AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April
April 2008
What Dunmon’s departure means
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Colin Peek, D.J. Donley, Taylor Bennett and now Trey Dunmon. Those are the players who have transferred or are transferring from Georgia Tech’s football team since Paul Johnson and his staff took over.
It’s not the end of the world. You will find no implication here that either the players or the coaches are to blame, or disloyal, or in any way wrong.
Think about it this way: You have a job, and a new boss comes in and changes things, and you decide it’s not the job you signed up to do. That doesn’t make the new boss wrong for making changes, and it doesn’t make you disloyal or wrong if you decide the job is no longer right for you.
(Yes, I’ve been told that Donley’s departure wasn’t about the changes in the staff. But there’s still this quote from his high school coach: “He had a really good freshman year, and he has a lot of confidence that he can play the wide receiver position, and the comment he made was he really wanted to see how good he can get.”)
Dunmon did tell me he had some issues with the new staff, but he characterized them as minor and mentioned them late in our conversation. The first thing he said when I asked him why he was transferring was: “Just style. It’s not my favorite offense. This is a big difference [from what Tech was doing on the offensive line].”
Dunmon, unlike the others, went through spring practice. He told me he didn’t think the new offense was for him but he wanted to see for himself. He said he’ll probably wind up at Georgia Southern, where he knows the coaches. Georgia Southern has something else going for it, too; because it’s Division I-AA, Dunmon could play there this fall. He probably couldn’t do that in Division I-A, and he already has used his redshirt year. (As far as I know, the NCAA hasn’t ruled on Peek’s waiver request. He’s got an argument: He’s a tight end, and Johnson doesn’t use tight ends.)
Is Dunmon’s move about playing time? He might have started at center, though from practices and conversations I had it seemed the coaches liked Dan Voss there. He said the coaches told him he would play at Tech, and I think he might have had even more playing time than he had last fall, which was considerable for a non-starter. Dunmon’s departure leaves Tech very thin at center, but that doesn’t mean he owed it to anyone to stay.
When we talked Tuesday evening, he had finished his two finals and had two term papers left to hand in. He’ll probably go from being a science, technology and culture major at Tech to some kind of advertising-oriented major at Georgia Southern.
“I am going to miss my teammates,” he said.
When I spoke at the Lunch Bunch a week ago, I was asked if there’d be any more defections, and I said I didn’t think so, that I didn’t see why anybody would go through a full spring of practice and only then, after all that work, decide it wasn’t for him. Guess I was wrong.
But I don’t see these transfers as any sort of blotch on Tech or the staff or the players who leave. I just see this as the normal fallout from a big-time change in philosophies. And everybody — those who stay as well as those who leave — usually is better off when people who aren’t sold on the new way find a better fit.
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Tech’s path to a repeat national title
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I just got off the phone with Bryan Shelton, whose Georgia Tech women’s tennis team opens defense of its NCAA championship next Friday, May 9, at noon against Alcorn State. If Tech wins that match (and it would be like a No. 1 seed losing to a No. 16 seed in basketball if Tech doesn’t), the Yellow Jackets’ path toward a successful title defense projects like this:
—Illinois or Tennessee in round two, at Tech, and then on to Tulsa for the rest of the tournament.
—Florida State. Tech won 4-3 in Tallahassee this season.
—Florida or Vanderbilt, perhaps. Tech beat Vandy 4-3 and didn’t play Florida.
—Georgia, UCLA or Southern California in the semis.
—Northwestern, Stanford, Baylor or Cal in the title match.
We’ll be covering every match from here on in.
Shelton projects his typical mix of confidence but not cockiness. After last year, there’s obviously no doubt his team can win it all, but after last week (a loss to Clemson in the ACC semifinals) there’s a recent reminder Tech can lose, too. That said, the Jackets rank as heavy favorites to advance to the round of 16.
Tennessee has had injury problems (it had to forfeit No. 6 singles because it didn’t have enough healthy players in its second-round SEC tournament loss to Auburn). Illinois finished the season strong but has struggled against Top 25 teams, losing those six matches by a combined score of 31-4.
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How Bennett left
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taylor Bennett was a stand-up guy with the media throughout his Georgia Tech career. No matter how bad things got on the field, Bennett would answer questions after the game. So it was out of character when he made himself unavailable for comment a few months ago when he chose to stop playing football for the Yellow Jackets.
This morning, he said there was a reason for his silence. He didn’t want to say anything that might affect his application for an NCAA waiver allowing him to play right away at his new school. If he didn’t get that waiver, his career would have been over, at least in Division I-A.
A couple of years ago, players who graduated could transfer and play right away with no need of a waiver, and a few did, most notably cornerback Ryan Smith, who transferred from Utah to Florida, Lon Kruger’s son Kevin, who joined his dad at UNLV. The NCAA changed that rule after only one year, but it left the door open just a crack. That was a big enough opening for Bennett, who successfully argued that he had a valid academic reason for transferring from Georgia Tech to Louisiana Tech, where he will enroll in a master’s degree program Georgia Tech does not offer.
The result is a strange compromise that reveals how difficult it is to draw up a rule that satisfies everybody. The player has to find an academic justification for the school he chooses, whether it’s his real motivation or not. (Not to say Bennett isn’t interested in Louisiana Tech’s master’s program. In fact, he says it’s a good fit with what he did as a Georgia Tech undergraduate and with what he wants to do after his football days end.)
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Some NFL team will get a Choice bargain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tashard Choice doesn’t have first-round speed, but he’s got first-round heart. I think some NFL team will get a bargain when they draft him. He’s the kind of guy who will do what it takes to make a contribution, and his attitude has got to be a plus for any locker room.
The NFL draft is a strange weekend for a guy like me who covers college football. It’s always interesting to see what the pros think of the players I’ve covered and/or followed over the years. And it’s always interesting to me to see what the pros get right (Calvin Johnson) and what they get wrong (James Butler, who went from undrafted free agent to starting 12 games for last year’s Super Bowl champions).
I’m curious to see where Gary Guyton and Philip Wheeler will fit in, and of course Durant Brooks, and I’m wondering if some other Tech player might turn into the next Butler, Michael Matthews or George Cooper, finding a job in the NFL after not finding favor on draft day.
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How to play the expectations game
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometimes the sports world mimics the political one. It’s all about creating and managing expectations.
For example, going into and coming out of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary Clinton and Obama were playing the expectations game based on:
—Her lead in the polls six weeks ago.
—How much money he spent.
—The demographics of the state.
Football coaches have to play the expectations game, too. Paul Johnson, for instance, doesn’t want to set the bar too high for 2008, or people will be disappointed with the results. He doesn’t want to set the bar too low, or he will come across as defeatist and Georgia Tech won’t sell as many tickets. Here’s his latest pronouncement, on Tuesday’s ACC spring football teleconference. Some of the factors in the football season expectations game:
—The talent of the players.
—The experience (or inexperience) of the players.
—The newness of the system and the time it takes to get players efficient in running it.
—How well or how badly the players match the system.
—The schedule.
—What the team did and didn’t accomplish in 2007 and other recent seasons.
What are your expectations, and what are the biggest factors that lead to them? 6-6? 7-5? Better? Worse?
Stay tuned for an upcoming article about what history suggests one should expect from a coaching transition in Division I-A football.
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Richard likes new D-line scheme
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s understandably overlooked in all the hubbub about Georgia Tech switching offenses, but the Yellow Jackets have made some changes on defense, too.
Here’s one: The defensive ends are lining up wider and angling in from there. That has implications for their teammates, too.
“It allows us as defensive tackles to get more one-on-one opportunities,” Darryl Richard said. “It gives you a little more freedom.
“You have a good idea before the snap whether the offensive tackle is going to work a double team or kick slide out to on that defensive end.”
The defensive line of Richard and Vance Walker inside and Michael Johnson and Derrick Morgan outside shapes up as the strongest unit on the Yellow Jackets.
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Don’t give up; it’s only spring
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let me begin on a personal note by thanking the Lunch Bunch crowd at Frankie’s for the warm reception today. It was great to meet so many fine folks.
As I said in that talk, it would be a mistake to draw too many negative conclusions from Saturday’s spring game. Some reasons:
1) It’s just a spring game. 2) Cord Howard and A.J. Smith, who might end up starting on the offensive line, weren’t playing. 3) Georgia Tech’s offense has looked better than that in practice. 4) Other defenses won’t have practiced against Tech’s offense nearly as many times as Tech’s defense has. Part of the success of the system will be opponents’ lack of familiarity with it. 5) Josh Nesbitt was coming off an injury. 6) It was only the 15th practice of an entirely new offense. 7) Your defensive front four might be pretty darned tough for anyone to block. 8) Jonathan Dwyer will hold onto the ball eventually. He has the talent and the want-to and just needs more practice. 9) It’s just a spring game. 10) It’s just a spring game.
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What does Paul Johnson expect?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today’s topic: A little about how Paul Johnson approaches expectations.
It is still far too early to ask a new head coach what he’ll expect of his team, so the first question I asked (multi-pronged) in this regard was: How in your first year will you arrive at your expectations going into the season, how will you decide what will be satisfactory, do you set certain benchmarks in terms of wins, average rushing yards per game, points allowed that if not met will determine if the season was pass or fail? I wanted to know what he will look for in predicting what his team will be capable of this fall.
Bad idea. How could I forget? Coaches in general hate predictions, perhaps none moreso than Johnson’s Tech colleague, Paul Hewitt. Short precursor: Johnson said he’s not one to set what might be called tangible expectations, like win this many games or the season’s a bust, etc. More:
“I have a hard time dealing with that. At the Naval Academy, they had not won that much, and once we started winning (43 games over the last five seasons), at the end of the season I could never enjoy … one year we were 10-2 and ranked (No. 24), and I couldn’t let go of the two we lost,” he said.
Translation: He reached a point at Navy, once he and his staff settled in, where he expected to win, win and win again. He’s not alone among coaches in that regard, although he earlier said sometimes no matter how grand your schemes and ideas are, “physical superiority on some days cancels all else out.”
Continuing … “My expectations are to handle the things you can handle, and don’t worry about the other stuff,” he said. “We need to try to be as good as we can be, get better every day, and then my expectation right now is to get ready for Jacksonville State.”
Sounds like he will be big on the way coaches and — through trickle-down — players set some expectations, however, and there is at least one excuse he won’t allow the defense to “expect” to be able to use as a crutch in the event time of possession is tilted badly away from his team on a given day. Here ‘tis:
“One of my biggest peeves, and I guess it started from when I was a defensive coach, was when the defense says, ‘We’re wore out,’ ” Johnson said. “Well, shoot, stop [the other team on third down] and come out. That’s what the other side is doing. I think from a coaching standpoint, if you have kids that come off the field and do that, you say, ‘Bullcrap’ [to them].”
There are, of course, expectations of all kinds. The kids Tech (and everybody else) recruits have expectations, and sometimes there is no way around them. When that happens, steer clear of those kids even if they meet Tech’s other criteria.
“Any time in recruiting when all a kid’s heard about for the last few years is the University of Georgia, and the stadium is bigger, it holds 90,000 and they draw more fans, hey, if you’re looking for those bells and whistles, OK.
“Now, if you’ve got a kid who’s thinking I want to be an architect, or a kid who’s thinking 10 years down the road, OK, well then, 60,000 is as good as 90,000 and he’s not going to worry about who has the bigger weight room and like that, [Tech will] get those kinds of kids I think. Those are generally kids who are motivated differently.
“That doesn’t mean that the state schools don’t get great kids, too, because they do. They might want to be a journalism major, or something at another school, like sports medicine. There’s a lot of kids that drive kids to pick schools. I’ve seen kids pick a school because of the jersey.”
Moral to that story: Figure out early in the process what a recruit’s priorities are, and if they are too far off what Tech has to offer, don’t waste time and money recruiting him if he’s not likely to be persuadable. Again, not a novel concept, but there’s a lot to be said — in my opinion — for candor like that stated above.
On to Saturday’s spring game.
Matt
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Paul Johnson goes deep … on the power of perception
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Simple question for Paul Johnson yesterday. Complex answer, as would be expected.
Q: Now that you’ve been on the case for several months, how would you assess your team’s chemistry, cohesion, etc.
“I think the guys genuinely like each other; I don’t think there’s been an issue that way,” he said. “I think there was too much separation in the segments of the team, too much, ‘Well, we did OK at our spot, but this group is killing us.’ It’s all one unit. We’re making progress. I think it comes from the coaching staff.”
To summarize, just about every new head coach wants to change tempo and culture. Whether changes stick is determined to great degree by the group’s character in sum, and also by the method and diligence of those seeking to make change.
Nearly every large unit of people will have dissenters.
The net effectiveness of the change is determined largely by how effectively dissenters are swayed, muted or run off. The shaping of this psychology is determined in part by external forces, like perceptions from the outside in, perceptions from the rank and file that each player has of himself, coaches and his teammates, and how those from within view or let affect them what they take to be the perceptions from outside (Ignore them? Work off of them? Resent them? etc.).
Addressing this is not as easy, of course, as coaches saying, “Hey, ignore that,” or, “don’t think that way.” It takes more than that; it takes leadership and merger of a do-what-I-do and do-what-I-say approach. My take: this is part of why Johnson sometimes has been known to get snappy with media (I take this as a good thing as it’s easier to engage coaches like that in reasonable, if sometimes charged, dialogue).
More from Johnson, on the effects of perception:
“To me, it has something to do with the perception of the media. If every day you pick up the paper, and it says the defense is carrying the team, or the offense is terrible, by game five the defense believes it. Now, the offense has copped an attitude, and maybe the offense ain’t all that,” he said. “You just can’t function that way. It’s got to be one team, and the way to do it, and the assistant coaches know that’s a pet peeve of mine [in taking care of one’s own business and not working as if each unit has to do something special for fear another unit will fail].
“If that’s what you’re hearing all the time, that this side is [bad], and these guys aren’t any good … as a player you don’t want to hear that it’s so and so’s fault. A lot of times, it’s not anything that has to do with the team, and you’ve got to fight it. If everybody is telling you that Reggie Ball is the reason you’re losing, everybody wants to believe that, you know, ‘It can’t be me; it’s got to be him.’
“I think dealing with people’s emotions, and getting them to buy into something is important. There are some guys that are never going to completely buy in, but you’ve got to get them to at least neutral ground. As a general rule, I think everybody values themselves more than [others].”
As Johnson noted, there are exceptions. Some people aren’t selfish enough.
“There are some guys who are tough on themselves no matter what they do. [Former Georgia Southern quarterback] Tracy Ham was unbelievable that way,” he said. “He was going to take more blame than he ever could have done as a player. I had to find reasons for him that it wasn’t his fault even if it was. He was so hard on himself he’d beat himself up. He was such a perfectionist. But those guys are few and far between.
“The thing I try to sell to those guys is that we’re going to have to win some games 6-3, and we’re going to have to win some 46-43. They both count the same, and if you’re going to be any good, you’re going to have some of both.”
How about that? Invoking the best quarterback he’s ever had, and the most controversial Tech quarterback in memory in one conversation, without provocation I might add.
Dig the depth and texture of this man’s thinking.
Matt
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Last practice before T-Day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Light fare today in Tech’s last practice before Saturday’s spring game/finale.
Players are in helmets, shorts, tops, etc., but no pads.
I spoke with coach Paul Johnson for a while this afternoon, and we touched on a variety of things. I’ll go into bits and pieces in a smattering of short stories and blogs eventually.
Part of what we talked about: perceptions, and how they’re often wrong, slanted, a hurdle and something he and his staff will have to sometimes fight. This can be media perceptions, fans’ perceptions, players’ perceptions of each other and themselves, etc.
I also asked for his assessment of his team’s chemistry/unity/cohesion, etc. His perception (there’s that word) is that he feels guys like each other well enough, but there was/may still be too much separation between groups (offense/defense, line/’backers, etc) in the way guys go about business. Too many guys thinking, ‘Well, I did my job, and if we lost (or screwed up a play), then somebody else screwed up,’ kind of thinking.
He said there has been improvement in that regard, and it remains a focus of the coaching staff: worry about and evaluate yourself/your unit, and don’t worry about/evaluate others. And so on.
More to come. Looking forward to Saturday, if I’m there (that’s to be determined).
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Defense ahead of offense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I have been to all but two Georgia Tech football spring practices (I was in Augusta at the Masters), and people often ask me how the Yellow Jackets are going to be this fall. I always say the same thing: I don’t know. And that has the benefit of being true.
But I think I can go a little bit farther. The defense appears to be ahead of the offense, based on the most recent scrimmage I saw (the second) and the goal-line 11-on-11 work I saw on Monday. When Darryl Richard is playing (he has missed some practices because of class conflicts), the defensive line looks pretty good, as it should.
The offense has looked best when Josh Nesbitt runs it, and he hasn’t done that very much. Paul Johnson told me Monday that he hopes to be able to play Nesbitt on Saturday in the spring game. But even with the long layoff between the spring game and the start of practice in the summer, it makes no sense to take any chances with Nesbitt or any other player.
I have accepted an invitation to speak to a group of Tech fans who meet each Monday at Frankie’s on the Prado, 5600 Roswell Road. I look forward to meeting some of you there.
Mike
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Final week of spring begins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m back at Rose Bowl Field after missing Friday’s practice and Saturday’s scrimmage to cover the Masters.
Injury updates: Quarterback Josh Nesbitt (groin) is back at practice, but after participating in the first couple of drills he has become a spectator again. Receiver Damaryius Thomas (hamstring) is in a red, injured player shirt. It doesn’t look like anything long-term.
It’s the smallest crowd at a practice this spring, probably because it’s cccccooollllddd out here.
And now it’s raining. Thankfully, it didn’t rain long or hard.
The quarterbacks and fullbacks did an interesting ball-security drill. They lined up side by side, each with a football, and had to roll under or dive over the guy next to them without letting go of the ball.
Jonathan Dwyer had a couple of good runs during 11-on-11 work, and Calvin Booker has thrown some accurate deep balls, including one to Tyler Melton.
Celebrity spectator: Former Tech running back Dorsey Levens.
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Player’s death becomes controversial for UCF, O’Leary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Georgia Tech football coach George O’Leary is once again in the middle of a controversy, this time over the workout his Central Florida team went through before the death of a player.
Let me preface this by saying what we don’t know is still much more extensive than what we do know. The autopsy results aren’t in. But O’Leary’s credibility is being called into question with a story in the Orlando Sentinel with four players saying the workout was far more intense than O’Leary and his staff have said and that the player showed signs of distress. O’Leary, the players said, cursed at the player for lack of effort.
Here’s the link.
The story raised some questions for me:
—How much is too much?
—Is there a danger when people glorify the toughness of conditioning drills? How far do we as a society encourage coaches to go in pursuit of “winning the fourth quarter” and outworking the opposition?
—Is this death a fluke occurrence, or something that was preventable?
I’m curious what you think. And I’m also curious what it’s like to be a coach or the team’s medical staff who have had a player die in this way. I doubt, in our litigious society, they would be at liberty to be open on the subject. But wouldn’t it gnaw at you?
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Nichols hot as key baseball weekend looms
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thomas Nichols found the perfect time to pull out of his slump. Georgia Tech’s freshman second baseman batted .228 in March and was 1-for-8 through his first three games in April.
But Nichols got a couple of hits in Sunday’s victory at North Carolina, then had an RBI double and an RBI triple in Wednesday night’s victory over Georgia.
“He’s a great competitor and probably had been fighting himself a little bit,” Tech coach Danny Hall said. “He’s a guy you’ve almost got to calm him down sometimes because he really wants to do well. You just convince him, trust your ability and it will all happen for you.”
Nichols really wants it to happen this weekend. His family is from south Florida, and though they moved to the South Georgia town of Leesburg when he was 4 he grew up pulling for the Miami Hurricanes.
“I always liked to see them win, but I’d like to see them lose this weekend,” said Nichols, whose Jackets take on the Coastal Division-leading Hurricanes Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Another Yellow Jacket with a hot bat: Luke Murton. Murton is on a 10-game hitting streak during which he has batted 19-for-38. That has lifted his average from .240 to a team-leading .352, a huge improvement over last season’s .239.
“There were some things that were bothering me mentally,” Murton said. “I just had to get in a more comfortable mind frame. It took me some time to get there, but I think I’ve gotten there, and I’ve been able to perform.”
Belated congratulations to Brad Rulon, who made his 100th career appearance in the victory over Georgia. Rulon, a senior from Columbus, ranks among Tech’s all-time leaders in winning percentage (.786), strikeouts per nine innings (9.9) and career saves (seven).
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This is not football; it’s basketball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeez, I feel bad about bogarting Mike’s football blog (Mike feels bad about it, too, and suggests you click here to read football after you read Matt on hoops), especially while I’m on vacation with my vomiting children in crappy weather while visiting expensive tourist traps and over-rated restaurants, but …
Why in the world were so many of you — on the Hive, at least — so shocked at the notion that Paul Hewitt would consider leaving Tech to become LSU’s next basketball coach?
Get over the idea that a job, any job, in the ACC is like a golden parachute for the rest of your life. It’s not.
Get real!
Paul Hewitt, who I can just about guarantee DID HAVE some sort of semi-official conversation with LSU officials, would think about a job like that just like you would.
The ACC is not all that anymore. And who takes, or keeps, a job just to say they’re in the best conference (which the ACC has not been for a few years, this season’s disproportionate regular-season RPI ratings being the best evidence of late)????
Here’s a clue: Paul Hewitt talks all the time about how the ACC eats its own. He’s not a scholastic, staying put just because he’s happy to be surrounded by other Cashmere-wearing highbrows.
He wants to win. And I say that while also acknowledging that he wants to influence young men, house and school his family in a desirable metropolitan area, and so forth and so on. Ever stop to think those considerations would be far more important than conference affiliation?
NO consideration like this would ever, at least not for an erudite/sagacious man, ever be boiled down to conference affiliation. Anybody who thinks otherwise is an idiot.
A couple more things: Lots of money at LSU (don’t give me any garbage about how Dan Radakovich didn’t go back; don’t care). Facilities, recruiting budget, etc.
Tech is not poor in any of those regards. But if you think Tech can compete dollar for dollar with LSU, you are, again, an idiot.
But comparing dollars to dollars like that is no smarter than comparing conferences.
A very, very important consideration in all of this is … recruit-ability.
This gets back to winning, competing, etc.
Wild guess here, but I’m going to say that you can probably recruit from a far wider pool of candidates to LSU than you can at Tech. That translates into improved odds that you can win on a regular basis.
Doubt me?
Did you see who has taken the LSU job?
Name’s Trent Johnson, if rumors are correct.
Came from Stanford, which is not exactly a community college.
Matt
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Nesbitt returns to practice, briefly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Quarterback Josh Nesbitt is back in practice today after sitting out a couple of practices with a groin injury. (UPDATE: Nesbitt is no longer practicing; he’s watching.)Safety Dominique Reese remains out, and I will try to get an update on him after practice. (He is running for trainer Jay Shoop, and so is Andrew Smith, so that suggests he might be back soon.) Offensive guard A.J. Smith (elbow) remains in that in-between state of being on the field but wearing a yellow no-contact jersey.
With Reese out, Jake Blackwood joins Morgan Burnett at first-team safety and former kicker Troy Garside joins Willie White at second-team safety.
Jerrard Tarrant is playing ahead of Morgan Butler at the cornerback spot opposite Jahi Word-Daniels, as he has for most of the last few practices.
With Greg Smith (collarbone) and Andrew Smith (hamstring) both out, the A-back position is looking a bit thin. Roddy Jones, Jamaal Evans and Austin Barrick are there, and after that it’s walk-ons. (Yes, I know Andrew Smith walked on, too, but he has earned three letters.) Walk-on quarterback Jim Henry is now an A-back.
The same situation holds at guard. Joseph Gilbert is working one first-team spot, and either Dan Voss (if he’s not at center) or Jason Hill plays the other. Behind them? Walk-ons Drew Brannon and Zack Krish.
Mike
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Ball security emphasized, with a twist
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Maybe you thought Georgia Tech would emphasize holding onto the football today after a 14-fumble, one-interception scrimmage on Saturday. Well, the offense is practicing pitches, over and over and over, and when one does hit the ground there’s someone on it in a hurry. But the new drill I saw today was a defensive one, with players being taught how to strip the ball. You never can have too many takeaways, especially on a team where the offense is still trying to learn how to hold on for dear life.
It turns out Josh Nesbitt was a tad optimistic on Saturday when he told me he expected to be back at practice today. He’s out, still waiting on that groin to heal.
Guard A.J. Smith (elbow) has made a step forward. Instead of wearing a red non-participant shirt, he’s in a yellow no-contact shirt this afternoon.
Paul Johnson was happy with Luke Cox on Saturday and not so happy with most of his other ball-carriers, but things haven’t changed on the two-deep. On the first team: Roddy Jones and Greg Smith at A-back, with Jonathan Dwyer at B-back. On the second team: Andrew Smith and Austin Barrick at A-back, with Quincy Kelly at B-back. Jamaal Evans appears to be a sort of co-first-team A-back. He just lined up there opposite Jones.
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Tarrant makes an impression
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday morning’s scrimmage marks the midway point of Georgia Tech’s spring football practice, so I guess it’s not too early to nominate a guy as having been a pleasant surprise.
I might pick Jerrard Tarrant, the redshirt freshman from Carrollton. I don’t
Tarrant moved ahead of Mario Butler to work at first-team cornerback on Wednesday, and he’s also getting practice time as a punt returner and kickoff returner. He was on The AJC’s Top 50 prospects in Georgia list in 2007.
Today was the first day I’ve seen Tech practice kickoffs. In addition to Tarrant, Tyler Melton and Correy Earls were back deep fielding kickoffs. Melton, Tarrant, Roddy Jones, Jamaal Evans and Andrew Smith practiced punt returns.
It’s raining out here, but practice goes on. The blog doesn’t, though. I don’t want to short out the AJC’s computer.
Wow, what a downpour. It sent the dozens of coaches who are here for this weekend’s coaching clinic scrambling for the practice field’s lone shelter. Practice continued, of course. Only lightning stops that.
The defense has been working nickel formation all day, with linebacker Kyle Jackson on the sideline and Tarrant playing the nickel or “Husky” position, and Butler and Jahi Word-Daniels at the corners.
On offense, Joseph Gilbert is getting a lot of time at guard, with A.J. Smith (elbow) not practicing.
I spoke with a high school coach from Ohio who was very impressed with David Brown, who has been working at right tackle. He said Brown is an excellent fit for that position in Paul Johnson’s offense. Tackles coach Todd Spencer just got so excited about Brown’s block on the last running play Spencer ran down the field to slap hands with him.
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Maybe James Johnson simply had enough
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the time being, it’s not as easy to form an opinion on wide receiver James Johnson’s decision to leave Tech’s football team as it was to empathize with WR D.J. Donley’s apparent decision to transfer to Purdue, where the Boilermakers will throw plenty.
In both cases, it seems safe to posit that they weren’t — if Donley was to remain a WR at Tech, that is — going to be running as many routes and catching as many passes as they might have liked. And they were going to be asked to block more, and differently, than in the previous offense.
Asked about James Johnson after practice Wednesday, Paul Johnson said something to the effect of, I don’t see him out here; I guess he quit.
Simple, understated, detached.
But these situations probably cannot be summed up simply by suggesting — as some on other boards have — that Donley and James Johnson left merely because they were concerned that they weren’t going to get what they thought was their fair share. That would go too far toward implying selfishness, a label neither has done anything else to deserve.
Donley has three years to play, and Johnson one, and at least by my eye, Donley showed enough skill in his very first year (admittedly, much of it in preseason practice) to merit the suggestion that he might have potential enough to develop into one whale of a wideout. If, as his high school coach said, he is making a move because he believes he can best develop elsewhere, who has a right to suggest that he stay put, suck it up for the team, and embrace a system he wasn’t recruited to?
If coaches can changes jobs at their leisure, and athletics directors can fire them, why shouldn’t kids be able to change their minds?
But it’s unclear if these dynamics apply to James Johnson. (EDIT: It’s more clear now, after this blog was written, if you read Mike Knobler’s story.)
Without having talked to him, we are to date left with the explanation he apparently gave his position coach, which is that he simply decided to get on with his life. Lord knows in the past six or eight months he’s had a boatload of injuries. James is bright, engaging, upbeat … from my observations a stand-up chap.
So maybe he’s just had enough football, especially with the idea — pretty realistic — that he was not going to do as much of what he came to Tech to do, and he was going to be asked to do quite a bit that he didn’t bargain for when he chose the Yellow Jackets. Some of this is speculative, but hey, it’s all we have now. (EDIT: Actually, there is more now; read Knobler’s story.)
I think the suggestion on The Hive that James made disparaging comments in a story (CBSportsline/Dennis Dodd) is goofy.
About Paul Johnson’s predilection toward the run game, Dodd quoted James Johnson saying (prior to his leaving the team), “we’re going to hope that Coach does not do all that much running. We just hope he’s saying all that to trick people.”
From my dealings with James, I’ll bet he had a big smile on when he said that. And I happen to think Tech is going to pass a fair amount more than than 10 times a game Navy threw the ball last season, although the Jackets will run the more more than twice as often as they’ll pass, I believe.
Later in Dodd’s piece, he wrote that Paul Johnson responded by saying, “He caught 30 balls (actually 25) and they went 7-6. If something wasn’t wrong, if what they were doing was so great, we wouldn’t be here. It’s not like we’re coming in here and dismantling this high-powered machine that was lighting everybody up.”
Hopefully, Paul Johnson had a smile on his face, too, when he said that.
Was he suggesting that the Jackets muddled along last season in part because they passed too much?
That’d be silly, too.
To be sure, Paul Johnson wasn’t hired to improve Tech’s running game, per se. He was hired to win more games, and inspire fans and players along the way.
The Jackets didn’t lead the nation in rushing, as Paul Johnson’s Navy squad did, but they led the ACC at 199-yards plus despite recurring injuries to Tashard Choice, and were No. 24 in the nation last year. The run game was better than 7-6.
If I were to boil Tech’s shortcomings from last season down to their simplest forms and list them: woefully inadequate passing game (No. 11 in the ACC, to be precise), a schizophrenic defense that failed horribly to adjust as games wore on, an overriding team failure to consistently rise to and seize moments and general lack of inspiration.
Those are the reasons Paul Johnson’s here, the issues he was hired to address and improve, in my view.
Not simply to improve a running game that was among few things not broken.
And not to deride departed coaches and players and what they did or did not do.
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Cooking up some ball on The Flats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, Sedric Griffin is not in South Carolina; he’s here. So that’s good.
Spring practice No. 6 is underway at Georgia Tech and Griffin, a linebacker as you probably best know of him, is participating. At the end of practice Monday, linebackers coach Brian Jean-Marie didn’t like something Sed had to say in a drill, and among other things told him he could return to his home state if he had any more to say.
Sed’s here, though.
So is Josh Nesbitt, although the quarterback is working with a yellow — not red — vest on over his practice gear. I don’t know for sure, but that likely means he’s off-limits for contact later. Check that. In 11-on-11 work later, with contact, the yellow jersey is off, and he’s fully engaged.
Other players wearing red vests, like A.J. Smith (elbow), Tyler Evans (shoulder), Cord Howard (right leg) are working on the side, whereas Nesbitt is out there with the rest of the players. Dunno what that yellow jersey was all about. We’ll see.
No sign — again — of WR James Johnson. Hmmm.
Jarrard Tarrant has been working at CB today in front of Mario Butler. Hmmm.
Greg Smith has gotten some work with the first string A-backs.
Talked to Jeremis Smith today. He’s not trying out for tight end. Somebody asked last week. He is, in fact, working out to get ready for what he hopes will be a prosperous pro basketball career. After graduating in a little more than four weeks, he’ll move to Portland for a month or more to work out with some sort of guru. No football for Jeremis.
While on the topic of other athletes/sports, it’s going to be interesting as coaching changes continue to see which players who’d already signed letters of intent to various schools are released, and where they end up.
Tech has one signee, Iman Shumpert, and coach Paul Hewitt wants to sign at least one more. He recruited G Ty Taylor very hard out of New Jersey before Taylor signed with Marquette. But Marquette lost coach Tom Crean yesterday to Indiana, and there is plenty of speculation that Taylor will request a release from his LOI.
If that happens, it’s just about a lock that Tech will resume its pursuit of the young man. Others, like the kids from Indiana who’ve requested releases, will be interesting to watch. We’ll see.
It’s a bit warmer out here than I anticipated. That’s what I get for paying attention to local weather forecasts.
Center Trey Dunmon appears to have over-heated, unless I’m missing my guess as to why he’s sitting in the shade in full gear with his head down.
David Brown looks like a heat casualty as well.
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Say goodbye for good to DJ Donley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unless something strange happens, and that obviously is possible, I was wrong yesterday about D.J. Donley.
It looks like he’s gone, or will be in a couple months, to Purdue.
Strange thing about kids — and these are still kids we’re talking about when the subject matter is high school seniors, college freshmen and sophomores (not to mention some juniors and seniors — they can be fickle and unpredictable.
Hard for me to find fault in Donley’s logic for leaving, though.
I talked to his high school coach this morning (as numerous calls to DJ and his mother have failed in recent days), and Richard McWhorter said DJ chose Purdue for two reasons: they throw the ball a lot, and he thinks he can best develop as a wide receiver in that kind of setting; and he has friends there and will have more.
“If he transfers, he’s still going to have three years to play three,” McWhorter said. “It’s still early in the game. He was concerned with the receiver position [and the ability to develop] at Tech. He didn’t say anything negative about coach Johnson.”
I thought Donley might have been the most talented WR on the team last year. Do I think there is some sort of barrier between WRs who play for Paul Johnson and the NFL? No. But there’s absolutely no proof from his stops at Navy, Ga. Southern, etc. that he can grease a wideout’s path to the professional ranks, either.
At Purdue, if he performs as he did in practices last summer (or better), when 2009 rolls around, Mr. Donley will get quite a few chances to show his wares. Purdue threw the ball almost 600 times last year, and QB Curtis Painter has thrown for more than 11,000 career yards.
He’ll be gone by the time Donley is eligible, and coach Joe Tiller is retiring after this year (I think, or is it next year?), but they’ve already tabbed his successor from on the staff, and the Boilermakers are not going to stop throwing.
These kids always say when there is a coaching change that they didn’t pledge in the first place to coaches as much as the institution, but when you’re a pro prospect — and I don’t think it’s a leap so suggest that Donley qualifies as a pro prospect, though certainly not a lock — you have grounds after a dramatic change in coaching philosophy like Tech underwent to say (not that Donley himself has) that you didn’t pledge blindly to a school, either. There’s a mix of commitments.
Surely, some of you will argue that.
But perhaps not this: If you’re a Jacket fan, this is a big loss, one of the two or three most talented members of that very highly touted 2007 signing class is gone (barring a change of mind, which I’m allowing for … sort of).
QB Steven Threet didn’t make it to summer practice. He ended up at Michigan, where he no more fits Rich Rodriguez’s offense than I do. Strange how things work, isn’t it? Then again, had he stayed at Tech, he would no more fit the Jackets’ new offense than I would. It just goes to show ya, who knows?
Another would-be member of that class, Cedric Everson, also ended up in the Big 10. After Tech pulled his scholarship offer, he pledged to Michigan State. Then, he jumped to Iowa on signing day. Showed up at media day and said he didn’t want to redshirt because you can’t learn anything that way, and by mid-October, he flamed out of that program.
Anybody know where Ced is now?
Good for Tech, huh, that that one didn’t work out.
By extrapolation, does that make it good that basketball recruit Al-Farouq Aminu didn’t work out? Dunno all the details of the BB gun incident, but I know this. I hope none of my kids is ever involved in a BB gun event like that one. No gun incidents of any kind can be anything but bad news, save a kid hunting legally with adults.
On a side not, as for Jonathan Dwyer, whom I suggested yesterday might need to shed 10-12 pounds, OK, maybe not that much. Maybe (this was just theoretical based on a couple up-close sightings), he needs to shave less than that.
But I still think he’s too thick from mid-chest to the bottom of his rump, at least for a young man his age. No, I’m not saying in any way, shape or form that he is not abundantly talented. But comments by Paul Johnson have made it clear that coaches are looking for something more from Dwyer.
Finally, not that it’s here, there, or anywhere … two Charlton County High players are already on the roster at Purdue, and Donley and RB Ralph Bolden, who signed with the Boilermakers in February, will make four.
That will be four more players from one of Georgia’s very best small school programs on the Purdue roster than on the roster at Tech.
It just goes to show ya, ya never know.
Matt
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