AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 13
Monday, October 13, 2008
Take the W and Move On!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I had a great weekend at West Point. Army beat Eastern Michigan in a tight 17-14 contest on a perfect day for football and in a truly beautiful and historic setting. Cadets marching, skydivers delivering the game ball, canons celebrating each score and the end of each period, and ecstatic home fans enjoying a tough Homecoming victory. In short…awesome! That was followed Sunday morning with a game of touch football between the groomsmen, in Michie Stadium, and my 17 month old running wild across midfield while I chased her with camera in hand. It concluded with dinner and dancing at the officer’s club, overlooking the Hudson River, late into the evening.
I detail all of the above to preface the fact that a 10-7 win over Gardner Webb wasn’t enough to damper the weekend for me. The Jackets won…that’s about all I needed to know. Sure, I got a flurry of pages and text messages from friends who were at the game and I was waiting anxiously to hear if that final field goal attempt was good or not. But once that W was in the books I didn’t think about it again until I got home and started getting caught up.
The general concensus seems to be that Coach Johnson attempted running his option offense with Calvin Booker at the controls. That surprised me. I would have expected Johnson to mix things up a bit and play to Booker’s strengths. Its pretty easy to predict that Gardner Webb would sell out on the dive in order to take Dwyer out of the game and force Booker to get outside or pitch. He’s a great competitor and a real team guy, but he’s just not built for that offense.
I’ve hoped or suspected all season that Coach Johnson had some sort of two minute desperation package for Booker since he’s our most polished passer. I’d hoped and expected that we’d run some of that against Gardner Webb as a way to get Booker some live playing time in case he was needed in a come-from-behind situation later in the season.
Apparently my hopes, expectations, and suspicions were unfounded.
On one hand I have to give Coach Johnson credit for not panicking and putting one of our injured QBs into the game. That took alot of “fortitude”.
But on the other hand, one has to wonder if we have an offensive version of Coach Tenuta…stubborn to a fault and unwilling to make a change when things are obviously off the rails and into the ditch.
In the end, I think our coach has more “fortitude” than “Tenuta” in the mix. But make no mistake…we could have lost that game to Gardner Webb…
Go Jackets!
THWG!
