Sunday, October 10, 2004

Reggie Ball versus Joe Hamilton

Imagine my surprise when I came across this article about Joe Hamilton - SOPHOMORE Joe Hamilton, written October 1997. Check out this quote:

One series away from being benched four weeks ago at Wake Forest, Hamilton has come on to give the Yellow Jackets the best quarterbacking they've had since Shawn Jones took his final snap in 1992.

Here's what George O'Leary had to say:
``The things he does aren't always pretty, but I tell you, Joe's a great competitor,'' said coach George O'Leary. ``He's upbeat, very positive. He's making more of the right decisions.''

And you know what, people talk about how brash Reggie Ball is (and he is) as opposed to Joe Hamilton. Well, look at this quote from Joe:
``I know they're going to be geared to stop the option, but you know, they've got to stop it,'' Hamilton said. ``We can't change our game because they know what we do. We've got a pretty good team, too. So let them stop what we do before we change anything.''

That's pretty confident talk from a guy almost benched 4 weeks prior.

All it shows is that as time marches on, our memories of Joe Hamilton focus on the junior / senior campaigns, and the Heisman runner-up. Let's not forget he was INCONSISTENT as a sophomore / junior. A lot of parallels with Reggie Ball.

I'm not saying Reggie has Joe's potential, but interesting none-the-less.

By the way, I took this picture last week after the Miami game - this was on a door leading into the laundry room of a dorm.