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Thursday, August 2, 2007
Counting on a guy who couldn’t beat out Ball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Not many schools have ever viewed their new starting quarterback as an upgrade over the departed four-year starter. Then again, no other school ever had Reggie Ball as a four-year starter.
It’s possible Taylor Bennett will be as good as many Georgia Tech fans are convinced he’ll be. It’s also possible those fans, who’d soured on the erratic Ball, are thinking fancifully. Said Chan Gailey, who doesn’t traffic in fancy, of Bennett’s rousing Gator Bowl performance: “To have all those yards and make some of the throws he made, I didn’t know he’d do that. I was pleasantly surprised.”
Said Bennett: “That game means absolutely nothing.”
It might not. Then again, it might.
The Jackets, some of whom met the assembled media Thursday, have arrived at a peculiar place: They’re looking for a breakthrough season the year after they coulda/shoulda broken though. They’re looking for better things from the redshirt junior who couldn’t beat out Reggie Ball. Indeed, if not for the promise Bennett showed in the Gator Bowl, not being Ball might qualify as his chief attribute. But perception changed on New Year’s Day, and the new conventional wisdom goes like this:
Tech was playing the wrong guy all along.
“I haven’t heard [that],” Bennett said, kidding. Truth to tell, he has heard it often. But he won’t suggest as much himself, nor will he criticize his coaches or his predecessor. Bennett claimed he was given “a fair chance” to win the job in previous seasons and simply could not. As for the beleaguered Ball …
“When you win [as a quarterback], people praise you,” Bennett said. “When you don’t, they’re going to criticize you … [He and Ball] made a dedication that we weren’t going to read the papers. It’s useless. Those are opinions, and you don’t need those kind of opinions.”
Some facts, then: Starting for only the second time as a collegian (Ball having been declared academically ineligible), Bennett completed 19 of 29 passes for 326 yards and three touchdowns against West Virginia in Jacksonville. Nine of those completions went to Calvin Johnson, now a Detroit Lion.
Will Bennett look half as terrific throwing to mere mortals this fall? The correct answer, as opposed to the one Tech backers are taking on faith, is nobody knows. This includes Gailey, who said: “That’s what you have to be careful of — letting one game crown somebody. I think he’s going to be a very good quarterback, but time tells on these things. Can he handle it when it’s all his?”
Some parts of it, yes. Bennett watches game film the way more typical collegians devour “The Colbert Report.” Sometimes he has to stop himself, he said, “or else your eyes fly out of your head.”
Bennett was a counselor at Peyton Manning’s camp in Thibodaux, La., this summer, and he lapped up every bit of footballing wisdom the famously studious pro imparted. “He said he watches every play 16 times,” Bennett said.
Does that mean Bennett now watches every snap 16 times? “I don’t know about that. I might hit the rewind button 10 or 12 times.”
Bennett will probably make fewer mistakes and have fewer wretched games than Ball. Still to be determined is whether he’ll make half as many big plays. And there will, it’s safe to assume, come a time when the new quarterback’s capacity to influence a game will be tested. On Sept. 1, say.
“It’s the holy land of college football,” said Bennett, meaning Notre Dame Stadium, site of Tech’s opener. “Hopefully I don’t mess up.”
He has waited a long time for this chance. More than a few Tech fans have likewise waited, not entirely patiently, and are about to get their wish: They’re about to go into a season with a quarterback who isn’t Reggie Ball. This might fall under the heading, “Be careful what you wish for.” Then again, it might not.
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Oct. 1 a pivotal date for Vick?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
By now it’s pretty much assumed Michael Vick won’t play this season. Procedurally, however, something else needs to happen before we can say as much with absolute certainty.
Contrary to popular belief, Vick hasn’t yet been suspended by either the NFL or the Falcons. He has been excused from training camp with pay by commissioner Roger Goodell pending the league’s own investigation. It seems a reasonable assumption that the NFL will find cause to suspend him for the season. But what if it doesn’t?
According to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, the maximum a team (as opposed to the league, which has broader powers) can suspend a player is four regular-season games. The Falcons were prepared to do that — they’d already drafted the letter — when Goodell stepped in. So let’s say, at the end of camp, the commish declares Vick is eligible to return to the Falcons, who promptly suspend him for those four games. The Falcons’ fourth game will be played on Sept. 30. So what would happen on Oct. 1?
Either Vick rejoins the team, or the Falcons cut him. (Arthur Blank has already ruled out the much-discussed paid leave of absence.) We’ve all been focusing on Nov. 26, the day Vick’s trial is scheduled to begin in Richmond, but the date of Monday, Oct. 1, could be just as intriguing.
And what’s the chance Vick will do as co-defendant Tony Taylor has done and cop a plea? Not likely. Not if he wants to play in the NFL again anytime soon. The league, see, would surely treat a guilty plea, even to a lesser charge, as an admission of guilt, duh, and could well move to dock Vick for all of the 2008 season, too.
Being rich and famous and able to afford the best lawyers, Vick will probably be better served taking his chances in front of a jury. As grim as the charges seem today, it takes only the slightest kernel of reasonable doubt in the minds of one or two jurors to override a mountain of evidence. But you knew that already.
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