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Friday, August 25, 2006
Chipper gets first taste of losing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
This is Chipper Jones’ most impressive season, but not because of the obvious. It was one thing for, say, Ernie Banks to discover ways to glow during any given year despite gloom nearly everywhere else amongst the Wrigley ivy. He was used to the mess. After all, more often than not, his Chicago Cubs wallowed inside the dark clouds of the standings.
Jones has known only sunshine in baseball, and that ranks as one of history’s greatest understatements. Now, with the Braves often playing like those old Cubs, or even worse, like those old Braves, Jones is continuing his silent but steady Cooperstown march. Entering Friday night’s game at Turner Field against the Washington Nationals, he was in the National League’s top 10 in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. Earlier this summer, he went nuts and tied a 79-year-old mark for most consecutive games with an extra-base hit. He also slammed three homers in a game and kept passing franchise gods Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy in the team record book.
Even more striking, with the Braves having a better chance of reaching the playoffs in 2007 than 2006, Jones has kept the slew of youth in the Braves’ clubhouse from losing their intensity. That’s because he hasn’t lost his.
“Veterans know how to get themselves prepared. They know how to protect the integrity of baseball. They know that, no matter how badly you struggle, things are going to turn around for you,” said Jones, hoping to speak his words into truth. It didn’t happen this time, with the Braves losing for the fourth time in five games after the Nationals held on for a 7-6 victory, with Jones striking out with two on and one out in the ninth.
Added Jones, “Young guys, on the other hand, if they get down on their confidence, they’re going into a prolonged slump. It’s up to us to coach them on how to get out of that as quickly as possible, because a lot of young guys watch us, and it’s important for us to be good role models.”
No problem there for Jones, evolving into an unofficial Braves coach. He has much knowledge. The thing is, none of it involves losing like this.
Make that losing, period. In fact, somebody should call the Ripley’s people about Jones and cue the music from “The Twilight Zone” and “The X-Files.”While growing up in Jacksonville, the Braves third baseman never played on a Little League team that didn’t finish first. In high school, he never played on a team that didn’t finish first. During his four years in the minor leagues, he never played on a team that didn’t finish first.
See a pattern here? Simply put, Jones is the ultimate winner. And this just in after a phone call to the folks at the Elias Sports Bureau: In the 137 years of major league baseball, nobody ever has played for a team that finished first during more consecutive seasons from the start of his career than Jones. We’re talking 11 straight. We’re also talking the end of the streak after this season for the ultimate winner who spent his rookie year helping the Braves win a world championship.
Courtesy of inconsistency and injuries throughout their roster, the Braves are sputtering in August after mostly imploding from April though July. They still have a mathematical chance of reaching the playoffs with September on the horizon, but they haven’t a realistic one.
So you wonder how the ultimate winner is handling life sitting deep into double digits out of first place and needing a telescope to see the distance between where his team is now and .500. “A lot of disappointing drives home,” said Jones, easing into a chuckle, with the Braves just another one of their ugly streaks away from replacing the Nationals in the division cellar. “This obviously is not something that we’re used to, but no matter how bad things have gotten, everybody has come into the clubhouse each and every day with the optimism that today is going to be the day that turns everything around.”
Sounds like the mind set of an ultimate winner. The Braves have two of them, with pitcher John Smoltz ranking as the other one. Jones and Smoltz have been around the longest during the team’s record streak of 14 straight playoff appearances. It’s just that Smoltz spent his opening three seasons in the majors with Braves teams that averaged 100 losses a year. During Jones’ opening three seasons, the Braves reached the World Series twice and won a baseball-high 101 games that other year. The Chipper of then is the Chipper of now. Too bad those Braves aren’t these Braves.
Permalink | Comments (51) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Tech’s changes point to 7-5 again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Who says engineering schools are dull? Georgia Tech saw its football coach (Chan Gailey) finally sign a five-year extension, only to turn around and hand play-calling duties to Patrick Nix (which infuriated nobody). The school hired a new athletics director (Dan Radakovich) to replace his beaten-down predecessor (Dave Braine). Also, the Yellow Jackets took yoga classes.
To what extent this opens Tech’s chakras or elevates the team to an enlightened state remains to be seen. But I’m thinking it’s going to take more than a candle and incense to beat Notre Dame.
Sept. 2: Notre Dame
There’s a book out, “The New Gold Standard: Charlie Weis and Notre Dame’s Rise to Glory.” First time I’ve ever seen a 9-3 season associated with “gold standard” or “glory.” Of course, the Irish hadn’t won nine games since Ty Willingham won 10 in his first season. That certainly turned out well. Did Willingham get a book in South Bend, too, or is that just reserved for dumpy white guys with crew cuts? The Irish have talent. Tech has a habit of jolting ranked opponents. Count on a scare, but that’s all:
• Prediction: Loss.
Sept. 9: Samford
Hey, beatable Bulldogs! Tech beat Samford only 28-7 two years ago after winning the first five meetings in the series by a combined 170-0. But you can’t be picky. Besides, Samford might be feeling cocky after that opener against Miles College (huh?).
• Prediction: Win.
Sept. 16: Troy
Ah, the extent a schedule-maker will go to get a team back above .500 after Notre Dame week. Why not just add Montevallo in Week 4 and crown this the “Punks of Alabama Month”? Troy, at least, could make things interesting with a spread offense. Did I just say that?
• Prediction: Win.
Sept. 21: Virginia
It’s a short week with an ESPN game. Fortunately, Virginia isn’t a step up from Troy. When the Cadavers hired Al Groh, they expected a Bill Parcells clone, not a coach who would go 2-11 against Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Boston College. Virginia even lost to North Carolina last year, 7-5. The fact Groh has had several NFL graduates leads to only one conclusion: He’s coaching them down.
• Prediction: 3-1.
Sept. 30: at Virginia Tech
Imagine going 11-2 and being in a bad mood. (Jackets can only imagine.) Hokies started 8-0, then were drilled by Miami, lost to FSU in the ACC title game and had a Gator Bowl win soiled by Marcus Vick’s tap dance on an opponent. But Va-Tech is what Miami used to be — a program on constant reload. Upset? Don’t even think about it.
• Prediction: Smackdown.
Oct. 7: Maryland
I like Ralph Friedgen. Everybody likes Ralph Friedgen. But when 10-12 in two seasons follows 31-8 in the first three, you don’t want to be anywhere near Ralph Friedgen. The man’s so dejected, I guess he can’t eat. He’s lost 30 pounds, give or take a Ho Ho. He also lost his coordinators — and nobody’s sure where they’re buried. Friedgen will go back to calling plays, which is what he’s good at.
• So eat this up: Loss.
Oct. 21: at Clemson
Team Esso has become the fashionable upset pick in the ACC Atlantic, which begs the question, “Since when do teams that lose to Wake Forest become fashionable upset picks?” If the Tigers’ annual preseason projections were any more inflated, they’d be Georgia. Yeah, they have 17 starters back. But they’re CLEMSON starters. I think I just talked myself into an upset.
• Prediction: Win.
Oct. 28: Miami
It’s been a great offseason for Miami. Larry Coker blew out his coaching staff, four players (including running back Tyrone Moss) were suspended and another was shot in his hiney. The alumni liked it better when the players just won national titles between arrests. But motivation won’t be a problem against Tech, which somehow won in the Orange Bowl last year. Payback time.
• Prediction: Loss.
Nov. 4: at N.C. State
Chuck Amato said he would build a great program. Then again, he never said when. Or where. For that matter, he never said football. Maybe he was talking about a cooking show? The Wolfpack is only 23-25 in the ACC under Chuckles. Hope he enjoys that rugged non-conference schedule (Appalachian State, Akron, Southern Miss, East Carolina).
• Prediction: Win.
Nov. 11: at North Carolina
Buzz gets the Tar Heels the week after they’re pummeled at Notre Dame and the week before they meet their rivals from Raleigh. And there’s this: Carolina QB Joe Dailey is a transfer from Nebraska, where he threw 19 interceptions in 2004 and was on the hook for the Cornboys’ first losing season since 1961. Oops.
• Prediction: Win.
Nov. 18: Duke
Zack Asack, who would have started at quarterback for the Blue Devils, was suspended for the season for cheating on a test. OK, I’m trying to figure out what the problem is. Duke was 1-10 last season and is 9-59 in the past six. Is losing the quarterback going to make that big of a difference?
• Prediction: Three straight!
Nov. 25: at Georgia
The Jackets allowed 85 points in Gailey’s first two games against Dog U but only 33 in the past two. So somebody’s figured something out. But moral victories don’t pay the donors who pay the bills. Same game, same story. Another Tech senior class gets blanked.
• Prediction: Loss (record: 7-5).
Permalink | Comments (42) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Bulldogs schedule is meat and tomatoes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Assuming Mel Gibson didn’t serve in the past as a Georgia tight end or head of the Athens Christian Coalition, it has been a relatively quiet offseason for the Bulldogs. Either Mark Richt’s threats to his blue-chip convicts finally sunk in or players just couldn’t work their way into another beer-induced frenzy after falling behind to West Virginia, 28-0.
The Dogs might as well keep resting. The first eight weeks is less a schedule than a walk through a mattress warehouse. It’s probably why Richt thinks he can get by with Joe Tereshinski at quarterback until Matthew Stafford looks functional. Besides, Stafford should be ready for the Florida game. And he’s never lost to the Gators. (That’s one.)
Sept. 2: Western Kentucky
As long as the NCAA’s Dept. of Hypocrisy is going to find some way to justify 12-game schedules — while maintaining they’re all about academics — I’ve got no problem with SEC schools opening the season against Division 1-AA meat by-products. That said, I hope the Hilltoppers have a good HMO plan.
• Prediction: Duh.
Sept. 9: South Carolina
Steve Spurrier could take the Prairie View job, and sphincters would still tighten in Athens. When Spurrier came to Georgia last year, Richt mudwrestled his playbook and nearly lost. Spurrier won seven games last season, the Gamecocks’ best year since Lou Holtz’s last rulebook burning four years earlier. On a related note, be sure to stop by Holtz’s Used Soul kiosk before the game.
• Prediction: Narrow escape.
Sept. 16: UAB
UAB coach Watson Brown stepped down as athletics director after last season’s 5-6 splat. The school has yet to name a replacement, leading to speculation he may reclaim the job. Given his team plays Oklahoma and Georgia in the first three weeks, I’m thinking he might just want to lay low for awhile. Waiter, hemlock!
• Prediction: Not so close.
Sept. 23: Colorado
This football program is one cheap mood candle short of a Tombstone brothel. Of course, if coach Gary Barnett hadn’t lost to Texas 70-3, the debauchery in Boulder could’ve been overlooked. The Buffs say they’re trying to disinfect things. They hired coach Dan Hawkins (Boise State), who reacted by jumping out of an airplane this spring. The parachute opened. We’re not certain if that was by design.
• Prediction: Win.
Sept. 30: at Ole Miss
It doesn’t take much to get people excited in Oxford (not that one, the icky one). The new Old Ms. quarterback is Brent Schaeffer, who scrambled to qualify at a junior college after getting run out of Tennessee (which isn’t easy to do). While in Knoxville, Schaeffer got into a dorm brawl and was charged with assault. He pled guilty to “offensive touching.” Personally, as a guy, I think I’d rather have “assault” on my record.
• Prediction: 5-0.
Oct. 7: Tennessee
David Cutcliffe is back as offensive coordinator, which means fewer decisions for Phil Fulmer. Now I know how standup comics felt when Nixon left office. The Vowels went 5-6 last season, including losses to Spurrier and Vanderbilt. The last time a UT coach felt this much heat, Fulmer was clogging on Johnny Majors’ casket.
• Prediction: Win.
Oct. 14: Vanderbilt
It’s homecoming. Ever notice nobody ever schedules, like, Oklahoma, for homecoming? It’s always the football equivalent of Liechtenstein. Since 1968, Vandy has been Georgia’s homecoming opponent 15 times. That’s even more than Kentucky (11), which I assume is Vandy’s homecoming meat. Where was I?
• Prediction: Win.
Oct. 21: Mississippi State
I realize Sylvester Croom hasn’t won a lot of games yet, but you’ve got to love a coach who said after this year’s first practice: “We had a couple of fat guys who played like fat guys. And we’re not mentally tough enough. We haven’t been the first two years we’ve been here, and we weren’t today.” Alrighty, then.
• Prediction: Another W.
Oct. 28: Florida
So if I’ve got this right, and I can’t recall ever being wrong, the Doggies will be 8-0 going to Jacksonville. And there’s nothing like that annual seamless transition from rapture to misery every fall when the Gators come-a-slappin’. Urban Meyer’s offense will be better than a year ago — and Florida will be coming off a bye week after consecutive games against Alabama, LSU and Auburn. Ugas go bye-bye.
• Prediction: Loss.
Nov. 4: at Kentucky
Rich Brooks is 9-25 (4-20 in the SEC) in three seasons, which makes you wonder what hallucinogen AD Mitch Barnhart was on when he announced Brooks would be back for another season. To his credit, Brooks never loses sight of things down the stretch — Kentucky lost its last two games by 51 points. Hello, Kittys.
• Prediction: Win.
Nov. 11: at Auburn
There’s a chance this game might be rescheduled, pending ceremonies to honor the Tigers’ front seven by Bob’s House of Catfish and Sociology Degrees. If this turns out to be only a minor annoyance on the wide scale of SEC academic fraud scandals, Auburn should win the SEC. With honors.
• Prediction: Loss.
Nov. 25: Georgia Tech
The last five meetings have gone to the Doggies, and they’ll be coming off a bye. Tech will be playing for the sixth straight week. I know. Rivalry game. But the money is on logic.
• Prediction: 10-2.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
Defense counted on to carry Dogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens — Willie Martinez had, in the main, a nice first season as Georgia’s defensive coordinator. Thing is, we on the outside tend not to remember the main. We tend to recall the blots on an otherwise sunny campaign, which is why the first topics broached by a visitor to Martinez’s office don’t involve all the stops his men made but the two games in which such stops weren’t forthcoming.
Auburn’s last gasp.
West Virginia’s first quarter.
The first eight games Georgia lost under Mark Richt hewed to a theme: The Bulldogs didn’t score more than 17 points in any of them, meaning that the offense sagged while the defense generally held up its end. The last two losses of last season broke the pattern. Georgia scored 30 points against Auburn and 35 against West Virginia and lost both times, the opponents mustering an aggregate 1,008 yards.
Obvious question when something works for so long and then stops working: What went wrong? To his credit, Martinez looks his interrogator in the eye and gives a clinical appraisal.
On the Auburn fourth-and-10 that became the careening Devin Aromashodu catch-and-run-and-fumble: “We blew a coverage. It was one of our safeties — I don’t like to say who. We just flinched. But [cornerback] Paul Oliver made a heck of a play, punching the ball out. [Courtney Taylor recovered in the end zone, enabling the Tigers to kick the winning field goal.] But that was the tempo of the whole game — we couldn’t shut them down.”
On West Virginia’s first quarter (plus the first 50 seconds of the second), a dizzying span that saw the Mountaineers steal a 28-0 lead in the Sugar Bowl: “They didn’t do anything differently than they’d done all year. We gave them respect. We knew they had a three-headed horse [quarterback, tailback and fullback]. … But we weren’t ready. … We couldn’t get them focused. We missed a tackle on their first touchdown.”
And now a word in defense of the defensive coordinator: The Auburn game boiled down to one unbelievably weird play, which can happen, and the Sugar Bowl was a difficult sell to a team that had already won an improbable SEC title and found itself matched against the least-known team to grace any BCS game. Besides, the overachieving Bulldogs were due a bad night.
Bottom line: Those folks who fretted over the departure of gruff coordinator Brian VanGorder should, in the main, be pleased with the basso-voiced Martinez. He took a unit that was missing three stalwarts and marshaled it into the top 10 nationally in scoring defense and the top 20 in total defense. “We’re all competitors,” Martinez says. “We all wanted to do well. We knew we didn’t have [David] Pollack and Thomas [Davis] and Odell [Thurman], and we had a chip on our shoulder.”
It didn’t hurt that Georgia returned enough gifted players in 2005 to back its attitude with muscle and speed. Nor was it a minus that Martinez had coached alongside VanGorder both at Central Florida and here. The new man wasn’t really a new man, and he wasn’t so much concerned with drawing new schemes as with ensuring the old ones kept working. Continuity can be powerful thing.
With another season almost at hand, Martinez sees the need to better the last one. “We’ve got to improve the run defense,” he says. (Auburn rushed for 227 yards, West Virginia for 382.) “We gave up too many big plays in the running game.”
That shouldn’t happen again. Georgia has superb linebackers and two outstanding linemen in Quentin Moses and Ray Gant. The area of greatest concern is the secondary, where three longtime starters were lost but where Tra Battle and the aforementioned Oliver should serve as dual anchors. Says Martinez: “There’s concern about how we’re going to mesh, but if we have no injuries it’ll be fun to watch.”
For all the fuss made over the offense and its quadripartite quarterback competition, defense has been the rock on which Richt has built his program. VanGorder got it started, and Martinez carries on. The 2005 Bulldogs flinched twice at the end of an otherwise unyielding season, but those were the exceptions. Look for Georgia’s D to be exceptional again.
Permalink | Comments (39) | Categories: Mark Bradley, UGA / SEC
Just give Calvin the darn ball!!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Maybe if we all get together, aim our mouths toward Bobby Dodd Stadium and shout loud enough, those involved the most with Georgia Tech’s offense (head coach Chan Gailey, coordinator Patrick Nix and quarterback Reggie Ball) will hear us and actually do this:
Get the ball to Calvin Johnson.
You know, they should just get the ball to Calvin Johnson.
No excuses this time. Not with Gailey out of the picture as play-caller and the hopefully more imaginative Nix taking his place. Not since Ball really should know what he’s doing by now as a fourth-year starter, including his third with Johnson in the same huddle. Not when you clearly have the best wide receiver in the country who isn’t wearing an NFL uniform.
Ever since Johnson joined the Yellow Jackets after his prolific high school days in Tyrone, he has caught everything and anything within reach of his agile frame of 6 feet 5 and 235 pounds. He has turned the spectacular into the routine. So they should just get him the ball.
“Yeah, if he’s one-on-one out there, yeah, we ought to be throwing the ball to him, because that means they’re stacking against the run,” said Nix, in his fifth season as a Jackets assistant, whose response should make the Tech nation a little nervous. I mean, the Jackets “ought to be throwing the ball to him” no matter what — within reason, of course. Such always is the case when you have a great one. Terrell Owens. Randy Moss. Chad Johnson. Tech’s Johnson is destined to be their equal. You even could see as much last season, when the Jackets finished a ridiculous 103rd out of the NCAA’s 119 Division I-A teams in points scored. No way an offense should be that dreadful with a Calvin Johnson.
Mostly, no way Tech’s offense should be less than wonderful this season with an experienced offensive line, with a talented running back such as Tashard Choice and with Nix doing everything he can to get Calvin Johnson the ball.
Nix will be obsessed with getting Johnson the ball, won’t he?
Oh, well. “If they’re out there doubling him and totally trying to keep him out of the ballgame, then we’ve got other receivers and backs and a quarterback and everybody else who can make plays and get the job done,” Nix said. “Overall, we’ll use [Johnson] generally the same way [as we did in previous years]. Once again, he’s one member of an 11-member unit, so you’ve got 10 other people who have to fit in, too. He might be able to handle a little bit more, but what can those other guys handle? You have to put them in the best position, too. You’ve got to think of the whole thing, including what they might be doing defensively.”
With apologies to Nix, forget what opponents might be doing defensively. Those among Tech’s offensive brain trust should be doing everything they can to make opponents fret over what the Jackets might be doing offensively. It’s a philosophy that should begin and end with Johnson. It’s a philosophy that made Southern Cal dominate in recent years. The Trojans’ Calvin Johnson was Reggie Bush, and given the aggressive offensive approach by those on the Southern Cal coaching staff regarding Bush, they had others more worried about what the Trojans might do than the other way around.
Which brings us back to Johnson, the ultimate weapon that Tech should unleash with regularity.
“He’s a phenom, and everybody wants to put the ball in his hands,” said Ball, who rarely did last season. Well, considering everything. Courtesy of Ball’s erratic play and Gailey’s conservative play-calling, Johnson caught just six more passes and one fewer touchdown as a sophomore than he did as a freshman. Through it all, Johnson remained the humble youngster that he is, with Gailey saying, “He understands that he’s good. Who are we fooling? But at the same time, he understands that he has a responsibility to be the best that he can be, and that means continuing to work.”
No problem there for Johnson, whose work ethic always has been praised by his coaches and peers. All he needs now is for Nix to keep calling his number and to have Ball keep delivering passes somewhere within his area code. “Basically, I know when [Ball] is going to come my way, and we give each other a little look in the huddle sometime,” Johnson said. “Since we’ve played together for so long, it’s just natural for us. We’ve learned each other’s mentality so to speak. I definitely expect [our] chemistry to be even better this year.”
So get him the ball.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
