AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > August > 12
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Firing wildly, and … Tech’s best five?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WARNING: CONSIDERABLE CHAN GAILEY BASHING IN COMMENTS BELOW, SOME OF IT NON-SENSIBLE, SOME OF IT SEMI-SALIENT.
Now, back to regularly-scheduled blogging …
Quick hitters …
It wasn’t re-posted on-line, but it made the paper when I spoke with Greg Smith after the p.m. practice about his injury situation (hip pointer).
He said he didn’t talk to his position coach, Jeff Monken, yesterday after Monken told him he needed to practice. “Just stay quiet and listen,” he said. “Just play. It’s all I do. It’s discouraging, but you’ve got to go out here and support your teammates.”
I asked if he smashed his hip. He said, “you could say that.”
I asked if he was second-guessing his move from wide receiver to A-back, and he said, “Nah. It’s just football.” Or something to that effect. Hmm.
• Reader Dan Walker points out that (edited only slightly): Rich Ellerson - best known for devising Arizona’s “Desert Swarm” defense in the 1990s - was defensive coordinator a Hawaii when Paul Johnson was offensive coordinator there. Ellerson is the head coach at I-AA Cal Poly, and last year his team led the nation in total offense. Their offense? The triple option.
Dan also wrote that when Tech hired Paul Johnson away from Navy, Navy hired Joe DuPaix, Cal Poly’s offensive coordinator. Hmm.
• The entire defense, starters, etc., stayed after each practice yesterday for conditioning. Translation: punishment. They ran in place, and did a bunch of up-downs. That’s rough at the end of practice, especially when you practice twice, even if the heat wasn’t so bad yesterday.
The crime? “Loafs,” said DL Elris Anyaibe. Loafs? “Poor effort plays in Saturday’s scrimmage,” he said. Hmm.
• Some Georgia fans love to read this Tech blog, and respond, huh? Hmm.
• Do Tech fans read Georgia blogs and respond in similar numbers? What about per capita?
• The longer I watch, the more I think Tech has a chance to be better than quite a few people think sooner than a lot of people think.
• If coaches bring that secondary and young linebackers up to speed fast, that is.
• As I noted in the paper, Jarrard Tarrant was at practice yesterday. That’s “at” it, not in it. He was in street clothes, or kick-around clothes to be more accurate.
• Best five players on this team, in no order: Andrew Gardner, Michael Johnson, Morgan Burnett, Jonathan Dwyer, Vance Walker.
CHECK BACK LATE AFTERNOON FOR PRACTICE UPDATES.
Matt
P.S. For my two cents, depressed by inflation from the point of Gailey’s hire to the present so as to be worth nothing, well, I don’t have two cents. Hard to have an opinion from my vantage point when I wasn’t on point at the time. Makes sense, right?
I was covering the Falcons when Gailey was hired. I’ve heard from several alums allegedly “in the know” over the years that it was a ham-handed transaction from start to finish. I won’t repeat the stories of others here without checking facts, though. Some of those tales are downright hard to believe.
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