Tech

By TDone

June 12, 2008 7:19 PM | Link to this

Matt, will someone be assisting you on the Tech beat? Or will Tech just have one beat writer and FC Athens have two.

Inquiring minds would like to know.

By quaildawg

June 12, 2008 7:57 PM | Link to this

News Flash…The Georgia Tech Football team will be rappelling in the polls when the 2008 season begins. All interested in viewing this spectacle are invited to attend at Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field. The free coke and pizza offer still applies.

By Chelsea

June 12, 2008 9:48 PM | Link to this

FC is the best… American Football is lame. Everyone (including quaildawg) should know that true sport fans appreciate FC… not some dumb dawg at a football game.

By Matt Winkeljohn

June 12, 2008 10:35 PM | Link to this

TDone,

Currently, there is one writer each at Tech and Georgia, at least technically.

Carter Strickland, who has covered football primarily in addition to other sports at Georgia for three years or so, is leaving the paper soon, probably leaving the business altogether. That leaves, or will soon as I’m not certain of Carter’s official departure date, the legendary Chip Towers. I’m solo at Tech for the time being.

Why do you ask?

Matt

P.S. I’m watching the Lakers game, and wondering where this Los Angeles team was in the first three games. These guys look like they were startled awake, which I would have thought would have happened in game three. And the Celtics appear to be sleeping. As best I know, the plan is to continue forward with two writers covering each school’s athletic programs, although I confess to the reality that each situation remains somewhat in flux as we’re allegedly in a hiring freeze (who isn’t?) after hiring piles of people paper-wide (no so in what used to be called the sports department) for nearly a year.

By quaildawg

June 12, 2008 11:26 PM | Link to this

CS is leaving???? Oh happy days are here again… Daa dada dada daa da dada Now if TM and Shultzie would take a hint the AJC might actually become a good read again.

By SiriusBlack

June 13, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

Now, if q-dog would follow suit, and fade away…………..

By stone

June 13, 2008 9:30 AM | Link to this

Please stop covering Curry on this site.

By yellowblood

June 13, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this

I heard that Jamal left because he had not been included is some Tickle Piles that he wanted to attend. THWG!!

By Matt Winkeljohn

June 13, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this

Stone,

What gives with the Curry request?

By SiriusBlack

June 13, 2008 11:03 AM | Link to this

Losing Jamal will hurt this year. I hate it but if he is addressing personal issues, I wish him well. Life does go on.

By Geronimo

June 13, 2008 11:29 AM | Link to this

I sure as hell hope Tech “engineers” have nothing to do with that rappelling equipment. If so those guys are dead meat. Remember those Tech designed Space Shuttle tiles? NASA had to upgrade to super heat resistant suits and shoes to keep the techmites from incinerating shuttle crews.

By .................................Geronimo = low class

June 13, 2008 11:43 AM | Link to this

.

real low. .

By Stone

June 13, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this

Curry is old history. He left Tech three jobs ago. That means he is not part of the now, and with his current decision, not part of the immediate future. Let’s give coverage to the players and people currently connected to the programs.

By George P. Burdell

June 13, 2008 1:02 PM | Link to this

Hey Matt, Have you heard anything about the resheduling of the unveiling of Tech’s new football uniforms? I know they put it off due to the tragic events involving Hutts. Just curious. Thanks

By bobbylee

June 13, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this

Good luck, good to have you. PJ will have the machine rollin’ in a couple.

By ShoeFits

June 13, 2008 6:04 PM | Link to this

By ……………………………Geronimo = low class

June 13, 2008 11:43 AM | Link to this

Old Geronimo really touched a nerve with at least one of you overrated legend in your own mind techmite midgets didn’t he. If the shoe fits wear it you thin skinned ner do well. You must be the bit dog, huh? LMAO!

By BADDAWG

June 13, 2008 9:18 PM | Link to this

My God…you neerdy a$$ geeks just kill me! Rest assured that you have more beat writers per fan than ANY division 1(so called division 1) school in the country!!! Now see if some of you can scrape up $150.00 for a season ticket…fill your little cracker box stadium…win a few games, then yell about your beat writers, or lack there of.

By The Big Bug

June 13, 2008 10:39 PM | Link to this

Hey BADDAWG, what’s a neerd? Remain in the third grade another year. Why you guys think a big stadium means good football is beyond comprehension. You should be granted the NC in June because your stadium is so big. It’s SO BIG!

By Sam

June 13, 2008 11:13 PM | Link to this

And Tech plays good football? That’s certainly a revelation.

By H. Sinclair

June 13, 2008 11:16 PM | Link to this

The Big Bug you are right. Big stadium is not what matters…but full does. Obviously judging by the attendance at Grant’s Tomb Tech hasn’t played good football in a long long time.

By chuck

June 14, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

Bobby Dodd is usually at least 90-95% full

By son_sir

June 14, 2008 4:25 PM | Link to this

Ask Michigan if stadium size made a difference against App State….What matters is the play on the field. Hopefully. it will improve at The Flats over the next few years and the seats will fill. If it doesn’t, then the empty seats will be there. People, regardless of the school, want a good chance at a return on their investment, i.e. winning on a regular basis. Simple as that. As for me personally; please, no more rap shows. Give me consistent success and I’ll be there as often as I can afford and my work schedule will allow.

By Panther

June 15, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this

Maybe someday the AJC.com will feature a Georgia State category for fans to post to. A Ga State blog for those of us who could care less about Yech and the Mutts…

By TDone

June 15, 2008 3:42 PM | Link to this

Matt,

No worries. I just wanted to know.

Ralph

By SanDiegoJacket

June 15, 2008 6:38 PM | Link to this

Matt Can’t you censor them….they are very annoying. Not to suggest irreverent!! Why do you let those folks post on our board? I’m gone because it’s just to ludicrous and a waste of my time!!

SanDiegoJacket THWG Every Day and in Every Way,, the Cess Pool of the South and everyone knows it!!

By Donald

June 15, 2008 10:39 PM | Link to this

Nice read Cameron—-the coaches and players of yesterday set the tone and tradition for Tech——they deserved recognition then and still today—-onbe does not denigrate nor cast aside tradition—one builds his future on it!!!

By CarolinaJacket

June 16, 2008 7:49 AM | Link to this

Cameron I was a big fan of Curry’s when he played for Tech, in the pros, and back coaching for Tech. I was crushed when he decided to go to Alabama (a big rival back then) to coach. But, it must be rememberd, at least by those who care a grain about the past, that my greatest hero of all, the Gray Fox, was the one who advised him to take the job. And they were very, very close. Dodd would have only wanted the best for Curry. I grew up watching the teams of the ’50s and ’60s and love those guys. I can still name most of the starters of the great undefeated teams of ‘51 and ‘52. Thank God for the past, as well as the future.

By Dawg-hatin' Jacket

June 16, 2008 6:22 PM | Link to this

What BADDAWG (and all others who don’t have anything better to do than pick at our crowd sizes) is that Georgia Tech is an international school, attracting the best and brightest minds from all over the world. They come, they study, they learn, they go back into the world to make their (mostly large) fortunes.

UGAg, on the other hand, fills it’s stadium with the bubbas of the world, who come in a few miles from the farm, spend their six years learning to plant seeds, and head back out to the farm, having learned only how to fill up a stadium and bark like a dawg.

By Michael Cameron

June 16, 2008 8:03 PM | Link to this

Thank you, Donald, and Carolina Jacket, for your support.

Yes, according to what I’ve heard and read, Coach Dodd did indeed advise Coach Curry to accept the ‘Bama job. I begrudge neither erstwhile Tech legend for those choices. By having contributed so much to Tech, they both had earned the right to basically do what they wanted to do.

Please accept my correction regarding my erroneous reference to the wall of honor being on the “west” stands at Grant Field. I should’ve written east.

Thank you for reading.

By TheBlogger

June 17, 2008 3:56 AM | Link to this

I agree - stop with the Curry coverage on Tech’s pages. Start a GSU page if you like - I think that’s a great idea. Tech fans really don’t care.

It seems as though anyone ever associated with Tech at all gets forever linked to Tech - and for the ajc that is especially true if it is negative news…. recall “Tech’s Hamilton” and so on.

I wonder why the ajc didn’t have an article on the uga page about “UGA’s Walker multiple personalities?” Oh yeah - because the ajc is pro uga and anti Tech. We get it.

By TheBlogger

June 17, 2008 4:04 AM | Link to this

One more point - odd to me how so many non Tech fans post here. This blog seems obviously intended for Tech fans, yet there are fans from uga and others. These “visitors” seem to post frequently with anti-Tech messages which leads me to believe that they are jealous in some way.

Things that make you go hummmmmmm.

By KC Kid

June 17, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this

To Michael Cameron,

Thanks for your post. It was interesting reading, and your passion for Tech is obvious. I graduated from Mizzou but have lived in Atlanta for over twenty years now. I have a kid going to Tech this fall, so I’m now a converted Tech fan. Mizzou is still number one in my heart, but I’m fascinated with the Tech tradition and I’m proud to have a kid going there. I always enjoy Furman Bisher’s Tech columns when he writes about the traditions and Tech history. Everyone I’ve met at Tech through the process of my daughter choosing a school has been first class.

Some of the people who post on these blogs have nothing more to say than “UGA Sucks” blah blah blah….

So Thanks for adding some inciteful commentary, and for those of us sports fans who may be new to the Tech traditions, Thanks for the free history lesson.

And to Carolina Jacket, your posts are well worth reading too. Some bloggers I automatically skip, yours I read.

By Michael Cameron

June 17, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this

To The Blogger,

I disagree. The AJC should continue with the Curry coverage, on occasions when appropriate, on Tech’s pages. The logic? Bill Curry is a Tech man, one of the Tech people, in the past, and therefore he is one of the Tech people in the present, and on into the future. Once and always.

I think G.S.U. having its own AJC page should and will happen. But, former Tech folks like Curry (or an obscure person from 1900) are “forever” linked to where they spent time, effort, and emotion.

“Tech fans don’t care,” you say? You can’t accurately speak for all Tech fans. I’m a dedicated Tech fan. I care.

Joe Hamilton? He’s a great part of the Tech tradition and community — and always will be. And — of equal importance — should be. I spoke with Joe on Grant Field during practice the Wednesday before the spring game. He’s a very respectful, courteous, and bright young man. Yes, he made some poor decisions that night a week or so later, and he knows it. But, that doesn’t erase all of his positive and classy qualities and does not negate the wonderful and exciting moments he gave to Tech fandom. I am grateful for what he contributed. He should always be considered part of the Tech family — as much as any fan. What have you done to top the contributions of Bill Curry and Joe Hamilton?

You say: “It seems as though anyone ever associated with Tech at all gets forever linked to Tech…especially negative news…recall Tech’s Hamilton…” I say: Uh-huh. That’s how it’s supposed to be, as I stated in my comprehensive post above. Any individual, including those who aren’t famous, but certainly those who have ties as strong as Bill or Joe should, in a moral sense as well as the logical tie-in, be “linked” to whatever organization they were a part of, in this case the school known as Georgia Tech. And, that linkage should be “forever” — and throughout time. Curry and Hamilton aren’t just “anyone…at all,” words which indicate that you want to just toss them away as if they were little blips on the radar screen. They both did so much for Tech, and should be thus honored with eternal inclusion.

Joe Hamilton is “Tech’s Hamilton”! How, sir, are you more worthy of being “associated” with Georgia Tech than Joe Hamilton and Bill Curry? Since you are a fan, you obviously consider yourself associated with and linked to your favorite, I presume, college football program. If you are a current student, or will be, or an alum, or a team-adopting fan, do feel your link is somehow broken? If yours is not, by what reasoning do you reject the eternal bond between Tech and these two gentlemen who have passed this way, through Tech, and have given of themselves so greatly? For example, if you’re currently enrolled, will you, 10 or 50 years from now, still be emotionally and logically connected to Tech? If yes for you, then it must be yes for others, like Bill and Joe, as well. You don’t wish to advocate a double standard of acceptance, do you?

Has it occurred to you that Hamilton regrets his mistake and likely feels broken-hearted that he sabotaged his dream job at the school he loves? He didn’t go on a murder rampage or something akin to that. Although DUI is a very serious and often deadly offense, and should be punished harshly, and, despite his lacking judgment in leaving the scene, there was no deliberate intent to harm anybody. When and if Joe (especially Joe since he’s likely trying to put his life back together after this self-inflicted and painful wound) and Curry come onto these sports pages and read, they should not be subjected to the coldness of what have you done for lately? and what can you do for me THIS season? They used to receive the cheers, and now they get tossed away? This may sound sappy, but these guys have feelings, too.

As far as the occasional negative elements of the behavior of Tech people, whether manifested by past, current, or future students, coaches, administrators, fans, or whomever, my view is that we are all subject to human frailties. We take the bad with the good. And that includes NOT saying that “since you messed up, the rest of us no longer claim you.” What if all of us had our skeletons dragged out of the closet? In the case of folks such as Joe Hamilton, I believe the good far outweighs the bad.

By Michael Cameron

June 17, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this

To KC Kid,

Hello and thank you for your comments. Yes, Furman Bisher, who I believe will turn 90 in November, is one of the all-time grand sports personalities around here, akin to the great Larry Munson (legendary voice of the Bulldogs) over at UGA.
Mr. Bisher, as a journalist, has only gotten better with age.

To my earlier points from June 15th, never has spending time reminiscing about past teams, players, et al prevented me from immersing myself in present performers. People can do both.

There’s a disturbing scene in a 1988 movie, starring Dennis Quaid, entitled Everybody’s All-American. — SPOILER ALERT — Gavin Grey (Dennis Quaid) had become depressed and anguished while trying to adjust to life after football stardom at L.S.U. He was on the field at halftime to be honored with other “old-timers.” The other ex-players stepped forward and drew some polite applause — though not as much as I feel they should have received. Gavin was the last to go. His heart swelled with joy as he raised his hand and waved a “thank you” to the fans over what he thought was a thundering ovation of gratitude for his sweat and touchdowns — and all the pulsating entertainment and vicarious feel-like-a-winner feelings he once gave to the Tiger fanatics. Then he looked with horror to his side and saw the current team taking the field for the second half. The people cheering weren’t even paying attention to him. He was crushed, and left the stadium understandably disillusioned and sad, with his wife going out to console him. He couldn’t give them anymore first downs or scores. They did not need him for their now pleasure. They told him to “get lost” and threw him away.

I suspect that, in real life, most L.S.U. aficionados are faithful and cheer supportively for their people of yore when they come back home.

One of the morals I’ve tried to get across the last couple of days — and I don’t know if I’ve articulated it as well as I’d like — is that, yes, for today’s players and coaches and other contemporaries, it’s their time — to play, to coach, to do their thing as currently active participants and to be cheered for. Of course. But, for the people who were active “back in the day” it is their time to be remembered, to be respected, to be acknowledged warmly, and to be honored with an expression of gratitude — even if we’re too young to have seen them perform or have never even heard of them. They deserve loyalty and a thank you for keeping things going as well as for giving the rest of us something through which to live vicariously — win or lose — via their past efforts.

I wish the best for your Daughter as she embarks upon her collegiate education at Georgia Tech. And, good luck to your Missouri Tigers; they’re set, it appears, for likely another stellar season.

By The Prof

June 17, 2008 8:58 PM | Link to this

Cam, it’s “insightful”, unless you meant Tech thugs being their inciteful selves………

By Getta Life

June 17, 2008 9:01 PM | Link to this

I am amazed that anybody has the time to write a novel on these blogs!

By Michael Cameron

June 18, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this

The Prof —

You may want to read the beginning of posts a mite more closely before you react, if your “Cam” is designed to be an abbreviation of my last name. Next, we see that inciteful (sic) is flagged by you as an error. KC Kid wrote “inciteful.” He may have just rushed his typing a bit. However, regardless of whether he knows the difference between “insightful” and “inciteful,” he is obviously articulate and bright, and not just because he agrees with my points.

Also, “inciteful” is a pseudo-word, professor (ironically, you abbreviated my name and I’m expanding yours — to acknowledge your full esteemed title); it does not exist. Since you are a professor, you should know that fact and therefore enclose your acceptance of creative spelling, used to serve the purpose of your sarcasm, inside open/close quotes or place (sic) beside the non-word, i.e., “inciteful” or inciteful (sic). Otherwise, you leave the appearance that you, while chastising someone else for improper English, don’t recognize that you are making the same mistake while engaging in said chastisement of another person.

By the way, I virtually never correct the other guy’s (gal’s) grammar/spelling in public; if I do it, I try to do it in private, such as in an email. In your case, though, I’m making an exception, since you (1) did the same thing toward someone else (and misfired as to your target) and (2) decided to administer a ridiculously inaccurate and unjustified slur against Georgia Tech athletes, the overwhelming majority of whom are no closer to being “thugs” than you are, Professor (this assessment assumes that you are not a thug). I’m confident that most Tech players, over the years, have been (and are) good people.

By Michael Cameron

June 18, 2008 5:31 PM | Link to this

To Getta Life,

Thank you for your heartfelt concern. I have a life…a flawed life, but a life, nonetheless. And, I do write novels (hoping to have them published soon), in addition to the ones you accuse me of writing on this sports site. Regarding the commodity of time, the occasional posts I put here take me less time to compose than you might think.

By Michael Cameron

June 18, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this

Back onto the subject of Georgia Tech football, I look for a minimum of eight wins for 2008. I suspect Tech will surprise many cynics. Note that, on September 4, 2004 Georgia hosted Georgia Southern, whose head coach then is now Tech’s offensive line coach. Despite being badly outweighed plus playing an opponent with far more “blue chip” athletes, the Eagles, though falling in the end, rushed for 294 yards and averaged 4.7 per rush. After GSU stormed back in the 4th quarter to imperil UGA’s lead, coach Richt felt compelled to reinsert his first string QB to score an insurance TD.

If GSU’s offense can do this against top-drawer Div I (FBS) opposition, GT can do this, too, but bolstered by BCS-caliber athletes playing defense (though GSU’s young men are quality players, also). If I did this right, here is a link to a YouTube video of GSU highlights from that game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piNsYnvSGMk

Regardless of whether Tech struggles in ‘08 due to a paradigm shift in the offensive system and thus a dramatic learning curve, the offense will have mastered the triple option-based scheme by 2010. The Ramblin’ Wreck will then be a steamroller.