I heart intrastate football

Sorry about lack of postings today. Dane/Winfield are cuddling after completing their final finals and I was in Charlotte for a Hazmat Conference.

On to the interesting news today. Tech is slated to play Georgia Southern in 2015. That's a helluva long way away, which leads me to believe it'll give GSU time to reach I-A status as Coach Hatcher has indicated he'd like to be the guy to take GSU to that level. We'll see.

I personally will love to see this game. I've followed the Eagles since my cousin's 5 years in Statesboro. We'd trade tickets every other year for the GT-uga game and the GSU-Furman game. I've seen epic duals between Chaz Williams and Ingle Martin, Jayson Foster dominate some I-AA bitches, and some incredible triple option football under Mike Sewak. And I was pretty pissed off at VanGorder for doggin' the Eagles after one crappy season. So, like I said, I've been waiting for this game.

Once again, sorry for the shortage of Friday postings. I may post some this weekend between golf, Cinco de Mayo parties, and watching the NBA playoffs. Expect more Winfield/Dane postings since they don't have jobs/school now.

Falcons GM comments on drafting Walker

Here are some quotes from the ajc about Vance Walker and why the Falcons drafted him with the seventh pick:

We saw a guy who has some versatility to him. He has some natural leverage ability about him, to be able to hold the point. But also combines that with some upfield ability. He can be a one-gap guy which is very important in Mike Smith’s scheme and his scheme going forward... Vance was another top notch leader in his program.

Vance Walker is gonna play for the Falcons. It's kinda ridiculous how low our guys were drafted this draft and generally how underrated all Tech players are coming out of college (e.g. Dawan Landry, James Butler, Key Fox, Daryl Smith, etc.).
Also, Pat Swilling was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana. Swilling was the twelfth Jacket to be selected into the CFB Hall of Fame and the most recent since Randy Rhino's induction in 2002. Swilling was on the infamous "Black Watch Defense" of Bill Curry's coaching stint. The best defensive players got black GT's and black stripes for their helmets. Pretty cool motivation tool, if you ask me.

Mario and Hawks stop Wade and Heat

Gotta love seeing guys get their shot at the pro level. And the Hawks' game last night was a great oppurtunity to watch Mario West come off the bench against a good Miami team and the superstar Dwyane Wade. Rio played a solid 11 minutes mostly in the second half as the Hawks cruised. And if you haven't watched a game of the NBA playoffs, I'd highly recommend you watch D-Wade's performance in the next (possible) couple of games. The guy is playing the best individual basketball in the playoffs, to me.

Also of note, Jahi is signing a free agent contract with the 49ers. Good luck to him and the other three seniors who have not yet found free agent contracts.

Any thoughts on the simplicities of life or your reflections on the galactic chaos surrounding us are welcome.

ACC Coaches sophomore slump or jump

I like to look at numbers to draw conclusions. I was thinking about the term "sophomore slump" and wanted to pull some coaches' stats out for predictions of CPJ's second year. So here's the most recent 2-year tenured coaches' freshman/sophomore records at all 12 ACC gigs:

It's nice to know that on average most coaches got better in their second years. That makes sense. In fact, only four of twelve coaches didn't improve in their sophomores seasons: Roof, Amato, Gailey, and Bunting. Amato needed P. Rivers, Bunting was terrible, Roof was at Duke, and Gailey was Gailey. Otherwise, I think the numbers are pretty interesting. It would be totally cool if CPJ followed the trend and won 0.83 more games next year and lost 0.25 less games. That's a +1.08 net. I'll take a 10 win season any day.

George P. Burdell adds to his resume

I guess fighting in WWII, graduating from Tech AND Harvard, and almost being the 2001 TIME Person of the Year were not enough for the old man. He is now working as a Production Assistant at South Park Studios!

Last I heard from George, he was lost and wandering the grounds of Alumni Stadium this past September....

Do you have absolutely no idea what is going on? Click here to learn just a sliver about the man. All other George P. Burdell stories welcome below.

2010 Draft Predictors

SI.com's Andrew Perloff predicts Jon Dwyer as the first runningback taken in the 2010 draft.

Onlinesportsfanatic.com has a poll for voting of best runningback in 2010 Draft Class including Jon Dwyer, C.J. Spiller, Jahvid Best, Joe McKnight, or other.

Collegefootballnews.com has their top 250 NFL prospects listed for 2010 and Jon Dwyer is listed at #25.

Worries, predictions, etc. are welcome.

Tony Gonzalez...welcome to ATL

Pic is from AJC. And welcome to your wife.

Mark Richt wants a home game in the Dome. F That. The ACC and GT should not allow Georgia in there. ATL is Tech's hometown. If recruits want to see uga, they should go out to Cowpoke, GA and watch a game 'tween the bushes rather than be fooled into thinking Athens is close to ATL.

Georgia fans won't want this game anyways. Give up a home game to go to an actual city with paved roads and public indecency laws. That's blasphemy Cletus!

Thoughts are welcome.

Jeremy Tyler debate

So this junior in high school, Jeremy Tyler, wants to go to Europe instead of finishing high school. I understand there's money and "refining his game" but I ask why are his parents pushing him so hard? Why can't they wait a year? Guys play in the NBA or Europe for years.

To me, a kid should be a kid. Money is one thing but you're only a kid with zero responsibility and some semblance of freedom for a short period of time. He says he doesn't care about high school, prom, dating, etc. but that's because he's never experienced it all. And he won't get the chance to experience it because all his father sees (who is the driving force behind him leaving high school early) is $$$.

It seems like a story of exploitation. A story of the father that has pushed his kid too far because he is living vicariously through the kid. I already know Jacob will disagree with me on this whole issue. But I feel like the NBA/basketball needs to draw a line in the sand that separates adults getting paid from exploitation of youth.

Adults make adult decisions because they were allowed to grow and make mistakes. These kids are thrown into adult situations with millions of dollars, women, drugs, etc., and it just seems wrong. A modern slavery disguised by the jewelry, escalades, and big contracts. It's like, "We're paying you a lot so it IS the dream life." I guess he'll be okay because he's fulfilling that "MTV Cribs Image" that's fed to American youth now-a-days. Living in a million dollar, gadget filled McMansion.

Threet transfers again.

So Steven Threet finally found a home after transferring from Tech and transferring from Michigan. He has settled down way out in Tempe, Arizona at Arizona State University. Threet has the talent to start at most I-A teams so I don't blame his transferring from system to system...oh wait, it's called college athletics not athletes that happen to be on campus. Either way, he probably has had the worst luck of any QB ever going to two schools and one that cooincidentally made major coaching changes and philosophical changes right when he arrived. I wish the guy good luck and I hope that Arizona State doesn't go Wildcat while he's out there.

Other interesting news relates to the AJC. Terence Moore is moving on. It's the end of an era. He was the one AJC columnist that was willing to take sports beyond sports intertwining political messages within sports stories. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't work.

Notable GT viewing oppurtunities tonight:
7:00PM - Stephon Marbury playing for the Celtics in Game 5 against the Bulls
7:05PM - Jason Varitek catching for the Red Sox against the Indians
7:05PM - Mark Teixeira playing for the Yankees against the White Sox
7:30PM - Thaddeus Young playing for the Sixers in Game 5 against the Magic

What happened this weekend...

My weekend:

8. Great weather for golf. I dream of breaking 100.
7. A bidet was installed in a friend's house.
6. Watched NFL Draft as four GT players were selected.
5. Watched gametracker or listen to radio as Tech dropped 2 of 3 to Clemson @ Clemson.
4. $2 dollar Moe's burritos that took 3 strokes off your golf score for each burrito consumed.
3. A huge ass fire in Myrtle Beach prevented any safe attempts at going to the beach.
2. A drunk friend drinking from the bidet in #7 like a water fountain.
1. The same drunk friend in #2 stripping to his underpants and almost blowing his engagement with his fiancé.

Winfield/Dane's weekend:

1. Study for finals.

Point Bird. Game. Set. Match.

Michael Johnson: Out to Prove the League Wrong

By the time this posts, I will be in my 2nd of 3 finals for the day (out of 5 for the week). It's been a very long weekend I can tell you.

Lazy? Or simply misunderstood?

But enough about me. This is about Michael Johnson and the huge chip he had better have on his shoulder. Every report coming from the "experts" say he is lazy and doesn't work hard. Why do you think that is? Scouts and coaches have to rely on videotape which just can't show the whole truth. The locals know that MJ is an all-around athlete and we have all seen the way he plays and acts firsthand which makes it so hard for us to understand this "laziness". He has had difficulty defending the run and that apparently that portrays him as not working hard. Georgia Tech Nation has reacted to these notions of laziness in typical form: Meltdown Mode.

If laziness is the perception than so be it. It's unfortunate that the mages of him running off and on the field every time will never make the scouting film. However NFL/Cincinnati / Mel Kiper's really big and horribly looking hair...be on the lookout. Johnson knows you think he's lazy and he is out to prove you wrong. He knows you also think he has the potential to make a difference in the leage. In an interview with Coley Harvey at the Macon Telegraph, MJ responded to a question regarding his "laziness":

MJ: "I'm just ready to go out and prove any doubters wrong. I've never had anyone in my whole life question anything about me like that. It was all really foreign to me, and I really didn't even know what to think about it. I really don't think about it. I just want to go out and make plays and ball out, man. That's all I can do."

CH: "Knowing the role you took as a captain and a leader on GT's team last year, did that make it even more surprising to hear that criticism?"

MJ: "It does. It's very surprising. I really don't know what else to do about it except make plays, and then when I make it to the Pro Bowl, I can be like, 'Now what?'

Adding to the doubters is the Defensive Coordinator from Cincinnati himself, Mike Zimmer:

We took Michael Johnson, a defensive end from Georgia Tech. I went to his pro day workout, and we actually met with him in Mobile (at the Senior Bowl). He drove over and visited with coach Lewis and myself. This kid is a tremendous, tremendous athlete. He doesn’t play hard all the time. That’s our job to make sure that he does that. But he is a tremendous athlete. He is 6-7, 267 pounds, he runs 4.5 (second 40-yard dash), has a 40-inch vertical jump and had eight sacks last year. A lot of people are looking at him as an outside linebacker. He bends his knees exceptionally well. Like I told the guys up in the draft room yesterday, when we talk about this kid and you watch him on tape, there are some plays that you say ‘Oh wow, I can’t believe he did that.’ Then some of the other plays, you say, ‘Oh heck, he didn’t do very good there.’ But he does have a little bit of a wow factor in some of his measurables and some of his plays on tape. He just doesn’t have it enough.

They EXPECT Johnson to have that "wow" factor every single play.

But they also know that MJ is out to prove the world wrong. And Cincinnati welcomes this attitude. They need that fire.

Q: In terms of the inconsistency, how do you hold him accountable for that?
MZ: He became perturbed (when asked), which was good. Sometimes when we are interviewing guys and trying to get to know them, we are trying to see what buttons make them go. When we said, ‘This is what they are saying about you,’ he said, ‘I am going to prove them wrong.’ Actually, when I talked to him on the phone upstairs, I told him now is the time to go prove a whole bunch of people wrong.

Bengals fans seem pretty excited to have MJ.

It's very interesting to see how the outside world sees Michael Johnson. While on the opposite side of the spectrum, everyone at Tech has the gold-colored glasses and absolutely knows that our boys can do no wrong. Give MJ a few years and we will be hearing his name a lot on Sunday.

My sanity is nearing the breaking point

Sorry that I suck so badly, everybody. It's finals time, and for some reason I am putting school ahead of every other activity I do.

It's a strange feeling, but I think its a good thing.

Anyway, I'm just letting you know I'm not dead and am planning on getting back into posting this week, and you will hear from me plenty following this week of hell.

I'd just like to note to everyone that GHSA soccer playoffs are in full swing, and my Warner Robins Demons took a first round W against Union Grove, 2-0. They play Wednesday against a team that hasn't seen but one victory against an opponent with a winning record, so the chances we will see them in the Elite 8 are pretty good. However, the Demons would then go on to face either the hottest team in the state, Centennial, or Peachtree Ridge (another top 10 team who actually beat Centennial earlier in the season).

High school soccer playoffs are really, really exciting. While the skill level is not dumbfounding, the amount of hustle and passion on the field rivals that of any other sporting event. If you can get to a game, go. I'll hopefully be watching the Demons play somewhere next Saturday, given they win their next game.

More to come on college sports.

Please leave all well-informed insults of soccer in the comments. They are always a good laugh.

NFL Draft Thoughts III

ACC
The ACC faired pretty in the 2009 NFL Draft having 4 players selected in the top 10. Heyward-Bey was a pretty big shock but then again the Raiders are always shocking in the Draft.

The ACC had 33 players selected, which was second behind the SEC for most picks. Maryland and UNC had the most ACC players selected in the '09 Draft with 5 apiece (Tech was tied with Clemson/UVA at 4). Miami, interestingly enough, didn't have a player selected until the 6th round. This ended a 14 year streak of first round draft picks from the U. Not surprising considering all of the talent in Florida has been going to UF or leaving the state since Ron Zook took over the Gators and Coker started coaching the U.

Georgia Tech
Generally speaking, you're always disappointed with where your hometown players are selected. You're happy Calvin was selected #2 but you wished he was #1. So when Michael Johnson fell to the 3rd round, there was little surprise that the Yellow Jacket Family freaked out considering his dominating senior season that appeared "inconsistent" to NFL scouts.

I'm incredibly happy both our DT's got drafted. Honestly, there probably aren't any other teams in the country that had three players drafted off their starting DL. And I'm positive Derrick Morgan will end up on a roster in a couple years.

Atlanta Falcons
I've gotta talk about the ATL hometown team. The Falcons drafted all defense except one OT. It makes a whole lot of sense since we lost 5 defensive starters (including GT's Keith Brooking). Overall the Falcons draft was great but there's gonna be a helluva young secondary next year with little experience for a couple years to come.

The Falcons also finally picked a GT player since coincidentally Keith Brooking's selection in 1998. Vance Walker will definitely find a spot for at least a couple of seasons and we'll see what happens. I wouldn't be surprised if he finds himself starting in 2-3 years.

Any thoughts on the sporting weekend are welcome unless they pertain to a certain baseball series.