Tech

By I like Tech's style

August 20, 2007 2:18 PM | Link to this

I think tech does it the right way. They close the practices when they are prepping for teams, and keep it open when they are working on technique’s, conditioning, vanilla assignments and plays, and general practice. It makes sense.

Keeping it closed all year is too restrictive, and open all year doesn’t seem to make sense unless you have the talent of a USC. Which we don’t.

I have noticed that practice attendance and scrimmage attendance by the normal fan has grown probably 5-fold over the past 5 years.

By Chris

August 20, 2007 2:47 PM | Link to this

USC can afford to keep it open all the time because they’ve basically got an NFL-caliber team out there and you can know exactly what’s coming at you, but there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

When ND keeps its practices closed all of the time, it just makes Weis seem like a fat version of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, coveting the Precious (Precious being Jimmy Clausen, in this case).

I think we do strike a good balance with openness when we’re just running drills and getting everyone up to speed and learning the offense, but closing practice during classes for a little privacy and to game-plan for upcoming matchups.

By James

August 20, 2007 3:12 PM | Link to this

The practices are closed because we don’t want prying eyes checking out the Tickle Pile that is being held at the end of practice. Plus they will be deciding who will represent the football team in the campus wide Girlyman competition and that is a secret.

By JustMe

August 20, 2007 3:17 PM | Link to this

Mike or Matt - I’d love to hear about ND… what are their strengths/weaknesses. Where can Tech exploit? Where will Tech be in trouble. Any thoughts?

By Dude

August 20, 2007 3:59 PM | Link to this

James…..you’re so griiiiiiime. lollercoaster! (one hand raised in grime formation)

By old gold engineer

August 20, 2007 4:01 PM | Link to this

The practice updates have been entertaining and informative. I understand why a coach would want to keep aspects of the game plan secret and I respect that. Is there any update on academic eligibility?

By MEB

August 20, 2007 4:12 PM | Link to this

James, if you had 10 - 15 more points on IQ, you could be a plant,maybe.

By t-bone

August 20, 2007 4:15 PM | Link to this

like keeping prying eyes away from GT practice will improve the play of the North Avenue Joke from Coke. Who is Gailey trying to fool..no one cares what is happening during games, let alone practice!

By Chris

August 20, 2007 4:15 PM | Link to this

JustMe - The biggest weakness that I think Tech will be able to exploit is the new QB. No matter who it is or how well Weis prepares him, he’s going to lack game experience and will be confused by Tenuta’s blitzing scheme. It’s confusing enough for a seasoned veteran, but it’s pure hell for a new QB. Just ask Brandon Cox and Kyle Wright, as soon as they scrape themselves off of the turf.

ND’s defensive line has some new faces, and I think our seasoned, solid O-line will be able to overpower them for the most part.

By t-bone

August 20, 2007 4:15 PM | Link to this

like keeping prying eyes away from GT practice will improve the play of the North Avenue Joke from Coke. Who is Gailey trying to fool..no one cares what is happening during games, let alone practice!

By t-bone

August 20, 2007 4:15 PM | Link to this

like keeping prying eyes away from GT practice will improve the play of the North Avenue Joke from Coke. Who is Gailey trying to fool..no one cares what is happening during games, let alone practice!

By shivas

August 20, 2007 4:34 PM | Link to this

T-bone, take care of that spastic finger as it keeps hitting the post button, or you just may be a UGA grad just figuring out the internet. I do think it’s correct to close practice when game-prepping. Hell, Ol Charlie won’t even fudge on the starting QB. Whoever it is, I am sure Charlie has started scrambling drills, because he’s going to have to contend with some seriously swarming and angry bees. Charlie is amart enough not to put Claussen in so early, because the Tech defense will be a demoralizing early test. The only way I see ND having a chance is if we turn the ball over, or do not make plays on special teams. Other than that we should dominate on the ground and defensively. Passing game is a wait to see if TB is for real, and can just complete the passes he’s supposed to and stay away from mistakes. James, I know this may be hard for you, but try to say something intelligent. THWG

By JD

August 20, 2007 4:44 PM | Link to this

May be if T-Bone could read, he would know that you don’t have keep hitting post repeatedly to get the comment up. Instead, he’d know there would be a delay of up to 5 minutes before his dumba$$ comment would be up.

By LongBeachJacket

August 20, 2007 4:48 PM | Link to this

Mike (& Matt) - Nice coverage of the team thus far. We have a team that CAN win any game on it’s schedule. We have enough talent and enough depth. We even have enough talent to win against a quality opponent without playing a perfect game (i.e. VA Tech last year). I like our situation starting on the road against a tough Irish team, but one that has a lot of questions to answer with it’s new skill people (i.e. QB). I’m sure it hasn’t escaped the astute observer’s notice that Coach Gailey’s teams have played soundly and focused in every opener during Chan’s tenure on the Flats. Most notably a solid win against AU in ‘05 down at there place. Last year we were a break here or there away from bagging the Irish in our place. It should be a close game, and hard fought, up there. If we take care of the football and play our usually sound game on defense (minus a very occasional secondary blown coverage) we should have a good shot. This team should be confident and should play that way. Let’s get it started! I look forward to enjoying this one from inside the “friendly” confines of Notre Dame Stadium.

By The Big Bug

August 20, 2007 6:12 PM | Link to this

Does anyone out there actually think the officials will allow GT a fair chance against “Our Lady of The Ruptured Spleen”? Same situation as with Duke in BB. GT will have to be twice as good just to tie, especially in South Bend. What’s this piece of crap “James”?No one I know even knows what a tickle pile is.Must be something you learned in your trailer park, hick. Most of the UGA alumni I know are pretty gracious in victory but these ” sidewalk alumni” like James who never set foot on a college campus are a bit much.

By Elijah

August 20, 2007 6:33 PM | Link to this

I think we have a great team this year, and I think it is a good idea the way Gailey does practices. I agree that we can beat anyone on our schedule this year,and could run the table. I think the only way Notre Dame beats us is if we are over confident or get intimidated be the crowd. Many times when an opponent is not respected, rebuild year or not, they show up big. I hope that we are underdogs in that game.

By 3 Rivers jacket

August 20, 2007 6:35 PM | Link to this

Folks t is time to take a stance. The Yellow jackets are going to be one of the surprises ofthe year. They will not be to me but this team has a lot of depth for Tech at least and some play makers on both sides of the ball but what i like most is the experience. There is no sub for it. Let’s get out of the gate quickly and set up an early season PRIME TIME with Boston College. No 5;45 ko this team is prime time.

By gtgirl25

August 20, 2007 6:57 PM | Link to this

Thanks for the good commentary! I like the enthusiasm in here…minus the occasional tickle pile comment! I too can’t wait til I am inside the friendly confines of Notre Dame stadium.

Go Jackets…THWG!!!

By JB Ventuno

August 20, 2007 8:01 PM | Link to this

Tech will be alright come gametime, now that BC game will be interesting.3-0 vs 3-0.

By Hooked On Phonics

August 20, 2007 8:10 PM | Link to this

Have you guys ever heard your 30 year old graduate, Little Joey Hamilton, talk? It’s no wonder he was ineligible his ENTIRE career at Tech. That guy sounds like a straight-up Gullah retard!

By jacketnation

August 20, 2007 10:16 PM | Link to this

UGA fans on our blog again? It just goes th show you the kind of ignorant porch monkeys they have for a fan base. Sit there and watch your bug zapper and watch re-runs of hee-haw. Pop the top on another Pabst Blue Ribbon and eat another bag of freind pork rinds.

This blog is about Tech preparing for Notre Dame. Don’t they have a blog about all the UGAG players that have been arrested since last season?

By Drexel Gal

August 21, 2007 3:45 AM | Link to this

What is Tech “hiding” by closing its workouts? It isn’t as though they have any winning “strategery” or anything.

Bee fans: Expect no more than FOUR wins this season. Just pray that one is against the Dawgs.

By Domer2

August 21, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this

Well, we have only a couple of comments to add to all of the ND remarks we’ve just read…did you all know that we are a school of ONLY 12,000 students? How many students does GT have? Michigan? Ohio State? LSU? MSU? USC? PSU? Figure the odds of a small school like ND being so good - so often in its history. Second, remember last year…AT YOUR HOUSE? [And you folks even had the #1 receiver in the nation…hmmmmm.] We didn’t need the officials then did we? Whether you lost by a point or 50 points is irrelevant…it was still a LOSS. Regardless of schedules…easy/hard…you still lost to ND…and if we were/are so bad, then we guess that a team would be EMBARASSED to lose to us…and if we are so easy to beat, then how come only the BIG TEAMS could beat us?? For a team like ND that didn’t/doesn’t deserve anything & is so secretive, why does everyone pay so much attention to ND? We are so EASY to beat aren’t we? ND is ranked lower than GT isn’t it? So what does anyone care about the closed practices? Quite simply, if anyone of you was the head coach, wouldn’t YOU keep the opposition guessing until the last moment? I guess GT’s coach decided Weis had a good idea…DUHHHHHH. We have to laugh; he couldn’t come up with the idea on his own, he needed the coach of a small school like ND to give him an original idea. To answer the writer’s question: YES, I would close practices…all the time…why give away information! If you have never coached, you can not possibly understand the sublty of how much information can be gleaned from just watching a practice!

By Chris

August 21, 2007 10:10 AM | Link to this

News flash: Tech is a relatively small school too. Including undergrads and grad students, we barely crack 15,000. Also, we’ve done practices this way for a while. Open for drills and learning the offense early, closed for game prep later on. I personally think it strikes a good balance between keeping the game plan under wraps and being fan-friendly.

By ugablows

August 21, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this

Domer…the officials DID win the game for you last year, your O-line held on for dear life the entire 2nd half and the zebra’s never called it, not to mention the mugging that Calvin took in the 2nd half from your 2ndary…i have to admit weis made a good decision to try that and see if the ref’s would do anything or not, really quite brilliant.

By Hey Domer 2

August 21, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this

GT only has a few more than 12,000 students itself.

BTW… has Quinn recovered from that vicious personal foul that was called against Tech last year? What a joke call.

By Scott A. Butler

August 21, 2007 10:51 AM | Link to this

I never see Roddy Jones mentioned in Tech Football. I saw this young man play several times in High School at Chamblee and was so impressed with him. As the Principal of Tucker High School we sent Thomas Brown and Asher Allen to UGA, but I always felt JOnes was their equal. Has he disappeared or disappointed? I was so excited when the Jackets landed him. I know he must be headed for red-shirt…but surely he has exploded in practice.

By gtgirl25

August 21, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this

Roddy Jones has been mentioned, but Deuce (Tashard Choice) is our star and Jonathan Dwyer has gotten more new star buzz. There may be special situations in which to use Roddy or it may be better for him to redshirt this year unless there are major injuries.

By Domer2

August 22, 2007 6:37 AM | Link to this

Wow…we didn’t realize that GT was also a small school! Well then, all kidding aside, CONGRATS on a superior football program for MANY years also! The Ramblin Wrecks! Learned that about the same time I learned about Knute Rockne famed 4 Horsemen! And yes I also agree that open/closed practices are the best of both worlds! Some of the officiating in that game went both ways - the personal foul call was on that new out of bounds rule wasn’t it? What we couldn’t understand was why the coaches stopped going to Johnson…THAT confused us. Well, good luck this season AFTER the first game…grins.

By weareND

August 27, 2007 9:50 PM | Link to this

watched every game since 89 @ nd stadium never seen refs too fond of our players…they never like the indepentants and charlie has a foul mouth and short fuse the refs never like him.