Well, the pre-game festivities were fun

Well, just got back from ATL. Overall it was a fun day. The football game actually left a lot to be desired, but the AA is doing a nice job with the pre-game festivities. My highlight of the day was getting autographs of the men's hoop team, including Jarrett Jack, BJ Elder, Luke S, Clarence Moore, Will Bynum, T.Tarver, A.Morrow, R.Dickey. McHenry, Isma'il were there but not long enough to sign many autographs. I'll post a cool picture later when I get a chance.

Well, back to the game. All I can say is this - the defense put up a valliant effort, but gave up a few big plays, and the offense did nothing. Absolutely nothing. I mean, Chris Woods breaks a long one on the 2nd play of the game, but isn't fast enough to take it to the house, and all we can get out of it is a field goal. Who would have thought those were the only points we would get all day?

MANY fans will want to lay this at the feet of Reggie Ball. And you know what, he deserves a lot of the blame. He flat out threw a lot of bad passes today. And I'm not talking about the INT's. I'm talking about the short range bullet passes, the slants, throwing into double-coverage. The WR core and Reggie Ball were definitely not in synch today. It looked like there were a number of route problems, although it is hard to tell how much was the WR's and how much was Ball. The offense was just not clicking, picking up from the UNC game. The running game was ok, but boy did we miss PJ Daniels. And really - how many QB draws can we possibly run? D.Bilbo and R.Ball taking turns at the QB sneak?????? What was that????? I guess when you cannot complete a pass, you have to get creative with the running game.

Statistically, Reggie was 8-25 for 68 yards and 3 INT's. Folks, that makes the last two combined game stats look like this for Reggie:

20-54 for 232 yards, 1 TD and 6 INT's.

And let's be honest - there could have easily been 5 INT's. One INT run-back for a TD was called back with a penalty and another pass was caught in the endzone just out-of-bounds. That formula doesn't compute any way you slice it. I think we officially have ourselves a QB controversy. Oh, I have no doubt Reggie will be the guy next game, but the fans will get testy, even the ones who have backed Reggie all along. As of today, I see no progress over 2003, and we actually have a stronger WR core than last season.

There is blame to go 'round though. Personally, I don't think the play-calling was overly great. Woods breaks a long run and you get 3 shots basically 1st and goal. You first let Woods run again, after he is still catching his breath, then we run 2 QB sneaks. What's up with that?? Why didn't we try at least one pass play?? I don't get that. I am not going to be overly critical of the game-calling. The offense had opportunities - they just didn't execute them.

And let's give Miami some credit. This is a top 5 team with tons of NFL talent and they outplayed us today. They were a better team coming in and were a better team going out. It would have taken a tremendous performance to win and it wasn't to be. We just got beat by a better team. There's no shame in my book.

Keep one stat in mind about Miami - their defense has given up a grand total of 1 touchdown ALL SEASON - and they didn't give up one today. So before we get too worked up about our offense, we have to acknowledge that they are one of the best D's we will face.

Looking at the big picture, Georgia Tech is 2-2, certainly not out of the race for the bowl picture. Remember what our record was this time last season - try 1-3. So, there is plenty of time left. Don't give up. We'll just have to see what Gailey does to prepare the team for Maryland - at their house.