Yearly Archives: 2009

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.

Know Your Potential September 1st Callups

On September 1st, two important things happen involving major league rosters:

  1. Players who are not on the 40-man roster at this time cannot be on the postseason roster.
  2. Ballclubs are allowed to use anyone on the 40-man roster, effectively expanding gameday rosters by 15 players.

So, if you’re like me, who are you likely to see suddenly appear on the bench or in the bullpen next week? Let’s start with the pitchers.

  • Tim Hudson (currently on 60-day disabled list) should be activated by the end of the month after a successful rehab start Sunday at AAA Gwinnett (6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 5 K). Since he is not currently on the 40-man roster (due to being on the 60-day DL) someone will have to be designated for assignment to make room for him, and I’m not sure who’s a candidate for that. So it’s possible someone below may not make it up next Tuesday.
  • Buddy Carlyle has been pitching in relief at Gwinnett, where he’s allowed only two earned runs in 13.2 IP and a 21:1 K:BB ratio. While that is inline with his past minor league numbers his major league ratio (189:93) is less encouraging. He was DL’ed in May after being diagnosed with Type I diabetes and started a rehab stint earlier this month, so his return was probably a given anyway, but I can’t say I’ve particularly missed him.
  • Stephen Marek was brought up to AAA for about a month this summer before being sent back down to AA Mississippi, probably because he only pitched 5.2 innings, walked 7 guys (while only striking out 4) and gave up 5 earned runs. He was acquired in the trade for Casey Kotchman and projected to appear in the pen after a promising Arizona Fall stint last year, but even in AA he has struggled with his control (25:28 K:BB in 35 IP). In his last 10 appearance, he has walked and struck out 8 while giving up 11 hits while getting plenty of playing time over the past week or so, which suggests to me that the Braves may be trying to see if he’s got anything or if he will be the casualty when Hudson is reactivated.
  • James Parr has battled injuries all year (apparently, I can’t find any detailed information) and is currently on the minor league disabled list. When he hasn’t been on the DL, he’s been okay, but there’s not really enough data about him to make a definitive judgment.
  • Todd Redmond has been starting for Gwinnett all year, going 9-6 with a 4.02 ERA and decent ratios except for a team-leading 19 HRs, though he also leads the team by far in IP.
  • Jo-Jo Reyes has been doing his usual sort of Jo-Jo Reyes things at AAA Gwinnett, moving back into starting in early August. He’s been decent but not great, basically.
  • Luis Valdez has been Gwinnett’s closer and except for one hiccup back on the 13th, he’s been doing reasonably well, with 66 strikeouts in 65.2 IP and not a lot of walks. Provided he can get major league hitters out with similar frequency, he would let off some pressure on the very overworked back of the bullpen.

Now, the position players:

  • Clint Sammons (C) has been doing his Clint Sammons thing at Gwinnett: catching baseballs, throwing base stealers out about a third of the time, and not hitting at all (.221 BA, 636 OPS). His callup to Atlanta will be useful, though, as it will let the Braves use David Ross more off the bench as pinch hitter in the place of Greg Norton.
  • Barbaro Canizares (1B) saw some action earlier this year when he got to start 5 games at first but didn’t really make the most of it. He’s always been around a .300 hitter in the minors but has seen his power drop off at all leaves above A-ball.
  • Brooks Conrad (2B) is an excellent name for a baseball player and he really made a splash when he was called up last month while the entire infield was on the DL. That’s really about it, though, as his AAA numbers are much more mundane: .269 average, 791 OPS and 12 HRs.
  • Diory Hernandez (SS) was with the big league club throughout most of the summer as a replacement for Omar Infante, where he didn’t hit a whole lot, in stark contrast to his performance at Gwinnett where he sports a 439 OBP and a .364 average. Considering he got 93 plate appearances in the big leagues and only hit .141, we can assume that he’s getting lucky at AAA or really unlucky in the majors.
  • Brian Barton (OF) hasn’t really been doing much of anything at AAA and at 27 years old, may be running out of time. He served as a pinch hitter/4th outfielder extraordinaire for the Cardinals last year and was traded for Blaine Boyer and hasn’t been heard from since.
  • Gregor Blanco (OF) has been playing everyday for Gwinnett but was sent down earlier this year after a disappointing stint in the majors to make room for Greg Norton. Perhaps it was telling that a relative unknown (Reid Gorecki) was called up when Nate McLouth was DL’ed instead of Blanco.
  • Brandon Jones (OF) is still searching for the power production he lost somewhere on the trip from Mississippi to Richmond. Once projected to crack the starting outfield in the majors, he future is in doubt. He had a cup of coffee back in late April/early May and got a handful of hits and not much else.
  • Nate McLouth (CF, 15-day DL) is currently on the disabled list due to an unhappy hamstring. As seemingly the only person on the team who can steal a base, the Braves anxiously await his return.
  • Jordan Schafer (OF) recently had the cast on his left arm removed and plans to resume swinging a bat soon. The Braves hope the guy they originally wanted to start in CF for them will be back at some point. I like to think the long-term plan for the OF involves Schafer in center, with McLouth in right and a platoon in left next year with that spot eventually occupied by Jason Heyward.

Speaking of Mr. Heyward, he was recently invited to the Arizona Fall League along with fellow Braves mega-prospect Freddie Freeman. If the Braves really want to, they could add these guys to the 40-man roster in time for September and let them get a cup of coffee, though they may not for arbitration reasons. Nonetheless, since his promotion to AA, all Heyward has done is hit, with a 1046 OPS in 151 at-bats (though this may be enhanced somewhat by 4 triples). Freeman has been much worse since his promotion to AA in late June, as his average has fallen off 40 points (and his slugging is worse). At their current rates, Heyward is probably a lot closer to the majors than Freeman is.

Update: Jordan Schafer will have surgery on his injured wrist, which I would guess means a trip to the 60-day DL. They may use this as a chance to do a simple swap for Hudson, but it could get more interesting than that. Stay tuned.

Rating the 2009 Non-Conference Slate: Epilogue

Before we can properly dive back in to college football, let’s examine our treatment of the best, and worst, of college football scheduling this year. Unlike the previous editions, this has a bit of subjectiveness to it, after all, no one really cares what kind of schedule Duke plays – the point here is to reward or shame programs that should, well, know better.

First, the shaming.
11. Rutgers (0.1 legit average, 2 DI-AA): Howard, FIU, @Maryland, @Army, Texas Southern. My arbitrary cut-off for consideration was a 0.1 “legit average”, which is simply the number of legit points divided by the number of OOC games a team plays. This completely uninspiring slate sees two DI-AA teams stop in and only one BCS opponent. But it gets worse. It gets much worse.
10. Arizona (0.833, 1): Central Michigan, Northern Arizona, @Iowa. Iowa doesn’t rate very highly on the “legit” scale, which is perhaps unfair, but this is still a pretty bad schedule. It’s an improvement over last year’s effort, though. Perhaps it’s a sign of change for a gradually rising program?
9. Louisiana State (0.0625, 0): @Washington, UL-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech. Yeah, yeah, it sucks that Washington is terrible now, but completing the rest of the Louisiana Circuit (minus the other half of the UL-UM pick ’em) doesn’t make for an inspiration schedule. However, the get the nod over the following teams, because at least they aren’t playing any true DI-AA teams. The tie was broken in a completely arbitrary and subjective fashion.
T-8. Northwestern (0.0625, 1): Towson, Eastern Michigan, @Syracuse, Miami (Ohio). I considered leaving NU off the list entirely, but hey, you win 9 games and want to be among the big boys of the Big Ten, then you need to schedule better.
T-8. Virginia (0.0625, 1): William & Mary, Texas Christian, @Southern Mississippi, Indiana. As for this, well, I said earlier they might lose a game (or three) against this schedule. The continued employment of Al Groh confuses me. That said, UVA should be better and schedule better, so I guess that’s why they’re on the list.
T-6. Kansas (0.0625, 1): Northern Colorado, @Texas-El Paso, Duke, Southern Mississippi. Though I expect their counterparts in Manhattan to catch up (or is it down?) next year with the return of Bill Synder, for now this sad excuse for a schedule will have to do for one of the Big 12 North’s main contenders.
T-6. Wisconsin (0.0625, 1): Northern Illinois, Fresno State, Wofford, @Hawaii. Really? Of course, they needed overtime to beat Cal Poly last year, so…. and hey, it’s not as bad as Penn State’s.
4. Pennsylvania State (0.0625, 1): Akron, Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Illinois. Seriously. I mean, they will go 4-0 but there is just absolutely no room for error in a schedule like this. Penn State really has to hope everyone else in the conference does their part to help out, including Ohio State beating USC and subsequently losing to them, because without that the Big Ten’s overall strength of schedule will be shot.
3. Texas (0, 0): Louisiana-Monroe, @Wyoming, Texas-El Paso, Central Florida. This. I just. Wow. I will laugh if Texas pulls an Auburn (circa 2004) and winds up undefeated and 3rd in the BCS behind, say, USC and Florida because of this schedule. And how did they end up in Wyoming? Is that a 10-for-1?
2. Texas Tech (0, 1): North Dakota, Rice, @Houston, New Mexico. Of course, this schedule is worse. I’d say TTU needs to put up 230 points combined on these four in order to keep up.
1. Mississippi (0, 2): @Memphis, Southeast Louisiana, Alabama-Birmingham, Northern Arizona. Yeah, maybe Ole Miss scheduled bad in the recent past due to being terrible themselves, but still. There’s no reason to import a DI-AA team from Arizona to fill out your already terrible schedule .

With that over with, let’s take a look at teams who decided to entertain all of us and perhaps helps themselves a little in the process. This is a little more stringent than the above, as I wanted to focus on teams that played more than 1 BCS school and interesting inter-regional matchups.
6. Illinois (0.5, 1): N-Missouri, Illinois State, Fresno State, @Cincinnati. Just barely making the cut, the Illini’s neutral site game with Mizzou and games against the likes of Cincy and Fresno are definitely gambles in the OOC scheduling world. Kudos to them.
5. UCLA (0.5, 0): San Diego State, @Tennessee, Kansas State. I’ve always liked Tennessee’s willingness to travel, though in this case the beneficiary is UCLA. Tacking on Kansas State was also a good move on UCLA’s part, though you can bet K-State won’t be scheduling games like that again anytime soon.
4. Oregon (0.6667, 0): @Boise State, Purdue, Utah. Oregon is considered, generally, to be the second best team in the Pac-10. For them to go out and play at Boise is a pretty big deal. Honestly, the weakest team on this schedule might be Purdue, but we’ll see if Utah can re-live the magic from last year. About as challenging as a slate featuring Purdue as the only BCS representative can get, at any rate.
3. Southern Cal (0.6667, 0): San Jose State, @Ohio State, @Notre Dame. Southern Cal-Ohio State is pretty much the game of the year already, though I’ve already elaborated on why OSU needs it more. If Notre Dame were better, that would be enough to vault this schedule to the top, but as-is it’s just not good enough.
2. Virginia Tech (0.4375, 0): N-Alabama, Marshall, Nebraska, @East Carolina. A “neutral” site game with a major SEC and national power? Check. A home game with a historically good Big 12 team on the rise? Check. A road game at a non-BCS opponent that beat you last year? Check. Though our average doesn’t like them, this is a pretty darn good schedule. I honestly think VPI has a shot in all of these games, too. Honestly, this should challenge for #1.
1. Georgia (0.625, 1): @Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech, @Georgia Tech. It hurts for me to say this, but this is a darn good schedule. I don’t think anyone expects Oklahoma State to be as good as it was last year, but I applaud at least the decision to go out there. Arizona State makes its return trip and should still be decent, and I would like to think my own alma mater isn’t exactly chopped liver. I could go either way with this or VPI’s schedule, as this 3 good to very good teams, as opposed to VPI’s great team and very good team. Nonetheless, for me to conceded anything to UGA should tell you that this is darn good.

Well folks, that’s a wrap. We’ll begin regular programming soon. I even already have the Week 1 TV Guide setup, that’s how much I’m looking forward to it! See you then.

Bronson Arroyo and the Very Bad Analogy

I’ve been wanting to write some college football articles and whatnot to get back into the swing of things, but this struck me as so unabashedly unintelligent I had to say something.

USA Today has an article about how Bronson Arroyo takes supplements that aren’t on baseball’s approved list. My opinion? He has hasn’t tested positive yet, so he’s probably fine as long as he’s not taking actual PEDs. However, his particularly poor choice of an analogy at the end of the article, well:

“[Taking the supplements] might be dangerous,” he says, “but so is drinking and driving. And how many of us do it at least once a year? Pretty much everybody.”

Look, I don’t particularly care what you do to yourself. But I would guess”drinking and driving isn’t as common as he thinks, and to say something like that raises some interesting questions about his own driving behavior. At any rate, it’s an unbelievably stupid thing to say, even if there weren’t a slate of high-profile athletes involved in DUI incidents every year.

College Football Rule Changes and You: 2009 Edition

Last year we examined college football’s very extensive list of rule changes. This year is less modest (the NCAA hasn’t even published a document listing the rule changes, even though the new rulebook is out), but being the person I am I still find it all very interesting. So let’s take a look at you need to know.

Again, page numbers reflect the PDF.

  • Rule 1-4-3-a (page 34) changes the rules regarding jersey colors, after last year’s much publicized shenanigans with USC and UCLA. The rule regarding white jerseys remains the same (that is, if a team wants to wear white at home they must obtain approval from their opponents prior to the start of the season). However, now if both teams want to wear their colored jersies, they may do so if the teams agree before the game and the home team’s conference certifies the jerseys are sufficiently contrasting. If the home team jersey rule is violated in any way, it is a 15-yard unsportsman-like after the kickoff. (Violations of the white jersey and other equipment rules is still a timeout.)
  • Rule 2-3-6 (page 48) codifies the concept of the “blocking zone”, which is 5 yards on each side of the snapper and 3 yards in front and behind him.
  • Rule 2-24-1, which defined spearing, was eliminated. It is still against the rules to target an opponent with the crown of the helmet, of course.
  • Rule 2-33 (page 65) defines the “three-in-one principle” of penalty enforcement. It just goes into detail about from which spots a penalty is enforced relative to the “official spot”. Basically, you probably already know this.
  • Rule 2-34 defines the “tackle box”, which as you know is 5-yards to each side of the snapper and behind.
  • Rule 3-2-3 (page 70) clarifies that a period is not extended for penalties that result in a loss of down.
  • Rules 3-2-4 (page 71) and 3-3-5 (page 76) say that the play clock should be set to 40 seconds after injury timeouts for the defense.
  • Rule 9-1-2-q (page 122) adds grabbing the chinstrap as a facemask foul.
  • Rule 9-1-4 (page 123) added a provision that once a kicker carries the ball outside the tackle box that he loses his protection under running into/roughing the kicker rules.
  • Rule 9-6 (page 135) was added to clarify that conferences should review video of all flagrant violations that occur during a game, and gives them the power to levy penalties against players who may have committed flagrant fouls that did not get called. Rule 1-9-1 defines “a flagrant personal foul” as “a rule infraction so extreme or deliberate that is places an opponent in danger of a catastrophic injury.”

So not much excitement this year, outside of the jersey color thing. Also worth noting is that this begins the NCAA’s two-year cycle for rules, so rule changes will not be considered again until after the 2010 season.