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Saturday, September 22, 2007
Still got the T-shirt from Tech’s last win at Va.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Let’s look at it this way, not as a column but a letter to dear friends. There’s just too much out there today to settle on one thing.
So, Dear Y’all:
• A lot of you weren’t around when Scott Sisson of Georgia Tech kicked the field goal that beat Virginia in 1990. Charlottesville was alive with football fervor that day, Virginia ranked No. 1 for the third consecutive week — in the only season the Cavaliers have ever been ranked that high. The day was simply lush with sunshine and anticipation. Rich Murray, the UVA press guy, presented us with T-shirts that read, “I Was There When The Press Box Overflowed, Nov. 3, 1990,” and I still have mine. Sleep in it sometimes. Sweet memory.
• Alabama has come alive with anticipation of a revival of the old days when championships flowed into Tuscaloosa like a leaky beer tap. What I like most about it is that Wallace Wade finally is remembered as the man who started it all back in 1925. He was a genuinely fine man who took time for young fellows who needed his counsel. Most of all, he should be saluted as the only coach who both played in the Rose Bowl (a guard at Brown in 1916 with the great Fritz Pollard), then later took two teams to Pasadena as coach, Alabama and Duke.
• So Larry Munson takes a day off, and the Bulldog Nation goes into a state of mourning. Doesn’t everybody take a holiday now and then? Well, let me tell you how it is, as one who grew up deep in rurality and lived by the radio. Yeah, television is great, but there’s nothing like the friendship you develop under the influence of a radio voice. Take Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray with the Braves. Radio voices are like next-door neighbors. They speak, they’re talking to you. It’s personal. Television can never have that kind of private connection, especially with all those busybodies butting in from the sideline. Hope you enjoyed Scott Howard, now that you know why all the fuss about Larry Munson’s day off.
• Tommy Barnes had been lingering on the brink for months, and now he’s gone, and with him goes an era of amateur golf. He was included in the foursome of Bobby Jones’ last round before surgery felled Jones. He was one of the protectors of old East Lake, helped keep it afloat until Tom Cousins could move in. He was the amateur’s amateur, as Stan Awtrey depicted him in his lovely story this week. But lest it be forgotten, for one day he was a pro. After finishing the Masters in 1950, he was talked into taking the job as head pro at a club in Miami. He never reported for work. When morning came, a light flashed on in his head. He didn’t want to be a pro. He called his would-be employers and bailed out. The purity of golf prevailed. He was the most enjoyable man I ever played golf with, only one who kept talking on his own swing.
• This won’t take long. I see that the Giants have fired Barry Bonds, though it may be viewed differently in some corners. Thing is, he is gone for now, and may it turn out to be that he is gone from baseball forever.
• Well, I guess the Braves’ race is over, though chances of playing a hand in the postseason were already pretty slim. When they lost to Milwaukee with Tim Hudson, the last train left the station. They just about had to sweep the Brewers, then the Phillies to set them up for the final series with Houston with any chance at all. They’ll watch from the sideline while the Mets and Phillies slug it out among themselves. Braves probably had no hope of passing the Padres, anyway. They’ve had to survive some strange player moves this season, but one glowing one was the farewell to Bob Wickman. They still hold on to one all-time record: Managerial ejections, something Bobby Cox is not proud of, but he wouldn’t take any of them back. That may be the longest losing streak in baseball.
(signed) Yours truly, Me
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Tech graveyard kills ACC hopes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Charlottesville, Va. — They were done Saturday when Virginia wasted no time zipping ahead for keeps in the fourth quarter after a muffed punt deep inside Georgia Tech territory.
No, they were done four minutes later, when what was a lively gathering of 57,681 inside Scott Stadium became as silent as Thomas Jefferson’s tomb at nearby Monticello. The change was attributable to Tech wide receiver Correy Earls spending just shy of an eternity with a possible neck injury on the field before his gentle departure on a stretcher.
Actually, when you’re talking about the Yellow Jackets’ chances of reaching the ACC championship game by avoiding a second consecutive loss to start conference play, they were done as soon as their schedule said “at Virginia.”
Few campuses are more scenic than Jefferson’s little creation. Woodrow Wilson went to school here. So did Bobby and Ted Kennedy, along with Katie Couric. In fact, nearly every year, somebody or something is ranking this area sitting at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains as the definitive place to live.
Guess none of those folks bleed old gold and white.
To Tech, this is an absolutely ghastly area, especially since Virginia now has spent eight consecutive games since 1990 swatting the Jackets within these city limits.
This makes no sense.
“Every year’s different. Every team’s different. It’s just the way it’s happened,” said coach Chan Gailey, whose Tech teams have just happened to lose in Charlottesville three times in as many tries. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, or maybe it’s just one of those sports things. “I guess,” Gailey added. “I don’t put much credence in that kind of stuff.”
So what is it? “I really couldn’t tell you,” said Tech quarterback Taylor Bennett, thinking, before raising his eyebrows. “What? It’s been 17 years since Tech last won here? We’ve played in tougher stadiums. I don’t believe the atmosphere has anything to do with it.”
Goodness, no. Virginia fans are more festive than feisty. Plus, there isn’t a rock for the home team to rub, which is the case for Clemson at Death Valley, located next to a spooky cemetery. There isn’t the tomahawk chop or the war chant that echoes throughout Tallahassee. Well, Virginia does have a horse that gallops around the stadium, but Sabre isn’t as famous as Florida State’s Renegade.
Here’s what it is: When the Jackets play Virginia on the road, they do more to lose than to win.
Period.
This time, the normally sure-handed tacklers for Jon Tenuta’s defense were often sloppy in the clutch. That wasn’t good, especially since Virginia’s Cedric Peerman joins Tech’s Tashard Choice among the nation’s most prolific running backs that few people talk about. With a lot of help from the Jackets, Peerman averaged nearly five yards per carry for 138 yards overall and a touchdown.
Then there was Tech’s shaky passing game. Again. After a wonderful throw for a 56-yard touchdown to Demaryius Thomas on his opening drive, Bennett digressed from there (17-for-40 overall for 230 yards and that touchdown). He also was victimized by dropped catches that even a poor man’s version of You Know Who with the Detroit Lions would have caught. The ugly combination caused the Jackets’ offense to keep settling for field goals (three) instead of touchdowns in an eventual 28-23 loss.
There also were all of those injuries for the Jackets. The starting backfield. A crucial wide receiver. The punt returner (which contributed to that muff by the backup). A safety. The center on occasion. Nothing was as horrific as when Earls laid motionless for nearly 20 minutes after making a block.
“Emotionally, that affected us a lot, because we’re a big family as a team, and that always has been our main thing,” said safety Morgan Burnett, a freshman from College Park who was among those pressed into service after one of those injuries. He responded with an interception.
It wasn’t enough.
Nothing ever is enough for the Jackets around here.
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