Spring Practice Report for 4/4/09

It was a little chilly out there this morning, but the atmosphere was perfect. There were close to as many coaches out there today as there were yesterday. It was good seeing a crowd that large.

1. I counted 7 players on the beach. There were no kickoff returns or punt returns today. Dwyer played very little and was probably held out to keep him from getting injured. It was also a good chance to see what the other B-backs could do.

2. The scrimmage started with the first string offense against the first string defense. It was not pretty for the offense. After gaining a first down, the defense tightened up considerably. They then forced two three and outs. The first string defensive line was just plain killing our offensive line. Josh was having a bad day just like yesterday. The passing game looked horrible 98% of the time and the offense really only moved the ball when Josh ran with it. Most of Josh's passes were sailing over the receivers probably because he was throwing on his back foot the entire time. The first string offensive line started off horrible, but they eventually got going and started pass protecting a little better. Near the end of practice, they also gave lots of room for Luke to run up the center. They constantly switched A-backs and B-backs. This rotation also caused some drops by the A-backs. All the pitches were good, but the A-backs kept dropping them for one reason or another. Embry missed a pitch just because he wasn't even looking for it. Josh also got intercepted by Jason Peters (DT). All in all, it started off really bad, but the first string offense got through it and managed to end the day with a couple of scores. Tyler Melton had one amazing one handed catch in the endzone today.

2. The second string offense was absolutely destroying the second string defense. It was probably because Jaybo was on fire. The man was ripping apart the defense on the ground. He was constantly breaking tackles and out juking defenders. I was very impressed. His reads were crisp and he executed the offense very well. He didn't even need to pass but only once or twice. The second string offensive line was having no trouble providing room for Richard Watson. Watson was just chugging away up the center and fighting for those really though yards. I thought this was weird because it was on TJ Barnes's side of the field. I soon realized that Barnes was just too tall to get any leverage on his offensive lineman. This could be a reason he was not starting on the first string defense, even though he was later used to sub in on the first string. The second string offense looked just like the Navy. They were constantly grinding out yards and creating 3rd and 1 and 2 and they were even getting the 4th downs converted too.

3. The third string offense had a really good day, but not as good as the second string. Tevin was in charge of this group and they were in good hands. Tevin ran the offense fairly well and made some really good reads. He also kept the ball a couple of times and got some big yards. The main star of the third string though was Preston Lyons. This kid was a beast. I really think they should have tried him on first string or at least second string. He was tearing up the middle of the field. He wasn't very fast, but he was dragging defenders with him and constantly kept his legs churning. The defense had no answer for him. He was just hitting the hole extremely hard and breaking tackles left and right. He had at least 2 scores on the day.

4. They did go for extra points after the touchdowns with mixed results. Blair looked good and converted the couple I saw, but the other kickers had some trouble. One long snap flew over Jaybo's head as he was trying to get the ball set and one kicker missed an extra point. I think the kicking and longsnapping needs to get a lot better before the season starts.

People that had a Super day:

Jaybo, Preston Lyons, Paul Reese

People that had a Good day:

Entire first string defense, Lucas Cox, Tyler Melton, Richard Watson

People that had a Bad day:

Josh, the first string offensive line (during the early part), Anthony Allen

Spring Practice Report for 4/3/09

It was a little chilly to begin with, but then the sun came out, and made it a wonderful day. There were a ton of coaches from all around the country at practice today. I got to talk with several and got a better idea of what to look for at practice.

1. It was hard to find all the injured players today because it was very crowded. I counted at least 6 on the beach. Everybody looked pretty healthy today and really didn't see anyone get hurt.

2. They ran a variety of punt returns and kickoff returns. It was awesome to watch Tarrant out there taking punt returns. He even returned two back for touchdowns. I don't know if this was because of bad coverage or just great moves by Tarrant. Either way, it was exciting to watch.

3. It looked like most of the QBs struggled throwing today. Tevin had a decent day throwing, but both Jaybo and Josh couldn't stay consistent. I was talking with a high school coach today and he was commenting on how bad Josh's throwing mechanics were. He said that Josh was throwing with a long delivery and winding up before he threw. This was causing his balls to spiral out of control and affecting his accuracy. I never noticed it before and glad he pointed this out to me. Although the QBs struggled most of the day, they did have a couple of amazing throws here and there.

4. CPJ once again added several new plays. They are very similar to the ones he installed yesterday and probably will be used the same way. The plays he installed are plays that will be used when he has lulled the defense to sleep with the triple option. I think we will have lots of success using them.

5. This day belonged to the defense. The scrimmage looked pretty bad for the offense today. There were only a couple of plays on offense that got significant yardage. Marcus Wright and Josh had a couple of good plays, but overall it was not good. The defense was swarming today and you could just tell they were out for blood. The linebackers were definitely out in full force. Griffin and Jefferson were consistently in the middle of stopping plays and the defensive line was just manhandling the offensive line. It didn't even look fair at times. The pass protection was pretty much nonexistent today and the QBs were either getting blindsided or running for their lives. At one point, Jaybo just got rolled over by Rocker coming from his left. The offensive line was just not up for the fight. There were several times where the ball ended up on the ground due to a bad pitch and sometimes the QB was getting hit before he could even get the ball off.

Overall, today was a very frustrating day for the offense and Josh. You could see it on their faces and CPJ's tone. The defense won the struggle, but hopefully the offense can find a way to rebound and come out fighting tomorrow.

One Last Trip to San Antonio: April 3, 2004

With it being Final Four weekend in Detroit, and in response to Bird's post last week regarding Will Bynum's shot, I have uploaded the video of the shot. I watch it every year around this time.

Call me the Hamburglar!

McDonald's All-American "Derrick Favors leads East to Victory" is the headline on SI.com's college bball site. Not bad pub for Hewitt's last shot at redemption. Yes, I said it. Favors is Hewitt's ultimate make-or-break point. And Favors, based on his Mickey D's performance, is gonna take GT to another level next year. He's a competitor, a winner, and a damn good baller.

Any thoughts on Hewiit/Favors/bball in general?

Thursday Discussion

In anticipation of today's Spring Practice Report, we take a cue from Tomahawk Nation and ask you: Who are Georgia Tech's best (try to give us 10) players?

Just kidding, the Reck is fine

Of course, you realized this by now, but if not, April Fools!

This has been a public service announcement from The Legacyx4, reminding readers out there that if they believe everything they read on the internet, they need to destroy their computers immediately. Also, do yourself a favor and invest in a day calendar.

Spring Practice Report for 4/1/09

It teetered between overcast and sunny at practice today. I wasn't able to stay till practice ended because I had a flag football game that I had to attend. I stayed till 5PM and did see quite a bit though.

1. I only saw 6 people on the beach today. I could not find Cooper Taylor at practice. I don't know where he was. He might have just missed practice due to a previous engagement.

2. They practiced kickoff returns for the entire beginning of practice. They worked on creating the wedge and racing toward the returner. They had a variety of people taking the returns, but Tarrant looked exceptionally good.

3. When they broke up into position type drills, there were certain corners I saw that got lots of praise. It looked like Corey Earls is picking things up rather quickly and probably will see quite a bit of playing time when the season starts. Tarrant is still knocking the rest of the rust off, but he is just so athletic, it's hard not to notice him.

4. They had one drill today where the receivers worked just against the corners with an assistant throwing the ball. The receivers made some amazing catches and the corners were playing as tight of coverage as you will ever see. I was very impressed by both sides. The rest of the defense worked on getting off cut blocks and then getting to the ball carrier. The QBs had a rather mediocre day throwing as far as I saw. The receivers are the ones who I thought really shined today.

5. The highlight of what I saw today was the emergence of several new offensive plays. I have never seen these 3 or so plays ever run before. All the plays are "set up" plays and just add more to CPJ's chess set. One of these plays is going to be absolutely devastating when we use it. I don't think any defense will be able to stop it if we get our blocking right.

I wasn't there after their water break, but I can only assume that they scrimmaged the new plays several times. I will be at practice on Friday and Saturday for the entire length so look for more detailed reports the next two practices.

Mercer v. Tech: Sibling Rivalry Continues

So, Old Gold & White travels down to Macon to matchup with my little bro's college, the Mercer Bears. We already pounded the Bears 17-3 at home in baseball and defeated the Bears in dramatic overtime fashion in front of a soldout Mercer Rec Center crowd. Hell, softball beat the female Bears as well. Now, we're going for the academic year sweep tonight at 6:00pm.

Let the beatings continue until Mercer cries for Mercy.

Checking in on Colin Peek REVISITED FOR THE LOLS

I put on that hat in order to give the most massive of hat tips to Legacyx4 reader Jeff for pointing out the fact that Colin Peek was on MTV's Yo Momma.

From yesterday:

Let's not forget his successful run on MTV's "Yo Mama" as Holla McGhee!

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/159512/yo-momma-atlanta-midtown-vs-little-five-points-holla-mcghee-vs-ced-young.jhtml
Jeff | 03.31.09 - 11:23 pm | #


Too good. Thanks, Jeff.

Ramblin' Reck involved in traffic accident

So this is what we've got so far.

Last night, the Ramblin' Reck driver took the car to Rocky Mountain Pizza, a restaurant nearby Tech campus. He left with 3 other people (one male and two females) later that night, on their way to get the Varsity for FOs before it closed. After turning left onto North Avenue, the driver (who, from what I understand, was distracted by the passenger in the cab), ran a red light at Williams St. and collided with a car that was turning left onto North Avenue.

The front end is considerably damaged. The axle, although visibly broken, was in good enough shape for the Reck to be pushed through campus back where it generally resides when not in use. The entire front of the Reck's body is damaged, so basically everything from the left door to all of the front end metal has to be replaced. The horn was destroyed as well as the front left light. Still waiting for a report on the engine.

So here's the deal. Since football season is so far away, there should be time to fix the Reck. If it is just metalwork, then everything should be ok. Let's hope that there is no real damage under the hood.

Don't expect to hear from me or Winfield for a little while. We will be very, very busy for the next couple of days/weeks/months, to say the least.

Greg Smith to Jax State

Earlier this year, we all learned that Greg Smith was going to transfer out of Georgia Tech. It now seems that it's going to be to a familiar opponent, Jacksonville State. Smith never quite got in the groove with CPJ last fall and I am pretty sure his real home was Johnson's Doghouse. Best of luck to Greg, only not on September 5th.

Checking in on Colin Peek

Great changes can have great consequences, and one of the consequences of CPJ's arrival was the loss of the tight end position, and therefore the loss of our tight ends as we knew them. One very notable one, Colin Peek, transferred to Alabama to play for the one and only Nick Saban (whom he apparently "fell in love with"... Nick Saban does strange things to people, I tell ya).

Peek was an excellent tight end, and if my memory serves me correctly, was the most reliable receiver we had on the team when Bennett was still hurling passes. Peek had to sit out a year, but apparently has landed on his feet, and is ready to show his goods.

It definitely sucks that we had to lose a player like Peek, but it is nice to see him wind up somewhere his skills can be used, and not against us. Good luck this season, Colin.


Thanks to Heather Dinich's blog for the tip (under Georgia Tech Local).

Spring Practice Report for 3/30/09

Today was an absolutely beautiful for some football. There was a quite a crowd that made it out today.

1. There were 7 players on the beach. I would also add one more to that list after today's scrimmage. I don't think it was anything very serious though. It could have been a ligament tear but I highly doubt that since he was able to walk off the field.

2. The players were in full pads today and they all looked very excited to get on with practice. The defensive players were exceptionally vocal and were constantly jumping around before anything actually happened. You could tell they just wanted to hit someone.

3. The team spent a good amount of practice working on punt returns. The two players that were returning most of the punts were Tarrant and Roddy. Roddy also showed off a little of his passing skills today. He would catch punt returns that were kicked about 45 yards away. He would then proceed to throw the balls back to the punters. He consistently threw 45 yard lasers in perfect spirals back to the punters. The punts, by the way, looked okay with Blair sending a couple about 50 yards downfield.

4. They did some more drills and then they broke up into A-backs and Linebackers and then Wide Receivers and Defensive Backs. They had two QBs assigned to each group. All the QBs looked better throwing in these drills than they did last week. Josh threw a couple of lovely long passes. The A-backs also showed off their skills with several amazing catches. Sometimes the QBs didn't have anyone to throw to because the DBs were covering so well. Although there were flashes of brilliance, the whole passing game (QBs and WRs) still has a long way to go.

5. Tevin had a particularly bad day today. He did not look ready and was constantly out of the play mentally. He had several botched snaps and fumbled pitches where he didn't get on the ball quick enough. He got chewed out several times during the day.

6. I think I just noticed today that Josh throws so much better on the run than he does staying in the pocket. All the passing plays that went on today that involved an option pass, Josh nailed everyone of them. His long ball was effective at times, but when he was moving it just looked smoother and more accurate.

7. When they finally did scrimmage today, the defense looked very stout. The first string offense moved the ball fairly well and had some really nice runs, but the first string defense held the middle of the field in check. Josh had some amazing runs today and looked just as quick and agile as he did against Boston College. He out juked defenders left and right and had them on the ground. Anthony Allen had some really nice catches and worked well with Josh on the edge. Bebe was putting defenders on the ground and not letting up. Dwyer did not look spectacular today but the blocking on the line was not that great either. Pass protection was great at times and horrible the next. We still have a long way to go in this area.

8. I saw something today that I had never seen before in my entire time watching our team play. Today Jaybo was executing a toss sweep to the A-back when the pitch was intercepted by Sedric Griffin. The linemen that was supposed to block Griffin completely missed him leaving him totally unblocked. Jaybo fumbled a couple of snaps today and so did Tevin. I still think the constant switching of centers is making it hard on the backup QBs. Josh did not seem to have any trouble taking the snaps.

Groups of people or individual players that had a Good day:

Josh Nesbitt, Sedric Griffin, Ben Anderson, The DBs, Anthony Allen, and Bebe Thomas

Groups of people or individual players that had a Bad day (one way or another):

Tevin Washington, Dieke, and The Oline (half of the time)

Why you would be happy if Cooper Taylor knocked up your daughter

As if this wouldn't be reason enough



A quick trip down memory lane: I was sitting against the endzone wall on the other end of the field, so my depth perception at this point is almost nothing. Every run looks like its probably going to be a touchdown. However, on this play, I see the ball pop into the air. I bury my head in my hands, and bend down - I can't watch. Winfield grabs me and starts shaking me screaming "WE GOT IT! WE GOT IT!" Celebration ensued.

Cooper Taylor kind of stood out his true freshmen year. Of course, the above video was clearly his highlight of the season, but all in all, he played well and got alot of love from everyone.

Let just sit and thing about that play for one more second. Think about it - that play is now part of Georgia Tech legend...

Now, Taylor has gone and outdone himself, at least as far as getting ready to make an impact on the next season goes. The 6'4", 195 lbs. true sophomore clocked in with a 4.38 second 40 yard dash - the fastest on the team. To make things even better he has the highest vertical leap on the team as well, slapping at 38.5 inches. While 4.38 seconds pales in comparison to times posted at some other programs, its great to see that a young standout player like Cooper is back and ready to roll for next season.

You may scowl as you stand there in your tux, cradling a shotgun inside the house of God as you force your daughter's hand away in marraige, but deep down inside, you'd be happy you have a little Taylor grandbaby on the way.


Heads up! Look for DFJ's Spring Practice Report soon!

Weekend in Review

It was a busy weekend as many many GT Sports were in action. Here are a few things to soak up during the early lunch hour.

Olympic Sports/ Non-revenue Sports

Swimming: Congratulations to Georgia Tech swimming as the Yellow Jackets took the program to new heights at the NCAA Swimming Championships. The team finished 19th overall. A major and specific shoutout to Gal Nevo as he churned through the water on his way to a 2nd-place medal in the 400 IM. Nevo is the first Israeli in 20 years to win a medal at the championship meet. His swim in the event gives him the 3rd fastest time in the world. Way to go Gal!

Softball: This weekend, the Jackets hosted Florida State and officially opened Shirley Clements Mewborn Field. The stadium was packed out and it just felt good to have the team on campus. They aren't shoved off to some field in Home Park anymore! The ladies won the overall series, but FSU swiped one on Sunday in extra innings. The Jackets are currently 26-9 and 4-2 in the ACC and should be on the top of the ACC Conference (as of Sunday evening).

Baseball

Somehow we continue to pull 'em out. We took 2 of 3 games from the #2 Miami Hurricanes this past weekend, losing the Sunday afternoon game after a rain delay. The woes of the team continue to be consistant inconsistencies....but more on that later.

Football

In saving the best for last....the team scrimmaged for the first time this Spring up in the Falcon's facility in Flowery Branch. Couldn't find anything from the AJC. But Coley Harvey, continues to do a solid job over at the Macon Telegraph where he discusses the week in review including the scrimmage.

Day 7: Then, there were 4

I'm gonna call the UNC game at 7:00pm with 3:30 left as an ACC win. Big 12 can't hang with the athletes and depth. Help us UNC, you're our only hope (as a conference).

Quick Conference Roundup
ACC: 6-6 (50.0%)
Big East: 16-4 (80.0%)
Big 10: 7-6 (53.8%)
Big 12: 10-5 (66.7%)
SEC: 1-3 (25.0%)
PAC 10: 6-5 (54.5%)
Other: 10-27 (27.0%)