Football Fix

COACHES PRESS CONFERENCE
Quotes from Coker:

"The game is sold out in Atlanta and we're very anxious to have an opportunity to play a very fine Georgia Tech team. People here know Chan Gailey from his time with the Dolphins. He's a tremendous person and an outstanding football coach and a good hire for them."

"Offensively they have a trifecta in quarterback Reggie Ball, P.J. Daniels the running back and a great wide receiver in Calvin Johnson. Johnson reminds me of Larry Fitzgerald. We leave the Big East and get away from Fitzgerald and now we see him again."

BRUISED LEG MAKE KEEP DANIELS OUT
Make no mistake, if PJ doesn't play, this is a disaster. YES, I like Chris Woods. YES, I like R.Grant. But neither is PJ Daniels. We will not out-run the Miami defense, so I would much prefer a guy who will pound them a bit.

JACKETS AREN'T COUNTING OUT STAR TAILBACK
Let's hope.

MORE ON DANIELS / HENDERSON / DAVIS
This is one of those lay-it-all-out games. No holding back. If you got legs, strap 'em up!

KEYS TO THE GAME - CFN
A very interesting analysis of the game, looking at some key defensive sets for the Hurricanes and how they might attack Reggie Ball. Note the comments about Calvin Johnson:

At 6’4” and 225, Johnson looks a little like a tight end from the 1980s, but don’t be fooled by this cat’s size. He can fly and is reminiscent of a bigger, stronger Randy Moss. He’s a one-on-one matchup disaster, against the Canes smaller corners. Thus, the presence of Johnson, alone, may keep Shannon from using Rolle in blitz packages and put the senior all-american on the ‘Kid’.

EXPECTING A CHALLENGE

ANKLE SPRAIN SIDELINES UM'S MOORE
Well, their passing game is struggling already, and now their leading receiver looks like he will miss the game...... Also note that if Berlin struggles, we may see a back-up QB.

MOORE IN CAST, GORE FEELING BETTER FOR UM
Well, their main WR might be out, but their main RB looks to be back in.

JACKETS OFTEN BETTER IN THE ROLE OF UNDERDOG
Well, if we're ever going to be "top dog" we better get used to winning when favored. Heck, we won 4 games last year as the underdog.

Since the start of last season, Tech is:

Better as an underdog than as a favorite. The Jackets have gone 3-3 in games they were favored to win, 5-4 in games they were expected to lose. (There was no line on the Samford game because Samford is in Division I-AA.)

Almost as good against ranked Division I-A opponents (2-2) as against unranked Division I-A opponents (6-5).

CURRY LEFT MIAMI TO JOIN GT
Nice article on Curry going against the school that recruited him as a RB. One thing is for sure, I like that we will have our WR core at full strength. We'll need it.

BERLIN FEELING THE PRESSURE
Isn't it ironic that the two best ACC teams both have struggling QB's. It just goes to show you that the QB isn't the end-all be-all of success. NC ST never did much with Philip Rivers, yet FSU / Miami keep rolling with average QB's.

BERLIN PROMISES IMPROVEMENT

MIAMI WILL GO TO BACK-UP QB
More on the QB situation.

MIAMI'S ENTRY TO ACC ALREADY HAVING IMPACT
Well no-duh.

FORMER DUKE HC TALKING SMACK
..about the difficultly winning at Duke Football. From Fred Goldsmith:

“My transition to the ACC wasn’t that tough because the conference wasn’t all that strong [in 1994],” Goldsmith said this fall. “I thought I could recruit just based on the strength of Duke University. But the University of Virginia, Georgia Tech and North Carolina all lowered their academic standard for their football players. The money poured into [other ACC schools] was unbelievable. I didn’t realize the commitment these guys were making. That caught up to me. At the time we could have asked for more; I didn’t realize how much to ask for.”

BOWDEN LOOKING FOR ANSWERS FOR TURNOVERS

WHERE ARE THEY NOW - JP FOSCHI
JP was released again - this time by the Vikings to make room for some other hacks.