Oh by the way

Just in case you wanted to add insult to injury to your Clemson friends, you could show them that the field goal they had off the Taylor Bennett fumble should never have counted. Why? Well, Bennett didn't fumble. He was down and the ball had not come lose yet. Therefore, Clemson never should have gotten the ball. Small point only intended for those needing to confront the really obnoxious Clemson fans.

See for yourself (thanks angra at the Hive for this screenshot):

(click on image for larger version)

The Aftermath

Nice work by jdubjacket at the Hive. Love the Photoshop skillz.

Also, some pics from the game by one Tech fan.

Jackets Back on Winning Track

Well, the boys did it. They came into Bobby Dodd Stadium today against the #13 ranked Clemson Tigers and showed that pride still matters. The team showed us that the Georgia Tech YellowJackets are not going to go down without a fight.

Today the YellowJackets displayed a show of defensive force and shutdown the high octane Clemson offense, winning by a final of 13-3. It was truly an impressive display. On the offensive side of the ball, Tashard Choice flexed his muscles and put his name back on the map as the top ACC back.

This game came down to three keys:

1. GT Defense shut down Clemson's running game (stop the run)
2. Tashard Choice ran and ran and ran (establish the run)
3. Special teams play by GT and special teams help from Clemson (big plays)

Let's look at the highlights:

ROUGH START
After the first two series of the game for the Jackets, I thought we were in for a rough day. The first snap by Taylor Bennett he trips, tries to handoff as he's falling, fumbles, and Clemson recovers. Thank goodness the defense held them to a field goal - but the Jackets gave up 3 free points.

The second series gets going with penalty, penalty, penalty. Everything good we did got nullified by a mistake. Folks, when are we going to learn how to line the right number of guys on the line-of-scrimmage? But things settled out after that and the momentum turned for good.

DEFENSIVE DOMINATION
Jon Tenuta has taken some heat in the past two weeks. Is he "overrated"? Is he a one-trick pony? Have people finally figured out how to exploit what he does? Wwwweeelllll ....... not really.

The defense was swarming, making tackles, filling gaps, shutting off running lanes, penetrating the line, pressuring the QB and generally wreaking havoc everywhere. Philip Wheeler was a monster, with 2.5 sacks and multiple other hits on the QB.

Wheeler stood out but it was a true group effort. Six sacks total, tons of QB hurries and knockdowns, batted passes, etc, etc. They held Clemson to 228 yards when they were averaging 445. They held them to 3 points when they were averaging 38.3 per game. Wow.

I would also like to give a special note to Vance Walker and Daryl Richard. Defensive tackles never get the stats, but they can disrupt an offense. Today those guys did just that. Nice work by those two bruisers. If you remember, in my pres-season preview, I said that I expected Vance Walker to be the breakout player of the season. It's not a stretch to say he's one of the top candidates for that team prize.

HEART OF A CHAMPION
Tashard Choice is a champion. Today he showed why. He absolutely carried the offense, running the ball for 145 yards on 32 carries. "Workhorse" does not do him justice. The coaches did a good job of giving him rest at key points in the game, but he was clearly the man. Don't forget that James Davis and Choice were workout partners over the summer, and Davis is from ATL, so there was some serious showmanship here.

Also, When you consider how anemic the passing game was today (will discuss later), what Choice did is even all the more impressive. Just an amazing effort.

Another amazing point - evidently he lied all week about how he was feeling. Evidently he has been hurting this week but just would not allow Coach Gailey to sit him. Evidently he also gave a rousing pre-game speech about how much he loved this team and that they had to keep fighting and never give up. Here were his postgame comments on those pep talks:

"I addressed the team before the game and told them that we work so hard, and there are so many things that we do that people don't know about. A lot of dedication, and I really wanted them to understand that my life is based around football, and all I have is those guys in the lockerroom and everything that I do out on the field is for them. It's not all about me. Once they understood that, my teammates really rallied and played for me. At halftime, I really told them that it wasn't over. I was really upset at halftime because I felt like we left a lot of points on the field, turned the ball over and didn't convert on situations. It was good that our team was ready to go and the defense came out and kept them from putting points on the board."

In addition, here's what he had to say about the hammy:

"I wasn't at 100 percent today. I lied the whole week, but I had to. It was absolutely hurting me to watch my teammates struggling like they've been. All the hard work you put into the season, to not be able to be out there fighting with your teammates is hard."

At the end of the game, teammates surrounded him and you may have noticed that Choice was crying. You could tell he couldn't contain the emotion of the day and avenging last year's performance. Today was a special day for that young man, and of course a special day for all of us. Thanks TC!

Also have to give a shout of to the guys who led the way for Choice, including Mike Cox, the bruiser, the O-Line, and ever R.Grant, who made a handful of key blocks springing TC for more yards. Grant also did a nice job spelling Choice at key times during the game.

SPECIAL SPECIAL SPECIAL TEAMS
What can you say? GT special teams continue to amaze. Other than last week's punt muff there's not much bad to talk about. Today was no exception.

First you have the incredible punt block by DJ Donley. Just a complete bull-rush. Donley made one of the most pretty moves to get inside they layed out to block the kick. The result was a Jacket FG.

The other key play was the punt muff by Clemson on the hit by Blackwood, which was recovered by Donley.

Throw in your typical Durant Brooks punting outing (7 punts, 49.1 yard average, 1 inside the 20, 3 over 50 yards). Had the coverage team done a better job, they could have stopped one of those kicks on the 1 yard line, but they knocked it into the endzone for a touchback.

Next you get to Travis Bell. The guy continues to do nothing but knock it through the uprights. Two field goals today, one from 41 and one from 48..... and they would have been good from a lot longer as well.

Now, we also have to give a special shout out to Clemson's special teams. Not only did they allow us to block a punt and muff another one - they missed 4.. count'em 4 field goals. VERY costly mistakes that ultimately were the turning points in the game........... well, that and the Clemson TD called back on a personal foul penalty.

THUNDER AND LIGHTENING
....... or should I say drizzle and fizzle? I tell you, everytime these guys touched the ball I held my breath......... but I'll be darned if the defense didn't just keep bottling them up and shutting them down. Thunder (James Davis) ended with 60 yards on 12 carriers and Spiller ended with 2 yards rushing on 9 carriers. Just a dominant performance by the defense.

FRESHMAN MAKE A STATEMENT
There were some young guys that made a statement today. Morgan Burnett had his 2nd INT of the year (the only two by the entire team). He played well today.

DJ Donley was a special teams monster, blocking one punt and recovering a fumbled punt by Clemson on another play. Those two plays were key turning points in the game and he was right in the middle of both. You know, DJ Donley might turn out to be a great receiver, but he's got the serious skilss to be a great DB.

Another guy who made some good plays was AT Barnes. He made a critical tackle on an attempted reverse by Clemson and had he missed there would have been some open real estate.

WHERE ON EARTH IS THE PASSING GAME?
There are always areas to improve, even after an emotional victory. The glaring need is still obvious and the answers are mysterious. Where is the passing game? Today, Taylor Bennett was 7-15 for 67 yards and 1 INT and no TD's.

Once again, there was just no mojo in the passing game. Not all of it is on Bennett though, as numerous guys dropped very catchable balls in the first half, noticably Peek, Thomas and Smith (would have been a tough catch). That could have been 3 more completions for about another 50-80 yards. But even with that, how much confidence do you have when Bennett drops back to pass? For me there's very little. When we complete a pass I'm like "How about that - bonus".

I don't know the answer. There just isn't much tempo to the passing game. Nothing comes easy. Guys aren't getting open. I'm starting to think that the receiving core is as much of the problem as anything.

3RD DOWN CONVERSIONS - STILL FRUSTRATION
Once again we were pretty poor on 3rd down conversions even though the stats look better than they were (5-15 on 3rd down). They look better because most of those conversions happened on the last drive of the game, which basically ran out the clock. Critical of course, but during the game we just didn't convert many. Still work to be done here.

FANS IN THE STANDS
Props to the crowd today, which included Dennis Scott and our man Bobby Ross "the Boss" Ross that is. Ross did the line-up intro's for ESPN for the Jacket offense while Keith Brooking handled the D. Nice.

JACKETS NAB A RECRUIT
Linebacker Malcolm Munroe commited to the Jackets today! Outstanding! He's a Florida kid with offers from USF, UCF, Auburn, Louisville, S.Carolina and Wisconsin, among others. Scout.com ranks him the #18 SLB in the nation.


IN CONCLUSION
Just an outstanding effort by the team. A great day for Jacket fans - and I cannot wait to get to the office Monday to talk to my Clemson co-workers. There is such a long way to go in the season. Lots of football to play, but the guys should be proud. The bucked up, showed their pride, and made us all proud.

-----------------------------------

One quick note - sorry about the Tiger picture on the post yesterday. Wasn't trying to promote extinction of some rare animal. Lighten up people.

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Time To Fire Up the Barby Folks

Put the steak on, because it's almost gametime

What's It Gonna Be?

Is Tech going to crumble? Are the Tigers going to go home with their tails tucked between their legs? It's just so hard to tell how this game is going to play out.

• Does it mean anything to you that GT has a 6-2 record against Clemson when they are ranked and we are not, including the last five times in a row (thanks GTJT622 at the Hive)?
• 2004: GT 28, @ #18 Clemson 24
  2000: GT 31, @ #4 Clemson 28
  1997: @ GT 23, #17 Clemson 20
  1992: @ GT 20, #14 Clemson 16
  1989: GT 30, @ #14 Clemson 14
• Does it mean anything that Clemson's opponents have a combined 3-9 record?
• Does it mean anything that GT's opponents have a combined 10-5 record?
• Does it mean anything that Notre Dame represents four of those losses by opponents?
• Does it mean anything that our losses have come against teams that are now 7-1?
• Does it mean anything that our backs are against the wall?
• Does it mean anything that the game is at home?
• Does it mean anything that Tommy Bowden teams always have a fall?
• Does it mean anything that Tommy Bowden's team hasn't fallen yet?

Come back tomorrow night and I'll tell you if any of this mattered.

As many of you know, I live in Greenville SC, the heart of Clemson territory. I have to say many of my Clemson co-workers are a bit cocky. Some are cautiously cocky, but some are just outright cocky. The general arguement I heard today 1) we crushed you last year 2) Clemson is better 3) you are not......... therefore it is a forgone conclusion that Clemson will win. That is what I'm hearing.

For me, I expect a hard fought victorious Jacket team on Saturday. While there are a hundred reasons to be pessimistic, I chose to believe this group will get it done.

GO JACKETS!!!!

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By the way, some advice from ramblinwreck.com:

Game Day Traffic Advisory

Sept. 28, 2007

ATLANTA - With thousands of football fans expected in downtown Atlanta this weekend for the sold-out game between Georgia Tech and Clemson at Bobby Dodd Stadium and the Georgia Dome playing host to the Atlanta Football Classic, officials are encouraging all fans to arrive early and be prepared for heavy traffic.

Atlanta will also play host to several other events Saturday that could generate heavy traffic into and around downtown.

In preparation for the influx of visitors, Atlanta police are asking the public to be aware of streets affected by some events and to use public transit when possible.

The Annual 100 Black Men Parade will start at 10 a.m. and affect the following streets:
*Peachtree Street from Pine Street to Marietta Street
*West Peachtree Street from Pine Street to Peachtree Street
*Marietta Street from Peachtree Street to International Boulevard
*Centennial Olympic Park Drive from Harris Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard

The Annual NAMI Georgia Walk will also take place in the downtown area. Approximately 1,000 people will participate in this event. This event will begin at 2 p.m. affect the following streets:
*(133) Peachtree Street to Edgewood Avenue to Courtland Street
*Mitchell Street to Capitol Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
*Central Avenue to Edgewood Avenue to Peachtree Street
*Auburn Avenue to Park Place (Terminating at the Georgia Pacific Building)

The Annual Breast Cancer 2 Day event in Centennial Olympic Park begins at 8 a.m. and will remain on the sidewalks, drawing approximately 2,000 participants.

Police are encouraging motorists to plan for possible delays and encourage people to use MARTA where possible and to be especially aware and cautious of extra pedestrian traffic in the area. Fans should purchase two one-way Breeze tickets at the beginning of their trip to avoid long lines after the game.
The Midtown and North Avenue stations serve the Georgia Tech campus and Bobby Dodd Stadium. Fare is just $2.25 each way and extra trains will be running on game day!

Where are they now - Calvin Johnson

You may have heard about the great catch Calvin Johnson made that resulted in a bruised back. Well, now you can see it. For Lions fans - WOW! For Georgia Tech fans - just another day at the office for the Truth. It's just what he does, and it does not surprise any of us:

The Secret to Boston College's Offense?

Could it be their Offensive Coordinator Steve Logan? Makes a lot of sense to me. One of my buddies, Bryan, sent me the following interesting bit of trivia that you might have known.

"During the BC game Saturday night, Steve Logan called the plays that carved us up. That's the second time he killed us. In 1991, he was the offensive genius behind the curtain at East Carolina University. That offense got Bill Lewis his only winning season as a head coach, and thus the Tech job. In hindsight, Homer Rice hired the wrong coach off of that ECU staff - he should have hired Logan. Logan got the HC job at ECU, went 69-58, and took ECU to five bowls in eleven years. They fired him b/c he didn't win enough, but honestly, winning 54% of you games at the fourth North Carolina school is respectable, to say the least. Not to take anything away from Ryan, who is a fantastic player, but Logan did a pretty good job breaking down our defense Saturday night. "

In case you are interested, prior to taking the BC OC job, Logan was an NFL Europe head coach before they folded that league and also had a short stint in NC as a sports radio show host. Now, I have to tell you that the radio station he was on posted his shows as podcasts, and they were without a doubt THE most interesting sports radio shows I have EVER heard. They guy talked straight up, no bull, and he also happened to like to talk about blues music (which I love) and fishing (which I enjoy but never do anymore). However, his discussions about football were fascinating because he talked about the game and gameplanning and strategy. He would explain the difference between zone blocking and other types. He would talk about why certain things work at the college level but don't in the NFL. He would talk about the difference between talent and coaching and the impact on winning.

Here is a link to the radio station blog that posted his shows as blogs. Actually, here's a link to the search results to find "the LoganZone", which is what his show was called. There are some highly entertaining radio there folks. I am not sure if the links to the shows are still active, but if they are it's worth a listen.

So did we hire the wrong guy back in the B&*$ L$#*& era? (that's the way many fans refer to it). Could have been.

The Jabs Start

Anyone remember Clemson assistant coach Vic Koenning telling the SC media that Calvin Johnson got away with a lot of pushoffs? Well, he's at it again this week.

Chop off the old block

In 2005 and 2006, Koenning suggested not-so-subtly that Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson got away with push-offs. Now that Johnson is gone, he's questioning the tactics of the Yellow Jackets' offensive line.

"I'm concerned because it's chop-block central," he said. "We could probably learn to tackle from some of those guys."

In addition, Koenning is evidently quite the comedian. Here are his thoughts on Tashard Choice's hamstring:

Koenning isn't buying reports that Yellow Jackets tailback Tashard Choice might not play because of a hamstring injury that limited him to five carries in last week's 28-23 loss at Virginia.

"We're preparing for him to be full speed," he said of last year's leading rusher in the ACC. "They've got a medical school down there. They've got smart doctors. They'll figure something out."

Jackets Fall to UVA....... 0-2 in ACC

.......... and just like that your team is 0-2 in the conference and staring at an uphill climb the rest of the season.......

The Jackets play in very disappointing fashion today, losing to the Virginia Cavaliers 28-23. Once again the offense had only marginal success. Once again the defense proved to have holes. Both the O-Line and D-Line's were out-muscled at the point-of-attack.

But today was ultimately about key mistakes and their costly results. Today's loss really hinged on two plays. First - a weird batted pass from Taylor Bennett that ended up getting intercepted and returned for a TD. The other was a fumbled punt by Andrew Smith which led to a UVA TD on the very next play. That my friends is the difference in the game today. Fourteen points given to UVA almost for free. You cannot do that and win. However, you can throw a whole host of other mistakes in the mix to talk about - penalties, poor tackling, dropped passes, more coverage issues - it's a long list.

TURNOVERS
It's not a cliche - it's a fact - turnovers make the difference in games. Through the first three games the Jackets were the only team in the nation without a turnover. That ended with the freaky INT off a deflection today. That 4th quarter fumble on a punt changed the game and it never changed back. Turnovers are the largest game-changer that exists.

Aside from those gaffes, however, I don't want to just give this team a pass. They have coughed up the ball at least 6-7 times and just been lucky enough to get it back every time. Happened again today as Bennett fumbled and recovered himself. I'd like to see us wrap that ball a little tighter.

POOR TACKLING
After the first two games of the year, Tech looked like a fundamentally sound tackling team. The last two games have gotten a lot more physical and the results have been different. Lots of missed tackles and lots of resulting additional opponent yards. There is a long list of guys who missed tackles, and I don't quite know what type of drills you do to fix it - but someone better find the manual.

PENALTIES - DRIVE KILLERS
The past two weeks we have made MANY more costly mistakes, particularly penalties that erase first downs and kill nice drives. Discipline is the key here. A couple of times we got hit with illegal blocks. At the end of the game, holding penalties killed us along with movement on the line. This is not typical of a Chan Gailey team and it's a bit disturbing.

By the way, did you notice Derrick Morgan getting called for a movement penalty - ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE??? Yup - with Peek dinged up, it got to the point where you stuck a true freshman defensive end at Tight End. Heck, even Michael Johnson got a snap or two on the O-Line. Oh boy - not good. Duck-tape my friends. Duck tape.

ONE-TRICK PONY DEFENSE?
Jon Tenuta's defense gave up big yards and big points in the 1st quarter. They made adjustments and got into a better rythm, but it still wasn't good enough.

Looking honestly, is there is a solid, simple formula to outfox our blitz-at-all-cost schemes? If you can develop a scheme to pick up the blitz and give your QB an extra half-second to throw, can we get picked clean like Thanksgiving turkey? If you can pop intermediate routes are they open all day? Sure did happen against BC. Happened a lot in the first half against Virginia. The troubling thing is not guys finding open receivers. It's finding receivers open by 20 yards who get another 10 yards after the catch before anyone touches him. That was a little better today, but the UVA QB's are not in the same class as Matt Ryan.

Jon Tenuta's defense gave up 358 yards of offense, including 125 on the ground. C.Peerman rushed for 138 yards for UVA. Not a banner day for the defense once again. However, the defense only legitimately gave up 14 points, all of which happened in the 4th quarter. 7 came on the INT and the other 7 on the fumbled punt on the short field.

So Tenuta's crew gave the offense a chance - the offense just didn't get it done.

THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS
Coming into the UVA game, GT was the worst in the ACC in 3rd down conversions (21.1%). The offense didn't helps themselves today, going 3-15 (even worse at 20%). This is an area that Coach Bond has got to work on if we are going to be successful. You have got to move the chains and we just don't do it on third down.

CONFIDENCE IN THE OFFENSE
I hate to say this - but I have very little confidence that the offense is going to move the chains when teams force us to throw. I think Taylor Bennett is showing us the reasons why he never took Reggie Ball's job. He's competent at QB, and doesn't make too many mistakes. However, he's also not dynamic. He seems to make decent reads, but a hair too late and tends to be a step late getting the ball there. Today he was 17-40 for 230 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT - very Reggie-like stats, including his 26 yards rushing.

However, even bigger than him, I didn't see an identity today as a running team. We abandoned the run too early in the 4th quarter if you ask me and took too many shots deep down the field. The last two games have not been impressive in terms of playcalling or execution or both. Hard to tell the real issue, but the offense has not impressed the last two games. We threw the ball 41 times today and ran it 30. Not sure I get it.

Now, there are some good things to discuss:

FIGHT BACK
Today the team showed some resilience in coming back from the early deficit. Those is a positive thing and something to build on.

TRAVIS BELL - IN THE ZONE
Let's not jinx the kicker, but Bell is in a zone. He hits a 51 yard FG today on a bad snap as well as two others, missing none. He's having a nice year and we would love to see it continue.

DURANT BROOKS - IN THE ZONE PART II
This guy continues to amaze. Here's the key thing - people don't return his kicks. He skies the ball and they just don't get returned. He is truly amazing so far. All I can say is - I don't care how good your punter is - I'll take my guy 8 days a week.

The key is that you cannot compare punters just by yards or net yards. Brooks had 8 punts for a 47.8 average. UVA's kicker had 9 punts for an average of 46.1 yards. Both very good. However, Brooks had 4 insides the 20 and UVA had a total of -2 yards in returns. The UVA kicker had none inside the 20, and GT had 78 yards in return yardage. Big difference when you start looking at those kinds of stats.

KICK-OFF COVERAGE - SOLID
Can you believe that GT led the conference in kick return yardage and we were in the top 4 coming in for kick-off coverage. I think you have to point to the impact of the new athletic freshman as well as some new ideas by Charles Kelly. It seems to be working. Nice job from this group. Overall you have to hand it to Charles Kelly as all the special teams are clicking at the moment - of course led by some senior specialists who are some of the best.

If not for the fumbled punt, we might win this game, and it's the one mistake from a mostly excellent special teams performance all season.

MICHAEL JOHNSON
Johnson is turning into a bigtime defensive end and it seems he's finding his way onto the field even more than just obvious passing situations. Against BC he was a one-man penalty machine as he caused at least 3 BC holding penalties. Against UVA he once again was fairly effective.

JONATHAN DWYER
It is obvious this kid is special. If you can believe it, he's scored a TD in every game. It is also obvious that the team is juiced when this guy takes the field. I certainly hate to see Tashard Choice battle a hamstring issue, but it is nice knowing you have a serious home-run threat to back up your serious home-run threat. He did a nice job today in pass-protection as well, which shows he's starting to understand the less heralded parts of being a back.

The difficult part was of today's game was seeing us abandon using this guy in the 4th quarter. Oh well.

CONCLUSION
This team no longer controls their own destiny. They now have to start winning and hope that someone else starts beating UVA. You feel bad for these kids and frustrated with the staff for such a tough loss. At the end of the day it was 2 key plays that made the difference. Game set match. Time to buck up, support the team and go get a win against Clemson this week.


PRAYERS TO EARLS
Lastly, Corey Earls had to leave the game on a stretcher after an extended amount of time flat on the field. He did move his foot so you'd like to hope it's nothing. He's going to remain in the hospital overnight for observation, but make sure to send your prayers out to him. I know I will.


GO JACKETS !!!!

Damn you Comcast!!

I don't have ESPNU, so I've been listening to Wes and Jeff.

1st half notes:
- 153 passes from GT opponents (BCS schools) without an interception. Wonder what the record is.
- UVA has 8 yards per pass attempt. Opposing QB's came into the game averaging 9.44 yards per attempt. Way too many yards. An average secondary gives us 6 yards or less per attempt. Unless we sack Sewell or Lalich, assume we're giving up 9 yards every time.
- Injuries are beginning to become an issue.
- Taylor Bennett impressed me on that last drive.

Two quick tidbits that only interest me...

Ugh. I'll talk about this game more tonight, I'm off to Loudon for the race but:

1. Georgia Tech has lost 4 of their last 5 games against BCS opponents.

2. In those last five games GT opponents have thrown the ball 135 times. Georgia Tech's defense has intercepted the ball ZERO times!

Live Blogging GT

1st HALF
One word - frustrating
Your secondary gets carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey..... Ryan 16-23, 268 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT's
Your offense cannot execute their bread-and-butter... running the ball...... 7 yards on 13 carries
Your team tried to establish the passing game first - and it doesn't really work...... Bennett 10-17, 78 yards

So BC has completely shut down our running offense. Matty Ice has done his thing in the first half, and it's time to see what John Bond is made of. Time to find out how he adjusts. Let's not forget - this is a BC that has given up points to their ACC opponents.

When the announcers call your offense "impotent" and "anemic", it's not a good half.

Let's see what the Jackets can do in the 2nd half.

GO JACKETS!!!!!!

Notre Dame Postgame

My apologies for not putting this out earlier, but here are the number of plays each skill player played against Notre Dame:

Tashard Choice - 49 of 62 plays
Jamaal Evans - 8 of 62 plays
Jonathan Dwyer - 3 of 62 plays
Mike Cox - 41 of 62 plays
Quincy Kelly (FB) - 2 of 62 plays
Tyler Evans - 4 of 62 plays
Greg Smith - 59 of 62 plays
James Johnson - 55 of 62 plays
Demaryius Thomas - 28 of 62 plays
Colin Peek - 47 of 62 plays
Brad Sellars - 12 of 62 plays
Josh Nesbitt - 1 of 62 plays

Wild Hog formation was run on 10 plays:
- 5 times out of a 2 TE formation
- 5 times out of a 3 WR formation

The other 52 plays:
Traditional RB/FB/2 WR/TE - 18 of 52 plays
2 TEs - 7 of 52 plays
3 WR's - 23 of 52 plays
3rd Down Back - 3 of 52 plays
Josh Nesbitt - 1 of 52 plays

Updated Depth Chart

Wanted to get an updated depth chart with changes you recommended:

(click on image for large version)

Are you Ready? Are you Pumped?

It is about time to start getting the engine revved for this weekend. This game against BC will be a true test of our worthiness of national recognition and a chance to take a major step towards getting back to the ACC championship.

How about this quote from Coach Gailey, when interviewed on 790thezone this morning (from someone at Hive):

Question: We all know that Jon Tenuta's defense can rattle opposing QB's. But can you count on an experienced QB like Matt Ryan to be rattled?

Gailey response: You can't count on rattling him. You can count on hitting him. And hopefully after enough hits he becomes rattled.

I love it!!! Great stuff.

To get you going just a bit more - check out this video of the off-season workouts by the Jackets and 2006 highlights. Yeah baby!!!!

Football - What do we know?

After two weeks of college football, it's time to take a look at the Jackets and football in general. What do we know so far:

THE ACC IS DOWN AGAIN
Hard to argue, but it looks like the ACC is down again. Georgia Tech is the only ACC team that has really dominated in their OCC opponents. Let's take at the conference's OCC wins / losses:

• Wins
• GT crushes both Notre Dame and Samford
• Maryland beats Villanova and Florida International
  
• VaTech barely beats E.Carolina
• Miami beats Marshall
  
• Clemson over Louisiana Monroe
• FSU squeeks by UAB
• N.Carolina beats James Madison
  
• Losses
• NC St beaten by Central Florida
• Virginia beaten bad by Wyoming
  
• Miami crushed by Oklahoma
  
• VaTech crushed by LSU
• Duke crushed by UConn
• N.Carolina beaten by E.Carolina
• Wake Forest beaten by Nebraska

Bottom-line is that GT's victory over an 0-2 Notre Dame is the conference's marquee win, and that's beginning to look even less impressive each time Notre Dame takes the field. Now, Boston College has yet to play a non-conference game, and they appear to be a top-tier conference team. In fact, if you had to put teams in tiers based on nothing but performance so far, here's how I would see it:

• TIER 1 - GT, BC, Clemson
  
• TIER 2 -UVA, WF, Miami, VaTech, FSU, MD
  
• TIER 3 - UNC, NCST, DUKE

Now, having the ACC down again is both good and bad. It's bad from a national perspective. However, it's once again a prime opportunity for the Jackets to sieze control of the Atlantic and make a return trip to the ACC Championship. Heck, based on what we've seen so far, it's not out of the realm of possibility for the Jackets to run the conference slate. That's a stretch, but the team certainly has the talent and the home-court advantage with the toughest teams.

There is an argument that the ACC isn't as bad as it looks. That would be the fact that the ACC has played more OCC games against tougher opponents and more of them have been on the road. All fairly true - but wins are wins and losses are losses, and we have a lot fewer quality wins than we should at this point to be held up as one of the top tier conferences. There are still chances to salvage the ACC's rep, but most of the games are going to occur at year-end, with rivalry and bowl games.

(As Of September 10)
ATLANTIC DIVISION
School	Conference	Pct.	Overall	Pct.
Boston College	2-0	1.000	2-0	1.000
Clemson	1-0	1.000	2-0	1.000
Maryland	0-0	.000	2-0	1.000
Florida State	0-1	.000	1-1	.500
NC State	0-1	.000	0-2	.000
Wake Forest	0-1	.000	0-2	.000
COASTAL DIVISION
School	Conference	Pct.	Overall	Pct.
Virginia	1-0	1.000	1-1	.500
Georgia Tech	0-0	.000	2-0	1.000
Miami	0-0	.000	1-1	.500
North Carolina	0-0	.000	1-1	.500
Virginia Tech	0-0	.000	1-1	.500
Duke	0-1	.000	0-2	.000

WEIRD YEAR IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL
It is a strange season when Michigan plays Notre Dame and both are 0-2. It's a weird year when Miami, Georgia, Notre Dame, Michigan and VaTech all lose on the same weekend. I'm not really sure what it means, but it does show that there are opportunities for teams to step up and make a mark. The Big Least is trying to make their mark, but the ACC has a chance with a few key teams.

GEORGIA TECH IS FUN TO WATCH
Could we have the best set of blocking wide receivers in the conference? It's possible........... Do we have the best run blocking O-Line in the conference? Could be.............. Do we finally have some new scheme's and talent on special teams to help ourselves in the field position battle on kick-off returns? So far so good................... Do we have the most exciting group of running backs in the conference? Weeeellllll, hard to beat Spiller / Davis at Clemson, but Dwyer has made his case to be the #2 for us, and has shown some play every bit as exciting as anything you're seen out of Clemson so far......................

We are coveraging kick-offs better.
We are blocking better.
We are kicking better
We are punting better (if you can believe that)
We are running better.
We are playcalling better.
We are holding onto the ball better (so far 0 turnovers)

THIS WEEK COACH BOND EARNS HIS MONEY
We are all pleased with what we have seen with playcalling the first two weeks of the season. When GT is averaging 51 points / game, some things are going right. However, week three is when Coach Bond earns the paycheck. A home game against Boston College will probably result in a real test for Taylor Bennett's arm. We're all proud of the fact the Jackets are now 7th in the nation in rushing defense. Guess what - BC is #4 in the nation. They stuff the run - and they've done it against two conference opponents, which in my books counts just a bit more.

However, BC is a team that is 113th in the nation in pass defense. They give up some yards through the air, and I think this is the week where we finally see what Taylor Bennett looks like when he's got to throw the ball 25-30 times.

I am absolutely on edge about what Coach Bond will break out in a game like this against a good rush defense. With R.Grant back in the fold, what do you do with J.Dwyer? Don't forget, he's still learning how to block, and he was a little fumble prone in practice. What type of passing formations will we see? How much will we see Peek or Cox get the ball? Throws over the middle? From what I can tell, BC's pass defense is mostly about giving up a lot of short throws.

CFN LIKES US
CFN.com likes the Jackets, and ranks them #5 in the nation based on how they're playing today. Here's what they say:

5. Georgia Tech (2-0)
W, Samford 69-3
next game: Boston College
The Ranking Should Be Higher Because … this could be the nation’s most confident team. When you have great line play, you can beat just about anyone, and right now, outside of Oklahoma and LSU, no one is playing better on both sides of the line. However …
The Ranking Should Be Lower Because ... beating Notre Dame and Samford is nothing to get too excited about. This really is that good a team, but we’ll know more in a big hurry with a showdown against Boston College this week and three road trips in four week.

JACKETS MOVE UP IN THE POLLS
The Jackets moved from #21 to #15 in both the AP and Coaches poll........... not that polls mean anything.

BOSTON COLLEGE LOSES ANOTHER D-LINEMAN
Bad news for the Eagles, as they lose another D-Lineman. However, no reason to take these guys lightly. In fact, another area we better continue our good play is protecting the ball. BC forces a LOT of turnovers - even more than the Jackets after two games - so ball protection will be critical.

RUSHING FOR RUDOLPH
The GT Running Backs are going to help raise money for kids who won't get much for Xmas. At the BC game, there will be people around the stadium with buckets looking for donations. I sure am glad it's not one of those "$5 for every yard rushing" kind of things. If it was going to be like that, I'm sure the Samford game would have gotten the best result.

CALVIN "NOT SO SPECIAL"
I think "sour grapes" is the proper term in this case:

Maybe it was just the run-off from sour grapes in the losers' locker room, but Raiders cornerback Fabian Washington wasn't in a mood to compliment Lions super-rookie Calvin Johnson after the Raiders' 36-21 loss -- even after Johnson had dragged him across the field on a 16-yard touchdown play in the third quarter.

"He wasn't that great to me," Washington said afterward. "They did things to get him open, like pick routes and all that. But he was nothing special, trust me."

Yeah - ok, so you're not all that impressed at a kid's NFL debut when he caught 4 balls for 70 yards and a TD against you - and your team lost. Luckily, nobody cares what you think......

By the way, Roy Williams likes what he sees so far, and has a new nickname for CJ:

"I'm confident in what I can do," Williams said. "If he's the best wide receiver, we'll be the best duo to ever play this game. He's a guy that we need. ... He's a big guy. He's Megatron. That's a big human."

Williams was also kind enough to retrieve Calvin's first NFL TD ball when CJ dropped it in the endzone. Nice to see him looking out for CJ.

GT - HOW TO GET NATIONAL RESPECT
This short blurb with some player quotes pretty much sums up what it's going to take to have GT win mindshare in the national discussion over top teams:

A national blind eye

Georgia Tech entered the season unranked despite returning 17 starters from a nine-win team in 2006. Boston College was absent from the polls, too, even though the Eagles returned 18 starters from a 10-win team.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech, with 16 starters back from a team blown out by both Georgia Tech and Boston College last season, ranked ninth in the preseason polls. Florida State, coming off a 7-6 season that included a 3-5 ACC mark, made the preseason polls, too.

Unfair? Not really, Georgia Tech's Choice said.

"Folks want to put the big-name teams at the top -- that's just how it is," he said. "Those programs have earned that. They've won championships or been to championship games. That's what the rest of us have to do to get the national spotlight."

The Yellow Jackets understand that well. They drew national attention last season with a 9-2 start and Calvin Johnson at wide receiver. But they lost two huge games early -- Notre Dame and Clemson -- and stumbled with three straight losses to finish the season. Then Johnson departed for the NFL in January, leaving the Jackets a national afterthought this preseason.

"Winning the Coastal Division helped get our name out there a little bit last year, but we didn't win the ACC Championship or get into a BCS bowl," fullback Mike Cox said. "When people hear ACC champ, they still think of the Miamis, the Florida States. We want people when they hear ACC in the future, they think Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech pops into their heads."

DWYER WINS ACC ROW AWARD
Congrats to the D-Train, Jonathan Dwyer, who wins the ACC Rookie of the Week award after rushing for 138 yards on 9 carries

Football Depth Chart

I did this a few weeks ago and never got around to posting it. Click on the image to see the full size. Please look it over and let me know if you see any mistakes. I will correct them and re-post later:

(click on image for full size)

Football - Bad News on the Injury Front

Tight End Brad Sellers is out for the season. He was #2 on the depth chart behind Colin Peek. Man, hate to hear that for any of our guys.

Where are they now - Calvin Johnson

In the 3rd quarter, Calvin Johnson has 3 catches for 58 yards, and a TD. Nice start and the game isn't over yet.

Football - Meet "The Future"

Jonathan Dwyer............ Yikes

Football - Total Domination - As Expected

Well, let me redefine "as expected". The Jackets absolutely exploded offensively, winning by a final score of 69-14. It was 28-0 after the FIRST QUARTER!! The first half ended with a score of 45-0. When I title this post "Total Domination - As Expected", I meant the Jackets were expected to control this game from the start. However, did anyone really expect a Chan Gailey team to EVER score almost 70 points? To completely run away on the scoreboard like they did? This was the most points a Jacket team has scored in a half since a certain 220-0 Cumberland game. Wow. Here are some thoughts:

GRAIN OF SALT
The Jackets did what they needed to do, and looked impressive along the way. However, let's not forget this is really a bad Samford team. Not just bad in a IA vs IAA kind of way. They are bad in their own league, and they play a lot of young guys. So as always, trying to draw any sigfinicant conclusions from this game is a little shaky. Having said that, let's do it anyway.

RUN - RUN - RUNAWAY
The running game. Oh the running game. A total of 380 yards rushing, and everyone got in on the act. Tashard Choice could have probably finished with 300 of his own on the day, but his day was over soon after the first quarter with a mere 110 yards on 11 carries, and 2 TD's. Then it was Jonathan Dwyer time. Folks, it is obvious this kid is going to be special. It's also obvious he's interested in doing it sooner than later. On a mere 9 carries he rushed for an impressive 139 yards, including some eye-opening runs (a 65 yarder was most impressive), breaking tackles and speeding his way to 3 TD's. Jamal Evans threw in another 42 yards, Jason Davis another 27, and Josh Nesbitt even rushed for 39 yards.

The Jackets scored 9 rushing TD's, which is a new team record. The running game was spectacular, and it is clear that Georgia Tech is an outstanding blocking team, from the line, to the backs to receivers. Everyone really pitches in and it shows. Now that leads us to the passing game.

PASSING GAME - STILL QUESTIONS
You do what you have to do to win. If you can do it on the ground, that's always the first choice. Tech did that today. Taylor Bennett looked fine today, and finished early with a line of 8-of-9 for 85 yards, no INT's, no TD's. Most of his passes were short, or quick outs, nothing really deep or mid-range. He did fine with what he was asked to do, and that's all you can ask. So we head into next week still not really knowing what Taylor Bennett is really capable of. In fact, we've had two games in a row now where we haven't had to reveal much about our passing game. Should make for an interesting playcalling session next Saturday.

Another nice result of this game was getting the back-up QB's some work. Calvin Booker got some quality snaps, as well as Josh Nesbitt, who actually made a throw (a laser complete on the sideline).

DEFENSE STRONG AGAIN
The first team defense was dominant. I think Samford only had about 2 1st downs in the entire first half. The 2nd half was the 2nd and 3rd team playing, and that's where most of the Samford yards came from. For the entire game, the Jackets only gave up 83 yards rushing 159 yards passing (most of which came late in the game against 2nd / 3rd team).

SPECIAL TEAMS WERE ..... SPECIAL
Do we have ourselves a new retun man in Corey Earls? He had two very impressive returns today, averaging 55 yards and Dwyer even returned a nice one for 33 yards.

Kick-off coverage was very good again today as Samford had 11 returns but a long of only 26 yards. Nice tackling. Nice swarming.

Durant Brooks had two punts for a 47 yards average, and put them both inside the 20, one of which resulted in a fumble and Jacket recovery.

Tyler Evans had some impressive punt returns today, and if he can start doing that then - wow. Watch out.

SNAPS FOR THE BACK-UPS
One of the key things games like this do for you is getting snaps for the 2nd and 3rd stringers. Today lots of guys got in the action - in every position. Heck, Scott Blair even kicked an extra point. These are wonderful games to prepare young guys who will see a lot of action next season, because remember - we lose a ton of guys next year, especially on defense.

INJURIES?
We'll have to see, but games like this are also ones where you want to get out without losing anybody to injury. The only significant injury I saw was Robert Hall, who I think ended up being taken off on a stretcher from the sidelines. They reported in ESPNU that he was getting some X-Rays. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

LOOKING AHEAD
Ok, these first two weeks were important, but next week is when things REALLY heat up. This is game one in the ACC for GT, and just so happens to come against Boston College, who is a front -runner to win the Atlantic Division. These guys are already 2-0 in the conference, so they have been battle-tested. GT has not. It should be a fun game, and could be a preview of the ACC Championship game in Jax.


Overall, great dominating performance today. Time to step it up a few notches though. The Eagles are coming to town.

GO JACKETS!!!!!!!

Travis Bell continue to make kicks

Meet Our Secret Weapon

Hair............. on neck........... standing........... even God couldn't back the Catholics after that speech.

Sweet Tendencies

I saw an interesting comment from Charlie Weiss from one of his press conferences this week:

In answer to everyone's question of whether he expected Georgia Tech to bring blitzes throughout the game, this was his response:

"....But all of the blitz zones and the Michaels and the Sam Mikes, they were, unfortunately, they were what we practiced every day unfortunately. And the reason why I say unfortunately is because when you know what they are doing and you don't handle it, that's even a bigger problem than when you don't know what they were doing, because at least you can say, hey, we weren't expecting that. That's where I feel we had our biggest failure. So rather than sit there and blame the players for not getting it done, I blame me for not practicing enough to get it done."

This points out an important factor in football - "tendencies". We like to think that the best plan is to have some razzle-dazzle and trickery. Some "tricks up our sleeves", particularly on offense. We like the reverses (well, except on 3rd-and-one), we like the half-back passes... You know what I'm talking about.... We tend to think that the unexpected is what ultimately good game-planning and winning comes down to. In reality, it mostly comes down to the opposite. In my opinion, you better have tendencies. You better have a system. You better be good at something as your base offense and base defense. You want to have some base plays that you run over and over, that you can consistently execute, even if the defense knows they are coming. You develop tendencies by practicing over and over, then executing those plays in games over and over. A wishbone team. A spread. A sweep team. An option team. A wildcat. Whatever it is - more of your success is going to come from having tendencies, and being great at executing them. Trickery might pull you out of the fire on occasion, but well executed tendencies can keep you out of the fire altogether.

That's ultimately why Weiss's charade of not telling us the QB prior to our game only proved one thing - he had no QB. If he had a QB then he would be developing his tendencies, and it wouldn't matter what we knew or didn't know. Seems that every other head coach with a QB controversy named their starter in the weeks prior to their first games. Are they all idiots and Weiss the only genius? I think this past weekend proved that point.

In terms of defense, Georgia Tech has tendencies. Weiss said so above. He knew exactly what was coming and there wasn't a dagum' thing he could do about it. That my friends, is why tendencies are a good thing.

Heisman Watch

Tashard Choice is now officially on the Heisman radar, making both Sports Illustrated's and ESPN's list. Also, go vote for TC at Rivals.com

GT-ND Review

Over the next 12 days, I'll be reviewing the Notre Dame game and giving analysis, as well as reviewing the BC-Wake Forest and this Saturday's BC-NC State game to get ready for what is likely a big battle of two Top 20 teams.

Georgia Tech's performance on offense was remarkable. Excluding field goals, they ran 62 plays on offense. In those 62 plays, they gave up one sack and two procedure penalties. That's it. No holding penalties, no fumbles, no interceptions, no dropped passes. NFL teams have summer camps where they practice four times as much and have five preseason games. I bet there will be no NFL team that has just three mistakes on offense for a game.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame also ran 62 plays on offense. Nine sacks, three fumbles and three penalties later, they're on the bottom half of a 33-3 loss.

I've always been a fan of Ralph Friedgen's formula of winning games. The statistic is derived by adding a team's interceptions, fumbles, dropped passes, sacks and penalties during a game and dividing that by the team's total number of offensive plays. The key is to keep the result under 12 percent -- meaning that the team is committing a human error on 12 percent or less of its plays. Through the years, Friedgen said the formula's accuracy is around 95 percent.

Georgia Tech committed a human error on only 5 percent of its plays. Notre Dame committed a human error on 25 percent of its plays. It's easy to see why GT blew ND out.

Watch Every Choice Run

Someone has uploaded every singe Tashard Choice carry from the Notre Dame game on YouTube:

Statistically Speaking

INJURY UPDATE: James Johnson will not play against Samford this week.
--------------------------------------------
In case you're interested about where the Jackets stack up statistically after the first weekend of games (not counting FSU / Clemson Monday night), here you go:

• THE GOOD
  
• #1 in the nation in rushing defense
• #1 in the nation in sacks
• #1 in the nation in tackles-for-a-loss
• #5 in the nation in total defense
• #5 in the nation in scoring defense
• #17 in rushing offense
• #23 in net punting
• #24 in pass defense
• 
  
• THE BAD
• #98 in passing offense
• #91 in passing efficiency
• #79 in kickoff returns
• #76 in punt returns
• #63 in pass efficiency defense
• 
  
• INDIVIDUAL
• Tashard Choice #4 in the nation in rushing
• Travis Bell #1 in the nation in FG's
• D.Robertson #2 in the nation with 3 tackles-for-a-loss
• 
  

Football - Post-Game Stories

First - for those of you who couldn't watch the game - now you can. Thanks to Notre Dame's NBC contract you can actually watch the whole thing here.

Some quick injury notes

• AJ Smith played but did re-injure his elbow.
• Jahi Word-Daniel had a head injury and probably won't play next week.
• Rashaun Grant did not play, as expected, fighting a hamstring injury
• Joe Gaston left the ND game with a hamstring injury of his own.
  

Listen to Mark May, Lee Corso K.Herbstreet and Lou Holtz talk about how many wins Notre Dame will have (prior to our game). God bless Mark May.



Now, listen to Charlie Weiss talk in his post-game press conference:



A nice compilation of stories put together by a Hiver on yesterday's victory over the Irish:

One-dimension offense won't get Irish much further along

Brown's ejection sends ND in wrong direction

Irish opener an utter failure

Weis still has to make call on QB

Secret's out: This stinks

Sharpley can't save N.D.

Secret is out: Irish need work

Weis' Golden Dome secret revealed against Tech

Ga. Tech Takes Fight Out of Irish

Starting quarterback race is anyone's to win

GAMELINE: Georgia Tech 33, Notre Dame 3

Notebook: Choice makes statement against Irish

Yellow Jackets dominate Irish

Tech's opener a Choice result

Three QBs, no chance

Jones' debut as QB doesn't go too well

Irish hit historical low

Irish runners held to negative yards Irish are the wreck, not Georgia Tech

Straight Jacketed

Minus Quinn, Notre Dame Is No Match for Georgia Tech (and great photo!)

Tech's opener a Choice result

New starter Bennett has uneven day

Gailey post game quotes

For starters, simply awful

Mike Nadel: Weis deserves blame for Irish humiliation

Rebuilding begins with a tear down

Tech knockout

Jackets Exact Revenge on the Irish

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and the Jackets bought the ingredients, prepared it, then shoved it down the throats of the Irish all day long. In what can only be described as a dominating, punishing performance, the Jacket defense completely shut down the Irish offense and Tashard Choice exploded on the offensive side for a final 33-3 score.

The game really came down to three keys:

1. Dominating Defense
2. Dominating line-of-scrimmage on offense for TC to go wild
3. No turnovers of mistakes

BIG PLAY DEFENSE
The defense was truly the group that won this game. Big play after big play after big play. Sack after sack. Stuff after stuff. Fumble after fumble. It was truly impressive. Honestly, it's hard to decide where to start, but Jon Tenuta is probably the best choice. He developed an unbelievable game-plan and his team executed it to perfection. It didn't really matter which Notre Dame QB came in, and ole Coach Weiss tried three different ones - the results were similar - a lot of nothing.

First, Tech stuffed the run. ND had -9 yards rushing on the day. Not a typo folks. With all those sacks and negative yardage plays, the Irish netted -9 total yards. There were 9 sacks that resulted in -57 yards. So take those out and we still stuff their run game bigtime. Holy cow - 9 sacks. By the way, the 9 sacks came from 9 different guys (Wheeler, Lewis, Robertson, Burnett, Richard, Walker, Johnson, Anyaibe and Barnes). That's spreading the wealth.

The passing game for ND was almost non-existent in the 1st half. Pressure was constant on the QB's, and came from all angles and a myriad of players. ND QB's did finish with a respectable 15-22, but only for 130 yards. However, start D.Jones only completed one pass by about the 2:30 mark when he was pulled. There were a few chances for big plays that just didn't connect, but they just never go anything going.

The Irish finished with only a Field Goal. We are the first team in four years to hold them without a TD, and the AJC tells us that this is Notre Dames worst opening day loss - EVER!!!! Wow.


TASHARD CHOICE IS THE MAN
Tashard clearly made a statement today to be in the national picture for the Heisman trophy (here's my take a few weeks back on what it would take for him to win it). He carried the ball 26 times for 196 yards and 2 TD's. He also caught a couple of passes for about 20 yards. That would be 8 straight 100-yard games, which is a new GT record. At least eight different times he took a direct snap while Taylor Bennett hung out at WR. Two of those times TC went to the house.

Tashard was just plain dominant, but he couldn't do it without the outstanding blocking of his line, his fullback Mike Cox and his receivers. Seemed like everybody was out there blocking today.

MISTAKE FREE FOOTBALL
As impressive as the performance was, it's important to point out that we made very few mistakes. No turnovers, no critical penalties, no big plays given up to the Irish. The defense missed very few tackles. Just a very well played game overall. Execution was outstanding.

SHOUT OUT TO SPECIAL TEAMS
I cannot leave out the nice work of special teams. Durant Brooks did his thing, punting high and far, and not letting anyone return the ball. Two out of three inside the 20 and the other a touchback. A nice net punting average of 48 yards.

Travis Bell was 4-of-5, all from 40 yards and in. He kicked one too low and got it blocked, but overall a very nice day by the Val Kilmer look-a-like.

The kick-off coverage team did a very respectable job. Scott Blair did a decent job booting the ball downfield and Charles Kelly did a decent job of switching up the type of kicks to keep the Irish return team off kilter.

STILL NEEDS SOME WORK
As always, there are areas to work on. As close to a perfect game as it was, there are plenty of things to get better:

• Taylor Bennett played a respectable game, but looked generally uncomfortable out there. He finished 11-23 for 121 yards, 0 TD's, 0 INT's. He didn't have to win this game, and he didn't, but he didn't lose it either. No INT's, which is critical. He overthrew a number of guys and also had some low throws as well. Not a bad day, but it was fortunate we didn't need him. Should be some good material to work with and improve for next week.
• Offense inside the red zone: The offense could be have really run the score up early in the 1st half, but had to keep settling for field goals. When we got into the redzone, things bogged down many times. Three tries and a FG over and over. John Bond did make some adjustments and they did score some TD's as the game moved along. However, still needs some work here.
  
• Pat Clark: Hate to single out one guy, but when J.Word Daniels was hurt, the Irish decided to pick on Pat Clark, and were fairly successful doing it. Clark seemed a step late a number of times. Need to get him some more reps in practice this week.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE
A very interesting aspect of this game was seeing which true freshman got into the game. There were 8 who saw action, including Morgan Burnett, Josh Nesbitt, Jonathan Dwyer, Brad Jefferson, DJ Donley, Cory Earls, Derrick Morgan, Dominique Reese.

The most impressive were clearly Morgan Burnett and J.Dwyer. Burnett saw action early and often and ended with 6 tackles and a sack. Not a bad day's work for a true frosh in a complex Tenuta defense. We better enjoy watching this kid for the 3 years he's likely to be here........ Dwyer played some clean-up duty in the 4th quarter and gave us a possible glimpse of a bright future. He scored a TD and on just about every carry he had he broke at least one tackle. We are truly stacked at RB.

JOHN BOND - WHAT'S THE JUDGEMENT?
Obviously if your team wins and wins big, scoring more than 30 points, you have to give a good grade to your OC. Overall, I'd give him a B grade for the game. Why only a B? Well, let's remember, Coach Gailey told him coming in that he didn't want to change much with the running game, but wanted Bond's input and help on the passing game. Well, the passing attack was not that great today (not that it had to be). In fairness, Coach Bond called all the plays - passing and running, so he gets credit for that.

An interesting comment from Coach Gailey in his post-game press conference:

Q. Running was the original game plan --
COACH GAILEY: Yes --
Q. How early did that happen?
COACH GAILEY: There were a couple of series. I think we went out there, and I think we ran the ball pretty good early and then we went out there one series and threw it every snap for three straight downs. Somewhere, I want to say start of the second quarter, and I told John, I said, "John, let's just keep pounding them a little bit." And we had enough weapons and enough ammunition to be able to do that.

No surprise really. You're pounding the ball and doing it well. Why leave that? Overall, I liked what I saw from the offense, but Taylor Bennett and the receiving corps is going to have to step up as the season progresses.

CALVIN SUPPORTS HIS MATES
Nice to see Calvin Johnson made the trip to watch the game and support his team. Just a great guy and a blessing to have had him come through the flats.

CONCLUSION
Overall, just a great day to be a Jacket fan. Football is really a simple game. Stop the run. Run the ball. Don't turn it over. We did all three and prevented ND from doing any of them. The result - 1-0 on the season.

GO JACKETS!!!!!