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Friday, December 28, 2007
Humanitarian Bowl humiliating for Jackets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Boise, Idaho — Honestly, folks. Spending time in Boise, Idaho, is better than you think. Forbes magazine is among the many ranking it among America’s best cities. You can use its snowy slopes for tubing, something Georgia Tech football players just did. The winding Boise River features rainbow trout and breathtaking sights. Few state capitol buildings are more unique. In fact, this is the only one heated by geothermal water from 3,000 feet under ground. Added Dan Radakovich, Tech’s athletics director in his second year: “I’m sitting in my hotel room, and I’m looking at something that a lot of our student-athletes never get a chance to see, and that’s [part of the Rocky Mountains]. … It’s beautiful here, and it’s a great experience for them.”
Yeah, well. Now that we got that out of the way, the Yellow Jackets have no business playing in anything close to the Humanitarian Bowl ever again. Or at least not twice in five years, which will be the case after they take the blue field at Boise State on Monday afternoon against underwhelming Fresno State, which actually is favored over Tech.
This is humiliating. This is inexcusable, especially given the Jackets’ pretty recruiting in recent years.
Then again, this is what you get when your program has failed to escape mediocrity through underachieving during much of the new century. After ending the old one under former coach George O’Leary with consecutive trips to the Gator Bowl, the Jackets began this one with a splendid Peach Bowl appearance. Then O’Leary’s last Tech bunch in 2001 went to something called the Seattle Bowl to trigger this ugly run of long plane trips for the Jackets to bowls you’ve never heard of.
The Silicon Valley Classic Bowl. The Emerald Bowl.
The Humanitarian Bowl?
“Do we want to come out here every year, because [the Humanitarian Bowl] is the sixth or seventh pick [when it comes to bowl-eligible ACC teams]? No. We have definitely higher aspirations for our program,” said Radakovich, who showed as much in a hurry. First, he saw last year’s Jackets do the ridiculous by going from mighty to meek with three losses at the end to hated Georgia, Wake Forest during the ACC championship game and West Virginia in the Gator Bowl. Then came this season, when O’Leary’s successor, Chan Gailey, continued his habit of coaching the Jackets to highs and lows along the way to a fifth seven-victory season during his six years on campus.
Radakovich fired Gailey, the pro coach trapped in a college coach’s body, and hired Paul Johnson, the former Navy and Georgia Southern head guy with 107 victories and just 39 losses on his résumé.
Granted, Georgia Southern is just I-AA, but regardless of the Eagles’ stature, they did win a couple of national championships under Johnson. And, yes, his Navy teams also earned trips to bowls you’ve never heard of (Houston, Poinsettia), but you know what? At least his Navy teams were going to bowls. They reached five straight under Johnson, and they’ve been to only 14 overall in their long history.
“With Coach Johnson here and what he’s going to bring to the table, we do expect more,” said Radakovich, before a little chuckle. “I would hope that we would play in the Orange Bowl every year. I mean, that’s what we start off with. And it really goes beyond Georgia Tech. Once [the ACC] expanded to 12 schools, the ability to gather some bowl games for the fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth- [ranked] teams who want to play in bowls east of the Mississippi is very difficult to do.” Not really. All you have to do is not finish fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth in the conference, and you won’t have that problem. Given Tech’s resources, starting with its prime location in a highly desirable city, the Jackets never should have that problem in most seasons.
“As we evolve, certainly we want to make sure that we are giving, not only our student athletes a great opportunity for a postseason trip, but our fans as well,” said Radakovich, suggesting he knows the truth: Boise is nice, but it’s not that nice.
Permalink | Comments (48) | Categories: Terence Moore
Sun-kissed Hawaii rises on the bayou
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
furman bisher
Melikalikimaka and makahikiho, or merry Christmas, belatedly, and happy new year, as they would say in Hawai’i. We mainlanders say “haw-ah-yuh,” they say “huh-WY-ee,” but both hold a football with the laces turned to the right.
Now, if this had been written in the day when Tommy Kaulukukui had been in his prime, the heading would have been “Hoohoomalimali,” which was what the columnist Red McQueen loosely translated as “grab-bag” in his Honolulu newspaper. Tommy K. was University of Hawai’i’s first glorified athlete, only Warrior whose number has been retired. “Warrior” — that’s the name of the university’s football players. Once they were “Rainbow Warriors.” The rainbow part was dropped. Sounded too soft. Yet, native Hawaiians are some of the softest, most gentle people you’ll ever meet.
And the native tongue, while it may get yours in a twist, is simpler than ours. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. It’s a state, yes, became one in 1959, but it has a culture all its own. It’s made up of eight main islands, but one is forbidden to anyone but natives. Niihau, they call it, appropriately known as “The Forbidden Island.” No tourism there.
Hawai’i is the longest state in the union, stretching from the Kure Atoll to the tip of the Big Island, roughly equal to the distance from St. Louis to Las Vegas. The most significant name in the islands is one forever engraved in American memory — Pearl Harbor. The name signifies its own infamous place in our history.
Enough geography for one day, shall we now move into the significance of it all? Hawai’i is about to move onto the stage of the most significant moment in its sporting history. The Warriors are about to play University of Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Fancy that.
Usually, Hawai’i is where mainlanders go to find peace and leisure. For some college football teams it has been a sort of a destination of reward, usually at the end of the season. Oftimes the mainlanders let the pleasures of the islands get in the way of their football mission. South Carolina made the trip twice and twice came home the loser. Pitt, Northwestern and Michigan State found their trips turned into defeat. Four years ago Alabama ran into a Warrior buzz saw. Notre Dame made the trip and was stretched the limit to win by a bare point. Best part of it was, due to the time difference, the games were played at such a nocturnal hour most mainlanders were in bed and missed the telecasts.
This time, the Warriors hit the air in prime time, and get to put on their show for all of us to see. And it is a show, beginning with the pregame “ha’a” dance the Warriors stage before kickoff, even those imported mainland lads who wouldn’t known a ha’a from a polka. Chances indicate that Hawai’i will face a defensive factor they haven’t seen before, and the Bulldogs will fulfill their destination as the favorites. So they say. So did some of those teams that found their Hawaiian holiday wrapped in a cloak of defeat.
You’ve read the stories. Of June Jones, the Warriors coach, who was a Falcons quarterback for three seasons, then later coached them until his departure was hastened by that evening when the repulsive quarterback Jeff George screamed in his face and rebelled. Jones had been a Warriors quarterback in his youth, and what he has found there on return is a coaching haven. “His heart has been in Hawai’i since he left as a player in 1974,” so it reads in the Warriors press guide.
There are other regional connections. Jason Elam went from Snellville to Oahu to find his future as a placekicker, still in force with the Denver Broncos. Paul Johnson, the new Georgia Tech coach, was an assistant at Hawai’i for several seasons. You’ve read of the glorious exploits of Colt Brennan, a transplanted Californian, third finisher in the Heisman voting. Twenty-six players are transfers from mainland schools, but there is a solid core of 45 native sons, nine Honolulu locals.
This will be the Warriors’ bid for a place in the national sun, under the lights of the Superdome. They are not strangers to the mainland. They have played five games stateside this season, and had close calls at Louisiana Tech — where the Bulldog Dooley son, Derek, coaches — and San Jose State, a team on the mend, and Nevada. There’s nothing new here but the atmosphere and all the hoopla. When you’ve played Alabama and South Carolina and Michigan State, and all those other big leaguers, what’s so different about Georgia? Nothing, except it’s the Sugar Bowl, Georgia is not on a holiday and all that “hoohoomalimali.”
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‘85 Bears would be tough for Pats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
When it comes to defining greatness, at least in comparing teams from different eras, there are only two absolutes:
It can’t be done.
Of course it can be done, stupid. Just ask any former player.
“Well, you know what I’m going to say,” said Mike Singletary, the former linebacker for the 1985 Chicago Bears. “Of course I’m biased. But I think we would’ve done pretty well against New England.”
The Patriots are 15-0. Barring a sudden show of sympathy from Bill Belichick or a career day from Eli Manning, they figure to complete an undefeated regular season today against the New York Giants. Three more wins in the postseason, and Boston sports fans, reserved sort that they are, will start screaming something about old pansies like Ray Nitschke.
But New England’s greatest accomplishment isn’t necessarily this team. It’s this era. San Francisco and Dallas manipulated the salary cap with inflated bonuses, but they paid for it years later. The Patriots are the first NFL team to excel at football’s version of “Moneyball.” In 2001, they signed 20 mid-level free agents, giving modest bonuses or none at all. They’ve let free agents walk. It has been the blueprint for three titles — and counting.
They have the best coach (Belichick), the best architect (Scott Pioli), the best quarterback (Tom Brady). Then Oakland gift-wrapped Randy Moss for a fourth-round pick. So not fair.
But then, fortunately for the Pats, they don’t have to play the ‘85 Bears. So sayeth Singletary.
“We would’ve pressured the quarterback and stopped the run, and really made Brady do some things,” he said. “You can’t let Brady dictate things. We would’ve taken him out of his comfort zone.
“They would’ve had trouble with our defensive line. Those guys took it as a challenge every week: We’ll get the quarterback. They would’ve had a lot of problems with [Dan] Hampton.”
We’ll have to assume. It’s all on paper.
With that in mind, here’s one guy’s top five, knowing it can’t possibly please everybody, particularly fans from Washington, Dallas or Pittsburgh, one of whom I’m married to. But she’ll always have Franco.
1. 1989 49ers (17-2): Imagine. San Francisco’s best team came after Bill Walsh’s retirement. George Seifert let Mike Holmgren run the offense. Good choice. Joe Montana’s backup was a future Hall of Famer, Steve Young. Jerry Rice is in the best-player-ever argument. The fullback (Tom Rathman) had 76 catches. The defense nobody talked about included Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley and some cocky kid, Bill Romanowski. The two losses came by five points. The postseason was their own little scorched earth: 41-13 (Vikings), 30-3 (Rams), 55-10 (Broncos). I surrender.
2. 1985 Bears (18-1): They recorded the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” I guess the studio was booked in September. The Bears won their first 12 games (the last three by 104-3). They had the MVP (Walter Payton) and the defensive player of the year (Singletary). The front four: Hampton, Steve McMichael, Richard Dent and a Fridge. In the Super Bowl (46-10), New England QB Tony Eason looked like a Shih Tzu staring at a Winnebago.
3. 2007 Patriots (15-0, so far): They won their first eight games by 24, 24, 31, 21, 17, 21, 21 and 45. But they’ve looked dangerously close to mortal in the second half (wins over the Colts, Eagles and Ravens came by a total of 10 points). Their defense really isn’t that good, but in the salary cap era, you pay the price somewhere. And when Brady is the quarterback and Donte’ Stallworth is the No. 3 receiver, behind Moss and Wes Welker, does it matter that the defense is average?
4. 1972 Dolphins (17-0): The team gets knocked for playing a soft schedule (only two regular-season opponents had winning records). But Miami won eight of 14 games by at least two touchdowns, including 52-0 over the Patriots. It also played most of the year without starting QB Bob Griese. His replacement, Earl Morrall, 38, was acquired from the Giants for $100. The Fins were so unappreciated even that season that they went into the Super Bowl 16-0 … as underdogs. But they beat the Redskins 14-7, and as Larry Csonka said, “Perfection ends a lot of arguments.”
5. 1962 Packers (14-1): Going old school. This team had 11 future Hall of Famers, including coach Vince Lombardi. It outscored teams 415-148 (the first three games: 100-7). Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Max McGee on offense. Nitschke, Willie Wood, Herb Adderly on defense. The Pack won the title game over the Giants in New York, where the 20-degree reading didn’t factor in the 35-mph winds.
Admit it: You want to run through a wall right now, don’t you?
Permalink | Comments (56) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
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