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Thursday, November 8, 2007
Jackets fan base irascible
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Just like that, with the Georgia Tech football team edging closer by the millisecond to New Year’s Eve in Boise, Idaho, the Yellow Jacket Nation is a snarling, cranky, angry bunch.
You can blame it on Tech’s return to mediocrity for no good reason. Not only did the Jackets reach the ACC championship game last year, they entered this season with so many encouraging parts on offense, defense and special teams that nothing seemed impossible.
Well, except this: Losses to inferior Virginia and Maryland teams, along with the Jackets getting blasted at home on national television by Boston College and Virginia Tech. Now the Humanitarian Bowl is on the horizon for an underachieving bunch that is 5-4 overall, 2-4 in the ACC and producer of testy Tech folks everywhere.
They grouse over the regression of Tech quarterbacks since the days of Joe Hamilton, George O’Leary and Ralph Friedgen. They wonder why the Jackets can’t keep the Bulldogs from barking and winning. Mostly, they begin to discuss coach Chan Gailey by saying, “He’s a nice guy, but …”
I see them. I hear them.
So what about Bill Curry? After all, he’s the ultimate Tech man as a former player and head coach in football, a recent finalist for the athletics director’s job and an accomplished deep thinker. He’s also an ESPN college football analyst who lives in Buckhead, a likely epicenter for the Yellow Jacket Nation.
“Well,” Curry said, chuckling, before chuckling some more. “They call me, because many of them know my phone number. A lot of them are lettermen, and they still see me as the guy to call. I listen to them, and then I say, ‘Look. All we can do is back our program, and if we’ve got things that we want to say, we need to go say them to the coaching staff — face to face.’ I just believe that with all my heart.”
Added Curry, “There are certain expectations at Georgia Tech that all coaches are expected to meet. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Robert E. Lee Dodd or the rest of them. I don’t know about before him, but you’ve got to graduate your guys. It’s hard. It’s grueling. You’ve got to do it, and you’ve got to win.
“The tradition at Georgia Tech isn’t the same as at Oklahoma, but since Bobby Ross showed you can win it all [in 1990], the expectations went up.”
In case you’re wondering, Curry isn’t among those with “things” he wants to say to his good friend, Gailey, or to any Tech assistant. “I’m not close enough, nor should I venture into that territory, because I essentially never get to watch [the Jackets] play since I’m working [for ESPN] while they’re playing,” said Curry, who nevertheless did see last week’s Virginia Tech fiasco. The Jackets lost by 24 points at home to a team they beat by 11 on the road last season.
Remember, too, that the Yellow Jacket Nation hissed after Gailey won seven games during each of his opening four years on campus. Then came last season’s 9-2 start before a fifth straight loss to Georgia. Then, the Jackets dropped the ACC championship game to Wake Forest and the Gator Bowl to West Virginia.
Now this. To which Curry laughed, not because he doesn’t care, but because he remembered. “Look, we hit ground zero in 1980, and in my first two years we were 2-19-1,” said Curry, recalling talk of turning Tech football into something equivalent to an Ivy League program. Such discussions ended through the visionary efforts of Tech President Joseph Petit and athletics director Homer Rice.
There was something else, too. “Andy Young walked into my office and said, ‘I’m going to help you,’ and this was before he even thought about running for mayor,” Curry said. “It was legal then. He came, and every year, he’d say, ‘Give me my list,’ and he would call recruits. Maynard Jackson helped when he was mayor. Everybody kind of pitched in. All of that went into creating what has been a highly successful athletics program at one of the great academic institutions in the world. It’s right smack in one of the great cities, and it’s at a place where you ought to be able to win.”
No question there. Thus the epidemic of white-and-gold flavored grumbling, with no end in sight.
Permalink | Comments (97) | Categories: Tech / ACC, Terence Moore
Predictions: A Dog day to remember
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
This week’s money-back-guaranteed predictions (look for details in possible lost-in-the-mail future mailings) immediately follows this update from England, because, like, I really don’t care what color jerseys Georgia wears Saturday and this is so much better:
They are not talking about Georgia-Auburn in Nottingham, England, this week, which is not to say they are not barking like dogs.
A stripper dressed as a policewoman reportedly walked into a classroom of teenagers, performed the dance of your everyday independent contractor, told a 16-year-old birthday boy to drop to all fours like a dog, then spanked him for “not doing his homework.”
For the record, I never did my homework.
But was I rewarded?
No.
Government schools.
Anyway, the boy’s mother now says she actually meant to send him a “GorillaGram.” It’s so easy these days to mix up “gorilla” with “dirty, dirty, nasty, hot copper …”
Um, sorry. Where was I?
(Don’t worry: Georgia-Auburn just around the corner!)
There’s more to the story, but I’m going to stop, because I hear editors making those chainsaw sounds. Also, it’s all about online hits and, unfortunately, I haven’t found the video to post on ajc.com, despite several hours of research, which of course will be expensed. (Accounting dept.: I had three meals Thursday at the “After Hours Entertainment” all-day breakfast bar.)
Which leads me to yet another historic meeting between Georgia and Auburn. Keep your pants on, but it’s a big game, so big that the Dogs may wear black jerseys (gasp!). I’m not really sure how the teams match up in attire. But it’s safe to say this game will still come down to which one punches the other in the mouth. So, like, who cares about fashion?
Georgia went to Auburn last year and won. The Tigers think they’re getting revenge. Must’ve been a mix-up.
Bark like a dog. Georgia wins (and covers the 1).
College Six Pack
(Drank one)
ACC Hell Bowl: Duke, which has lost 23 straight ACC games, this week partnered with Children’s Hospital. My God, haven’t the kids suffered enough? Chan Gailey (2-4 going on Boise) may be in trouble. Lose this, remove all doubt. Jackets win, but take Duke and 13 1/2.
Florida at South Carolina: As it turns out, South Carolina with Steve Spurrier is, well, just South Carolina with Steve Spurrier. The Gamecocks started 6-1. Lose to Florida and Clemson and they’ll finish with five straight losses. Is it still admissions’ fault? Gators cover 6 1/2.
Kentucky at Vanderbilt: It would bother most schools to lose their basketball opener to Gardner-Webb. Fortunately, Kentucky’s a football school. And somewhere, drinks are on Tubby. Cats cover 3 1/2.
Arkansas at Tennessee: Darren McFadden ran for 321 yards last week. Any chance he can make a right on his next carry and head to Flowery Branch? Piggies win a pick ‘em.
FSU at Va. Tech: The Seminoles are coming off an upset of Boston College. The Hokies smacked the lesser Tech on national TV. The ACC will focus on these happy thoughts, not a Virginia-Wake title game.
NFL Six Pack
(Drank two)
Tweets at Panthers: It has been 11 months since the Falcons won consecutive games, and since anybody last saw Rich McKay in this country. On a related note, some soccer team in Bolivia just spent $17 million on a free-agent midfielder. Another loss (but take the 4).
Bills at Dolphins: Don Shula says New England’s perfect record is tainted. Please excuse him. Somebody took the last green Jell-O at the Daisy Hill Home for the Bored and Miserable. Meanwhile, there’s nothing tainted about the Fish being halfway to 0-16. Buff covers 3.
Cowboys at Giants: Actual factual: New York’s won six straight, but over teams with a combined record of 13-36. Dallas’ only loss came to New England, which doesn’t really count. By the way, didn’t Wade Phillips used to coach here? Pokes cover 1 1/2.
PhoneyNiners at Seahawks: SanFran just lost to the Falcons. What’s the spread in this one? Ah, forget it. Seattle covers.
Shams at Saints: St. Louis is tied with Miami for the draft lead at 0-8, and Georgia Frontiere celebrated the only way she knows how: two martinis, new shoes and stealing change from the homeless. N’Orleans covers 11 1/2.
DISPOSABLE INCOME REPORT
Last week: 6-5 straight up, 4-6-1 against the line.
The depressing bottom: 62-41 straight up, 45-52-6 against the line.
Promises: Promises.
Falcons police blotter: Charges were dropped against Jonathan Babineaux, raising the team’s record to 1-1 in felony dog cases and keeping alive wild-card hopes.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Georgia-Auburn: Best series in South, if not the world
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
This will be my 20th Georgia-Auburn game, and I’ve come to believe this is the best series in the South if not the whole wide world. Alabama-Auburn? Too much hate. The World’s Largest Outdoor Whatever? Too much alcohol. Georgia-Auburn is pure football, home-and-home, with a chill in the air and invariably something on the line.
Georgia-Auburn is great because, almost alone among football rivalries, the road team stands just as good a chance (if not better). Georgia-Auburn is great because of the schools’ shared history. (Dooley went to Auburn but coached Georgia; Dye was the other way around.) Georgia-Auburn is great because the games themselves tend to be classics. (Not many Georgia-Florida games over the last 25 years have had memorable finishes.)
Georgia-Auburn had Michael Johnson’s catch and Devin Aromashodu’s fumble. Georgia-Auburn had Auburn fumbling on the goal line in 1992 and Georgia getting stopped on the goal line nine years later. Georgia-Auburn had four overtimes in 1996 — I was 10 feet from Corey Allen when he caught the tying touchdown pass on the last play of regulation — and another OT in 2000.
And it has had, as all rivalries must, its weirdness. James Jackson missed the 1986 game because of his grandmother’s funeral and Georgia upset Auburn with its second-string quarterback. (That was the infamous hose game.) Terry Bowden went for it on fourth-and-short in 1995 and essentially ended Ray Goff’s tenure at Georgia. Kevin Ramsey misdirected his defense in 1999 and Auburn took a 31-0 halftime lead in Athens. Last year Tra Battle intercepted three first-half passes — Brandon Cox managed four completions all told, two of those for minus-yardage — and the previously reeling Bulldogs took a 30-7 halftime lead in Auburn.
But the Georgia-Auburn game I remember most is my first one. It was 1983. Auburn was No. 3, Georgia was No. 4. Georgia had lost Herschel to the USFL, and Bo Jackson had become the nation’s best back. Auburn won 13-7 between the hedges to clinch the SEC and the Sugar Bowl, but the thing that stood out for me was Doug Smith overwhelming Guy McIntyre on the line of scrimmage. Three months later, that nugget helped me get this job.
Feburary 1984: I’d come down from Lexington, Ky., for an interview with the AJC. I had an audience with the editor. Jim Minter asked if I knew anything about college football. (Mr. Minter was a huge Georgia fan and had a wide-angle photo of Sanford Stadium behind his desk.) I said I thought I did. He asked if I could name all the starting quarterbacks in the SEC. I knew I couldn’t — I’d have gotten nine, but Ole Miss would have stumped the band — so I tried to change the subject.
I pointed to the picture. “I can tell you why your team lost to Auburn — because your best offensive lineman got whipped by their best defensive lineman.”
Mr. Minter thought for a minute before saying, “Still nearly won, though.”
Taking my vocational life in my hands, I said, “Yeah, but you didn’t really deserve to.”
And here Mr. Minter, who almost never smiled, actually smiled. “When you’re a fan,” he said, “you don’t care if you deserve to.”
We both laughed. I got the job. Twenty-three years later, I still credit the Georgia-Auburn game.
Permalink | Comments (107) | Categories: Quick Hit, UGA / SEC
