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Thursday, August 3, 2006
Tech QB, play-caller have a lot to prove
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Georgia Tech began practice Thursday with questions about the quarterback and the guy calling plays. They have several games on the schedule that lead you to conclude: “Could go this way. Could go that way. They’ll win seven.”
Yes. This is where we came in.
“Going 7-5, 7-6 for three straight years is not a good feeling,” Reggie Ball, the quarterback, said. “It’s like being right on the edge of being good, but being right on the edge of being real bad. Being in the city of Atlanta, that’s not too good to be right on that edge. A lot of guys are just fed up.”
Most football teams go into a season with questions. Then they play games and answer them.
One problem during the Chan Gailey regime is the questions never quite get answered. Tech wins a game it’s not supposed to win. Then it loses a game it’s not supposed to lose.
Ball looks great. Then he implodes.
Wow. Whoa.
Some of this must have hit home with Gailey. So he did the right thing, took a step back and handed play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Patrick Nix. Gailey considered making the move last year but talked himself out of it.
“I thought I was still at the top of it fairly well,” he said.
The season taught him otherwise. “I was becoming close-minded about things in meetings. I didn’t like it.”
Tech has questions. But if we finally get answers this season, they likely will come from two sources: Ball and Nix.
Three years ago, Ball surprisingly was handed the starting quarterback job as a true freshman. From the outset, it was clear that desire and passion wouldn’t be a problem. Control — that’s another issue.
He has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns each season. He threw for a personal high of 2,165 yards last year, but his completion percentage continued to drop: from 51.7 percent as a freshman to 49.7, to 48.
Statistics can be misleading. Receivers drop passes, protection breaks down, coaches suddenly call plays with blinders on. But it all has left Ball on that perceived “edge” that he so disdains. Criticism also has left him with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. His pairing with Nix seems appropriate.
“I played quarterback at Auburn — I’ve been booed off the field,” Nix said.
“It’s vital to have a quarterback coach who played and had both success and a couple of downfalls,” Ball said. “Because he knows exactly what to expect and what you’re going through. I mean, he played at Auburn, and Auburn ain’t too bad.”
Ball says he has matured and learned a lot, mostly how to take a verbal shot. He didn’t hesitate when asked what advice he would give a freshman.
“I would tell them that there’s a lot that comes along with [college football],” he said. “An 18-year-old doesn’t know how to be criticized day in and day out. You’ve got to have thick skin at this position. If you don’t, you’ll crumble.”
Ball doesn’t crumble. Self-immolate, maybe. What Nix does with his quarterback’s fire, he’s not saying. Nor have he or Ball revealed much in the way of what changes will be made.
“At the end of the year, I think we’ll be able to look back and see there were changes,” said Nix, who called plays in the two-minute offense the past two seasons. “But that’s not necessarily a change in philosophy. Maybe I’ll feel a little more comfortable with a player or a situation than what [Gailey] was at the time. That’s a lot different from just saying, ‘He’s going to throw it more’ or ‘We’re going to use the shotgun more.’ “
Things have calmed down somewhat. There’s no more uncertainty about NCAA sanctions. It’s been weeks since anybody has used a flame-thrower over Gailey’s contract extension. Dan Radakovich, the new athletics director, hasn’t had to put out as many brush fires as Dave Braine did in his final days.
Whether answers come out of that calm is another matter.
“A lot of people are fed up with seven wins every year, and we’re ticked off, too,” Ball said.
Yes. This is where we came in.
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AL, NL wild-card races don’t compare
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
At least one and probably two National League teams will carry mediocre records into postseason play. The American League is rather different. Were the Toronto Blue Jays in the NL, they’d have the league’s third-best record. The Jays, alas, have almost no chance to qualify for anything in the AL East.
At least two AL teams that would stand a realistic chance to win the World Series won’t make the playoffs. The White Sox won it all last season but wouldn’t, at the moment of this writing, qualify for the postseason. The Twins, who rode the arms of Francisco Liriano and Johan Santana to get back in the wild-card chase, might have topped out. (Especially now that Liriano has a sore shoulder.) But if Liriano returns to health and if Minnesota could somehow gain entrance to the division series, which team — and which pitchers — would you less like to face in a best-of-five?
Even the Red Sox, who have for most of the season been one of the three best teams in baseball, aren’t guaranteed an October invite. Jason Varitek has been lost for a month, and Boston didn’t help itself before the trading deadline. The imperial Yankees did, landing Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle and Craig Wilson, and now the prospect of a postseason without pinstripes — a distinct possibility even a fortnight ago — seems less likely.
As for Philadelphia, the team that dumped Abreu and Lidle … well, the not-really-Phightin’ Phils awoke Thursday only 3-1/2 games behind Cincinnati for the wild-card lead in the National League. That’s the NL, sad to say: You can essentially give up on the season and still not be out of anything.
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