Monthly Archives: September 2009

This Weekend in College Football: Week 1

Since this is the first post of the year, I’ll explain how this works. Basically, I list each game that will be on TV for a particular weekend. In general, I list games that will be on a network that is reasonably national or feature a BCS team, though this judgment can be arbitrary. (For instance, I will list only national Big Ten Network games, but will always list the ACC and SEC regional games. Yeah, I’m biased.) Normally, I don’t list anything other than Saturday games except on special occasions, as the post usually goes up on Friday. I also include the following disclaimer:

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday
7:00: South Carolina @ North Carolina State (ESPN): This is it. The first game of the year. Are you excited? Because I’m excited. Except, well, I won’t see any of these. But that’s all right! I’ll be on a plane destined for a much-needed vacation. That said, there’s been a fair amount of hype about NCSU this year and quite frankly I’m not sure why. They were the second worst team in the ACC last year and I’m not sure what they did to get better. Stever Spurrier is still trying to get his mojo back at South Carolina. I will begrudgingly take the Gamecocks here.

7:30: North Texas @ Ball State (ESPNU): So I get ESPNU now! Thanks Comcast! It makes me feel moderately better about the utterly ludicrous amount of money I have to pay for cable, I guess. Oh, also, UNT is terrible, taking Ball State here.

8:00: Eastern Kentucky @ Indiana (BTN): Hey, a game Indiana should win! Hope they don’t get too used to that.

10:15: Oregon @ Boise State (ESPN): You should stay up for this one, East Coast folks. Provided you survive the initial color clash of Oregon’s uniforms with the blue turf, you should be in for a treat as a big time program pays a visit Boise for the first time since Oregon State in 2006. Oregon State lost to that Boise team, that you probably remember from the legendary Fiesta Bowl that year versus Oklahoma. More notable, Boise won last year’s contest at Eugene, 37-32. Both these teams have lost some guys, but with less losses and the home field, I’ll take the Broncos.

Friday
8:00: Tulsa @ Tulane (ESPN): Conference USA! Feel the excitement! Tulsa will be trying to see if they can score more than 56 this time around, I suspect.

Saturday
Noon:

  • Navy @ Ohio State (ESPN): Ohio State is going to honor the Middies before the game, a nice gesture. Perhaps they’ll only win by 3 TDs instead of 4?
  • Minnesota @ Syracuse (ESPN2): This is a fairly amusing insight into rooting for a bad team. I especially like the “Quest for Toronto” feature. Gotta have reasonable goals. That said, I have to pick the Gophers.
  • Kentucky vs. Miami University (@Cincinnati, OH; ESPNU): Guide to Miamis: MU is the one in Ohio, and UM is the one in Florida. I will be referring to them as such throughout the season. Oh, and uh, Kentucky.
  • Akron @ Pennsylvania State (BTN): Penn State starts it’s, uh, “schedule” with a doozy against Akron. I’ll take Penn State.
  • Western Kentucky @ Tennessee (SEC): Congratulations Western Kentucky, you’re now fully a member of Division I-A and the Sun Belt Conference! Now go be good boys and sacrifice yourself for the sake of getting Lane Kiffin his first college win.

1:00: Jacksonville State @ Georgia Tech (espn360.com): With wayward Ryan Perrilloux out, JSU is missing its best player. I will shy away from making an actual prediction as usual, but I do hope that we don’t overlook this won for their upcoming Thursday night dates. OH AND I AM SO EXCITED. WOOOO FOOTBAW.

3:30:

  • Georgia @ Oklahoma State (ABC/GP): This is the first or second most interesting of the day, most likely. That said, I think UGA has just lost too much on offense to really keep up with OSU at home, so I’ll take the orange Cowboys.
  • Baylor @ Wake Forest (GP/ESPN2/ABC): Baylor actually has a shot at this one, which is more than I would say. But one QB does not a team make, and Jim Grobe is perhaps the craftiest coach in the country.
  • Western Michigan @ Michigan (ESPN2/ABC): I think Michigan will avoid losing, but I didn’t say they would avoid embarrassment.
  • Nevada @ Notre Dame (NBC): Nevada is not chopped liver here. But it is at ND and ND should succeed on sheer talent alone. Should.
  • San Jose State @ Southern California (FSN): Yeah, uh… hrm. This line is 32-33.5 right now, and well, I like USC to cover.
  • Jackson State @ Mississippi State (ESPNU): Hey, it’s a team Miss State will be able to beat. Not sure how much they’ll be able to say that this year.

3:40: Missouri vs. Illinois (@St. Louis, MO; ESPN): I’ve made it know I like this series of games elsewhere, so I’ll stop now. But suffice it to say, these are both good teams, but I think year’s edition of Illinois is probably better.

7:00:

  • Brigham Young vs. Oklahoma (@Arlington, TX; ESPN): This is a pretty interesting game. Even if BYU is just competitive they can make a statement. If they win? That would, just, wow. That said, I still have to take OU.
  • Louisiana Tech @ Auburn (ESPNU): Auburn. I’m running out of time, so these will be short unless it’s interesting from here on out.
  • Northern Illinois @ Wisconsin (BTN): Wisconsin.

8:00: Alabama vs. Virginia Polytechnic (ABC): I’ll try to see this, but I doubt I’ll be able to. For the sake of my conference I want VPI to win. I think this will be a defensive struggle, but ‘Bama just has to have more offensive talent, don’t they? It’ll be close but I have to admit the Tide will probably end up on top.

10:00: Maryland @ California (ESPN2): California. Okay, this is actually kind of interesting, and while this is probably the best Terp outfit in awhile, I still like Cal better.

10:30: Louisiana State @ Washington (ESPN): LSU. Washington will probably win a game this year… just not this one.

Sunday
3:30: Mississippi @ Memphis (ESPN): Sunday games! The best way to know the NFL hasn’t started yet, outside of the games tomorrow. That said, Ole Miss doesn’t need a lot of pre-season hype to know they should beat Memphis.

7:00: Colorado State @ Colorado (FSN): There’s a certain segment of the Georgia Tech fanbase that wants to move the Georgia game to the beginning of the season. Hogwash, I say. It’s a lot more fun at the end of the year. That said, when your rival is a major conference team, I guess you take what you can get when you’re CSU. CU probably wins.

Monday
4:00: Cincinnati @ Rutgers (ESPN): Almost there! Woo. Rutgers had a terrible start last year, including a 13-10 loss to eventual conference champ Cincy. No one has any Earthly idea who is supposed to win the Big East this year. It could even be Rutgers! Could. That said, I like Cincy here.

8:00: University of Miami @ Florida State (ESPN): A lot of folks are predicting the return of Miami this year. Not a lot are predicting the return of FSU. I’m not really that optimistic about either team, but I do like Miami better in this game.

And that’s it! I fly off to Seattle this afternoon and will miss a lot of these, but rest-assured I will be back in full force next week!

Hindsight is 20/20: Recapping Georgia Tech’s 2008 Season (Part 1)

I had originally planned to do the whole season at once, but I, uh, ran out of time. So here’s half of it, with the other half coming next week.

I did this after the 2006 season, which at the time was the best that had occurred since I enrolled and subsequently became a Tech fan in 2003. (The last time Tech ended a season ranked? After the 2000 season.) I didn’t do it after 2007 because, well, I was depressed and who wants to rehash a season that led to your coach getting fired? At any rate, here’s a breakdown of Anno Johannes 1, known to everyone else as “2008”.

Game 1: Georgia Tech 41, Jacksonville State 14
Tech’s shiny new offense got off a great start, though I missed most of it (due to being on an airplane). Tech turned the ball over twice, but it didn’t really matter, as Jax State did the same 4 tiems and Dwyer averaged 10.2 yards a carry.

Game 2: Georgia Tech 19, Boston College 16
I was worried about this one beforehand, and it turns out my fears were well founded. Tech fumbled the ball three times, was out-gained on offense, and was 3 for 12 on third downs. Going into the fourth quarter, the outcome was certainly in doubt with Tech down 16-10. Then these things happened:


Afterwards, BC would get the ball back once and run out of downs, after which Tech held on to win.
While Tech did a good job taking the lead and securing the win, credit goes to the defense which picked off two passes and recovered a BC fumble. Tech missed two FGs at or near the 30, which looked originally like it would cause us to lose the game. I would also note the next week that “GT has been getting yards on big plays more than the methodical drive of the option.”

Game 3: Virginia Tech 20, Georgia Tech 17
The actual impact of this game is the same as the predict impacts for this year’s edition on October 17. Tech (and I say “Tech”, I always mean Georgia Tech) would have benefitted greatly from this game being played in late October or early November, in my opinion. Tech turned the ball over 3 times, twice on fumbles, and so despite beating VPI in most other statisical categories lost the game. (The hivemind of the GT message boards also requires me to mention the the helmet-to-helmet call in the 4th quarter that led to eventual winning field goal. My own mind will mention the fact that there was another non-controversial personal foul on Tech on the same drive, and with 4:37 left on the clock, plenty of time left.) On of the fumbles Tech lost was in the first quarter, when the offense had actually driven into VPI territory.
When we weren’t turning the ball over, Tech’s drives were much more methodical, which wasa good sign heading into the next two games. Nonetheless, another recurring issue was noticed and noted:

Outside of just the fumbles, though, there is plenty of room of improvement for the Jackets. In what I suspect may be an issue all year, the middle of the offensive line has to get better blocks coming off the snap – with as often as VPI was in the backfield, it’s surprising there weren’t more fumbles lost. I say this because GT never established the first option in the triple option – the dive up the middle. B-back Dwyer had 10 carries for only 28 yards as VPI stacked the the middle-of-the-line. The other Tech then sold out on the 2nd option, the pitch-man on the outside. The result? A very banged up Josh Nesbitt, who ran 28 times for 151 yards. 5.4 yards per carry is nice, of course, but you don’t really want your QB getting banged up like that, and he is also prone to fumbling the ball.

Game 4: Georgia Tech 38, Mississippi State 7
This game was a rout, in every sense of the word. Tech rushed for 438 yards and Dwyer had a field day: 141 yards on 9 carries for a 15.7 average. Yowza. The Crimson-and-white bulldogs also obliged by turning the ball over 4 times while Tech had its first turnover-free game of the season. Hopes were back up after this. Those 38 points? Unanswered. The backups even got to play, though they did manage to allow Miss State to score a touchdown, their first once since the 3rd quarter of their game before the infamous 3-2 game.
The downside? Josh Nesbitt strained his hamstring in this game.

Game 5: Georgia Tech 27, Duke 0
Nesbitt was out again, but didn’t matter. This was another rout. 454 total yards, including a shocking 230 yards passing against an undermanned and under-everything Duke defense. Yet, somehow before the game I had managed to worry about this once somehow:

As mentioned above, Duke played Navy and may be somewhat more well-prepared than other opponents that will face Tech this year. Also, starting QB Josh Nesbitt will also miss the game due to a hamstring he strained against Miss State. While backup QB Jaybo Shaw is more than capable of running a proficient option offense (as demonstrated two weeks ago), he lacks the raw athleticism of Nesbitt, especially as a passer.

After the game, I was saying things like this:

As for Mr. Demaryius “BeBe” Thomas, he doesn’t quite have Calvin’s height (6’3″ versus 6’5″) but he still towers over many corners. Calvin also never had a 200 yard game at Tech, or an 88-yard reception. Is BeBe as good as Calvin? Of course not, but he’s darn close which provides a huge asset in this offense. Most teams can’t afford to leave him one-on-one, but because of the run game they will often have little choice.

So it was a pretty good game. Except that, rumor has it, Jaybo Shaw suffered a mild concussion. At any rate, he didn’t start the next game.
Oh, and I made this. I’m still pretty proud of it.

Game 6: Georgia Tech 10, Gardner-Webb 7
My first mistake when I wrote the preview for this game: “Those actually attending the game will be in for a treat…”
Yeah, not so much. Senior Ex-Auburn QB Calvin Booker started the game, bless his heart. In fairness to him, he was never supposed to be an option QB, and transferred in the year before under the impression he’d get a chance in Chan Gailey’s pro-style offense. Tech did all its socring in the 2nd quarter and held on for dear life as it proceeded to turn the ball over 2 twice (three times in total) and allow G-W a touchdown. Tech never got past the G-W 35 in the second half and had to block a very makeable field goal with 26 seconds left in the game. There was no TV coverage for this game, thankfully, so no one saw it, though I still remember being huddled over by my computer speakers hanging on the outcome of that last kick. Not fun.