What's Buzzin'

HOOPS JACKETS GET DRAMATIC WIN
Go figure. The night I get wrapped up with family stuff and I forget to record the GT / Notre Dame hoops game. Go figure again - it turns out to be a good game with an exciting finish. Nice to Causey come up big in the stretch with Miller out. Nice to see Jeremis Smith's stat line. Double/double with some steals and assists thrown in as well. Looked like the only thing missing was spelling the water boy.

Here's some interesting thoughts from AJC about the game, including a story about Alade Aminu missing his assignment right after coaches told him what to look for - and he still did the wrong thing. Why interesting? Well, it was a clear case of the right coaching and the wrong execution........... Instruction from coaches right before the play: Alade - if they screen Faye on the baseline, pick up the guy throwing in the ball and block his view as he runs the baseline. Result: They screen Faye on the baseline and Aminu turns around and runs up court, giving the guy a clear view of the court to pass to halfcourt and call the timeout. That play almost cost Tech the game, but it's important to remember that coaches coach and players play. When things don't go wrong, sometimes it's hard to tell who didn't do their job. This time it wasn't.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW - CALVIN JOHNSON
Civil unrest is beginning to set-in up in Detroit over Calvin Johnson. Why? Well, he's basically an after-thought in the Lions offense, even though almost every single time he has touched the ball this season he has gotten a first down or a TD. I'm serious - it's a ridiculous stat. Last week he caught 3 balls for less than 40 yards, but he did grad a TD pass over the top of some poor Giants DB. It was typical CJ. Here's the video:

CJ is playing the good son and being as modest as ever. However, fans are getting restless and even Roy Williams was quoted after the game as saying that they need to get the ball to him more. His OC sluffs it off as just a result of personnel groupings that get shuffled in-and-out. If I were him, I'd reevaluate those groupings. They threw to S.McDonald and Kitna was picked up twice. Kitna threw a bad ball to CJ and he went "over the back" of the DB and got a TD out of it. There's no magic here. Give him the ball coaches!!!

"True story: The Detroit Lions lost to the New York football Giants 16-10 Sunday, and twice in the final two minutes, Detroit had the ball near midfield and threw interceptions with 6-foot-4 rookie Calvin Johnson, by all accounts a budding star, on the sideline. The reason? Johnson wasn't part of the "packages” offensive coordinator Mike Martz wanted to use at that particular time."

The only legit issue holding him back is recovery from a pretty serious back injury that has nagged him for weeks. However, he keeps playing and making plays the few times they toss it his way.

Here's a recent quote from Roy Williams, the other big talented WR at Detroit, and the guy trying to mentor CJ:

QUESTION: What do you think about Calvin Johnson (Megatron), is he frustrated
right now?

Roy: You know I don’t know he’s such a quiet guy. He’s just real quiet and doesn’t say much. I am trying to get him out of his mold a little bit but he’s not budging. I can’t tell if he’s frustrated or not.

QUESTION: Should Johnson be doing more?

Roy: I think he should be doing more. I don’t know if we’re just trying to protect his back. Because every ball he catches he lands on his back, but we’re gonna’ get him the ball more.

PRESSURE FROM PAST GUYS?
Jacket nation can collectively agree on one thing - we all want to beat Georgie. No matter where you stand on coaches, expectations, etc - we all want to see UGAg go down. This includes gagles of former players, who are evidently letting the current squad know their feelings:

New York Giants linebacker Gerris Wilkinson sent a text message to Tech
linebacker Philip Wheeler on Monday. "He was asking me, could we please beat
Georgia this year?" Wheeler said. "I'd like to do this not only for thisteam
but for past teams that didn't. I talked to [Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker]
Daryl Smith a week ago. He was saying the same thing: Could we please beat
Georgia this year?"

Bennett stays in touch with past players, too, including quarterback
Reggie Ball, tight ends George Cooper and Mike Matthews, and 1990s flanker
Harvey Middleton. " 'Just win the game.' That's all they ever say," Bennett
said.

Well, it turns out there can be harmony in Jacket nation. ..................... well, at least until gameday................. and as long as we win.

DONLEY LIKELY OUT
Looks like DJ Donley has some undisclosed injury and might miss the UGAg game.
Where will that hurt? Depth at WR, but mostly special teams, where he has been a welcome
addition.

CREATIVITY TO THE EXTREME
Ok, someone at the Hive posted this entertaining little diddy and I thought I would share:

Gather round, ye Yellow Jacket faithful, for a reading from the Book of Jackets.

For in those days there was vast turmoil in the Sacred Land of the Flats. Many plagues beset the Jackets - the Plague of Hamstring, the Plague of Fumbles, and the Plague of Conservative Battle Plans.

General Channus and the Jacket Army had been humbled in battles to inferior warriors, and many of the people did beseach Emperor Radicovus for deliverance from bowl games in far away lands. And before Radicovus did rule, the Jacket Army looked to the East and beheld the foaming masses of the Dawg Zombies marching towards the Sacred Land.

Alas, during harvest time of that year Pharaoh Richtus of the Dawgs had been possessed by an evil spirit. The spirit made Richtus send the Zombies to stomp on the Swamp Zone of Alligators. During battle with the Tiger-Men, the demon commanded Richtus to don the Zombie Army in Black Tunics of the Underworld. Now the spirit blinded Richtus and the Zombies to the Jacket army's strength.

The heretic Scribes and Pharisees of the Atlantis Jehosephat Constantinople news tablets inscribed in clay how the Dawg Zombies were destined to find the Promised Land of Sugar, and they saw not the angry host of the Jacket Army in the path of the Dawgs.

So it then came to pass that the Jackets and the Zombies met in battle at the setting sun on the Sacred Field of Dodd. Fattassica Staffordus, the Centurion of the Dawg
Zombies, was repeatedly knocked from his Chariot and he didst lose the Golden
Orb of Battle many times. Morenovius the Lesser couldst not advanceth through
the battle lines of the Jacket Army.

Battle Master Tashardicus of the Jackets did often carry the Golden Orb through the Zombie army to the Line of Reward. And the Jacket Army did prevail 27-24 and the people did rejoice and did eat lamb and drink bourbon and ridicule the retreating Zombies.

-Prophets AMC
Tailgaters