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Monday, August 14, 2006
Tech must get rid of its ‘quit’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
For Georgia Tech football to stop continuing as only a tease during Chan Gailey’s regime, it must correct something more egregious than Reggie Ball’s fluctuations between wonderful and wretched. The worst thing you can do in sports is quit, and a whole slew of Yellow Jackets did just that last season.
Twice. Once in Blacksburg, Va., where they rolled over and played dead, even before Virginia Tech fired its considerable cannons their way. Then there was the Jackets’ whipping at the hands of a strikingly average Utah team during the Emerald Bowl. After the Utes finished with 38 of the easiest points you’ll ever see to Tech’s 10, the winners from something called the Mountain West Conference stomped on what remained of the Jackets’ pride even more by boasting that Tech quit.
Which Tech did. Which makes you wonder if a team that has 69 players returning from its disaster against Utah in December in San Francisco has the guts to handle the likes of Notre Dame to begin the season, the Hokies during another trip to Blacksburg, Clemson in Death Valley, Miami on homecoming and folks barking Between The Hedges.
My guess? If you’re among the Tech Nation, you shouldn’t make your reservations for a BCS game just yet. After all, with the Fighting Irish within three weeks away, Gailey said that the Yellow Jackets still are leaderless. That could push Tech in the direction of more listlessness this season at the worst of times.
“Of the seniors, we’re still looking to see which ones exactly are going to be involved there [as leaders],” said Gailey, before mentioning a group of juniors, ranging from running back Tashard Choice to defensive end Adamm Oliver, with the potential to become Tech leaders. Even so, the plain-speaking coach added, “I think the jury is still out on that. I really do.”
The verdict is in regarding this: To paraphrase an old hip-hop guy, when you quit, you’re not legit. Added Gailey, “During the offseason, you evaluate as a coach, who did it upset? Who didn’t it upset? You look at it and say to yourself, ‘OK, this is where we are as far as leadership goes.’ You have to lead on the field and off the field. You just can’t lead out here on game day.”
Linebacker KaMichael Hall sighed after a recent practice, saying, “Against Virginia Tech last year, when they were beating us down about midway through the third quarter, it was like, ‘Coach, just think of something. Let’s go. Let’s stop getting embarrassed.’ After a while, it was like, ‘What’s the point?’ Since I’ve been here, that probably was the only game that we, as a team, quit.”
Well, that game and the Utah game. Even before the opening kickoff, Tech players looked more interested in hopping a cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf than trying to knock the gums out of a toothless Utah bunch in its post-Urban Meyer era. “I really think that’s an unfair statement” said Hall, recalling the gooey conditions of the Giants’ home ballpark. “At the same time, I think it’s a fairly legitimate statement. The field was messy. We’re out there flying around on offense and defense. We have a lot of speed, and when you can’t get your feet, it neutralizes the game. We were slipping and falling everywhere. After a while you’re playing cautious instead of going 100 percent. I mean, you can’t play football if you can’t be on your feet.”
You also can’t play football if you haven’t a heart, and Tech players lacked one last year. Twice. I was there to witness the Virginia Tech and Utah fiascos to see the Jackets give the least amount of effort during any set of games since Tech players had their private mutiny against coach Bill Lewis in the midst of a one-victory season in 1994.
There were no signs of anarchy within the locker room during Gailey’s four previous seasons at Tech. Instead, there were signs of confusion over how a team with enough talent to shock Auburn (twice), Clemson and Miami could lose to Duke, Wake Forest and Fresno State on the way to the mediocrity of four seven-victory seasons.
Just so you know, talent has nothing to do with effort. That’s because the effort that a team displays is directly related to the combination of what lies in the souls of its players and how well that team is motivated by its coaches. If the effort isn’t there for that team each game, then that team needs new players, new coaches or both.
If the Jackets have another Virginia Tech or Utah this season, somebody needs to go.
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