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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Taking a look at the football sked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s take a look at the recently published 2009 GT football schedule and be thankful for the needed distraction from current basketball futility.
Sept. 5, Jacksonville State
Opening at home against the Ryan Perriloux-led Gamecocks should allow the Jackets to play lots of depth on the defensive line and at just about every other position on both sides of the ball.
Sept. 10, Clemson
The season starts in earnest when the Tigers come to town. It will be a Thursday night and a likely candidate for another White Out effort. Since the weather will be warmer, we shouldn’t hear many lame complaints from people who are worried about their toes and fingers getting a little chilly.
Clemson will be coming off their season opener, hosting Middle Tennessee. Both teams will have five days to rest up from their initial scrimmages and it should be a fun game to watch between evenly matched opponents. Tech will be fortunate to have a coach named Paul rather than Dabo.
Sept. 17, at Miami
The Hurricanes will have 10 days to prepare for the Tech triple option attack after opening on the road against Florida State the previous week. It’s still going to be Paul Johnson vs. Randy Shannon, regardless of where or when the game is played. I like Tech’s odds in that situation.
You can bet that the Miami defense won’t try to tackle high or strip the ball loose in this game. They don’t need more safeties getting trucked by Jonathan Dwyer. They probably still have nightmares from the last game.
Sept. 26, North Carolina
Payback time. The Heels will have warmed up against The Citadel, Connecticut and East Carolina. Tech will have Clemson and Miami under their belts and a serious desire to repay the favor from this past season’s loss at Carolina. A few extra days rest won’t hurt GT here either.
Oct. 3, at Mississippi State
Starkville… I can picture Tech fans snapping up tickets left and right for this one. Well, maybe not.
Sylvester Croom will be long gone and the Bulldogs will have played serious games against Auburn, Vandy, and LSU before hosting the Jackets. With a new coach, this team is a complete enigma but it should still be the first of three SEC victories from the ‘09 Jackets.
Oct. 10, at Florida State
Tech fans will travel to Tallahassee in HUGE numbers for this game. This was a budding rivalry before conference expansion messed things up and the Jacket faithful will make the most of this opportunity to walk into Doak Campbell with bragging rights. Florida State will have just finished a tough series of BYU, South Florida, and Boston College before facing Tech at home.
This will be my big road game for the season. The wife and I will buy tickets in different parts of the stadium and try to play nice, but it’s going to be a war that weekend and I can’t wait!
Oct. 17, Virginia Tech
Hopefully, the 2009 game against the Hokies won’t be decided by a bogus helmet-to-helmet call on a quarterback scrambling downfield and outside of the pocket. The Jackets owe VT a load of payback since the road loss in Blacksburg last season cost Tech a birth in the ACC title game.
The Hokies will be coming off a game against Boston College and will have already faced Bama, Nebraska and Miami earlier in the year.
Oct. 24 at Virginia
The Hoos will be coming off a road game against Maryland when the Jackets make their trip to Charlottesville. Everyone seems to be waiting for Al Groh to finally lose that program. Every year it looks to be more and more fractured and vulnerable. Groh just keeps on playing checkers, winning just enough games to keep his job.
Gotta do a better job pressuring the quarterback in this game that we did the last — can’t be much worse!
Oct. 31, at Vanderbilt
The Commodores will be coming off of games against Georgia and South Carolina when the Jackets visit Nashville. And they’ll likely be looking ahead to playing the Gators on 11/7, which will be a mistake when Johnson runs the ball down their throat. Right now, Vandy represents a bowl team on the GT schedule. That won’t be the case in 2009.
Nov. 7, Wake Forest
The Deacons will be coming off games against Clemson, Navy and Miami when they arrive in Atlanta to face the triple option for the second time in 2009. This will be a tough test. Wake is well coached and has seen Paul Johnson’s offense as much as anyone by virtue of their games against Navy. Jim Grobe vs Paul Johnson may be one of the best coaching competitions in the ACC.
Nov. 14, at Duke
Cutcliffe will still be working hard to turn Duke around. It’s going to take longer than he’s had so far. The triple option will be humming and Tech should be able to rest some starters going into a bye week before the UGA game at the end of the season.
Duke will be in the midst of a five-game losing streak since they’ll have faced the Hokies, Wolfpack, Terps, Hoos and Heels prior to the Jackets. They’ll be going through the motions with Miami and Wake still on their horizon.
Nov. 28, Georgia
An off-week before facing UGA will be well timed and the Jackets will attempt to heal up. UGA will be coming off home games against Auburn and Kentucky.
Without Stafford and Moreno, the UGA team is a complete unknown right now. They have a brutal schedule next year though, with OOC games against Oklahoma State, Arizona State,and Georgia Tech. They could be riding high in the standings or crawling under the porch going into this game. Regardless…its going to be Johnson vs. Richt again and I like Tech’s odds in that situation.
Go Jackets!
THWG!
