the game, it’s about the entertainment,” said John Grant, the executive director of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta.
“This is more about the socialization, the camaraderie, the bands. When you go to other games, you see people rushing to concessions at halftime. Here, you see them making a mad dash to their seats. It’s not about coming to see the highest level of sports. For us, the football is secondary. The sport for us is the competition between the bands.”
On Saturday at the Georgia Dome, Florida A&M defeated Tennessee State, 12-7. I don’t know why I just wrote that. I guess it comes from a history of writing stories that come attached to box scores. Besides, how do you assign a point value to the FAMU band’s rendition of “Good Times”?
Actually, there was something cool about Saturday’s 17th Atlanta Classic. (The name on the football field actually utilized Roman numerals. That, I won’t do.) The crowd was announced at 56,297. Many drove from Nashville or Tallahassee to watch a pair of 1-2 football teams.
A Tennessee State official cracked before game, “There are going to be people here who won’t walk across the street to watch us play in Nashville.”
Why? Part of the story stems from black college football’s early survival. Rival schools would play an annual game at a neutral site, preferably in a city where fans would desire to spend a few days and, it follows, money.
Now, “Classics” are sort of the norm. Consider the two teams in the Georgia Dome on Saturday. Each will play 11 games this season, but only four at home. The rest are either on the road or in neutral sites. Try selling that to Georgia. But historically black colleges don’t have SEC television contracts.
Florida A&M has only 2,500 season-ticket holders. And yet: “People envy us,” said assistant athletics director Alvin Hollins. “We’ll put 70,000 people in Orlando [for the Florida Classic], then we go to the I-AA playoffs and play Georgia Southern and people are like, ‘We don’t care about the playoffs.’ “
It’s not about the football. In Florida A&M’s case, that’s not a bad thing these days. The Rattlers self-reported some 200 rules violations to the NCAA, which is sort of like saying, “I can’t possibly lie my way out of this one.”
It is about the band, which come to think of it, isn’t much better. (Oh, they’re entertaining. Nobody left their seat for Rattlers-Tigers Tuba Wars. Come to think of it, there were more people in the Dome and seated at halftime than at any point in the game.)
But last week, even some FAMU band members broke the rules. They scuffled with the Howard football team as they left the field. The marching band refused to yield. Maybe it’s time for Don McLean to rewrite, “American Pie.” (Kids: Ask your parents.)
In these times of bad BCS matchups and otherwise obscure bowl games, these Classics are thriving. They are what bowl games used to be — a reward for players and a party weekend for everybody else.
“The bands say, ‘People come to see us,’ ” Hollins said. “The coaches say, ‘OK, have a concert and charge $35. See how many people show up.’ “
Just call it a package deal. And it still sells.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Other
NFL game predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Question: When did “tweak” become a medical term?
Was it about the time a used car became “certified pre-owned,” mass firings became “restructuring,” and dumping well-paid star players became a “youth movement”?
Unless I’m mistaken, a “tweaked” hamstring used to be pulled. But it sounds cuter, even harmless. It sounds like a Looney Toons character (“And now for another episode of Tweaked and Sylvester!!!”)
Falcons quarterback Michael Vick will start today in Buffalo. Pick a euphemism — his hamstring hurts. That can be a problem when you are a running quarterback who hasn’t mastered the passing game.
As of yet, no part of this team has looked good enough that it can compensate for a half-Vick offense. Maybe that changes today. But that’s not the way to bet.
The line is close: 2 1/2. The game will be close.
But Bills win. Bills cover.
Consider it a part of the “maturing process.”
FOUR BAGS
New England at Pittsburgh: History tells us the Steelers win this game in September and lose it in January. But when Bill Belichick starts sounding like Chicken Little (“The first thing we’re going to have to do is just find a way to stay competitive [with them]”), I get suspicious. Give me the Pats and three.
Prima Donna Bowl: On the first day God created the Heavens and the Earth. On the second day, He put Randy Moss and Terrell Owens down on Earth, reasoning it was far from the Heavens and would keep His own neighborhood a lot more peaceful. In the undercard to Moss-Owens, Philly covers 8 1/2 against Oakland.
THREE BAGS
Tampa Bay at Green Bay: Something for Brett Favre to think about after the Packers lose today: Since 1990, only three out of 74 teams have started the season 0-3 and made the playoffs. I’ll have that 0-4 stat ready before the Carolina game. Bucs win on the road, but take Pack with the 3 1/2.
N.Y. Giants at San Diego: I would say Chargers fans want to flog Eli Manning for refusing to play for the team after being drafted. But when it’s 74 with a breeze every day, you don’t really get all that upset about anything. Eli, welcome to comeuppance week: Chargers smack Giants, cover the 5 1/2.
Carolina at Miami: The Dolphins opened the season by pounding Denver, then did something Nick Saban just didn’t see coming: They turned back into the Dolphins. It might be a while before the next mutation. Another home ‘dog goes down — Panthers cover the trey.
TWO BAGS
New Orleans at Minnesota: The Vikings are 0-2, which just goes to show that Randy Moss was the emotional glue that held the team together. (Pause for effect.) OK, some positive karma: Vikes cover four.
Cleveland at Indianapolis: Trent Dilfer threw three more touchdown passes than Peyton Manning last week. What a mismatch this is! Market Correction Week: Colts cover 13 1/2.
Cincinnati at Chicago: You know all of those 2-0 teams that go on to finish 6-10? The Bengals won’t be one of them. Take Cincy, punt the three.
Kansas City at Denver: The Broncos’ offense has scored only two touchdowns — both by a fullback. And I thought my Fantasy League team was bad. I like Chiefs with the three and in a straight-up upset.
Jacksonville at NY Jets: Jags QB Byron Leftwich may play despite a groin injury. Football, I mean. Whatever the over/under is, go low. Jets cover the 2 1/2. Final score: 5-2.
Comedy Central
Nostalgia Bowl: The 49ers and Cowboys used to be the standard for excellence. Now they are to the NFL what the Chef Boy R Dee is to pasta. Dallas gets extra punchline points for its four-minute collapse Monday night against the Skins. Dallas wins but take SanFran at home with the 6 1/2.
Arizona at Seattle: I thought the Cardinals would be the NFC’s surprise team this season. Now they’re 0-2. I’m gone. So now watch ‘em take off. Seahawks cover 6 1/2.
Tennessee at St. Louis: This is a Super Bowl rematch. Also, Steve McNair is 15-4 in his last 19 starts vs. NFC teams. Neither one means I thing, but I thought the research would impress you. Rams cover 6 1/2.
HOW I’M DOING
(You seem like the forgiving sort.) Last week: I forgot. Fine! (Loser.) 7-9 straight up, 6-9-1 against the line. Toteboard: 17-14 handshakes, 14-16-1 against the line.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Murphy writes prescription that could heal pro athletics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Not that it should come as such a surprise that Dale Murphy has surfaced as an author, but it seems that his text has, apparently, been somewhat misinterpreted. “The Scouting Report” is the title, directed mainly at professional athletes and those athletes who have their eyes aimed at playing professionally.
“It’s not about being a team leader. That’s just not my personality. It’s aimed at things that I wish I had known when I became a professional player,” Muphy said from his home in Utah. “In athletics terms, this is a scouting report for your career, balancing your career, your marriage and your family.”
There’s a shortage of that among professional athletes, not to mention several of those on the college level, judging by police dockets across the country. What Murphy projects is a recipe for setting your course on the straight and narrow and keeping it there. His is the written word, composed mainly for athletes, not the reading public. He’s not aiming for the New York Times best seller list.
“I lived many years in professional sports and came out in one piece,” he wrote to his audience of athletes, “still happily married, the father of eight great kids. When the time comes and you are standing in my shoes — retired — I want you to feel the same contentment.”
That’s the theme, not training clubhouse spokesmen. I’m not sure that such unsolicited advice delivered to teammates is always warmly received. Henry Aaron never logged a lot of hours on the clubhouse podium. That was not his style. He lived a long and successful career as a teammate, but going his own way, not directing traffic.
When Murphy was a developing Brave, he recalls, the players he looked up to were Phil Niekro, Gary Mathews, and during one spring training, Tom Paciorek, the outfielder now heard in our area broadcasting Braves games. When Murphy needed to locate an agent, it was Niekro he turned to, but other than that, it wasn’t often that he sought advice in the clubhouse.
Murphy didn’t grow up a Mormon. He was converted, mainly through his relationship with another Braves minor league teammate, Barry Bonnell, later a Braves contemporary. That faith became the backbone of his life, even to the point that after his career as a player was done, he served as the head of a mission in Massachusetts. You’ll be impressed by the cast of stars that recommend his point of view as expressed in the book, Bobby Bowden, Cal Ripken, Steve Young, Jason Kidd among them.
One athlete that Murphy holds high in his heart and esteem is Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinal who turned his back on a big contract to join the Army Rangers, then lost his life in Afghanistan. “No fanfare, no one patting him on the back, a noble man who who slipped away in virtual anonymity.”
There are so few.
“The Scouting Report,” is full of a lot of good old earthy sayings, and familiar cliches, all appropriately applied. Nancy Murphy was particularly active in producing the text, Dale will hastily tell you. It is she who was the centerpiece of the household and was often called upon to perform both parental roles.
“I’d be gone to the ballpark by the time the kids got home from school. They’d be in bed when I got home from the game. They’d be gone to school by the time I got up the next morning,” Murphy said. “It was Nancy who was my anchor. No matter how I excelled on the field, she was the real hero.”
It’s a wise man who puts his wife on a pedestal.
Success didn’t come like a genie out of a bottle to Murphy. His first season in Little League he made only one hit. He stumbled twice with the Braves, as a catcher and first baseman, before Bobby Cox directed him to center field.
“Now my career has come and gone. I retired in 1993. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he wrote. “I believe that we are given experiences to share, taught lessons so we will teach others. That is the reason for this book.”
And the reason for this column.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Murphy’s law: Everything in moderation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Not that it should come as such a surprise that Dale Murphy has surfaced as an author, but it seems that his text has, apparently, been somewhat misinterpreted. “The Scouting Report” is the title, directed mainly at professional athletes and those athletes who have their eyes aimed at playing professionally.
“It’s not about being a team leader. That’s just not my personality. It’s aimed at things that I wish I had known when I became a professional player,” Muphy said from his home in Utah. “In athletics terms, this is a scouting report for your career, balancing your career, your marriage and your family.”
There’s a shortage of that among professional athletes, not to mention several of those on the college level, judging by police dockets across the country. What Murphy projects is a recipe for setting your course on the straight and narrow and keeping it there. His is the written word, composed mainly for athletes, not the reading public. He’s not aiming for the New York Times best seller list.
“I lived many years in professional sports and came out in one piece,” he wrote to his audience of athletes, “still happily married, the father of eight great kids. When the time comes and you are standing in my shoes — retired — I want you to feel the same contentment.”
That’s the theme, not training clubhouse spokesmen. I’m not sure that such unsolicited advice delivered to teammates is always warmly received. Henry Aaron never logged a lot of hours on the clubhouse podium. That was not his style. He lived a long and successful career as a teammate, but going his own way, not directing traffic.
When Murphy was a developing Brave, he recalls, the players he looked up to were Phil Niekro, Gary Mathews, and during one spring training, Tom Paciorek, the outfielder now heard in our area broadcasting Braves games. When Murphy needed to locate an agent, it was Niekro he turned to, but other than that, it wasn’t often that he sought advice in the clubhouse.
Murphy didn’t grow up a Mormon. He was converted, mainly through his relationship with another Braves minor league teammate, Barry Bonnell, later a Braves contemporary. That faith became the backbone of his life, even to the point that after his career as a player was done, he served as the head of a mission in Massachusetts. You’ll be impressed by the cast of stars that recommend his point of view, as expressed in the book: Bobby Bowden, Cal Ripken, Steve Young, Jason Kidd among them.
One athlete that Murphy holds high in his heart and esteem is Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinal who turned his back on a big contract to join the Army Rangers, then lost his life in Afghanistan. “No fanfare, no one patting him on the back, a noble man who who slipped away in virtual anonymity.”
There are so few.
“The Scouting Report,” is full of a lot of good old earthy sayings, and familiar cliches, all appropriately applied. Nancy Murphy was particularly active in producing the text, Dale will hastily tell you. It is she who was the centerpiece of the household and was often called upon to perform both parental roles.
“I’d be gone to the ball park by the time the kids got home from school. They’d be in bed when I got home from the game. They’d be gone to school by the time I got up the next morning,” Murphy said. “It was Nancy who was my anchor. No matter how I excelled on the field, she was the real hero.”
It’s a wise man who puts his wife on a pedestal.
Success didn’t come like a genie out of a bottle to Murphy. His first season in Little League he made only one hit. He stumbled twice with the Braves, as a catcher and first baseman, before Bobby Cox directed him to center field.
“Now my career has come and gone. I retired in 1993. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he wrote. “I believe that we are given experiences to share, taught lessons so we will teach others. That is the reason for this book.
And the reason for this column.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Questions about Bonds won’t go away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
He missed more than five months of the season, but Barry Bonds keeps doing the impossible, and he keeps doing so dramatically. One moment, the 41-year-old outfielder with the damaged knee is looking ready to retire. The next, pitchers are wishing he did. He returned to homer in four consecutive games prior to Friday night’s action, and his Louisville Slugger will rip more shots toward the stratosphere this weekend with his San Francisco Giants in the thin air of the Rockies.
Thus the question: Should we cheer or boo with Nos. 755 and 714 threatening to become yesterday’s news courtesy of Bonds’ otherworldly ways?
We should respond with silence. Just observe and nod and let history deal with the rest. The only person who really knows about the legitimacy of Bonds’ shattering of ancient records at such an advanced age for a pro athlete is Bonds. As for the rest of us, consider this: Whenever you wish to believe that we’re all wrong about a relationship between Bonds and anabolic steroids, you see that jumbo head above that Herman Munster body - you know, compared to how Bonds looked earlier in his career as a skinny line drive hitter.
What a mess for baseball, for the Giants, for the fans and for anybody who wishes to know the truth here. In the meantime, Bonds keeps turning this mess into a dilemma with every swing that pulls his artificially enhanced body closer to Babe Ruth’s ghost and Hank Aaron’s shadow.
Let’s start with this: Is Bonds artificially enhanced?
We don’t know. Well, not officially, even though Bonds allegedly told a grand jury before the season that he accidentally rubbed a bunch of steroid-related cream on his legs. This was sort of like Rafael Palmeiro allegedly informing baseball officials that he didn’t knowingly use steroids and that his positive test earlier this season probably resulted from a vitamin he received from a teammate. I mean, if you’re Palmeiro and Bonds in this situation, you have to say SOMETHING to authorities, especially since perjury can send your lying lips to the slammer. So, until you’re proven wrong (assuming that you weren’t telling the truth), you’re going to exist as Bonds in baseball purgatory.
Such is the plight of a slugger who is performing so many unprecedented feats, and who continues to prosper despite all of those steroid rumors, and who technically is “clean” when it comes to doing what he is being accused of doing.
That’s right. Although Bonds sat on the disabled list through most of the season, he still was subject to baseball’s new drug testing system for steroids and other substances. He has yet to test positive for anything, by the way. If he would have done so, somebody would have leaked it, and the news would have reached the print media and the airways in a hurry from here to whatever distant planet that receives the bulk of his home runs.
It’s just that, even without Bonds testing positive for steroids, you have so many other plausible reasons for his ongoing greatness.
Many claim that Bonds isn’t using anabolic steroids, but that he is on growth hormones, which can make you look like Herman Munster while slamming a bunch of home runs. In case you’re wondering, baseball doesn’t test for growth hormones.
Some claim that Bonds and his people discovered something better to take than anabolic steroids or growth hormones, something that is undetectable by any drug tests. Remember: According to leaked grand jury testimony from the BALCO investigation, those high-tech trainers that Bonds knew had more stuff to work with than that of, say, Grandpa Munster in the corner of his dungeon.
Others claim that Bonds was taking various things through the years to become artificially enhanced, but that he stopped when baseball began hinting of tougher drug testing. They add that Bonds was so big and strong and focused when he ended his drug use that he was able to continue his assault on Ruth and Aaron.
The point is, Bonds can slam 900 home runs, and he still won’t shake the doubters from now through forever. That’s really a shame. For everybody.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Thrashers must win quick to draw fans back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Joshua Stewart had waited 537 days for this night. So as not to miss a thing, he arrived at Philips Arena two hours before the doors opened Thursday. See, Joshua Stewart is a hockey fan.
For the first time since April 2, 2004, big-league hockey was played in Atlanta. It was just an exhibition game, but when you love the sport and you’ve gone so long between puck sightings you’re grateful for anything. Stewart came ready, wearing his blue-and-copper Thrashers sweater and equipped with blow-up ThunderStix, and 45 minutes before the opening faceoff he sat in his seat behind the goal with the dedicated fan’s air of expectation. But this was no ordinary preseason home opener, and even a zealot like Stewart couldn’t pretend it was.
The NHL is coming off a lost season, and the NHL in Atlanta was never to be confused with the NHL in Detroit or Toronto or Montreal. Hockey in Atlanta is a niche sport in a trendy city, and what fans the Thrashers had developed in their first five seasons have had 17 1/2 months to find other interests. Did Stewart, a season-ticket holder since the beginning, ever doubt he’d be back?
“Never,� he said. “But I grew up in Calgary.�
Stewart is 21, a journalism student at Georgia State. He follows the NHL the way undergrads in Athens track the SEC. Part of Stewart’s afternoon had been spent online, debating the merits of the Thrashers’ powder-blue third uniform. (For the record, he hates it.) He loves this sport and this team, but he isn’t so blind that he sees only blue skies ahead.
“It appears fans are still relating to [Dany] Heatley and [Ilya] Kovalchuk,� Stewart said. “As of now, we don’t have either.�
Much has happened since last the Thrashers played here. Heatley is gone. Kovalchuk remains in Russia, unsigned for the coming season. The biggest names among Thrashers are now Bobby Holik and Peter Bondra and Marian Hossa. A team that hasn’t yet qualified for the playoffs fully expects to get there this time, and if it doesn’t somebody might get fired. And then there’s the lingering effect of the lockout, which rendered a low-profile sport an even lower one.
Jason and Melissa Williams are graduate students at Georgia Tech. They’ve followed the Thrashers for years — Melissa grew up in Buffalo, which helps explain her thing for hockey — and they, like all the other hard-core folks who turned out Thursday, were tickled the game had returned. “The real fans are glad,â€? Jason said. “For the other people, it might take a few weeks.â€?
It might. It might take much, much longer. After so long out of sight, the Thrashers can’t wait until February to find their stride. Said Don Waddell, the general manager: “The response we’ve gotten from our fans has been very encouraging, and I think the buzz around town is pretty good. But I’m hearing that from hockey people. The bottom line is that we need to win.�
There has always been a pocket of hockey love in Atlanta — it existed here even after the NHL bolted for Calgary, existed during the tenure of the defunct minor-league Knights — but the lost season has made crossover success even more problematic. Even a diehard like Joshua Stewart admitted as much. “It’s interesting,â€? he said, “but it’s also scary. We’re about to find out what’s going to happen to Atlanta as far as hockey is concerned.â€?
We are. And it might not be all that pretty. Let the record show that, 537 days after the NHL last played in this city, the announced attendance at Philips was 10,218. Truth to tell, the place wasn’t even half-full.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Thrashers / NHL
College picks: Dictionary works against Jackets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
As you know, we’re all about research here at Weekend Predictions. (Hey, I heard that.)
So on Thursday, after hours of film study and rock-paper-scissors with my dogs (they stink at it — they always do “rock”), I decided to reach for the dictionary. Had to look up meningitis.
A serious, sometimes fatal illness in which a viral or bacterial infection inflames the meninges, causing symptoms such as severe headaches, vomiting, stiff neck and high fever.
This caused me great concern, in part because I didn’t even realize I had meninges and wondered if ignoring them for so long had caused them to rebel and make my hair fall out. So now I had to look up meninges.
The three membranes that surround and protect the brain and the spinal cord, called the dura mater, the arachnoid mater and the pia mater.
It was at this point when I realized why the dictionary, despite selling billions and billions of copies, has never been made into a movie.
I liked it better when athletes just sprained ankles. Reggie Ball had the “good� kind of meningitis last week, which I think is sort of like saying, “Hey, stop complaining. It was only a bowling ball that fell on your head, not a Chevy.�
Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey says he hasn’t decided if Ball will play Saturday against Virginia Tech (which, as ACC opponents go, is more like the Chevy). He only says, “I don’t at all see him playing the whole game.�
This is my new rule of thumb: When I have to use the dictionary to look up an illness, you sit out a week. The last thing I need is meninges with an attitude.
The Hokies are favored by 11.
Now that I can understand.
It’s covered.
Daily Specials
Dawgs at Dogs: Thanks to another College Football Soul Closeout Sale with ESPN, kickoff in Starkville isn’t until 9:12 p.m. This is always dangerous for a road team. It gives visiting players more time to take a city tour and roam among the cow patties, after which they begin to look for sharp objects. Maybe the sights will scare Georgia into some offense. It’s not good when you make Louisiana Monroe look competitive. Ugas win but won’t cover 15.
Tennessee at LSU: Three weeks later, the Tigers finally get to play a home game. They’d probably be the sentimental favorites even if they weren’t playing Tennessee, but of course that makes it easier. The Vols have yet to produce a point after halftime, which is a statement on either Phil Fulmer’s halftime speeches, the play calling or both. LSU covers six.
Ty Bowl: Ty Willingham was fired from a program (Notre Dame) with good players and hired by one (Washington) with flotsam. But it’s not all bad: Seattle has better views and Willingham doesn’t have nearly as many knives in his back. Irish will win. But take Washington and 13¸ with a clear conscience.
Sacrificial Lambs at South Carolina: I admit it — I did a backstroke in the Spurrier Kool-Aid before the Alabama game. But if I’m the Troy defensive coordinator, I’m not real comfortable playing a Steve Spurrier team the week after it was embarrassed at home. I know, 19 is a bunch. But Spurrier humiliation goes a long way. Roosters cover.
Arkansas at Alabama: It’s Week 4, and Mike Shula has more job security than Houston Nutt. Yikes. Southern Cal scored four touchdowns on its first eight plays against the Piggies last week. Nutt can study the other four plays before the next meeting. There’s no such problems at Alabama, where Shula has the Tide back in the rankings. The fact he hasn’t cheated or been sued for sexual harassment, of course, just qualifies as gravy in Tuscaloosa. Tide goes to 4-0, covers 15.
Almost Perfect (sort of)
Last week: 6-1 straight up, 5-2 against the line.
Toteboard: 16-4 straight up, 11-9 against the line.
End of Summer Blowout: Winner of this week’s pick contest wins a copy of Dave Wannstedt’s autobiography, “That First Step Off The Ladder Of Success Is A Doozy.�
Permalink | Comments (50) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Braves need to pull for, against Phils
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Braves are in a weird position. They’re rooting against Philadelphia because, duh, they want to win the NL East. But they have to be rooting for Philly, if just a bit, because they don’t want to play Houston in the Division Series.
If the Phillies take the wild card — they trail Houston by two games — the Braves will get the break of all breaks and open the playoffs against San Diego. (I know, I know. The Braves were 1-5 against the Padres in the regular season. No matter.) If the Astros prevail, as you figure they will, the Braves might not see Round 2.
That’s what the wild card has done: It has skewed October past the point of logical handicapping. The Phillies have a much better lineup than the Astros, but the Astros have three terrrific starting pitchers. Even the Braves can’t match Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte as a threesome. That’s the kind of 1-2-3 rotation that was built for a best-of-five series.
The Astros had a better team than the Braves last fall, but they’re missing Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent from that roster — and Morgan Ensberg, among the best of the holdovers, has been hurting — and the formerly bashin’ ‘Stros really don’t hit much at all anymore. But that’s the thing: Nobody hits much in October. It comes down to pitching. The Astros have those three starters and Brad Lidge to close. At least in Round 1, they’re the most intimidating opponent on the board.
And the Braves will play them. Unless the Phillies get hot. Talk about mixed emotions.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Club’s past offers a link to fall trend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
One said it didn’t matter. The other said it did. As for the truth, Braves historians Chipper Jones and John Smoltz are both correct on whether a seemingly little thing that happened five Octobers ago at Turner Field has evolved into an historically big thing that still affects the franchise whenever the leaves start changing.
This is about momentum, and about why the Braves must find a bunch of it through the rest of September, and about why the lack of it during their 13 consecutive trips to the playoffs and counting has contributed to their habit of evolving into The Great Pumpkin before Halloween.
Don’t look now, but if you go by momentum (or the lack thereof), the Braves are on the verge of becoming big and orange again. They suddenly can’t sustain victory during a time of the year when such a feat matters the most. Earlier this month, they had a raggedy road trip. Then, after Jorge Sosa used his Houdini routine (six walks, no runs in 6 2/3 innings) to win on Tuesday night at home against the Philadelphia Phillies, you had Wednesday night’s 10-6 loss in 10 innings.
There was good news for the Braves, though: The Phillies kept surging ahead, and the Braves kept clawing back on clutch hitting, fielding and pitching. You know, just like you need in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Braves, they rarely get any of those things in the playoffs.
Ever since Jeff Cirillo’s ridiculously easy grounder skipped off Jones’ glove at third base on the last day of the 2000 regular season to cost the Braves home-field advantage, they’ve dropped four of their past five trips to the National League Division Series.
If you didn’t know better, you’d conclude the Braves’ epidemic of first-round collapses begins and ends with that 5-year-old memory. You had a two-run lead for the Braves in the ninth against the Colorado Rockies. You had two outs. You eventually had Jones’ error leading to seven unearned runs and to the Braves going from hosting the Cardinals in the playoffs to hustling for a plane to St. Louis.
The shock of it all contributed to the Braves getting plastered by the Cardinals during a sweep. To that and to Jones’ error that continues to haunt the Braves in the playoffs.
Jones thought and thought about our theory at his locker, before he said, “I don’t think so. When we played the Cardinals and lost, it was just a situation where we ran into a hot team. They had momentum, and they just continued to ride it. Will Clark was unconscious at that point. Couldn’t get him out. At that particular time, they were the hottest team in baseball.”
Two things: First, the Cardinals were only baseball’s “hottest team” against the Braves, because the Cardinals were cooled in the NLCS by the New York Mets. Second, while Smoltz doesn’t necessarily agree that Jones’ error has become a generational problem in the playoffs, he does see the correlation between Jones’ error back then and the Braves’ meltdown in the postseason back then.
“When it happened (the Braves’ quick loss of home-field advantage in 2000), it was one of those things that made you go, ‘Shoot. We just blew an opportunity,’” said Smoltz, who joins Jones as the Braves’ elder statesmen. “It had a mighty affect on our team from the simple fact that it changed the routine. I mean, we knew we were starting at home, and all of a sudden now, everything changes. If we hadn’t of entertained the thought from the beginning of starting at home, it wouldn’t have mattered the way we lost that game and that we even lost the game. It became psychological at that point, which shows you how quickly momentum can change and why it’s important.”
For instance: Courtesy of a 10th inning grand slam Wednesday night, the Phillies have more momentum in search of a wild-card spot than the Braves have in search of staying their team colors of red, white and blue instead of big and orange.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Bonds again misses the mark
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Nice try, Barry.
Yes, with a nasty war overseas and hurricanes pounding the Gulf and economic woes everywhere, Congress has more important things to worry about than steroid use in professional sports. But no, this doesn’t mean that Congress can’t, as a spokesperson said, “walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Anyway, Barry Bonds is unleashing a new strategy to counter the performance-enhancing drug rumors swirling around his Louisville Slugger: He’s trying (and I place a heavy emphasis on the word “trying�) to divert attention elsewhere as much as possible while pursuing Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron for most home runs during a career.
With Bonds’ Giants currently in Washington, where congressional hearings were held earlier this year on drug testing in pro sports, Bonds told reporters, “I think we have other issues in this country to worry about that are a lot more serious. Right now, people are losing lives, don’t have homes. I think that’s a little more serious. A lot more serious.â€?
Soon after Bonds’ Declaration of Independence from those wishing to talk about his possible role with steroids, he strolled to the plate against the Nationals to slam No. 706 to move to within eight of Ruth and 49 of Aaron. Still, before, during and after Bonds’ latest blast, he was smothered with boos from the Washington crowd.
Good. Sounds like National fans aren’t the gullible type.
Permalink | Comments (63) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Rookies rock, but time for veterans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
A few days before spring training, which is generally not the time to draw conclusions, John Smoltz wrapped up the Braves’ past and future in a nice little package. It wasn’t difficult.
“Early on, we didn’t have the greatest players in the world, we didn’t have the stats — but we had clutch,” said Smoltz, the team’s surviving link to the 1991 season. “We need that again, that New England-type clutchness. We need that big hit, that big play. That’s the only thing that has separated us from having more world championships.”
It’s September now, and we still don’t know what to think. The Braves have two weeks left in the regular season. Barring a sinkhole or a collapse of White Sox proportion, they will have a 14th straight post season.
Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Philadelphia made the inevitable that much closer. Their National League East lead over the Phillies and their magic number for clinching the division are now one and the same: six.
Their hope is that it also alters this six-week trend of win one, lose one, win two, blow two. The Braves were 61-44 at the end of July. Even with Tuesday’s win, they are only 25-21 since. As foreshadowing goes, 25-21 doesn’t scream championship.
“We need a sense of urgency,” Smoltz said. “If we’re talking about a scale of 1 to 10, maybe we’re at a 7. Philadelphia and Florida are at a 10. I know some people think: win here and there and we’ll be all right. But I don’t buy into that.”
So this is about the time we ask: OK, who steps up?
The answer shouldn’t be: “Don’t worry, the rookies have been great.” Because the problem is that while the kids have been terrific, they don’t come with October résumés. They barely come with a razor.
They might treat October like July. Or they might morph into wildebeests, suddenly looking catatonic with headlights approaching.
This is when the Braves’ few remaining holdovers from years past need to assume control.
“They’re doing a remarkable job learning on the job, this season,” Smoltz said. “But we can’t just assume that’s going to continue. We can’t assume that because they’ve played well and gained experience this season that all of a sudden they’re going to fuse into veterans.”
The Braves opened a series against the second-place Phillies. Andruw Jones knocked in Atlanta’s first run in the first inning with a fielder’s choice. Chipper Jones, a late lineup scratch, came off the bench as a pinch hitter to make it 2-0 in the sixth. With the bases loaded, he got down 0-2 to reliever Rheal Cormier, and then worked the pitcher to a walk, forcing home a run.
Rafael Furcal made it 3-0 in the seventh with an RBI single.
Three veterans, three RBIs. If you’re the Braves, you hope that’s a sign.
This has been a wonderfully strange season for the Braves. Three of their pre-season moves — Dan Kolb, Raul Mondesi, Brian Jordan, — have bombed. Several regulars were injured, early and often. Then Greenville and Richmond came to the rescue.
Eleven of 17 rookies made their Major League debut. Jeff Francoeur went from senior prom to deity in roughly seven minutes. Just prior to game time, he was jumped from sixth to third in the batting order when manager Bobby Cox realized Chipper Jones, whose wife had gone into labor, was not going to make it to the stadium in time. That’s when you realize Francoeur has gone from lineup bonus to necessity. But even he has cooled off considerably down the stretch.
“It’ll come down to all of the veteran guys, not that we have a lot of them,” Andruw Jones said. “The rookies have been great. But I know there’s a lot more pressure now and we need to step up.”
Permalink | Comments (30) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Didn’t blog last Tuesday. There’s no excuse. Just send me $5.95 for postage and handling, and I’ll get you your refund check.
9: I think I represent the vast majority of non-hardcore NASCAR fans when I say the two biggest things that would attract me to the sport are: 1) crashes; 2) drivers saying nasty things about each other and, in some cases, throwing their helmets at each other.
8: Given the above, NASCAR is blowing it by trying to snuff out all of this fun stuff and fining and admonishing drivers.
7: Word is that Bill Romanowski is coming out with a book in which he may admit use of performance enhancing drugs. You know, this could be part of a “Things I Did” series. Romanowski can be followed by Mark McGwire, who can be followed by Rafael Palmeiro, then Barry Bonds, then Sammy Sosa…
6: The Thrashers should push to get Ilya Kovalchuk signed to a one-year contract while they continue trying to negotiate a long-term deal. The clock is ticking down to the opener.
5: Flew on a Delta flight this morning. The plane had wings, a pilot and everything. But I was a little put off when the flight attendant offered complimentary drinks, peanuts and stock.
4: Michael Vick — hamstring. Reggie Ball — viral meningitis. Pardon D.J. Shockley if he’s tiptoeing around campus this week.
3: I know the Falcons and Tech say Vick and Ball have a shot at playing. But when I hear “hamstring,” I think, “Out at least a week, maybe two.” When I hear meningitis, I’m not even thinking about football.
2: Flipped channels last night. There were two shows devoted entirely to what people wore to the Emmy Awards. Great value system. And we wonder why SAT scores are low.
1 By the way, Eva Longoria looked hot in the tight little orange thingy.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Ball never more wanted
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
After he lost track of downs in Sanford Stadium last November, more than a few Georgia Tech fans wished they could lose sight of Reggie Ball. He’d let them down, they believed, to the dispiriting extent that it was time to try somebody else, anybody else. Indeed, a prominent member of Tech’s athletics department was convinced the upcoming bowl would be Ball’s last collegiate start.
Ten months later, those same people want Reggie Ball to get well this minute. Ten months later, the prevailing belief around Tech is that the Jackets will be hopeless without him. Which only goes to show that fans are exceedingly fickle, which we pretty much knew all along.
“You read some things and you hear some things,” said Ron Gartrell, who coached Ball at Stephenson High. “And one thing Reggie learned when he played quarterback here was that when you win, everything’s great. When you lose, two people are going to get the blame — the quarterback and the coach. And most of the finger-pointing [around Tech] has been at him.”
This isn’t to suggest Ball was faultless. He threw more interceptions than touchdowns his first two seasons. He threw an uncommon number of passes off his back foot. He seemed to regress both fundamentally and tactically the more he played, and that conspicuous blunder against Georgia — to be fair, at least one of Tech’s coaches likewise didn’t know what down it was — seemed something like a last straw. But that’s the thing about sports: They put a guy in position to be roundly condemned, but they also offer the chance at overnight redemption.
Since that fourth down between the hedges, Ball has been terrific. He was MVP of the Champs Sports Bowl. He beat Auburn at Auburn. He threw no interceptions against North Carolina. He reminded everybody just why Chan Gailey had installed Ball as his No. 1 quarterback as a true freshman, benching the incumbent A.J. Suggs to make room. Ball is a great talent. When that talent is harnessed, he’s a very good quarterback.
“He’s showed people this year,” Gartrell said. “He’s very intelligent, and his competitive spirit is so high. My biggest fear was that [public criticism] might deter that. When you get criticized, you can go one of two ways — you can back up, or you can move forward.”
Ball and Tech have moved forward and upward. The Jackets are ranked No. 15 nationally, and with him at peak capacity they would stand a chance of beating No. 4 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Saturday. But Ball contracted viral meningitis and spent the weekend in Emory Hospital, and Taylor Bennett’s halting performance against Connecticut was enough to inspire words you thought you’d never hear around The Flats: “We’ve got to get Reggie back!”
It’s not yet clear if Ball will be able to play Saturday, and it’s less clear if he should even try. If you’re sick enough to be hospitalized for more than one night in this era of insurance scrutiny, you’re by definition fairly sick. Gartrell spoke to Ball by phone Sunday, and he offered this status report: “If it’s up to Reggie, he’ll play. But I don’t know if it’s up to Reggie. My personal opinion is that I don’t think he should [play].”
That would be the safer course, and from a purely selfish standpoint it might be the shrewder course. Reggie Ball has started 27 games for Tech, but the one game he missed has sent his popularity soaring to an all-time high. Even in a brute-force endeavor like college football, the old saw cuts deep: Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Falcons can’t keep their birds straight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Seattle — In this era of NFL parity, it is all about now. Too much emphasis on the past will dig you such a hole against your next opponent that you won’t have even a Michael Vick of a chance to climb your way out. So the Falcons have some issues at the moment. Let’s just say that it was as clear as the brilliant sky on Sunday above Qwest Field that they had a flock of birds flying inside their heads.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, the birds that they were thinking about during much of the afternoon were Eagles (as in the ones from Philadelphia who lost Monday night to the Falcons at the Georgia Dome) instead of Seahawks (as in the ones from Seattle who ripped the Falcons in the first half and held on down the stretch).
Sounds like this supposedly mature Falcons team is actually a work in progress when it comes to remembering that everybody in the league these days can play a little, which means that you can’t afford not to concentrate a lot.
“Whether the reason we lost this game was because [we still were celebrating that victory over the Eagles], I don’t know if that was the case. I really don’t,� said cornerback Jason Webster, after the Falcons spent the first half looking more laid back than the seagulls gliding over Puget Sound. In contrast, Jim Mora wasn’t exactly laid back at intermission.
The typically frantic Falcons coach told his players that he wondered if these were the same guys who rode with him on the team charter from Georgia to Washington. Courtesy of listless play from every aspect of the Falcons’ game, Mora watched the Seahawks roar to a 21-0 lead before surviving 21-18.
Now back to Webster, who thought again about the possibility of an Eagles’ hangover before saying, “I just hope that wasn’t the case.� Actually, it was, and this isn’t good news for the Falcons. Not unless they correct their inability to have collective amnesia no matter what they do from week to week. You have to believe they will, because they’ve done it before.
For instance: There was their Kansas City Massacre last season. “Man, I don’t even remember that game,� said Falcons safety Bryan Scott, shaking his head, with offensive tackle Todd Weiner doing the same and adding, “I know we did lose that game, and we lost pretty badly, but I can’t remember exactly how it went.�
It emphatically went the way of the Kansas City Chiefs during a 56-10 blowout, but the Falcons responded with seven consecutive victories and momentum toward reaching the NFC championship game. This loss wasn’t as ghastly. Still, after the Falcons kept discovering ways to survive the Eagles during that emotional season opener for both teams, this was within another Shaun Alexander burst through the Falcons’ underwhelming defense from moving to the vicinity of grotesque.
The excuses don’t fly here. Yes, the Falcons were without defensive end Brady Smith (leg injury), a master pass rusher, and consider that the Seahawks’ Matt Hasselbeck often had days, weeks and months to find his receivers sprinting free in wide-open spaces.
And, yes, the Falcons were without Allen Rossum (hamstring), the prolific punt returner, who could have helped the Falcons’ shaky field position during much of the first half.
Mostly, when it comes to the possible excuses for the Falcons, there was the horror of Vick becoming Vick late in the fourth quarter during another one of his miracle runs before he grabbed his left hamstring. Even so, Vick stuck around long enough to put the Falcons in a position for a comeback that never happened.
It couldn’t happen, because the Falcons awoke from their sleepwalk about two quarters too late.
“I think we’ve learned some things from this experience,� said Webster, who was particularly brutal during the first half before he did more than a few impressive things after halftime.
“We showed that we’re going to fight as a team. We showed that we don’t just lay down. But we also learned that we can’t put ourselves in this kind of a situation in the future.�
Then Webster chuckled, saying, “Well, I hope we’ve learned that.�
Permalink | Comments (106) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Considering circumstances, it’ll do
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It didn’t go according to script. It couldn’t have. When your starting quarterback spends the night in the hospital, you wad up the script and just try to ad-lib a win. You don’t attempt to be Sir John Gielgud; as long as you wind up ahead, you’ll settle for being Jim Belushi.
And that’s what Georgia Tech did. There will be no Oscars awarded for beating Connecticut, but beating UConn gives the Jackets a chance to trip the light fantastic seven days hence in Blacksburg, Va. They’ve done what they needed to do: They’ve positioned themselves to have a truly big season at a truly important time for this program and this coach.
This being Tech, the third installment of getting to 3-0 included anxiety unforeseen. Reggie Ball got sick Saturday morning - “took ill,” according to the not-terribly-informative press release - and was taken to Emory. His absence afforded Jacket fans the moment a few of them had been awaiting. They got to see the much-discussed Taylor Bennett actually play quarterback, and what they saw was proof that a healthy Ball has no fear of being unseated.
“He didn’t make any major blunders,” said Chan Gailey by way of semi-endorsement. “If you’re playing your first game and you didn’t go mess it up, you’re playing good.”
Yes, Bennett completed a touchdown pass on Tech’s first snap, Calvin Johnson turning a buttonhook into a 42-yard ramble. That was the good news. The bad: Bennett was 4-for-16 the rest of the half, and Gailey didn’t do him any favors by ordering 17 first-half passes. With P.J. Daniels and Tashard Choice as backfield options, the Jackets could have opted simply to run the ball and play defense. At least they got the second part right.
Down 13-7 after a too-tall punt snap, Tech took a lasting lead when Kenny Scott broke on a weak Matt Bonislawski pass and returned the interception for a touchdown. Tech made it 21-13 barely a minute later, the Huskies fumbling away a kickoff and the Jackets rolling 41 yards, 32 of them on the ground.
Not much happened thereafter. Tech’s next six possessions netted only two first downs, and by then UConn had decided to load up against the run and make Bennett actually complete a pass. Which he did. He completed three of them on a vital third-quarter drive that gave his team a 15-point lead, and that was really all Tech needed this nervous night. Give the understudy credit, if not a full-blown rave: Bennett did enough to get the Jackets to 3-0.
And now, provided Ball recuperates, things get serious for Tech in a way they haven’t under Gailey. Already the owners of one major road upset, the Jackets could well slip into the Top 10 by beating Virginia Tech. They won’t be favored - indeed, they’ll be a bigger underdog than they were at Auburn - but Tech has become a fairly hardy traveler. It seems to play better away from Atlanta. (Maybe it’s the absence of empty seats that stirs the juices.)
Tech has beaten four ranked opponents under Gailey, but none were as imposing as Virginia Tech seems. Then again, the Jackets haven’t looked this good since the latter part of the 2000 season. They have playmakers on offense and a defense so resolute that UConn couldn’t manage a first down after halftime. If Ball is healthy and playing under control, they have a chance against anybody anywhere.
Only once have the Gailey-coached Jackets strung four wins together. (That came in 2003, whereupon they lost to - ugh! - Duke.) If this team gets to 4-0, it will have done more than just complete an impressive September. It will have become the scourge of the South.
Permalink | Comments (43) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Clearly unmotivated, Dogs get away with it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Athens � Mark Richt dropped his sunglasses as he walked unimpeded toward the podium. Another broken play.
“Ohhhhh … God. I’m glad that’s over,” he said.
A team wins 44-7, it doesn’t usually feel like dental surgery. But this was one of those the-score-doesn’t-tell-the-whole-story kind of games. Because if the score actually told what happened in Georgia’s game against Louisiana Monroe on Saturday, chapter one would start out something like this: “More Novocaine!” screamed the fan base.
It wasn’t the opener against Boise State. It wasn’t the return of Steve Spurrier. It was Game 3 against a school that lost 38-0 last week â€â€? to Wyoming. It was against an opponent that the Bulldogs had faced twice before and won by a combined score of 112-9. (Ohhhhh … God. Even Ray Goff beat the Indians 70-6.)
But as much as the Bulldogs implored themselves, “Don’t have a letdown,” they did just that. They scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, then the transmission started dropping parts as they rolled down the road. They committed eight penalties in the first half, five on offense. They looked disinterested. The Sanford Stadium crowd merely transitioned from disinterested to genuinely ticked.
Funny thing about motivation. You can tell yourself to be motivated all you want, but sometimes the body parts make their own decision.
“You can’t have artificial enthusiasm,” center Russ Tanner said. “We try really hard to be focused and jacked up. We talk about not beating ourselves. You can’t make excuses about the time of the game or the crowd or whatever. It’s all on us. If we’re not successful, it’s because we’re not ready to execute. Luckily, we had the athletes to get it done. But in the SEC, you can’t play that way and expect to win.”
Louisiana Monroe isn’t in the SEC. The Indians barely have uniforms. But there they were, trailing only 17-0 at halftime. Sensing opportunity, they opened the second half with an onside kick â€â€? and recovered. They drove 53 yards for a touchdown. Now the score was 17-7.
Earth to body parts:
“Coaches talk about, ‘You don’t know how the Dog Walk is going to be, you don’t know how the fans are going to be, but you have to go out and get yourself motivated to play regardless,’ ” quarterback D.J. Shockley said. “It was kind of hard to get out of the funk we were in. Sometimes these games bring that out of certain people. You can’t do that. You never know what can happen. What if they had started out fast? It could’ve been a whole different game.”
The Bulldogs eventually pulled away. But it took atypical things to turn the score lopsided: A fumble recovery in the end zone; a 58-yard field goal; a Louisiana Monroe fumble at its own 16 to set up another touchdown.
It wasn’t domination. It wasn’t the performance you expect when you see: Georgia favored by 39 1/2.
This was supposed to be the redemption game. The offense struggled last week against South Carolina. This was the week to work out some problems and build confidence before going to Mississippi State.
Louisiana Monroe wasn’t really here to win â€â€? it was here for a $590,000 payoff. Only a small portion of that figured to be spent on ice bags and Nuprin for the flight home.
Instead, the Dogs actually provided something unexpected � entertainment value.
Not for Richt, of course. At halftime, the Georgia coach “got on the offense, the defense, special teams â€â€? he pretty much got on everybody,” Shockley said. “We were flat. We were having a lot of penalties. You could tell he was upset.”
On the first two possessions, Shockley completed 6 of 7 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 44 yards, including a 28-yard score. The rest of the game: He hit 7 of 13 for 143 yards and no scores â€â€? and he didn’t have a carry. Some of that is on play calling, some on the players.
“We’ll probably get punished for this,” Shockley said. “We’re going to be doing some running on Monday.”
Maybe then they’ll get the message.
Permalink | Comments (67) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
Retired Murphy finally offers an opinion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
This was bizarre. Out of nowhere (well, at least from Alpine, Utah, which is the same thing), I got a wonderfully crafted book in the mail called “The Scouting Report” by somebody named Dale Murphy. The book’s target audience is professional athletes, and the book’s purpose is to tell the knuckleheads of sports how they should operate during and after their time in the midst of stardom.
So why was this bizarre? Well, we’re talking about Dale Murphy, the slugger and the saint of the Braves from the late 1970s through the 1980s. While he spent most of those years doing his impressive thing, he kept his mouth shut while others did their woeful thing for stumbling and bumbling teams that needed vocal leadership from Murphy that they didn’t get.
Now the guy has written a book that deals in large parts with the same subject that he routinely flunked.
What’s up with that?
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Murphy, chuckling, before pausing and thinking over the phone Friday from Alpine, where he mostly is a professional dad for those of his eight children who remain at home.
“I guess, to be honest, while I played, I was just too guarded, probably, and sometimes it would have been better and more motivating to the team and to myself if I would have spoken out a little more. I was purposely bland, which isn’t good when things are going bad. So, anyway, you get retired. You get older. You find you’re actually more opinionated.”
The fact that Murphy has any opinions is amazing enough. And in “The Scouting Report,” he has a bunch of them, especially regarding the dwindling number of role models in sports.
From a chapter called “Giving back,” Murphy wrote, “Frankly, we’re all tired of athletes whose selfish, thoughtless and rude behavior has started to permeate professional sports â€â€? from profanity-laced interviews to the tendency toward aggressive violence outside the boundaries of their sport, as well as off the playing field.” From a chapter called “Career and Family,” Murphy wrote, “Adultery and immorality are prevalent in the world of professional sports. The professional athlete may be confronted on a regular basis with those who have little regard for marriage vows. You don’t have to look far to find those who would try to weaken your values. Stay away from these people and the places you find them.”
Mostly, the book is about solutions, with everything from Murphy’s tips on how to choose an agent to Dave Winfield’s hints on retirement to keys from Murphy’s wife, Nancy, on how to keep a family together when your husband is away for long stretches.
“Hopefully, in this regard [of writing a book], I’m speaking out a little bit and helping more people than maybe was the case in the past,” said Murphy, 49, who even flirted with running for governor of his native Utah last year. He is a devout Mormon who spent part of his retirement from baseball in 1993 as president of the Boston mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
None of this means that the Braves’ old Gold Glove center fielder and prolific home run hitter isn’t following the exploits of the Braves’ new Gold Glove center fielder and prolific home run hitter.
“How old is he now?” Murphy asked of Andruw Jones, whose home run earlier this week was his 50th of the season and the 300th of his career. “He’s only 28? Oh, my gosh.” Then again, when Murphy was that same age, he owned two Most Valuable Player awards, and Jones won’t get his first until this season. “I never came close to hitting 50 [44 was his highest for a season], and I never played center field like he does,” Murphy said. “People will say, ‘Oh, Dale is just being modest.’ Well, I could go get a ball, and I’d make a diving catch and throw a guy out occasionally. But Andruw, wow, he’s at a whole different level.”
Murphy laughed again, saying, “I mean, there is absolutely no comparison between the two of us. He’s head and shoulders above what I was doing.”
Yeah, but can Jones change part of his image for the good of the whole with the stroke of a pen?
Permalink | Comments (85) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Weekend Predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Let me start by congratulating last week’s 47 alert readers who went 7-0 in the Only NFL Picks That I was Really Serious About.
The Only Picks I Was Serious About are found hidden among other selections - of course, the ones I wasn’t serious about. They are discovered only by veteran Weekend Predictions readers, usually with the aid of a decoder ring, three Buds and a Paul Tagliabue sock pocket. (To obtain your decoder ring, please send $10 to Underpaid Columnist and Investment Adviser, AJC, 72 Marietta St., Atlanta.)
Last week’s first attempt to pick every NFL game went just OK. Even counting both real and phony picks, we were 8-7 against the spread. That wouldn’t get me into the NFL. These guys make money every time somebody sneezes. Sports Business Journal reported the league made $25 million when its merchandising partner, Reebok, was bought by adidas.
NFL Predictions have not yet gone public, but here’s the next best thing: Another guaranteed winner! The Falcons are one point underdogs to Seattle. I can only assume somebody factored relative humidity of the two cities into the equation, because football-wise it makes no sense.
Take the Falcons and the point, and look out for other serious picks below:
4-BAGS
3-BAGS
2-BAGS
Option 1: Real World Marathon
First 17th Earnings Straight up: 10-5. Against the line: 8-7. Lock of the week: Deadbolt.
DEPT. OF HINDSIGHT Straight up: 5-1 last week, 10-3 overall Spreadables: 2-4 last week, 6-7 overall Rock-paper-scissors: 12-6-2
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
No offense, but Richt should fire Richt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Mark Richt is among the 10 best head coaches in college football, and he has a chance to be the absolute best. For that to happen, something radical must happen. Mark Richt must fire Mark Richt.
Although line coach Neil Callaway is listed as Georgia’s offensive coordinator, Richt essentially does the job himself. As strange as it sounds, Richt has become the weakest member of Richt’s staff. His offense moves in fits and starts and tends to break down against better opponents. Because the defense, under Brian VanGorder and now Willie Martinez, has been uniformly superb, the Bulldogs often get away with their offensive flailing.
But sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they lose.
The astute Athens radio man Jeff Dantzler notes the common thread in the 10 losses under Richt — an offensive malfunction. Not once in those 10 losses has Georgia scored more than 17 points. The average Bulldog yield in those 10 games is 12.1 points.
Richt still hews to his Florida State method, which worked handsomely in the ACC before Miami and Virginia Tech arrived. FSU stopped trying to out-execute anybody long ago. FSU no longer cares about establishing the run or controlling the line. FSU simply tries to hit three big plays a half, which it can do because it almost always has better playmakers. But there’s a difference between conferences, and there’s a reason the Tallahassee formula can go flat on the Bulldogs.
The best SEC teams — Florida, LSU, Tennessee and Auburn — can approximate Georgia’s personnel. (Indeed, eight of Richt’s 10 losses have been to those four schools.) And any opponent that can run with the Bulldogs has a chance to beat them because Georgia remains a sloppy team. The Bulldogs have had more penalties than the opposition in each of Richt’s four seasons, and they did again against South Carolina. Penalties hurt them Saturday, and another installment of Richt’s disjointed play calling nearly got them beat.
Richt has always seen the run as a counterpoint, not as Job 1. Like many offensive minds, he gets caught up in trying to outscheme the other guy. The inevitable result is an offense founded on finesse, and there’s no reason Georgia’s offense, with its ample supply of massive linemen and powerful backs, should ever be a dainty dancing master. Not until the third quarter did Richt start running the ball straight at South Carolina — until then, the run of choice had been Richt’s staple sprint draw, which is a fake pass — and the chance to grind down an opponent was lost yet again.
A team doesn’t have to run the ball every down to establish a physical superiority. A team doesn’t even have to run it early. (At Auburn, Chan Gailey had Georgia Tech pass to take the lead and then let P.J. Daniels hammer away to protect it.) But at some point in every game a great offense must take control of a defense, and Georgia does it too seldom. It’s no coincidence that the Bulldogs’ best work under Richt — their drive to the 2002 SEC title — came when Musa Smith got the ball more and more.
Richt’s offense can stack up yards, yes, but a disproportionate number come against the Kentuckys and the Vanderbilts and the Boise States. In Richt’s last year at FSU, the Seminoles led the nation in total offense. In his four seasons in Athens, the numbers have gotten rather worse — Georgia was 21st nationally in total offense in 2001, 39th in 2002, 58th in 2003 and 31st last year. In rushing offense, Georgia hasn’t finished above ninth among SEC teams the last three seasons.
The Bulldogs have the players to do much better. They simply lack the mind-set. A smart head coach, which Richt demonstrably is, would see that his insistence on doing double duty isn’t in the best interest of his program. He needs to find someone to call plays. He needs to find someone who believes in the power of power football.
Permalink | Comments (120) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Fulmer vs. Meyer? That’s a hoot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Before we get to this week’s Phil Fulmer jokes, an important document has been obtained by the Web site, “The Smoking Gun.�
According to an employee handbook entered into evidence in a recent federal lawsuit, it seems all potential “Hooters� girls must sign a statement that reads, in part, sort of, “Nobody cares what color your eyes are.�
Quoting from the actual document: “I hereby acknowledge and affirm that … the Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace. I also expressly acknowledge and affirm I do not find my job duties, uniform requirements or work environment to be offensive, intimidating, hostile or unwelcome.â€?
I bring this up for two reasons: 1) I’m a guy; 2) I’m always impressed when somebody basically says, “This is who we are. I can’t lie. Accidentally spill this water pitcher on your shirt.�
OK. Transition.
Florida coach Urban Meyer, like Hooters, really needs to just come clean. He has tried to say the right things this week regarding Phil Fulmer. But on the Monday preceding the Florida-Tennessee game, he should’ve just distributed a statement that read: “I’ve get a better chance of being outcoached by a kumquat.�
This is an actual quote from Meyer on the Volunteers: “They’re not a team that will wow you with scheme. They’re a team that wows you with personnel.�
Break that down any way you want. Here’s my translation: “Gameplan? I’ve never seen a coach do so little with so much. I’m sorry. Was I supposed to talk about the color of his eyes?� (I just got a vision of Fulmer in shiny orange shorts. I think I’m going to be sick.)
So this week, it’s the Gators and Vols. Fulmer already has changed starting quarterbacks. After one game. Against UAB.
The line says Florida by six.
Look into my eyes: Gators cover.
New Low Carb Menu (add a salad and 10 shares of Delta stock for 99 cents):
Louisiana-Monroe at Trembling Chihuahuas
Yeah, they’re not psyched out by Steve Spurrier. OK, whatever. Georgia didn’t score 18 let alone cover 18 against South Carolina. Wait until the Dogs find out ULM coach Charlie Weatherbie is Spurrier’s third cousin. (So I hear. Pass it on.) Georgia wins but take 38 and the other guys.
Connecticut at Tech
UConn prepped for this game by beating up on Buffalo and Liberty. Unfortunately, this week’s scheduled opponent, the Montessori School, backed out of the game because it conflicted with a trip to the dinosaur museum. The Jackets — in the rare air of 2-0 and 15-point favorites — cover.
FSU at Boston College
B.C. coach Tom O’Brien responded to cracks that his plodders can’t keep up with faster ACC athletes by joking: “It’s going to be us Clydesdales vs. them thoroughbreds, I guess.” Fortunately, the Seminoles mostly run in claiming races these days. Noles squeak by; give up the point.
Arkansas at the Real USC
The Razorbacks’ defense just made a Vanderbilt quarterback look like Matt Leinert. So what are they going to make Matt Leinert look like? Duck. Troy covers 31.
Alabama at South Carolina
Bammy quarterback said this week of Spurrier, “All he can do is coach.” Question: Where does that leave Mike Shula? Take the gift two — and Carolina in a straight upset.
Miami at Clemson
The Canes have had two weeks to think about throwing away a game in Tallahassee. The last time they started a season 0-2, Lou Saban was fired and the program went in a new direction with Howard Schnellenberger and a briefcase full of unmarked bills, safely laundered in Bolivia. Miami covers the seven.
Dept of Hindsight: Straight up: 5-1 last week, 10-3 overall. Spreadables: 2-4 last week, 6-7 overall. Rock-paper-scissors: 12-6-2. Weekend Predictions Bookclub: Purchase any three selections and win a copy of Jerry Glanville’s new book, “Aloha Means I Still Coach Like Crap.”
Permalink | Comments (89) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Wrong about Andruw
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I was right about the Falcons beating the Eagles. I was right about Georgia Tech winning at Auburn. I was wrong about Andruw Jones.
He’s not what he always was. He’s way better. He’s your NL MVP by some distance. He has carried the Braves as surely as Chipper Jones carried them in 1999, has carried them for a longer time than C. Jones did in his MVP year.
I admit it. I didn’t see this coming, not even after Andruw Jones was the scourge of the Grapefruit League. I saw that as a blip, a false clue. And when he started so slowly in the games that counted, I said, “See? Told you so.”
I admit it. I was wrong. Chipper Jones got hurt and Andruw Jones got great. He has 50 home runs at a time when 50 homers are again a benchmark. He has hit them at the right time, so let’s have no more of that Andruw-doesn’t-produce-in-the-clutch debate. He does. He has.
He’s doing what a lot of people thought he’d do nine years ago but not so many figured he’d do at this later date. I was one of those doubters. I doubt no longer. I’m a believer.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Kerney is Falcons’ catalyst on defense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Flowery Branch â€â€? In case you’ve been blinded by the spotlight on that Vick guy, the Falcons have several bright spots on an historically bleak defense. DeAngelo Hall is close to turning potential into reality. Keith Brooking owns a resume with four Pro Bowl trips and counting. Ed Hartwell has a habit of making offensive players go backward instead of forward.
Well, I’ll take Patrick Manning Kerney, thank you. Even before the Falcons’ defense started to leave mediocrity in its rear-view mirror last season while driving toward goodness, this highly active defensive end was impressive for those who dared to search the shadows.
Has Kerney ever had a bad game? I’m still thinking. So is defensive line coach Bill Johnson, who kept thinking and thinking on Wednesday at the Falcons headquarters before he began thinking some more. I’ll return to Johnson, but let’s move to Brooking, a highly active linebacker, who has been around for all of Kerney’s seven years with the Falcons.
“He’s full tilt. Not just in the game, but in the weight room, in the meeting room, in absolutely everything that he does,” Brooking said. There was confirmation from Falcons safety Keion Carpenter, whose eyes grew after the question of the moment came his way: I mean, has Kerney ever had a bad game? “He hasn’t even had a bad practice,” Carpenter said, with eyes still wide. “It’s him. That’s his want-to (attitude). That’s his desire. You want to get yourself to the level that he’s at every single day, and that’s greatness. I just love playing with that guy.”
Who wouldn’t? How many other NFL veterans spend long stretches during practice yelling encouraging words to those on the scout team? “Come on.” “Give them a good look.” “Great job.” “Let’s keep hustling out there.” Not only that, Kerney is the unofficial leader of the Falcons’ cheerleaders during home games. Between crushing people, he leaps, grunts, laughs, waves and does whatever else he can to turn the Georgia Dome into an ugly roar for the other team’s ears.
Here’s another thing: Kerney can play, which the Philadelphia Eagles saw often during their 14-10 loss to the Falcons on Monday night. His effectiveness went further than just his four solo tackles and blistering sack of Donovan McNabb that forced a fumble in the second half. With Kerney operating at his typically advanced level of efficiency, his teammates hadn’t a choice but to do the same.
Which brings me to somebody who does remember a bad game for Kerney, and that is Kerney. Although he didn’t classify Monday night as a bad game for himself, he wasn’t overly pleased. “There were about five or six snaps that I wish I had back, because it’s always a matter of trying to be perfect,” said Kerney, as strikingly composed off the field as he is dramatically frantic on it. “You’re never going to be perfect, but if you’re not striving for that, you’re not going to be able to become a great player. You have to be your own worst critic to keep improving.”
That’s because Kerney knows folks are watching. Take it from Carpenter, who kept attending every practice and every meeting for the Falcons last season with his broken leg. He kept doing so, because he knew Kerney would do the same thing. “When I was first coming back, it was hard, because I wasn’t in the condition that these guys were in, but Patrick would pep me up,” Carpenter said. “I would look at him and see how he kept getting to the rock. Then I’d say to myself, ‘If he can do it, then I can do it,’ and that helped me inspire a younger guy who might be looking at me.”
Anyway, let’s return to Johnson, who eventually said the following about Kerney regarding bad games: “You’re never going to think that he’s having a bad game because of his tremendous effort. He has such a passion for the game. He’s all about team. He’s a guy who will make a mistake, correct it and never do it again. You don’t have enough space to write all the things that really need to be written about Patrick Kerney, to be honest with you.”
I agree.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
NFL drops the ball on fight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Shame on you, Paul Tagliabue.
If the president of the United States can admit his mistake, which he did this week regarding the government’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina, then the commissioner of the NFL can admit his mistake, which he hasn’t. All you need to know is that Tagliabue watched his game officials look absolutely foolish Monday night at the Georgia Dome and hasn’t said or done anything about it.
No way those game officials should have ended the playing nights for Philadelphia’s Jeremiah Trotter and the Falcons’ Kevin Mathis. We’re talking about 40 minutes BEFORE the opening kickoff.
And, yes, I know it is an NFL rule that players throwing blows will be ejected from a game. Period. The idea is to nip the hint of brawls in the bud. But, no, that NFL rule doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use common sense along the way.
Competitive players often do what Trotter and Mathis did. That is, they got a little too excited before a big game. Not only that, those game officials should have considered more heavily that this was a highly anticipated Monday Night Game and that there was significant doubt as to whether one of those accused of throwing a punch (Trotter) did so.
Worse, those game officials still botched the situation despite watching replays. Worse yet, Tagliabue was at the Georgia Dome to view it all.
Without linebacker Trotter plugging the middle with his Pro Bowl credentials, the Falcons did the expected. Twice. They ran wild (gaining nearly twice as many yards rushing in this one as compared to what they managed against Trotter and the Eagles during last season’s NFC championship game), and they won.
The Falcons might have done both of those things on Monday night with Trotter playing, but we’ll never know.
Thanks to those officials’ stubbornness and to Tagliabue’s indifference.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Infield pair consistently rises
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Sometimes it’s the smallest cog that makes the wheels of a giant machine go round. Sometimes the same can be said of the human pieces of an athletic team. The Albie Pearsons of baseball, the Spud Webbs of basketball and the Warrick Dunns of football can be lost in the roiling scene.
But let it not be so with the Braves. Andruw Jones can already hear the drums beating his 50-home run melody, though think back, if you will, to when there was talk among restless fans of trading him while he was going 0-for-30 or so in early season. Perish the memory. Chipper Jones plays his role as Leader of the Team, as a veteran should. John Smoltz has successfully made the re-conversion from bullpen to starter, and the roll call goes on.
And, of course, who among us has not have been caught up in the clamor for Jeff Francoeur, Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, and the special kid who has aged in a hurry, Brian McCann, the catcher. (Frankly, why the trade for Todd Hollandsworth I’ll never understand, but I’m probably not supposed to.)
You may have those Herculean dudes who hit it out of the park. How long does a home run take, five, six seconds? Give me that action around the middle bag.
I’d say if you take the pulse of these Braves, you begin around second base. Day after day, it’s Rafael Furcal or Marcus Giles, Giles or Furcal filling in the blanks when, perhaps, all may seem lost. They fit like a hand in a glove. Put the two of them together, they probably wouldn’t add up to one good-sized NFL tackle.
How many times in late innings, the Braves needing a jolt to get back into the game, have you not seen Furcal lay down and beat out a bunt that incites a rally? Or Giles catch a sweet pitch and deliver a two-base hit, his specialty, or hit one into the seats, turning a game around?
They are the two smallest players on the team. They show little respect for their bodies. Giles has the sawed-off stature of a sturdy stump. He punishes himself. You recall last year when he lost one-third of the season butting heads with Andruw Jones diving for a pop-up.
Furcal and the fans had to make peace at the start. He had fences to mend. He had to live down a taste for alcohol, with two DUIs hanging overhead. Furcal got out to a sputtering start and after a month was hitting only .228 and has had to take time off to give a battered shoulder some rest. Ye gods, how many times has he virtually disappeared from the field, deep in the hole to cut down runners at first?
Because they come in small packages, they aren’t afraid to swing for the fences. Between them, they have hit 21 home runs before Tuesday’s game. Oh, I know, Andruw has more than doubled that number, but he’s supposed to. Between them, they have driven in 107 runs before Tuesday’s game â€â€? remember we’re talking about the two leadoff hitters â€â€? and Andruw has more than doubled that, but he’s supposed to.
How many times have you seen Giles barrel into second base, breaking up double plays? Or look a charging runner in the eye and finish off one.
Of course, when you speak of Giles now you must replay the vision of his dash from second to home on an infield out, again against Pedro Martinez and the clueless Mets. He took off in a sprint, rounded third like a dervish and never even had to slide while the addled Mets stood around scratching.
There may be another combination around the league with more impressive numbers, but I’ll pledge this â€â€? they don’t mean as much to their team as this pair. It doesn’t take much space to give Furcal and Giles, Giles and Furcal their just due, and so I have. Here’s to power, but just don’t forget them when you begin to consider who’s Most Valuable. The league is Andruw’s territory. We’re talking team here.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Revamped Thrashers still need Kovalchuk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
This is how we know things have changed: You watch the first day of practice and the biggest debate isn’t over who centers the power play in Atlanta and who gets boxed and sent to the Chicago Wolves. Because it used to be there wasn’t much difference between the two.
We know things have changed for the Thrashers when Peter Bondra â€â€? a former 50-goal scorer looking for one last playoff run before retirement â€â€? doesn’t guffaw and double his salary demands when the little team from Atlanta shows interest. In fact, as guarantees go, Bondra pretty much halves salary demands to fit into the Thrashers’ budget and rolls the rest of his demands into incentive bonuses.
“As a free agent, you think, ‘Wow, they’re really building something there,’” Bondra said Tuesday. “It wasn’t about salary for me. I wanted to play for a winning team.”
That being significant because the Thrashers have never finished with a winning record.
So almost everything about the Thrashers has changed for the better. Everything except this: Their best player was in Russia Tuesday. If you’re prepping for the neighborhood Russian Super League Fantasy League Draft, Ilya Kovalchuk toils for Khimik Voskresensk.
Kovalchuk is unsigned. General manager Don Waddell, trying to dance around numbers at one point Tuesday, said: “We’re several times several times several millions” apart. (It’s the new math.)
Agent Jay Grossman said of his client possibly being signed before the Oct. 5 start of the season: “Right now, it doesn’t look good at all.” (It’s the old rhetoric.)
In most ways, this is like any other contract negotiation. In at least one way for the Thrashers, it’s very different. Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley were the faces of this franchise for three seasons. They were expected to be the faces for a long time. Now Heatley is gone and Kovalchuk is missing.
The Thrashers will tell you, in so many words, “We’re good without Kovalchuk. We’re better with him.”
But to minimize Kovalchuk’s absence is nonsensical. He is this franchise’s franchise player. That doesn’t mean Bobby Holik, Marian Hossa and Bondra aren’t fabulous additions. But over the next five years, chances are no player will score more goals than Kovalchuk. Certainly, no Thrasher will.
You can’t lose him because you can’t replace him.
There is a salary cap in the NHL, but the flip side is it’s more crucial now than ever for teams to lock up the one or two star restricted free agents on their rosters. Even Waddell, who is sitting on the other side in negotiations, said of Kovalchuk: “I won’t knock the player. I love the player. I know that he wants to be the top player in the NHL, and I’m excited by that.”
But if a deal doesn’t get done by Oct. 5, it probably won’t get done this season. Kovalchuk will play in Russia. Some might view that possibility as: 2 percent reality, 98 percent empty threat. You shouldn’t. As much as the kid likes the Thrashers’ future, wants to play in the NHL and live in the U.S., he appears willing to let his agent guide him.
Newsflash: When it comes to hardball tactics, Grossman is at least Waddell’s equivalent. He held out a starting goalie (Nikolai Khabibulin) for nearly two full seasons, eventually forcing a trade from Phoenix to Tampa Bay. Khabibulin led the Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2003-04. Subsequent contract demands led Tampa to let him go. Now he’s in Chicago.
Kovalchuk has leverage that Khabibulin didn’t have in 1999. The goalie played part of one season in the IHL during his holdout and made $50,000. Now, unlike six years ago, Russian teams will sign elite players to seven-figure deals.
Waddell still believes this will get done. Maybe. The Thrashers’ last five-year offer was worth about $28 million. Grossman’s last request was closer to $35 million. The two sides can meet in the middle at $31.5, enabling Kovalchuk to still average $7 million in the last two years of the contract (his first two years of would-be free agency).
But the question is not who blinks first. It’s whether Kovalchuk blinks at all.
Otherwise, improvements not withstanding, the Thrashers could resemble a shiny new tower without a roof.
Permalink | Comments (30) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
New Vick’s improved, more confident
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Two days before the Falcons’ season opener, Michael Vick provided his teammates with some unintentional comic relief. As he stepped to the line to run a play in practice, the quarterback mistakenly lined up behind left guard Matt Lehr for the snap. Linemen all look the same from that angle.
Players laughed, coaches laughed, Vick laughed. But with those laughs came a confidence that things would evolve differently Monday against Philadelphia than they did in January. The belief was the quarterback didn’t have to be perfect. He just had to be better, and he would be.
Vick wasn’t perfect Monday night. He was just better.
He was sacked four times. He had three turnovers (one interception and two fumbles). But he also made his teammates smile, and it had nothing to do with standing behind the left guard.
In the first quarter, Vick connected with Michael Jenkins for 58 yards to set up one touchdown, and he ran 7 yards — capped by a 2-yard victory leap — for another. The 14-0 lead held up. The Falcons won 14-10 over the Eagles to jump-start the 2005 season and at least ease some of the pain following their NFC title game loss in Philadelphia.
“This is the NFL — some games back and forth,â€? Vick said. “The best team will handle those situations and come through in the clutch.
“It goes to show how far we’ve come since 2004.�
That makes Vick 24-12-1 as a starter, flaws and all.
Funny thing about flaws. They don’t look as bad when you’re winning twice as many games as you’re losing.
We saw both sides of Vick early. On the Falcons’ first possession, he kept a drive alive by dancing away from Eagles and scrambling 8 yards on a third-and-6 for a first down. But three plays later, on first down from the Eagles’ 30, he underthrew tight end Alge Crumpler, and the pass was picked off by Brian Dawkins. On the next possession, the Falcons faced a third-and-22. This time, Vick had Michael Jenkins open over the middle for a possible first down — but he overthrew him.
But if there has been one constant about Vick in his career, it’s that a string of bad plays can be followed by the ESPN moment without warning. So it was Monday: Two bad drives were followed by two touchdowns.
With the game still scoreless, Vick opened the Falcons’ third possession by connecting with Jenkins for 18 yards at the Eagles’ 40. Four plays later, he ran away from the pass rush to buy time, then hit Crumpler for 18 yards to move the ball to the 7.
On the next play, Vick took the snap, rolled right, raised his hand at the 10 as if to clear air traffic, ran to the 2, then became airborne and didn’t come down until the Falcons had a 7-0 lead.
Next possession. Vick runs play-action with T.J. Duckett, then lofts a pass 58 yards down field for Jenkins, who has given this team a receiving threat. Duckett rammed into the end zone on the next play from the 1 for a 14-0 lead.
Last summer, the Falcons were so paranoid coming off Vick’s “Broken Leg Season� that he took only 29 snaps in exhibition games. It probably retarded his development. His quarterback rating: 14.6. Giving weight to exhibition statistics generally is ill-advised, but it was difficult to ignore the contrast of this summer compared to the last one. Vick played in all five exhibition games. He completed 17 of 29 for 191 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The efficiency rating: 87.0.
“The best thing that Mike did this training camp is he got better every day,â€? general manager Rich McKay said. “He’s more comfortable, and that’s because he’s had a lot more time with this offense. Last year, you guys were asking every day, ‘How much is he going to play? Will get hurt?’ And so were we. We were kind of consumed by it. It’s like we thought something could fall out of the sky and hit him. But this camp, it never really came up. He got a lot of work. He’s better prepared.â€?
Permalink | Comments (51) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
These aren’t the Falcons of old
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
They could’ve won bigger but didn’t. They could’ve lost at the end but didn’t. They held together under duress the way a winning team must, the way — dare we say it? — a champion does. They beat the reigning NFC titlist because they were stronger at the end and more poised throughout. They took the step they needed to take, and today we look at the Falcons a bit differently than we did at 9 p.m. Monday. We look at them as a team capable of facing a great team and winning a statement game.
No, it was no classic. Statement games often aren’t. Statement games sometimes come down to brute force, as opposed to pretty offensive curlicues. And that’s the thing about football: Brute force can carry you a long way. On this night, brute force prevailed when all else failed.
Billed as the biggest regular-season home game in franchise history, both sides came unstuck a half-hour before it actually began. Jeremiah Trotter, the Eagles’ Pro Bowl linebacker, got into a grabbing/shoving match with Kevin Mathis, the Falcons’ nickel back, and this bit of silliness drew the earliest penalty flag (and subsequent use of instant replay) in NFL history.
The dual ejections amounted to a huge net victory for the Falcons, who figured to run a lot anyway and ran even more with the unexpected absence of Philly’s best run-stuffer. The Falcons hit the ground running, no pun intended, rushing for 200 yards and seizing a two-touchdown lead. They were the aggressors early, and what happened early was key in a game that fell to pieces the longer these two vaunted offenses contrived to work.
It was 14-7 after a first half that lasted so long it seemed a game unto itself. The Falcons didn’t score again — actually, T.J. Duckett broached the goal line but the touchdown was nullified by Todd McClure’s holding penalty — and seemed to have set themselves up to lose at the end. Inside the final nine minutes, the offense went three-and-out, then four-and-out. Duckett couldn’t gain a yard on third-and-1 from the Atlanta 49. The resulting punt was the percentage choice, if not the popular one inside the Dome, and the NFC champs took the ball at their 24 with 3:54 left, the game theirs to win.
And the NFC champs couldn’t. They couldn’t even cross midfield. DeAngelo Hall locked up Terrell Owens, considered one of the game’s two greatest receivers, and Rod Coleman pretty much controlled everything and everyone else. Coleman batted down Donovan McNabb’s pass on the final Philly series, and then on the Eagles’ last snap he crashed up the middle and forced the Pro Bowl pick to throw too soon, and that was that. A game billed as a collision of sleek offensive types — Vick and McNabb and Owens â€â€? had been decided by an unyielding defense and a big ol’ defensive tackle.
“I thought the defense played pretty daggone good,� said Hall, who was daggone good himself. “[The defense] just picked up the slack.�
And now things change for the franchise that has worked 39 seasons without posting consecutive winning records. They won on Monday night, something at which the Falcons have been historically awful, and they faced down a team that has itself faced down the rest of the NFC. This isn’t to say the Falcons are now the class of the conference, but they stand even taller today than they did in preseason.
It was just one game, but it was more than one game. It was a night of nerves and imprecision, but ultimately it was the night the Falcons gave the regal Eagles every chance to win and snatched back every one. The flawed Falcons of old wouldn’t have won this game, which only underscores the greater point: These aren’t the Falcons of old. These Falcons are better than they’ve ever been.
Permalink | Comments (34) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
In Buford lurks a big, bad Wolf
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
J.C. Clemons
1. Why is that dude playing tackle for Buford wearing No. 33?
Because, when you are big and bad as Omar Hunter, you can sport whatever uniform number you want. Plus, in Hunter’s case, if you spent as much time in the opponent’s backfield as he did against Central Gwinnett, you might as well sport a number that suits your running back fantasies.
Hunter was the best player on the field as the Wolves dominated a bigger Central Gwinnett team. That’s bigger as in classification (AAAAA to AA), and not in heart, or size. And no Buford player exhibited more spirit or heft than Hunter.
And they say he’s just rounding into form from a knee injury.
When Central botched a handoff on its first possession, Hunter was right there to take possession. He would go on to add another fumble recovery.
When Buford shifted to an unbalanced line, guess who helped clear the way for the go-ahead score?
When coaches from Louisville and Tennessee showed up to scout other Division I prospects, guess who kept forging his way into their line of sight? Yep. Big Omar Hunter, who in addition to the fumble recoveries, had two tackles for loss of yardage.
This, however, may not have been Hunter’s best game.
Against Union County, whom the Wolves held to 24 yards rushing, Hunter tallied five solo stops, eight assists and two tackles for losses.
Nevertheless, Hunter will not be signing a college scholarship anytime soon. Unfortunately for all the recruiters salivating at the thought, and for Buford’s future opponents, Omar Hunter is only a sophomore.
2. Has any good come out of Meadowcreek’s victory-less march through South Georgia?
Well, the Mustangs did make a nice bit of change for a program that can use every bit it can get its hands on. That said, let us hope those in charge at the school will never again subject their overmatched kids to such scheduling.
True, Meadowcreek does not get the necessary level of community and local business support, and coach Reggie Perry’s building effort is still at the foundation stage.
But the road to respectability for the Mustangs’ program should not take it down I-75 to be thumped by the likes of Colquitt County, Thomas County Central and Lowndes. Wiser souls must prevail, and I’m certain they will.
Now, here’s hoping Perry and Meadowcreek start to gain traction. It would do wonders for Gwinnett if the commitment to excellence being generated in the classrooms over there could spill over into the athletic arena. Somehow, I have a feeling that it is already doing so â€â€? reports of unflattering football scores to the contrary.
3. Why have those people in Buford banished Dexter Wood to the cheap seats â€â€? on the visitors’ side?
It’s not what you think.
Wood, who retired as football coach following a sensational run, has taken a classy approach to his new status as athletic director only. It’s called out of sight makes for peace of mind.
Ever mindful of other folks’ well-being, Wood does not want to be seen as looking over new coach Jess Simpson’s shoulder, so to speak. Each game, he camps as far away from the Wolves’ sideline as possible. Which is not always how it works out.
During Buford’s opener at Gainesville, it didn’t take long for him to be spotted by a Wolves fan, who asked to join the coach. Of course, Wood obliged. And last week at home, he couldn’t get a sportswriter from underfoot, and Wood dismissed the urge to do bodily harm. Actually, the ink-stained wretch was welcomed, which goes to show you why we always admired Wood.
There are no undesirables in Dexter Wood’s world.
Permalink | | Categories: High School, J.C. Clemons
Andruw, Aaron and baseball inflation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
No offense to Andruw Jones or anything, especially since I’m a charter member of his suddenly crowded fan club. It’s just that when it comes to his surge into the Braves’ record book for most home runs during a season, he’s no Eddie Mathews, and he’s definitely no Hank Aaron.
This isn’t to say that Jones is operating as Eddie Haskell (you know, the sitcom character) or Hank Hill (you know, the cartoon character). Take it from Hank Aaron (you know, baseball’s home run king). “What Andruw is doing overall this season is just fantastic,� Aaron said of the National League’s could-be most valuable player who finally is combining prolific hitting on a consistent basis with his already gold glove in center field.
Just so you know, Aaron also is a charter member of Jones’ fan club, and he spoke on Sunday while taking a break from one of his favorite obsessions. That is, watching NFL games, particularly those involving his Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. Added Aaron, “When you look at Andruw throughout his career, he always has done just enough to keep people’s eyes open enough to say, ‘Hey, one day, this guy is going to do what we all think he’s capable of doing.’ So by Andruw breaking this home run record for a season, no, I’m not surprised by this.â€?
What exactly is this, and what does it really mean?
Over here, you have 49 blasts and counting for Jones after his absolutely ridiculous binge over the weekend in Washington against the Nationals.He ripped two home runs on Sunday during the Braves’ 9-7 victory.
Anyway, over there, you have the Braves’ previous mark of 47 set by Mathews for the Milwaukee Braves in 1953 and matched by Aaron 18 years later in Atlanta.
Not impressed. Well, not by Jones’ numbers when compared to those of Mathews and Aaron. Even if you exclude baseball’s steroid mess, which has created artificially inflated sluggers, there are so many other reasons why it is easier to slam a bunch of tightly wound cowhide farther these days as opposed to the days of Mathews and Aaron.
I’ll yield to Aaron. Not only is he always the gentleman, but he is the disciple of that cliché about records being made to be broken. As a result, he was queasy about telling the truth regarding an accomplishment that is nice for Jones but deserves an invisible asterisk.
“Show me how many times that Andruw or anybody else who has averaged 40 something home runs in recent years have been knocked down or thrown close to,� Aaron said.
“I don’t want this to come off as me being bitter, because I’m not, but [knockdowns] just don’t happen as much as they did when I played. Plus, the pitching wasn’t as thin back then as it is today. We had fewer teams and more quality pitchers.�
True. All true. To be fair, though, you could say that Jones’ feat is more impressive than that of Aaron and Mathews in this regard: While Jones slammed his way into Braves’ glory for a season with a team rushing toward the playoffs in search of a world championship, Mathews’ record-setting thing came for a Braves team that finished 13 games out, and Aaron’s record-tying thing came for a Braves team that finished eight games out.
The point is, Jones had more pressure to conquer along the way to history than Mathews and Aaron.
Well, didn’t he?
“You have to consider that most guys now have contracts that are longer than three or four years, and when the season is over, they don’t have anything to worry about, because they’re going to get the same salary,� said Aaron, chuckling, recalling how he had a bunch of one-year contracts until the last four of his 23 seasons.
“In our case, we had to go on a salary drive every year, which meant we always had to fight like the dickens. You had to play as hard the last 10 games as you did the first 10 games.�
So there you have it: What Jones did was impressive for his time.
Not for all-time.
Permalink | Comments (57) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Falcons now deal with being the hunted
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The offensive line might be better, but there’s just as good a chance it won’t be. There are questions in the secondary and deficiencies at wide receiver, even if you count Peerless Price’s excommunication as an aesthetically appealing nip/tuck.
There’s the schedule: Five playoff opponents in the first seven games, including last season’s two Super Bowl teams. Three games on Monday Night Football. A Sunday night game. A Saturday game. Thanksgiving in Detroit, which is worse than even most days in Detroit. (This comes after a five-game preseason with a trip to Tokyo.)
Football is partly about structure, about rhythm. This schedule isn’t conducive to either. Depending on the week, the Falcons might go from rock to Bach.
Worried yet?
Tonight the Falcons open the 2005 season against the team that closed 2004. The Philadelphia Eagles might have had their summer camp on the corner of Discord and Dysfunction, but they’re still the best team in the NFC, at least until they end up surrounded by rubber walls.
The only certainty about the Falcons is things are peaceful. Last year, they went 11-5 and reached the NFC title game in Jim Mora’s first season as head coach. They’ve added a few pieces — Ed Hartwell, Matt Lehr, Ike Reese, Roddy White. Optimists scream Super Bowl. History screams they take a step back.
But Rich McKay, the general manager, knows perceptions and projections differ when you’re coming off 5-11 instead of 11-5. It’s that hunter vs. hunted thing. “The volume of the boo will be a little louder this year,â€? he said. “Last year we could somewhat sneak into town. People would say, ‘Ah, it’s just the Falcons.’ This year I’m not sure they’re going to say that.â€?
McKay has tried not to waste time analyzing whether the Falcons have closed the gap on the Eagles. He has focused on his own team, and even there says when asked if the Falcons are better: “It’s hard to say.� (Fortunately, the team is not dependent on McKay for walk-up sales.)
And as much as tonight’s game has seemingly mutated into an 800-pound, all-or-nothing collision — people, it’s September. You don’t plan parades or dirges when there are 15 games left in a 16-game season. Besides, if there is one franchise that can’t afford to look ahead, it’s this one. Thirty-nine seasons and never back-to-back winning records. That’s not merely a bad streak. That’s a statistical improbability along the lines of walking outside and having a piano fall on your head. In the middle of the desert.
There is more. Mora was only the eighth coach in NFL history to win at least 11 games in his rookie season. What the previous seven did in their second season is not as quickly publicized. Only two, San Francisco’s George Seifert and Dallas’ Barry Switzer, matched their win total from year one (Switzer also won the Super Bowl). The other five coaches all saw their teams take a step back.
McKay witnessed an early bump when he was in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers went from 6-10 in Tony Dungy’s first season in 1996 to 10-6 in year two. They were scheduled for three prime-time games in 1998 and built up as a Super Bowl darkhorse. Then they went splat, lost the first two Monday night games, started 4-7 and finished 8-8 to miss the playoffs.
“That ’98 team got swallowed whole,� he said. “We weren’t ready for it. But that was a younger team on the line. This team has more veteran starters. We have more guys who have been through it. We have more guys who understand the whole thing about playing on Monday night and Sunday night and Saturday. You can use all that as an excuse or you can play through it.�
So they will opt for the latter. But watch out for falling objects.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Dogs survive game Gamecocks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens â€â€? It was the most deflating halftime score generated in Sanford Stadium since George Godsey got Jim Donnan fired. (Georgia Tech led 27-3 after 30 minutes on Nov. 25, 2000.) The moment Bulldog Nation had long awaited wasn’t tracking its smackdown script. Not only was Georgia not kicking Steve Spurrier’s celebrated backside, the Bulldogs were actually in arrears.
Halftime score: Darth Visor 9, Silver Britches 7.
The Red & Black hadn’t convened Saturday to see a game. These folks were here for a whipping. Their Bulldogs could beat Spurrier only once when he coached the mighty Gators, but there’s nothing mighty about his new team. South Carolina will do well to win five games, and Spurrier’s first loss as a Gamecock figured to arrive by the sort of margin he used to amass against Georgia. Favored by 18 points, Bulldog backers had visions of 38-10, 45-7, 52-0. Then the game began to unfold (and unravel), and after a sobering half it was clear Georgia couldn’t name the score and mightn’t dictate the result.
And then it got worse. Ahead 17-9 with seven minutes to play, the Bulldogs had to fend off a two-point conversion to stay in front; had to convert on third-and-22 to burn four precious minutes; had to snuff a Carolina hook-and-ladder on fourth-and-19 â€â€? one of the Ball Coach’s famous ball plays â€â€? to put down the Gamecocks once and for all. Georgia won by a deuce, not a double dozen. Georgia won and was lucky to win.
“It was there,” Spurrier said. “It was there to be had.”
He ticked off the number of things went wrong - a touchdown nullified by a penalty for illegal shift, a missed PAT, that overthrown two-pointer and finally the third-and-22 that Spurrier kept calling “fourth-and-22.” He ticked off these failings, but in no way was he ticked off. Indeed, one of the SEC’s greatest winners took immense pride in this loss.
“It was fun,” he said. “Except for the end.”
Give the devil his due. Spurrier got five times more from his meager forces than Mark Richt did from the ninth-ranked Bulldogs. Georgia opened the game by trying a play-action pass off a wishbone set, and that goofball maneuver resulted in a sack. Two D.J. Shockley interceptions cost nine points - the six the Gamecocks got off Johnathan Joseph’s return and the three Georgia didn’t get from a cinch field goal - and not until the third quarter did Richt find an offensive rhythm. And by then the Gamecocks had begun to believe they could win.
“We knew we were playing the University of South Carolina, not the University of Steve Spurrier,” said Georgia receiver Bryan McClendon, but for those on the periphery it’s hard to discern a difference. Spurrier has emboldened a middling program just by his swaggering presence, and in his second game he nearly pulled the kind of upset his mighty Gators never could. (The mighty Gators were never 18-point underdogs.)
If one play will cause the Ball Coach to lose sleep, it will be the third-and-22. The chances of making a first down from such a hole? “Normally not that good,” said McClendon, who found himself unaccountably uncovered down the left sideline. Shockley delivered his best throw of the night â€â€? the Georgia quarterback completed only eight passesâ€â€? and the Bulldogs held the ball until 71 seconds remained. By then the goal for Georgia fans had changed completely: There would be no rout, no comeuppance for the man who became the bane of their lives. They just wanted their team to hang on.
And surely, even in defeat, Spurrier took satisfaction in having thwarted the assembled multitude. “No, I really don’t,” he said. “I learned a long time ago that if you listen to the [fans], you’ve got a problem.”
A game supposed to yield sweet revenge garnered only a shaky reprieve. Georgia bettered the Ol’ Ball Coach, yes, but it couldn’t humble him. Couldn’t come close to that.
Permalink | Comments (136) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Ramblin’ Wreck continuing to hold
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Frankly, you didn’t know what to make of either of these teams. Sure, Georgia Tech had gone to Auburn and won. Consider it an upset. North Carolina had yet to play a down with a new, yet old quarterback, a senior, like D.J. Shockley at Georgia, who had waited patiently in the wings until Darian Durant had played out his term in office.
Matt Baker had been somewhat more active than Shockley â€â€? 88 passes in three years, 44 completions â€â€? but you had to like how his admirers view his work. “He fashions his game after Green Bay’s Brett Favre,” it is written in the Tar Heel press guide.
It still rankles out here on The Flats that after bringing home a barnburner victory from Clemson last season, legitimately an upset, that the Yellow Jackets drove into Chapel Hill and got blasted. Run out of Kenan Stadium. Embarrassed.
Now, what might they expect from this team that was still learning about itself? Durant’s was a running game. Baker brings the passing game, patiently tuned in since his arrival from Rochester Hills, Mich.
Chan Gailey has a pretty good read on this edition of Yellow Jackets going into his third year of the Reggie Ball regime. A little run, a lot of pass with the expectation of maturity having set in, something that the Georgia Tech coach addressed, in a jocular manner when Ball took his turn in the postgame press conference.
“Come on in, the microphone’s yours, Big Daddy,” Gailey said to his junior quarterback.
“For the first three quarters he was great,” Gailey had said, then the fourth quarter turned into a scrambling imbroglio, both teams trying to put their stamps on the scoreboard. When Georgia Tech led 27-14, an air of comfort fell over the Tech majority among the 46,459 aroused patrons, at one time enthralled with Ball, then grouchy at others. Both teams were hanging on â€â€? Carolina groping for any kind of edge, the Yellow Jackets simply looking for closure. Neither could afford to make a mistake with twilight now closing in on the stadium named for Bobby Dodd and the field for Hugh Inman Grant.
It was a frenetic scene upon which the curtain never fell until Dennis Davis intercepted Baker’s desperation fling and returned it to Tech’s 35-yard line with a minute, 54 seconds left. That was basically all she wrote, as it is sometimes said.
Mainly, what was established in this game is that after all these years, Damarius Bilbo is now, once and for all, a vital part of the battery of Ball and Bilbo. The poor guy has been at one time or another, a quarterback, a running back, a pass receiver, never able to settle into one line of work. Now he has. He takes a lot of the heat off Calvin Johnson, the sophomore with spectacular All-America potential, not that that is the sole purpose of Bilbo’s being here.
Saturday, he caught eight passes for 131 yards, picking up bonus yards on his feet after the catches. Not that his passing game didn’t get a curtain call. It came early after the half, when Ball set out crossfield, Tech’s offense swung to the right, and the Tar Heels lost track of Ball. Ah, there he was, pulling in a pass from Bilbo, advancing the ball to Carolina’s 17-yard line. It set up Travis Bell’s 25-yard field goal, three points that later gave the Jackets a little comfort in the closing minutes.
“He showed us what we thought he could be,” Gailey said of Bilbo, from Moss Point, Miss. As the coach looked at it in the mist, a lot more was made of it all than it really was. The object is to win every game you play, and thus he has two legs up on the season of ‘05.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Tech / ACC
Tech triumphs, but not without some big scares
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
They won. They’re 2-0. That’s all that really matters for those associated with a Georgia Tech team that should move to 3-0 after beatable UConn comes to town next week. Then again, the Huskies ripped Buffalo and Liberty (you may laugh now), and the Yellow Jackets looked significantly flawed on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium against North Carolina (you may stop laughing, especially if you expect Tech to dominate this year).
Suddenly, the cloudless sky and the uniforms of the Tar Heels weren’t the only things blue in this one. Try those associated with Tech, usually into white and gold. Instead, they definitely were blue after turning a blowout in the first half into a squeaker. That the Jackets discovered ways at the end to salvage a 27-21 victory is the encouraging news.
Here’s the better news: The Jackets know they have a ways to go before they actually become good.
“When you know that you really didn’t play up to your potential, I don’t want to say that it’s depressing, but it really is,” said Tech linebacker KaMichael Hall, especially since North Carolina is mediocre and Tech supposedly isn’t. I mean, how can the Jackets follow their opening thriller at Auburn by giving North Carolina even the hint of shocking Tech for the second consecutive season?
Well, glad you asked. Let’s start with the Tech fans. Where were they? The Jackets were playing for the first time since they earned their first national ranking in four years, and only the wide-open gaps throughout the stands rivaled those around Tech’s secondary. Speaking of that secondary, Tech cornerbacks kept chasing the backs of Tar Heel receivers. After getting torched for 342 yards passing by Brandon Cox, Auburn’s first-time starter, the Jackets allowed 280 yards through the air for Matt Baker, North Carolina’s first-time starter. As for the latter, it was enough to turn the Jackets’ 14-0 lead in the second quarter into a fight for their lives before a mostly yawning crowd.
They won, though. Said Tech cornerback Dennis Davis, among those doing much of the chasing instead of tackling before stiffening down the stretch, “The only reason the score was that close was because we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We had a bunch of missed assignments that easily can be corrected.”
We’ll see, since Tech’s schedule features more than a few opponents (Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson and Georgia) who can throw a bit. Which brings us to more encouraging news for the Jackets: Reggie Ball also can throw a bit, and he can do so these days without having defenders catch his passes.
Against North Carolina, Ball had two of the most important zeroes of the game, and that was zero interceptions and zero sacks along the way to completing 24 of 47 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns. “For the first three and a half quarters, he engineered drives and just played really well,” said Tech coach Chan Gailey, who pushed Ball toward a nice evening with innovative playcalling. As a result, Tech was able to survive a slew of missed opportunities in the red zone against what traditionally has been a wretched North Carolina defense.
It all helped Tech make the transformation from blue to yellow again. That is yellow as in Jackets’ yellow as opposed to the yellow that players and coaches turn when they fold during adversity.
This wasn’t the same Tech team that stumbled toward a 34-13 embarrassment last season in Chapel Hill. While Ball was becoming an interception machine (three) back then, the Tech run defense was vanishing (284 yards rushing for North Carolina) into the night. One week, Tech was performing its miracle inside the last five at Clemson. The next, North Carolina was making Tech resemble an absolute fraud. The same thing happened two years ago, when Duke flattened the Jackets after Tech’s gem over Maryland.
Here it was happening again, but only until Tech remembered in the fourth quarter that this was North Carolina. The Jackets grabbed three interceptions, and Ball passed and ran his team to a touchdown.
Too bad much of the Yellow Jacket Nation wasn’t around to see it.
Permalink | Comments (41) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
NFL Predictions: Start season right, take Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
So the boss comes to me and says, “You know, we need a spinoff of Weekend Predictions for just the NFL games.”
I say, “OK. I’m already pretty busy. It’s my week to feed the dogs. How about six games?”
He says, “How about all of them?”
So we compromised.
I’m doing all of them.
I’m not getting paid any extra. But the really good news is I look like a team player, just like T.O. (Hello? Is this mic on?)
I figure, it could be worse. I could be working for the NFL and promise everybody a tasteful and understated warm-up for the opener Thursday, only to come back and hit them over the head with Ozzy Osbourne, Santana, Green Day, Rolling Stones videos, everybody on cable channels 49 through 72, the King Family, the Brady Bunch, the Iron Chefs, Sponge Bob (Kraft), all of the players to be named later, all of the Marx Brothers (Yes! Even Gummo!), Topo Gigio and Señor Wences.
Any way, NFL games will be given a bag-of-chips rating. I know my audience.
FOUR BAGS
• Eagles (1-1/2) at Falcons: Terrell Owens says he’s going to make amends with Donovan McNabb, but of course he does this not by simply walking over to McNabb’s locker but by announcing it to ESPN. Brian Westbrook says he’s being “disrespected” and is tired of making “chump change.” Well. Nice to know we’re all focused. Andy Reid, your gurney is ready. Take the Falcons and the 1-1/2.
THREE BAGS
• Cowboys at Chargers (4-1/2): Hey, look! Peerless Price just made a play! Made you look. Chargers win this easy.
• Saints at Panthers (7): I know there’s going to be coast-to-coast applause for New Orleans all season, and that’s great. But it can’t change the simple fact that Jim Haslett still stinks. Seven’s covered.
• Packers at Lions (3): So is it just me or was Brett Favre a lot better when he partied? I got your cheese. Punt the points.
• Colts (3) at Ravens: You say, “Indy’s defense scares me.” I said, “Baltimore’s offense makes me laugh.” Which is amazing, considering I hear Bill Belichick actually invented the forward pass. Pick: Colts.
TWO BAGS
• Jets at Chiefs (3): The over/under on Chad Pennington’s next injury is 27 minutes. Give the three and take K.C.
• Bucs at Vikings (6): Anybody who really believes it’s possible for a team to become better without Randy Moss must have forgotten THAT HE SCORES TOUCHDOWNS! OK. I feel better now. But Minny covers.
• Broncos (4-1/2) at Dolphins: I know. And now you’re going to tell me that Randy Moss and Ricky Williams are the only two NFL players who get high. I wonder what Paul Tagliabue would be like with a buzz. Never mind. Take the Fins and the points.
Titanics at Steelers (7): Time to build up Pittsburgh before the inevitable playoff descent. In September, they cover.
TIME TO FOLD SOCKS
• Bears at Deadskins (6): Seventeen inmates on death row were being given an option this week to watch this game in exchange for a lighter sentence. Fifteen chose the chair. Skins cover.
• Rams (5-1/2) at Phoney Niners: The Thrashers are giving away cars to draw fans. Maybe the Niners should give away Bay Area real estate. Rams cover.
• Texans at Bills (4-1/2): I’ll see your J.P. Losman and raise you a Dom Capers defense. Gimme the Texans and the points.
• Seahawks at Jaguars (3): Matt Hasselbeck was on my fantasy team last year. Did I mention that I hate Matt Hasselbeck? Jax covers.
• Under Class at Giants (3): Arizona opens on the road for the 17th time in 18 years. The lone exception was when a scheduled road opener was pushed back because of 9/11. Feel the NFL love. Take the Cards and the trey.
• Bengals (3-1/2) at Browns: Pick against David Pollack in his first NFL game? Look, I get enough hate mail. Bengals cover on the road.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Recalling a stroke of evil genius
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It was a throwaway line in the 11th paragraph of a recount of the 1993 Atlanta Bulldog Club meeting at Colony Square. “Over two years, Georgia has lost but five games,” I wrote in a missive that ran in this paper on Aug. 11, 1993. “Two were to Florida and the evil genius Steve Spurrier.”
I was trying to write in something approaching Bulldogs vernacular, it being a column about Georgia fans. I probably gave two seconds’ thought to “evil genius.” It just seemed to fit the Georgia view of the dastardly Florida coach who had the nerve to beat the Bulldogs and make fun of Ray Goff afterward.
I kept using the silly little description simply because I liked the cartoon imagery â€â€? cantankerous egomaniac scheming to take over the world â€â€? and I guess it started to spread. A year or so later, a Palm Beach Post writer told me, “You know, you were the first with that ‘evil genius’ thing.”
I’m not even sure if that’s true, but I’ll take it. The immortal Grantland Rice had his Four Horsemen. (Being somewhat more skilled than I am, he got them in the first paragraph, as opposed to the 11th.) I should probably settle for my evil genius.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Task for Jackets is to maintain focus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
For the sake of focusing, Woody Hayes used to lock his Ohio State players in a monastery before Rose Bowl games. Then there was Jackie Sherrill motivating his Mississippi State bunch to rip Texas by castrating a bull. While I matriculated at Miami (Ohio) University, the head coach always smashed a pumpkin on the locker room floor to signal that rival Bowling Green and its wretched orange uniforms had arrived on the schedule.
Are you listening, Georgia Tech players, suffering from college football’s version of attention deficit disorder? I’m guessing the Yellow Jackets coaches did much this week to keep their players thinking about North Carolina on Saturday instead of last week’s upset at Auburn, the latest Young Jeezy video and everything else.
Well, did Tech coaches do something along these lines?
“If there was a magic trick to keeping players focused, then none of us would ever have a problem,” said Tech offensive coordinator Patrick Nix. “There’s a lot more to trying to keep guys focused than people think. You never know when that big test in school is coming up, and you never know when a girlfriend is going to break up with a guy. What’s going on [with the Hurricane Katrina aftermath] also has affected several of our guys. We had one player who had to go to his grandmother’s funeral at the beginning of last week. We’ve got to realize that a guy who is 18 to 22 years old is going to have a lot of distractions.”
Exhibit A: The Jekylls (as in Jekyll and Hyde) as opposed to the Jackets (as in, why has Tech been so dramatically erratic during the Chan Gailey era?).
Since Gailey joined the Jackets before the 2002 season, each of their huge victories over North Carolina State, Auburn (the first time), Maryland and Clemson were followed by huge losses. The worst of the worse was Tech’s 41-17 disaster at Duke after the Maryland game. You also had the Jackets getting plastered last season at North Carolina (34-13) after their miracle over Clemson at Death Valley.
This shouldn’t happen, not as often as it has to a Tech program with at least decent talent. After all, monasteries, bulls and pumpkins notwithstanding, the truly good teams find ways to keep the lows from canceling the highs of a season.
Exhibit B: Nix’s 1993 Auburn squad that played 11 times without a loss. You don’t go undefeated by keeping one eye on the past and the other on the future. So what were the tricks used by those Tigers to keep both eyes on the present?
“The big part of it was that we didn’t have a bunch of tricks. We just had a bunch of seniors who were playing for us, and generally speaking, seniors are able to keep their focus better than freshmen and sophomores,” said Nix, a former Tigers quarterback. “In those days, you had a lot more than 85 scholarships, so you really didn’t have a lot of young guys in the lineup. The older guys make fewer mistakes, and life for them is a lot more stable than it is for others.”
For the record, Tech has five seniors starting on defense and three on offense, which means the Jackets have enough players who should know better. Even so, veteran leadership often isn’t enough, because such almost was the case for that undefeated Auburn team. Those Tigers won by less than five points against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Florida.
That Auburn team still won, though. Which really is the point: If the Jackets wish to flirt with the elite this season, they must discover ways to triumph more often than not in spite of distractions.
“The important thing is that we’re in a thing called life, and it’s a lot bigger than football,” Nix said. “If you didn’t have any school, and if you never had any tragedies, and if you never had anything go wrong, that’s one thing. But from Coach Gailey on down, we want to teach our guys about dealing with life.”
That’s fine. Just teach Tech players about dealing with life and whoever is next on their schedule â€â€? especially after huge victories.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Weekend predictions: Dogs, Tech win
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Lou Holtz, former football coach and still 10 percent humanoid, with the rest meat-byproducts, recently predicted South Carolina would upset Georgia.
I find this amusing, though not because Holtz doesn’t even have his own Friday column, and therefore his projections aren’t considered as scientific absolutes, like, say, the theory of relativity and Weekend Predictions. Rather, this is funny because in his 174 years of coaching, Holtz never once predicted a victory for his own team, even when he knew he was coming off a really good illegal offseason.
“This week we play Georgia. If we don’t lose the game 92-6, it’s only because a meteor crushed the team bus on the way to the stadium,� Holtz would say. “By the way, if you’re with the NCAA, I just saw Lou Holtz and he went that-a-way.�
This week, Georgia plays South Carolina.
Now, doesn’t that sound a lot better than saying, “This week, Georgia plays Steve Spurrier?�
With Florida, Spurrier went 11-1 against Georgia.
With Florida, Spurrier went 6-0 against Ray Goff and his eventual remains, and then planted a big wet one on Jim Donnan, 47-7.
With Florida, Spurrier beat Georgia in Sanford Stadium 10 years ago, 52-17. (Somebody threw a cup of tobaccy juice at him after the game. Of course, they missed and hit a security guy.)
With Florida. With Florida. With Florida.
Spurrier is not with Florida.
With South Carolina, is he.
With gout, he might as well be.
The Dogs are favored by 18 points over South Carolina. If the line goes any higher, the SEC mandates they play at least one series blindfolded.
The last time a Spurrier team was this lightly regarded?
“Should’ve been probably when we played the Eagles a few times,â€? he said. The Washington Redskins — a mutation of gout.
Carolina opened unimpressively against Central Florida. Georgia opened with a first-time starter at quarterback (D.J. Shockley) who threw five touchdowns and ran for another. Holtz opened at Golden Corral, stuffing rolls in his pocket. Or so I hear.
I know. It’s a lot of points. But it’s not Florida.
Dogs cover.
North Carolina at Central Atlanta
Georgia Tech’s defense allowed Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox to have one of those Jeff George-type games: 342 yards, four interceptions, nine brain-seizures. But the Jackets held on for an upset and now find themselves with a national ranking… and are projected to win a game by 12? Welcome to the Achilles’ heel of the Chan Gailey regime. Nothing comes easy. Tech wins, but take the Heels and the points.
Missy State at Auburn
The Tigers opened the season with four interceptions, a fumble and 11 penalties, including five illegal procedures. I’m thinking cyanide would’ve been a lot quicker. War Beagle, baby. Tigers win, but take the other Bulldogs and the 15.
Notre Dame at Michigan
One win and suddenly everybody is rushing to Blockbuster to rent “Knute Rockne: All American.� The Irish even had a visit this week from nine-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Scotty Bowman, who told the players: “I may have coached in Michigan, but I don’t root for Michigan.� Even Hall of Famers stand on the wrong sideline sometimes. Wolves cover the seven.
Clemson at Maryland
Last season, Clemson beat Miami one week, then lost to Duke the next. The Tigers upset Texas A&M last week. Landing gear is half off at the Esso Station this week. Maryland is somewhere between Duke and breathing. Good enough. Terps win.
Southern Missy at Alabama
A team starts the season with Middle Tennessee State and Southern Miss, it thinks, “2-0. Cool.� But that was, “Booo,� not “Coooool,� players heard when they led only 9-7 late in the first half of a 26-7 win over MTSU. Prepare for four quarters of problems this week. Southern is twice the team Bama faced and has had its resolve tested by Katrina. Upset? No. But close. Take the dozen.
Permalink | Comments (65) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Give me some direction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I don’t just wake up in the morning and go to a college game. I plot my route. I gather my maps. (I have many.) I consider alternate routes. I leave ridiculously early. I prepare.
See, I hate sitting in traffic. I know, I know — nobody likes it. Me, I don’t just not like it. I HATE it. And no sporting event (with the exception of NASCAR, for which I take similar evasive action) has traffic like a college football game. So here’s what I do:
I’ve tried five or six different ways to Athens. I park in downtown Auburn and walk a mile rather than risk getting caught in the congestion near Jordan-Hare. I drive 20 miles out of the way to get to Neyland Stadium. I drive 30 miles out of the way to get back from Tuscaloosa after a night game. I don’t venture onto Assembly Street in Columbia. (Though Bluff Road is getting just as bad.) I know a back way into Clemson and I stick to it even though, after a Duke-Clemson basketball game in 1985, I hit a deer availing myself of this two-lane escape.
As I was going through my usual rigamarole last week — Columbia on Thursday, Auburn on Saturday — I got to thinking: Am I the only one this neurotic? Does anybody else take such circuitous and laborious measures? Or do you folks just sit in gridlock and grin and bear it? Really, I’d like to know.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Falcons’ ‘A’ game can beat Eagles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Flowery Branch � The Eagles have been the NFC’s best team over the last four seasons and have twice eliminated the Falcons from the playoffs. If the Falcons are to reach the Super Bowl, they’ll have to beat Philadelphia at some point. At what point might they be ready to beat Philly?
Why, right about now.
Said Michael Vick: “We’re ready to beat anybody we play.�
Said Ike Reese: “There’s no reason we can’t beat them. But they’re not a team that’s going to be intimidated by being on the road in any game against any opponent. We’re going to have to be on our ‘A’ game.â€? And if the Falcons indeed bring their best come Monday night? Will their best suffice? “Oh, yeah,â€? Reese said. “Our ‘A’ game is good enough to beat anybody in the league.â€?
Reese has more standing in this matter than anyone else on either side. An Eagle for seven seasons, he’s now a Falcon. He was brought here not so much for his skills as a linebacker — he’s technically a substitute — as for his capacity to carry himself in the manner of a consistent winner. Put simply, the Falcons want a little of Reese to rub off on everybody else in his new locker room. Thing is, Reese doesn’t believe much rubbing needs to be done.
“When you play a team in a championship game [as the Eagles did against the Falcons in January],â€? Reese said, “you’re not going to be a lot better. We knew the Falcons had things they did very well — they were the No. 1 rushing team in the league, and we were 22nd [16th, actually] against the run. But the key to that type of game is imposing your will on the other team.â€?
The Eagles made most of the impositions that cold day, winning 27-10. There were, Reese conceded, extenuating circumstances. “The weather was a factor. So was us being in our fourth NFC championship game.�
Lest we forget, the Eagles needed four tries to book Super Bowl passage. Many of these Falcons also lost in Philadelphia in January 2003, which isn’t to say the Falcons are now incapable of beating this opponent. The Eagles were simply better both times, but the Falcons are getting really good themselves. That’s one of the reasons Ike Reese is here.
“This team reminds me of the way we were in Philly in 2001 when we lost to the Rams in the NFC championship,â€? he said. “They’re on the cusp of winning big and being in the Super Bowl for a long time to come. … Nobody’s settling for second-best here; nobody’s happy just to be the NFC South champ. A lot of these coaches came from San Francisco, where they won five Super Bowls, and Rich McKay won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay. The expectations are very high, and the tempo is very similar to what I’d been used to in Philadelphia.â€?
In football, “tempoâ€? means doing what you want to do and doing it with dispatch. The best teams have a tempo; the lousy ones mill around. If you watch the neo-Falcons — and not just in games, but in practice — you’ll see no milling. They mightn’t be as far along at this winning thing as Philadelphia, but they’re making up ground. On a charged Monday night in the Georgia Dome, they’re fully capable of being the aggressors. They’re ready, in sum, to win this game.
“The great thing about us in Philly was that we’d get teams to play at our tempo,� Reese said. His new team is getting close to doing the same. “We’re a young team, up and coming. We’ve got players capable of imposing our will.�
The Eagles will be a great team no matter what happens Monday night. The Falcons can only achieve greatness by showing they can beat a team like Philadelphia. For the Eagles, this is just another big game. For the Falcons, it’s the chance to prove something to the watching world. They’ll prove it all night. They’ll win.
Permalink | Comments (64) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
Dimry memories still burn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
October 14, 1990.
That’s a date which will live in infamy for Falcons fans. That’s also a date which historians will remember as when Jerry Rice’s bust for the Pro Football Hall of Fame was unofficially bronzed.
Charles Dimry STILL is chasing Rice’s back toward an end zone.
October 14, 1990.
I was there that day at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium to see one of the most incredible performances ever by an individual during an NFL game. Of Rice’s five touchdown catches (yes, FIVE), four involved the 49ers wide receiver burning the Falcons cornerback early and often in the most embarrassing of ways.
It wasn’t just Dimry who helped send Rice to the Hall of Fame. It was the Falcons in general. During Rice’s 16 years with the 49ers, San Francisco and Atlanta were in the same division. As a result, they played twice a season, which means Rice had two chances each season to play out of his mind.
Which he did. See October 14, 1990, and now 15 years later, Rice is retired.
That’s about 15 years too late for Dimry and the Falcons.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Starter? Closer? Only answer is to clone Smoltz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
He should start. No, he should close, or maybe he should wait until the leaves start falling, and then he should zip into the bullpen to help the Braves’ search for their first world championship in 10 years.
He should start. No, he should close, or maybe he should wait until the leaves start falling, and then he should zip into the bullpen to help the Braves’ search for their first world championship in 10 years.
“Nah, I think you’d be taking a big chance to try and switch a guy in a situation like that,� said Willie Randolph, who has seen a few decent pitchers as the current Mets manager and former coach and player of the Yankees.
Added Randolph on Tuesday at Turner Field after he recalled operating in the vicinity of World Series greatness among relievers, from Goose Gossage to Mariano Rivera: “Closers are important, but you have to have them lead up to that situation before a playoff situation.� So there goes that crazy idea about the Braves’ John Smoltz. Just leave him alone.
I think. It’s just that two of Smoltz’s successors (Dan Kolb and Chris Reitsma) were a hitter’s best friend. That’s why I wondered if the Braves should do something bold. You know, something to help them get out of the first round of the playoffs after their flips, flops and chokes during four of the past five seasons.
My change of heart (for the moment) has nothing to do with Kyle Farnsworth flashing signs of decency since the end of last month. This time, he collected his fifth save in five tries to preserve Smoltz’s seven innings along the way to a 14th victory against six losses and a 2.96 ERA. The thing is, Kolb and Reitsma also had some nice moments. But none among this trio is resembling Smoltz, who spent the previous three years sprinting toward the Hall of Fame as a reliever after doing the same as a starter for a dozen years.
Now Smoltz is back as a starter, and when it comes to potency, nothing’s changed for this former Cy Young winner, who’s thrown more innings than any pitcher in baseball not named Chris Carpenter. All this from a 38-year-old who was moved to the bullpen after elbow problems. He’s had no problems this season.
“This doesn’t surprise me,� said Braves manager Bobby Cox, who has watched Smoltz during most of the right-hander’s 19 years in pro baseball. “He’s incredibly gifted, and he’s as smart of a worker as you’d ever want to see in any athletics. Given all the injuries we’ve had with starters [three on the disabled list at one point this season], I really don’t know where we would be right now without him as a starter this year.�
What a wonderful mess for the Braves. On the one hand, Smoltz is too strong as a closer to remain a starter, especially since the Braves live for the postseason, where a Mariano Rivera is more valuable in the long run than a Roger Clemens. On the other, Smoltz is too strong as a starter to return to the bullpen, because he is a huge reason for the Braves’ miracle that is evolving into a 14th consecutive trip to the playoffs.
The solution? “That’s easy. I want two of Smoltzie,� said Cox, chuckling in the dugout before the versatile one continued to impress. “It’s nice to trot him out there every five days knowing that you’ve got a great chance to win. It’s nice to trot him out there three times a week knowing that you’ll have a zero up there in the ninth.�
So what does Smoltz wish to do? He smiled, saying, “I know in my heart the value of a starter on this team vs. that of a closer. Look at the Florida Marlins. Their top three starters are so good that it gives their team a lot of confidence. I know the end result [translated: that elusive second world championship] is what everybody has been talking about here, and if people just give this [Smoltz back as a starter for the playoffs, where he has more victories than anybody in history] a chance to work out, they’ll see the benefits later.� OK. I’m convinced. Keep Smoltz as a starter, and hope for the best from Farnsworth.
Come to think of it, that’s exactly what the Braves are doing.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Admit it: It’s nice to have Spurrier back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Pardon me. Mind if I have a few words on the subject of Steve Spurrier? You realize it’s rather gauche to say anything nice about the “Evil Genius.”
“Evil Genius,” now that’s pretty strong stuff, don’t you think? I know they’re just kidding but “evil”? Clever. Cunning. Crafty. All those things, true. Oh, well, on with it.
Spurrier is a preacher’s son, and in my time the preacher’s son was usually the meanest little wretch in town. I don’t know what Steve’s social standing was in Johnson City, Tenn., but I’d guess it wasn’t bad. He was the best athlete in school, and you know how people are about the gifted athlete.
I notice all these coaches, or formers, taking a whack at him as he returns to the stage at South Carolina. Lou Holtz, whose cast Spurrier inherited, predicted he’d upset Georgia on Saturday. Terry Bowden says, “Not many tears will be shed if he struggles.” But you know, they all have something in common — they’ve all been losing to him, all three of the Bowdens.
Now, I once said if I had to hire a coach for any kind of team, I’d hire Spurrier. I said that recently while being interviewed by a radio station in Birmingham and was abruptly cut off. It’s OK. I’ve known him when he wasn’t so great. He was just a lowly assistant. Few remember that he was quarterbacks coach at Georgia Tech in 1979, but for one season only. Got here just in time to get fired with Pepper Rodgers, who had been his offensive coach during his Heisman career at Florida.
Well, he was a great coach until he got to Washington. He didn’t realize what he was walking into. He thought he would be in charge. Nobody who works for Dan Snyder is in charge. All his losing victims cheered when he took his leave of the SEC, but life with the Redskins didn’t work out too well.
The thing about Spurrier is that he has no secrets. His face gives him away. Every emotion generated inside comes to the surface. When his games are televised, the network can’t wait for him to toss his visor, as he did when the Gamecocks were bumbling against Central Florida. Can you imagine a game between South Carolina and Central Florida, on a weekday night, being televised across the nation? It wasn’t the game, it was Spurrier. “Evil Genius” is back! Come one, come all, see the wild man toss his visor!
Enthusiasm meets bedlam, I think somebody said.
He took it in stride. “This is not about me,” he said. “I feel embarrassed by all the fuss about me.”
Oh, well, needless to try to humanize the man simply because I like him. He can be abrupt, funny, short-tempered, sometimes arrogant, all those things, but he doesn’t like to be a loser.
His mortal sin, it seems, is that he sometimes has run up the score on hapless teams. The NFL broke him of that habit, if it had been one. It’s sometimes hard to put restraints on a bunch of kids who don’t get on the field that often. I saw Holtz run up 21 points against him in the first quarter one time when South Carolina played Florida in Gainesville. But he got beat in the end.
Steve has triggered some of his own problems, and he’s looking down the gun barrel of another one Saturday in Athens. South Carolina has lately developed a habit he’d like to break — losing to Georgia. The rest of the SEC is chortling and rubbing its hands in glee. This is one that will require all the genius the “Evil One” can muster.
On the other hand, isn’t it sort of nice to have him back? Life’s no fun without somebody to pick on. Pity.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Furman Bisher, UGA / SEC
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: As I blog, I’m sitting in a coffee shop at the Tallahassee airport. Many tired, angry people in here wearing orange.
9: That was an important win for Florida State last night. But I’m thinking Larry Coker felt a lot better about Miami’s future watching Kyle Wright (16-28, 232 yards) than Bobby Bowden did watching Drew Weatherford (7-24, 67).
8: Dan Kolb comes in from the bullpen. Gives up a grand slam home run. Braves lose. Clearly Bobby Cox did not read Braves Bullpen For Dummies. Chapter 1: “When considering bringing Dan Kolb in from the bullpen, run head first into a wall, the re-evaluate your decision.”
7: If Dan Kolb wakes up in the morning with a horse’s head in his bed, does he still count against the 25-man roster? I mean, hypothetically, of course.
6: Braves’ magic number is 19. The bullpen has blown 19 save opportunities.
5: One former beat writer’s opinion: Jerry Rice can’t be the best player in NFL history because he wasn’t even the best player on his team (Joe Montana). But he’s in the top three (1. Jim Brown; 2. Montana; 3. Rice).
4: Barry Bonds is working out with the Giants, appears close to returning and noted that “it’s great to smell the grass again …” Geez. What a druggy.
3: Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow are engaged. I’m assuming they’re not going to honeymoon in France.
2: Got e-mailed a press release the other day in which Jesse Ventura touts a Canadian-based online betting service. Guess those political connections he made as a governor didn’t lead to another other job offers.
1: Old pal Peter King of Sports Illustrated picks the Falcons as a wild-card team (very plausible) but Minnesota to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. I hate it when Peter gets off his meds.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
Bowden struggles to match past
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Tallahassee � This is Bobby Bowden’s 30th anniversary at Florida State, which Hallmark would tell us calls for a strand of pearls.
Granted, Bowden, like the gem, is a pale grayish white, with occasional hints of blue (depending on the latest Tallahassee arrest report). But he’s not one to accessorize. So the Seminoles would rather give something more traditional for the typical 75-year-old who finds himself being pulled toward north Florida shuffleboard tournaments.
Late-career redemption.
FSU won a football game over Miami 10-7 Monday night. With more turnovers (four) and missed field goals (four) than actual scoring drives (three), it certainly wasn’t a classic. But this was the kind of a game that has gone against Bowden in recent years.
Lose 10-7, and the cries for him to retire get a little louder. Win 10-7, and suddenly the fan base views you as a tough, high-character survivor. Benefit from a botched field goal, for a change, and suddenly life is wonderful again.
“We finally stole one from them like they’ve been stealing them from us the last five years,� Bowden said.
To translate: They’ve still got problems. The Seminoles had only 177 yards in total offense. Starting quarterback Drew Weatherford went 7-for-24. But problems don’t seem as big when your defense registers nine sacks. They certainly don’t seem as big when you end a six-game losing streak to an in-state rival.
Florida State and Miami have been on relative declines of late. But there’s a greater sense of urgency this season for Bowden than the Hurricanes’ Larry Coker.
Bowden is the one whose team has lost nearly as many games in the past four seasons (15) as in the previous 14 (19). He is the one who had to fight off suggestions that he fire his own son, Jeff, the Seminoles offensive coordinator, after the team’s worst offensive season in 25 years.
It’s one thing to be an every day high-profile coach under pressure, like Coker. It’s another to be Bowden � college football’s all-time winningest coach who is trying to prove to the doubting masses that the Tuesday senior citizen discount at Denny’s can wait.
It wasn’t a great offseason for Bowden. One starting outside linebacker, A.J. Nicholson, was arrested for DUI and had to be tasered by police. The other starting outside linebacker, Ernie Sims, was arrested for domestic battery. (Both played Monday night. We’ll save the Bowden-soft-on-crime column for another day.) Defensive tackle Clifton Dickson was declared academically ineligible. Cornerback Antonio Cromartie was lost for the season with a torn knee ligament.
Finally, there is quarterback Wyatt Sexton, who was found screaming in the streets and claimed to police that he was God. Nobody was even convinced he was a quarterback, let alone a deity. He since has been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
Florida State strung together 14 consecutive seasons of double-digit wins. But this season, it was considered no better than third best in the ACC, behind Virginia Tech and Miami. Bowden tried to fix some problems by shuffling coaching duties. He wouldn’t fire his son, but he imported Mark McHale from Marshall.
But for most of the night, offense was still a problem. After taking a 10-0 lead, the Seminoles went scoreless the rest of the night. They had a first-and-goal from the Miami one in the third quarter. But three runs lost yardage, and the drive ended with a missed field goal attempt.
A Miami win seemed inevitable. The ’Canes drove down the field in the final minutes, converting four times on third down, and was set up with a first down from the 2. But this time it was Miami that folded. The drive stalled and holder Brian Monroe dropped the snap on a 27-yard field goal attempt.
Bowden, once known as an offensive innovator, rode his defense. But given recent history, he’ll take it. The Seminoles finished ranked in the AP’s top five every year from 1987-2000. The past four seasons they finished 15th, 21st, 11th and 15th.
This is year 30 at Florida State for Bobby Bowden. And he’s looking for a reason to celebrate.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
A truly elite team mustn’t backslide
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Here’s what needs to happen: Georgia Tech needs to handle North Carolina and Connecticut the way a Top 25 team should handle North Carolina and Connecticut, thereby making the Jackets 3-0 when they play Virginia Tech on Sept. 24, thereby ratcheting up the stakes on the entire season.
Here’s what can’t happen: Georgia Tech can’t follow what seems another in a series of breakthrough upsets with another in a series of backsliding losses.
It isn’t that Tech hasn’t won big games under Chan Gailey. Fact is, it wins one every year. It beat North Carolina State, then unbeaten and ranked No. 10, in 2002 but lost the next week at home to a Florida State team that would finish 9-5. The Jackets beat No. 17 Auburn in 2003 and led wobbly Florida State 13-0 the next week in Tallahassee, only to lose 14-13. Last year Tech stole a game against No. 20 Clemson but lost by three touchdowns one week later against North Carolina, which was coming off a 32-point loss to Virginia.
And here the Jackets are again. They whipped Auburn at Auburn to give the Institute its most rousing opening victory since Bill Curry and John Dewberry beat Alabama and the sourball Ray Perkins on Sept. 15, 1984. With one week gone, Tech has given itself a chance to have its best year under Gailey. Trouble is, Tech has given itself a similar chance before and wasted it every time.
A month ago, Gailey was asked if the repeated failure to consolidate gains troubled him. “Sure it does,” he said. “But we’ll have that chance again.” Sure enough, the Jackets have it now.
The memory of that thudding loss in Chapel Hill so soon after that astonishing victory in Death Valley came wafting back in the early-morning hours after Tech completed its wholly deserved victory at Jordan-Hare. The Jackets played with the poise and purpose necessary to win in such a frightful setting. They got ahead and nursed their lead. They put the burden of proof on Brandon Cox, Auburn’s new quarterback, and he came undone â€â€? turnovers the last five possessions â€â€? beneath the load.
Reggie Ball completed eight passes in the first quarter and only nine thereafter, but this was the sort of game in which it was essential to be precise early. (You might consult Boise State for a contrasting point of view.) Tech was the better team and Ball the better quarterback and Gailey the better coach on the night, and that’s how you win on the road against an opponent that hadn’t lost in 22 months. You outplay the other guys, and you also outsmart them.
What transpired Saturday was no fluke, but a loss in either of these next two games will make it seem like one. That has been the Gailey pattern: One step forward, one step back. His team finishes above .500 but not far enough above .500 to grace the Top 25. The Jackets figure to enter the AP poll this week for the first time under this coach, and they’re talented enough to stay there all season provided they tend to business and beat the teams they should.
The daunting schedule looks less imposing today. One of those four difficult road games has already been won, and if you can compete at Auburn you shouldn’t be awed by the environs at Virginia Tech and Miami and Virginia. Will the Jackets win all of those games? No, but if they could grab just one they’d position themselves to be where athletics director Dave Braine said they ought to be when Georgia comes to Bobby Dodd Stadium on Nov. 26: Ensconced within the Top 25, just like the hated Bulldogs.
You stay in the rankings only by going from strength to strength, and failing to do that has been the abiding weakness of Gailey’s program. That could be about to change. These Jackets seem capable of stringing something together. But we’ve all said the same before, and we’ve been wrong every time. These Jackets need to be the ones to prove us right.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
A little pleasure before business
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Athens â€â€? The foliage hadn’t yet begun the turn to autumn. The heat index was mid-July. Anybody who wasn’t sweating wasn’t breathing. But in Sanford Stadium on Saturday night, the Georgia Bulldogs set the thermostat of their 90,000-or-so woofing patrons at midseason level.
“David who?” the Sunday headline screamed, in tribute to D.J. Shockley, the quarterback-in-waiting who had spent three seasons patiently waiting his turn behind David Greene. Woooo, pretty strong stuff. This against a team from the Rockies that had never played before such a heathen (to them) enemy, had to deal with speed unaccustomed in their Western world, laboring under the load of an 18th ranking in the nation. Boise State folded like a cheap beach chair. Boise will be Boise, the saying goes, and in this case they were.
But not to dismiss the departed David Greene with such flippancy. This was just the first of 11 games, and true, the senior Shockley was better than advertised. He still had his priorities in order. “This was my first big win,” he said, but later added, “my degree is larger to me than football.”
Above all else, he is a dedicated student and citizen to be proud of.
I’ll have to admit my first inclination was to take as wild a fling as the headline, when I suggested to Mark Richt, “Have we another Michael Vick here?” The coach simply smiled. “It surprised me that he played that well,” he said. “I could never have predicted what happened.”
It was an afterthought, but now that you look back upon it, there was no way the Boise State Broncos could have expected to come into such a scene of pandemonium, overwhelming scorn cascading down upon them, and play within seven points of Georgia, as the oracles projected. The humiliation had to run deep. Well, at least they got $650,000 for their trouble. Besides the 48-13 score and the glorious emergence of Shockley, there were other profits derived from this match. First, there was the defense, which put a choke hold on the Broncos, no particular reference here to their vaunted quarterback, Jared Zabransky. “Our defense set the tone in the first half that set up scores for the offense,” Richt said.
Then there were the running backs, in particular the rejuvenation of Tyson Browning and Tony Milton. Once they were starters, now have been bypassed by the sophomore threesome of Thomas Brown, Danny Ware and Kregg Lumpkin. But as the outcome became evident, they worked their way onto the scene. And Martrez Milner, the junior tight end who had lost his place to sophomore Leonard Pope. Milner caught 111 yards of passes and one touchdown.
Back to Zabransky, projected as the WAC player of the year, nothing could have been more unexpected than his disintegration. The quarterback was gone late in the first half and never returned. When Dan Hawkins was asked if he had been pulled because of injury, the Boise State coach barked, “Did you see the first half?”
Richt was not one to allow his athletes to dwell long in their exhilarated state. He redirected their attention to a hurdle ahead. “Next week we play a conference opponent that always gives us trouble,” he said. “We have to get ready for them.” So was attention redirected to South Carolina, and South Carolina’s visit to Sanford Stadium, with Steve Spurrier, the coach so many like to hate, in his second game at the wheel. Now, back to business in the neighborhood.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Furman Bisher, UGA / SEC
Tech the better team on The Plains
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Auburn, Ala. â€â€? Chan Gailey is 2-0 against Auburn. Reggie Ball is 2-0 against Auburn. Georgia Tech is 1-0 in 2005. Auburn, which didn’t lose last season, hasn’t won in this one. A lot of funny things happened here on a long hot Saturday night, but the most remarkable part was this:
There was nothing really funny about it. Tech was the better team. Tech was better than a team that hadn’t lost in 22 months. Think about that.
Tech jumped ahead and held on. Tech took better care of the football. The infamously erratic Reggie Ball threw only one interception, and the fledgling Tiger starter Brandon Cox threw four in the second half.
Gailey coached a terrific game. Tommy Tuberville, by way of contrast, abandoned the run way too early and doubtless is feeling the hot breath of Bobby Petrino, who nearly became Auburn’s coach the last time Tuberville lost a game, on the back of his skinny neck. Gailey, recently named the nation’s worst coach by SI.com, roundly outflanked the 2004 national coach of the year, which says something about SI.com and something about Tuberville but far more about the unassuming man who says nothing of note but up and beats somebody of note every blessed season.
The Jackets played it the way they had to play it: They scored on their first two possessions and thrust Auburn into a double-digit hole for the first time since calendar 2003. They could have put the game away 10 minutes earlier â€â€? Cox was terrible down the stretch, turning the ball over on five consecutive possessions â€â€? but it’s not the Jackets’ way to make things easy on themselves. But Travis Bell kicked a field goal with 92 seconds left to clinch it, and the strangest part was that a goodly number of Auburn fans had already taken their leave. Their team had been handled this night, and they knew it.
The last visitor to win its season opener in forbidding Jordan-Hare Stadium has done rather well for itself since. Southern Cal came here and won on Aug. 30, 2003, and the Trojans have gone on to consecutive national championships. This isn’t to suggest that Tech is aiming quite so high, but on the strength of this poised and powerful performance the Jackets are every bit a Top 25 team.
P.J. Daniels gained 111 yards. Ball completed eight of his first 10 passes. Calvin Johnson scored the essential first touchdown on a fade route, and Auburn should have asked another band of Tigers â€â€? the ones housed at Clemson â€â€? how effectively Johnson runs the fade in televised night games in the month of September. He essentially beat Clemson at Death Valley at the end of a breathless game 51 weeks ago, and here he’d given the Jackets a flying start into 2005.
Auburn finally got going, but something about this game seemed too big for the Tigers’ new backfield and its new defensive coordinator. Auburn could never get a handle on Daniels, and Cox kept completing passes to put the Tigers in position to take the lead, whereupon he would throw the ball to the Jackets and forfeit the chance.
The last interception was the killer. Needing a touchdown to win, Cox threw late over the middle. Gerris Wilkinson intercepted and returned the ball to the Auburn 20. The Jackets had only to cash in a field goal to nail this one down, and even a silly holding penalty â€â€? on a run up the middle! â€â€? couldn’t undo them.
They’d come too far and played too well. There have been times â€â€? at Florida State in 2003 and against Virginia Tech last season â€â€? when the Jackets squandered such chances, but clearly they’ve learned from failure. They got their field goal and took their famous victory and gave themselves a chance to make something truly major out of this new season. They went on the road and whipped a team that nobody could whip last year. Think about that.
Permalink | Comments (56) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Shockley’s splendor not really a surprise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Athens � Many among the 92,746 barkers who squeezed into Sanford Stadium on Saturday were in denial. You know, those wearing No. 14. They either thought David Greene was coming back (which he isn’t, since he is with the Seattle Seahawks these days), or they wished he was. He once ranked as the people’s choice at Georgia as the winningest college quarterback in history, and his potent ways kept the redshirted D.J. Shockley mostly waiting instead of playing for four years.
Memo to the Greene groupies in the Bulldog Nation: Get over it. Goodness along the way to greatness hasn’t left Georgia at quarterback.
It just changed numbers.
The record-tying five touchdown passes to match those of Greene from last season against LSU. A winding sprint and dive for another touchdown. All of those nice throws in-between. Several runs that smacked of Mr. Vick.
“I was talking to some of my teammates on the sideline, and I was telling them that this is really something that you couldn’t even dream up,� said Shockley, Georgia’s No. 3 and the former Mr. Everything from College Park’s North Clayton High School. He spoke after he flashed signs, against a supposedly mighty Boise State team, of extending his prep notoriety to his last season at Georgia and his first as a starter.
And get this: Long before Shockley spent the evening zigging and zagging through a bunch of flat-footed Broncos along the way to Georgia’s 48-13 blowout during its opener, I already knew Shockley would be fine. That’s because his parents said as much prior to the opening kickoff.
“I’m telling you that people just don’t know the deal, but he’s about to set this thing on fire,� said Don Shockley, the father, grinning on the field before his son really did burn Boise State with his arm and his legs.
The father was prophetic. Then again, he knew about D.J.’s potential after he coached his son at North Clayton, where the father said, “When I called a bad play, he made it a better play.�
As for the mother, Tanya Shockley, she also spoke of coming glory for her son before the game from her seat in the upper deck. “That’s why I’m really not nervous at all right now. I’m just excited for him, because believe me, it’s going to be OK today,� said Tanya, nodding, along with others nearby, ranging from D.J.’s grandmother and brother to aunts, uncles and cousins.
Then came “Glory, Glory� from the Redcoat Band. Then the jumbo video screen caused its usual roar by showing Larry Munson’s tribute to Bulldog history. Then, less than two minutes into the game, Shockley finished Georgia’s first possession in the end zone after rushing 14 yards on that winding sprint and dive.
“Remember how I told you that I wasn’t nervous?� Tanya said later, with a little giggle. “Well, my hands were shaking like crazy after D.J. ran for that touchdown. On his first touchdown pass (a 40-yarder by Shockley on Georgia’s next possession), it just felt like a relief. When he threw his second one, it was a piece of cake.�
There was plenty of icing for the Shockleys, too. And as thick as it was, with D.J. completing 16 of 24 passes for 289 yards and rushing for 85 more, it could have been thicker. His receivers dropped five passes, including a couple that would have buried the already dead Broncos even deeper.
This isn’t to say that Shockley was perfect, but he was in the vicinity. Only the picky will remember his underthrown pass or three, and an illegal motion call for leaving the center too soon. It was enough to have much of the crowd behind the west end zone chant “D.J., D.J. D.J.� near the end of the first half after his 19-yard scoring pass to Danny Ware made the blowout official.
“My teammates were beating me up so hard after that touchdown that I didn’t even hear what they were saying,� Shockley said, grinning. “So I didn’t hear it.�
Good. Because those Greene groupies are still around, and they’re waiting for Shockley to do something to turn those pretty chants into ugly ones.
Permalink | Comments (159) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
Peruse the schedule before you celebrate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Contrary to popular belief, the Falcons aren’t a cinch this season to find a cure for cancer, patch that hole in the ozone and discover who really shot JFK â€â€? you know, along the way to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy on Peachtree Street.
So chill, folks. There are so many things that must happen for the Falcons to become satisfactory (as in better than your average Falcons team), let alone super (as in reaching that bowl in Detroit). Whether those many things involving the Falcons will happen for the good, only the parity gods know for sure. And the last I checked, the parity gods have blessed only New England and Philadelphia consistently.
Which brings us to Thing No. 1: Those parity gods. Just because the Falcons sprinted to the NFC championship game last season, that doesn’t mean they are destined for the NFL championship game this season. You needn’t go further than the late 1990s, when the Falcons reached the Super Bowl one year at 14-2 and slid to 5-11 the next. See also the New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers of the 21st century.
Which brings us to Thing No. 2: The Falcons’ schedule. Five of their opening seven games are against teams that made the playoffs last season. Not only that, they debut on Monday Night Football against an Eagles bunch that remains formidable despite having to battle that Terrell Owens mess since they reached the Super Bowl over the Falcons last season.
Speaking of the Falcons and Monday night … Yikes!
The Falcons have lost 14 of their last 16 games on Monday Night Football, including 11 of their last 12, and nobody has a worst record on Monday Night Football during that stretch. Well, guess what? The Falcons have three games on Monday Night Football this season. They also have a Sunday night game, and they travel to Detroit for the Lions’ traditional Thanksgiving Day game. Just so you know, the Falcons are a collective 6-22 on those types of nationally televised games since Jimmy Carter was still in the Oval Office.
Which brings us to Thing No. 3: The stifling division. Although the Falcons rolled to the NFC South title last season, consider this: The Carolina Panthers had 12 key players that helped push them into the Super Bowl the previous season miss the year with injuries.
They’re back. Even without the hobbling, the Panthers barley missed making the playoffs last season. So did the New Orleans Saints, owners of Aaron Brooks at quarterback and the gifted Deuce McAllister. Plus, despite the Buccaneers’ evolution from a power into whatever they are now, they still have Derrick Brooks and Simeon Rice, which is pretty scary, especially if your last name is Vick.
Which brings us to Thing No. 4: The Michael Vick Show. Despite the Falcons’ propaganda to the contrary, if this guy leaves their stage, they definitely can turn out the lights. It’s not coincidental that, during Vick’s two full seasons as a starting quarterback, the Falcons had their Green Bay Miracle and last year’s trip to the NFC championship game.
The thing is, the Falcons have virtually the same offensive line that made Vick the most sacked quarterback per pass attempt last season. And smallish running back Warrick Dunn is impressive, but he isn’t getting younger at 30. And the Falcons’ wide receivers remain a work in progress. And an iffy secondary combined with a fragile defensive line could make Vick try even more extraordinary feats (translated: more things that could lead to injury) to match the other team’s scoring.
Which brings us to Thing No. 5: The Falcons’ past. They’ve never had consecutive winning seasons.
Until the Falcons do, you have to wonder if they ever will.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Rejoice: These aren’t your father’s Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
We have to get past this. We have to stop expecting the Falcons to trip over themselves because they’re the Falcons and they’ve always tripped over themselves. Because these are not the Falcons we came to know and scorn. These Falcons are different. They’re smarter and more resourceful than they’ve ever been.
These aren’t the Falcons of the Smith family and Rankin Sr.’s infamous “plateau.” These aren’t the Falcons of Glanville and his gimmicks. These aren’t even the Falcons of Reeves who followed an NFC championship by cutting Cornelius Bennett and Tony Martin and drafting Reggie Kelly. This is a sleek new operation capable of going from strength to strength in a way the Falcons, who have worked 39 years without fashioning consecutive winning seasons, never have.
The four most important roles in any NFL franchise are that of the owner, the general manager, the head coach and the starting quarterback. The Falcons’ front four — Blank, McKay, Mora and Vick — can stand with any. Sure, there’s always the possibility that No. 7 will get hurt, but Rich McKay isn’t apt to sprain his brain anytime soon.
The old Falcons were always held back by failures of leadership. There will be none of those under this regime. The team can and will lose games, sure, but the Falcons won’t flail simply because they’ve failed to foresee developments and permutations. The guys in charge now think of everything, and being clever can take a football team a long way. Witness the New England Patriots, Super Bowl champs three times in four seasons without a truly transcendent talent on their roster.
Of the four principal Falcons, the key man is McKay. Arthur Blank is more impetuous than we’ve been led to believe — ask Falcons staff about his Monday morning e-mails — and Jim Mora is, as we know, his father’s son. McKay stands as the buffer between these two passionate men, the calm voice saying, “Let’s not overreact.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Falcons spent 39 years waxing and mostly waning because they could never find a Rich McKay for the front office. They have one now.
It was McKay, you’ll recall, who was so impressed by Mora’s attention to detail that he recommended the rather anonymous defensive coordinator above a handful of bigger names. And while it’s true Mora has an edge to him — or, to use a more dated term, a temper — he’s circumspect enough to see beyond his own ego. The most impressive hire the new head coach made wasn’t Ed Donatell or even Alex Gibbs; it was Joe DeCamillis, who could easily have been out of a job just because he happens to be Dan Reeves’ son-in-law. But Mora, recognizing talent, moved to keep the NFL’s best special teams coach.
That’s the sort of thing the old Falcons would never have done. (When in doubt, the old Falcons’ most creative notion was to hire Marion Campbell again.) The neo-Falcons are problem-solvers, not morass-deepeners. The Falcons had a nice defense last season but felt they needed more speed, so they signed Ed Hartwell to ramp up the velocity quotient at linebacker. That wasn’t a splashy move — Hartwell hasn’t yet played in a Pro Bowl — but it could be the move that elevates the team that just played for the NFC title to the 2005 NFC title.
Yes, the schedule is tougher, and yes, teams that win a lot of close games one year — of the 2004 Falcons’ 11 regular-season victories, six were by less than a touchdown — tend to lose close games the next. The old Falcons were fully capable of going from 14-2 to 5-11. The new Falcons will not. This team will be even stronger the second time around.
Might as well get used to it. The franchise that could only spawn one-year wonders is about to start winning every single year.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Mark Bradley
‘Just looking at one game’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Falcons coach Jim Mora took over a team that won five games the year before and guided it to within one game of the Super Bowl. Next Monday night, the Falcons open the season against Philadelphia, the same team that ended Mora’s rookie season as a head coach. He took time between roster cuts to discuss coaching, his temper and his abbreviated sportswriting career with AJC columnist Jeff Schultz.
Q: I was a little hurt when I heard Peerless Price say, “I hate y’all.” So before we start, I just need to make sure you don’t hate me, too.
A: No, I don’t hate you. I love you. I love all sportswriters. All shapes and sizes.
Q: Did you ever make it to a training camp as a player?
A: Are you kidding? Not with my speed. It was funny, though. My dad was coaching the Philadelphia Stars in the USFL at the time and they were going to use their last draft pick on me. But I told him, “Don’t you dare humiliate me that way.” I was so slow. I always knew where the play was going â€â€? I just couldn’t get there.
Q: What’s the worst reaction you’ve ever seen to a player getting cut?
A: Actually, I haven’t experienced anything that negative. I’ve never had a guy throw anything or stomp out. Some guys get emotional but it’s a lot more solemn than you might think.
Q: Was there ever a point where you and Rich McKay were on opposite sides of the Price issue, given that you’re a coach and he’s on the business side?
A: No. We’ve been in complete unison on that one from the start.
Q: So when did you really make the decision to cut him?
A: During the Jacksonville game.
Q: Peerless didn’t play in the Jacksonville game.
A: I know. He didn’t even make the trip. But we saw our production. We realized as a team that we could function without him.
Q: You went 11-5 and made it to the NFC title game as a rookie head coach. Makes it kind of tough for an encore, doesn’t it?
A: Yeah, I guess if you look at the big picture. But I don’t do that. I know it’s cliché, but right now I’m just looking at one game â€â€? the Philadelphia Eagles. Things can be overwhelming if you look at the big picture.
Q: You open with the same team you closed with. How do you avoid getting obsessed with one team?
A: You’re always obsessed with a team. There’s nothing wrong with that. What you don’t want is to be obsessed with that game when it’s over, because you have to get ready for the next one.
Q: Since you’re playing them essentially two games in a row, is there more of a tendency to say, “Man, we really messed up that game plan,” or, “This time we’re going to do things this way”? It’s like you get an immediate chance to make amends.
A: It helps that we sort of just played them, and they’ve only really played one game since [the Super Bowl]. But it’s the same advantage for them. So it’s really a stalemate. You do sort of look at the tape and think, “Will they do that again? How do we need to adjust our philosophy?” But I really don’t think we played particularly great or particularly poor. I think we just got beat by a better team that day.
Q: Do you feel different as a second-year coach going into the opener than you did last year?
A: No. It’s amazing. The week before the opener every year I’m pretty nervous. It’s all that anticipation. But after that I’m pretty loose.
Q: You’re not any surer of yourself this season than you were a year ago?
A: Not at all. This is my 20th year in the NFL and I lived with a head coach my whole life. So internally I always felt prepared. I didn’t feel as uncertain as people on the outside did. I never viewed myself as a rookie head coach. This is the only thing I’ve ever done. Except for that one year when I was sports editor of my high school newspaper. I was journalist of the year.
Q: You? A sportswriter?
A: Yeah. I can give you writing tips. You give me coaching tips, so I figure I can give you writing tips.
Q: So, basically, what you’re telling me is you’ve never had a real job, either.
A: I had real jobs. I was a laborer. I worked on construction sites from junior high school through college.
Q: So you could build a house?
A: No. I said I was a laborer. I picked up the trash. I wouldn’t know how to hammer a nail.
Q: Was there anything last year that you didn’t anticipate as a head coach?
A: The only thing I thought I was prepared for but I wasn’t was the daily meetings with the media. The redundancy of the questions. I understand the job, but you get 10 or 15 people that want to ask the same question, and if they’re not all there at the same time, you basically have to answer it 15 times.
Q: You also weren’t the calmest guy in the world at times.
A: I’m calm. I’m a calm guy. There was one press conference when I got a little bit irritated.
Q: Your dad’s in the media. Ever hang up on him?
A: Yeah, I did once last season. We were flying back from Carolina and I was talking to him on the phone and he criticized me for something I had done. I was like, “You don’t get it! What do you know about what I’m feeling?” And I hung up. Then I called back to apologize.
Q: So if players smash their heads into lockers before games, what do coaches do?
A: I like to take a couple of hits from an ammonia capsule. That gets me going.
Q: I’ve seen you go wacko on the practice field more than a few times.
A: Hey, I’m not wacko. Never have I not been in complete control of what I was saying or doing. Maybe you thought I was out of control. But I knew what I was saying. I know the impact I wanted to have. There was only one time during a game when I lost it. That was the 1997 NFC title game and there was an interference penalty on Rod Woodson. I was arguing with the official and I missed a substitution. But that will never happen again.
Q: So you’ve never really laid into a player and thought later, “I might’ve overdone it there”?
A: Oh, yeah. I might’ve done that.
Q: So we’re walking a very thin line here.
A: Yeah. But there is a line there.
Q: Have you ever gone home and yelled at Shannon, “You call this meatloaf?”
A: No. I’m as calm as can be at home. She’s the boss at home.
Q: I know it’s not your goal to go 9-7 this year. But do you ever feel that franchise history of the team never having consecutive winning seasons hanging over your head?
A: Not one bit. I wasn’t here the other 39 years. That’s somebody else’s problem.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Uncertainty principle rules at QB
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
There are two kinds of quarterbacks in college football this year. One kind is Matt Leinart, who won the Heisman Trophy last season, has thrown 71 touchdown passes in the past two, is romantically linked to swimsuit models and will play his first game this season in Honolulu. (We’re still waiting for word on whether he is an heir to Bill Gates.)
The other kind of quarterback this season is almost everybody else.
College football often differs from the NFL in that a team’s fortunes aren’t necessarily linked to the quarterback. It is possible to have a great defense or a power running game and win it all. That can happen in the NFL, but it’s rare.
But it seems more teams’ seasons are linked to uncertain quarterbacks this year than usual. Georgia Tech is never sure what to expect from Reggie Ball. Georgia can’t possibly know what to expect from D.J. Shockley. Auburn, Tech’s opponent, transitions from a senior quarterback who was drafted in the first round (Jason Campbell) to a sophomore (Brandon Cox) coming off a nice sideline view.
“Any time you have a brand new quarterback, things function differently,” Jackets coach Chan Gailey said. “Everybody has certain talents and abilities, and you’re trying to turn things toward that. But you don’t just turn everything on a dime. It takes time.”
Tech’s defense should be solid. Wide receiver Calvin Johnson and tailback P.J. Daniels are legitimate weapons. But Ball is the X factor, and it isn’t stretching things to say Gailey’s future may be linked to a 20-year-old. In two years, Ball has shown a remarkable tendency to string together conflicting highlights: One for me, one for you, two for me, two for you.
At Georgia, we have been reminded almost daily that while the school lost Division I-A’s all-time winning quarterback (David Greene), the Bulldogs’ new starter has 26 games of experience. That sounds a lot better than saying Shockley has never started a college game.
We know he has talent. We know he is admired for his demeanor and patience. But we don’t know how he’ll react the first time things go wrong or some yahoo yells, “You ain’t no David Greene!”
This year, Georgia’s defense might not be good enough to make up for average play from a quarterback.
Work your way south to Auburn and through Florida. The Tigers are coming off an undefeated season. That not only gave coach Tommy Tuberville unforeseen security, it minted Al Borges as one of the game’s top offensive coordinators. He’ll need to be. Last year, Borges worked with Campbell. This year, he’s tutoring Cox, who has attempted just 34 passes.
Bobby Bowden seems to have forgotten how to develop quarterbacks or an offense. Last year, the Seminoles had their lowest scoring average (24.7) in a quarter-century. Chris Rix was a mess, and Wyatt Sexton is being treated for Lyme disease.
Just this week, Drew Weatherford was named the Seminoles’ starter. His reaction: “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.” Not really. He’s a redshirt freshman. He had to beat out another redshirt freshman. Welcome to the new Seminoles.
In Gainesville, new coach Urban Meyer might have a championship contender. Or he might have a problem. Chris Leak has the skills, experience and leadership to win. But now he has to run an offense previously foreign to him, the spread option.
Miami used to be Quarterback U. More recently, it survived Brock Berlin. This season, the job goes to sophomore Kyle Wright, who appeared in two games last season. Wright has attempted nine passes in his career. That’s nine more attempts than the freshman he beat out.
Virginia Tech might win the ACC again. But Marcus Vick, while more talented than predecessor Bryan Randall, has not been the model of stability in his life.
Gailey believes head coaches, offensive coordinators and quarterbacks always get too much of the credit or blame. It follows that all three are under the gun at Tech.
It’s a situation nobody at Southern Cal can relate to.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
S.C. hails Spurrier’s latest fling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Columbia, S.C. â€â€? Eighty-two thousand in the seats. ESPN’s “College Gameday” on the premises. Fifteen writers from the state of Florida in the press box. Who knew George O’Leary was such a magnet?
You might have thought that Hurricane Katrina and the great gasoline scare would have kept an ordinary football coach off the front page of Thursday’s newspapers. Well, you’d have been right â€â€? and also wrong. An ordinary coach wouldn’t have been featured on the front page of this city’s The State and pictured on the cover of this nation’s USA Today, but Steve Spurrier, as has been noted, is extraordinary.
Spurrier doesn’t come just to coach football. He comes to change programs. This marks the third time he has arrived somewhere hailed as nothing less than a savior: In Florida at the dawn of the ’90s, in this nation’s usually jaded capitol four Januarys ago, and now here.
South Carolina fans have a long and amusing history of getting worked up over not very much, and they’re worked up as never before. This is where, you’ll recall, folks were so moved by the novelty of winning that they tore down the goalposts on consecutive weekends in September 2000. This is where the beloved Gamecocks have managed to win fewer bowl games in their entire existence than Jim Donnan did in his brief time at Georgia.
And this is now where the Ol’ Ball Coach coaches his stylized brand of ball, and that alone makes South Carolina a must-see. Thursday night marked the great man’s official debut, and such was the hysteria that Spurrier was mentioned by name in Rev. Frank Anderson’s pregame invocation. (Though not, it should be noted, as an omniscient deity. Just as a new coach in need of blessing.)
Then Spurrier blessed the masses with his presence. Thirty cameras recorded his steps as he took the field through a fog of fabricated smoke and, in vintage Spurrier style, he wrong-footed the shooters by ducking behind the assembled band. (Not that Coach Superior is keeping a low profile: He was pictured 51 times in the 144-page game program.)
Then the actual football began, and barely half the first quarter had elapsed before fans were ready to raze another set of goalposts. The Gamecocks scored on their fifth snap and again on their 11th. The man beneath the visor was calling his pretty plays, and nobody ever dubbed Spurrier the Evil Imbecile.
“It felt very similar, calling plays,” Spurrier said afterward. “We chucked a few in there.”
South Carolina nearly chucked the game away. The Gamecocks couldn’t run the ball all night, and then they started fumbling, and in the last 13 minutes Central Florida scored 12 points. “They outplayed us,” Spurrier said. “They probably outhit us… . It was tough out there. It looked easy early, but all of a sudden it got tough.”
And here we pause to consider: Central Florida is tough? The same Central Florida that has yet to win a game under O’Leary, in his second year at the Orlando school? Well, yeah. The Golden Knights took what was supposed to be a coronation for the new king of Columbia and turned it into something of a fizzle, and the nervous moments at the end provided ESPN what the network wanted all along â€â€? the first toss of that new black visor.
So now we need ask: Can the scheming Evil Genius wreak the sort of havoc upon the SEC from this posting that he did while based in Gainesville? The answer: Not yet, and probably not ever. Even the Ol’ Ball Coach needs big-time ballplayers, and Carolina doesn’t have — and will never have — half as many as Florida did.
The dynamics will change for his Spurrier and his new crew eight days hence, when the Gamecocks play in Athens. Georgia could beat Spurrier only once when he coached the hated Gators. If the Bulldogs lose to him so early in this salvage mission, they might as well drop football and take up roller hockey.
Permalink | Comments (45) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Just another exhibition of gullibility
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Miami � All Michael Vick did was hand off to his right and to his left, and then he vanished into the warmth of the South Florida breezes. The starting defenders were around for a series. Warrick Dunn never played. Neither did Alge Crumpler.
So, courtesy of the Falcons, those slew of suckers who paid full price Thursday night for one of these silly exhibition games at Dolphins Stadium got a steady dose of nobody worth mentioning.
Good. Then again, this could have been bad (really, really bad) for the Falcons, which brings us to this: Unless they plan to secede from the NFL someday, they should tell somebody (his name is Rich McKay, a guru of their organization and of the league) that even playing three of these exhibition games is too many. Playing a couple would be fine, especially given all of the minicamps and offseason conditioning programs in today’s game, and the Falcons just played a fifth exhibition game.
Not only that, the Falcons did so along the impromptu Everglades disguised as the floor of Dolphins Stadium after one of those absolutely brutal thunderstorms that happen around here.
“This bothers you in the sense that you don’t ever like to expose players to injury,� said McKay, whose Falcons once lost Vick for most of a season after he broke his leg during an exhibition game, and that was under the ideal conditions of the Georgia Dome.
Anyway, just when I thought McKay was in my little corner of the world regarding this exhibition game thing, he flew in the direction of Mars with a “but.� It’s the same “but� you hear from those who believe slicing exhibition games from a team’s schedule would rank with selling the babies of NFL players to gypsies.
“But,� said McKay, a co-chair of the league’s mighty competition committee when he isn’t operating as the Falcons’ general manager, “you can say that playing this game [Thursday night] is a positive in that we have a lot of guys here that are trying to make our team or somebody else’s team if they can’t make ours. You know what they get? They get on tape. All these teams get this tape. They look at it. They watch these players against NFL players, and they make decisions.�
Not impressed. Neither were those among the gullible few inside a place that was less than half full. They often booed the ugliness of their Dolphins, but those among the gullible few have nobody to blame but themselves for shelling out regular-season dollars ($37, $51, $67, $69, $70) for preseason slop.
Such free spending by fans for exhibition games has been the norm around the NFL since its marketing folks discovered years ago that you actually have a gullible many for anything involving their league.
None of this matters to the Falcons’ coaching staff or that of any other NFL team with other things to consider regarding exhibition games. It’s about survival and saving as many of your best players as possible for another day � like Sept. 12, for instance, when the Falcons open on Monday Night Football against the Philadelphia Eagles.
And get this: Now NFL teams have 16 regular-season games and four exhibition games. Prior to the 1978 season, they had six exhibition games and 14 regular-season games. There also was 1973, when the defending world champion Dolphins had a seventh exhibition game because they were required to play a bunch of college all-stars that season.
“Just look at this,� said Bob Griese, glancing at a Dolphins media guide. He’s now a television announcer for the team after serving as its star quarterback during the 1970s. “We played preseason games back then at Rochester. We were at Akron. We played in Memphis and in Charleston. Wow. We did that during those old days because the preseason tickets were separate from those of the regular season. Now you have to pay for the whole package.�
How much did Griese play during those exhibition seasons?
“I’d say no more than 25 percent of the time, which is about the same as players do now,� said Griese, confirming what we already knew: The NFL had a bunch of suckers then, too.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Weekend predictions are back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
(The following program is not affiliated with the NCAA, the people who thought it was bad to have teams named after Native Americans, the people who suddenly changed their minds after being threatened by lawsuits, the BCS, the Harris poll, the people who decided the Harris poll takes a village of 114 voters, most of whom are breathing, some of whom have jobs, two of whom painted my house last week and none of whom are Native American.)
Still with me? Then this fiscal season should be a snap.
Hello. I am back.
Isn’t it nice to know that with all of the products on the market today, there are some stains you just can’t get rid of? Wait. That didn’t come out right.
Weekend Predictions started in 1993 when the AJC advertising department mandated that editorial provide some copy for page 11 to go with the “spa” ads. We have grown through the years, but each pick remains 100 percent natural and free of additives (like facts).
Here’s how it works: Every week, I give you the winners. It’s your job to find them. Occasional “losing picks” are inserted to throw off competing tip sheets. In time, you should be able to tell the real picks from the phony ones. If not, that’s your problem.
This season, Weekend Predictions divides and mutates.
Friday’s forecasts will be limited to college games only. Guaranteed NFL picks will appear Sundays.
Please remember to use Weekend Predictions responsibly. Do not mix with alcohol or prescription medicines. Everyday hallucinogens are OK. Below is our early fall blowout.
(Buy three selections and win a copy of Maurice Clarett’s new autobiography, “How to go from BMOC to Would-You-Like-Fries-With-That in Roughly a Week.�)
Boise State at Neverland It has been a difficult summer for coach Mark Richt on the Island of Lost Boys. Between the suspensions, arrests and summer school picture-phone wrestling matches, there’s been little time to put in a new offense. A nice kid like D.J. Shockley shouldn’t have to pay the price for all this. Fortunately, here comes Boise State, which isn’t nearly the wrecking machine everybody has built it up to be. Wrecking machines don’t give up 42 points to Tulsa, 31 to UTEP and 49 to San Jose State. Doggies cover the seven.
Tech at Auburn: Chan Gailey has won two of his three season openers. That sounds better than saying he beat Samford and Vanderbilt. See, I can spin. Gailey’s future is somewhat in Reggie Ball’s hands, and you just never know what those hands are going to do. The Bees should be fine on defense, especially against an Auburn offense that has lost, like, everybody. Unlike last year, Auburn is beatable. Just not in this opener. Tigers win, cover the TD.
UAB at Tennessee: Vowels coach Phil Fulmer says he will rotate two quarterbacks this season. That should be interesting, considering he usually has problems finessing a game plan with just one quarterback. Tennessee wins, but I’m not giving anybody 23 1/2. Take UAB and the bundle.
Miami at Florida State: Miami lost three games last year. After a 5-4 vote by the city council, coach Larry Coker was allowed to retain all of his limbs. Good move. Canes cover the deuce in Tallahassee.
Duke at East Carolina: Kidding.
Southern Cal at Hawaii: June Jones hired Jerry Glanville to coach his defense. Now Hawaii is considering banning beer sales at home games. Look, if you’re going to make the first move, you can’t make the second without violating several human rights laws. USC by 34 1/2? Why not.
Wyoming at Florida: Last year with Utah, Urban Meyer’s team dumped Wyoming 45-28. What’s he going to do with better players? The 23 is covered.
Middle Tennessee State at Alabama: Mike Shula: Year three. Now there’s something you never would have expected. But if Brodie Croyle stays healthy, Bammie fans could have something to look forward to other than probation winding down. Tide wins. But 22? No. Take MTS and the pts.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
Feeling like a selfish jerk
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
I admit it. I got caught up in the gas hype Wednesday afternoon. (What is it about seeing other people in line that compels us to join the line? Stupidity, I guess.)
I topped off for the low, low price of $3.09 a gallon and got impatient at having to wait and started thinking of all I had to do this weekend — drive to Columbia, where gameday traffic is always lousy, for the South Carolina opener tonight; drive home on Friday; drive to Auburn, where traffic is just as bad, on Saturday for the Georgia Tech game. All on Labor Day weekend, no less.
With gas prices going through the figurative roof.
And then I thought: Whoa.
When last I looked, I still have a house. And it still has an actual roof.
The pictures from New Orleans are sobering in the same way the pictures were from Ground Zero, except that Ground Zero was a product of a willful act of evil and Hurricane Katrina simply… happened. New Orleans is a place I’ve come to know rather well, having been there a dozen times and having stayed often at the Hyatt Regency that overlooks the Superdome. That’s the same Superdome that has become a refugee center, the same Hyatt that lost all its windows and is lucky to still be standing.
People along the Gulf Coast are homeless and all but hopeless, and there I was feeling put out at having to buy gas so I could cover two football games in three days. Yeah, I’m a selfish jerk.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
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