Jackets falter against Oklahoma

The GT Women's Basketball team lost their second-round NCAAT game last night to Oklahoma, 50-69. Even though we outscored Iowa State by more than triple in the paint in the first round, we couldn't bring that kind of beatdown to Oklahoma. Tough loss to a good team; however, we are still very, very proud of the Jackets, who blew away their male counterparts for another season and added insult to injury to Georgie, leaving them with a painfully memorable score (think football).

Oklahoma goes on to face Pittsburgh in the Sweet Sixteen, AND GT BASKETBALL IS OFFICIALLY, FINALLY OVER!!! Football (and some baseball) talk from here on out (from Dane, at least).

'Reck Nostalgia

I had a little nostalgia this past weekend. Drove the Wreck from Alexander Memorial to North Avenue Apartments. I can't say that I was gettin' watery-eyed but the same excitement and pure joy before leaving the tunnel was definitely pumping through me again. And I'll tell you right now that it's like a bicycle. It's hard to forget how to drive a Model A. A modern stick is much more difficult.

You feel every churn and strain in the Model A motor and it really only takes about a month to get good and maybe two solid months to master double clutching. I think the really hard part is endurance 'cause all of the pedals are mechanical and take some leg strength to really manipulate. I (unfortunately) missed a lot of the parades in Atlanta but I hear multi-mile parades take an incredible toll on the calves.

I miss driving the car but I wouldn't want to be the Driver for more than year - not to put a damper on Winfield. It takes a ton of work, time, and patience. How many 23 year olds can say they've been to 40+ weddings? Anyone out there that's been to more than me, I pity...Ha.

Anyone out there ever driven a Model A, own a classic car, or have any interesting Ramblin' Wreck stories?

2009 Yellow Jacket football schedule is out

My life is officially scheduled for 2009.


Sept. 5 vs. Jacksonville State
Sept. 10 vs. Clemson (ESPN)
Sept. 17 @ Miami (ESPN)
Sept. 26 vs. North Carolina
Oct. 3 @ Mississippi State
Oct. 10 @ Florida State
Oct. 17 vs. Virginia Tech
Oct. 24 @ Virginia
Oct. 31 @ Vanderbilt
Nov. 7 vs. Wake Forest
Nov. 14 @ Duke
Nov. 28 vs. Georgia


I don't give a damn if the Miami game is on a Thursday... I'm still going to make it.

Edit: I kind of wrinkled my nose at the idea of not playing Clemson closer to mid-season, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. We get a nice warm up game, then hit the ground running by playing people we love to hate and hate to love.

Edit: I just realized that October is going to be the least productive month of my life. Totally worth it.

Click here to see the rest of the ACC schedules.

Edit: Winfield already mentioned this in the comments, but Halloween shall be spent in Nashville. Oh yeah.

Who else is down for road trippin'?

A History Lesson in Tradition: The T-Book

In an effort to inform, educate and teach as many people as possible, The Legacy crew brings back some of their more popular posts from the "old days". Today, the history of the T-book. The resource for Georgia Tech history and traditions.

As Dane let all of you know last night, the T-book is back on campus at Georgia Tech. Many of you might not actually know what the T-book is or what it was. Here's the information and the history on the book and what it means to the Institute.

The Early Printings

The first T-book was published in 1906 by the YMCA. The purpose of the book was to serve mainly as a student handbook and a guide to the school for all the incoming freshman. The organization continued to publish the T-book until the 1968-1969 school year. The hard, physical edition of the T-book was finished for 40 years. However, a legacy was left by the T-book pioneers as the University of Florida developed their own version of the T-book (called the F-book). The F-book is more of what the T-book was originally, a student handbook that discusses all organizations, clubs, athletics and traditions.

Online Edition

In the early 2000's, the T-book morphed into an online "Rat's Guide to Tech" and more of a living document that editors could constantly update. Access was available to all through the internet but unfortunately updates and advertising were hard to come by and the site was not updated as much as some had hoped. Knowledge and information about Georgia Tech traditions and history began to fall by the wayside.

Now

After researching the history and the legacy that the T-book created and left behind the Ramblin' Reck Club
has brought the T-book back. Georgia Tech has been without the T-book for nearly 40 years and it is time to end the drought. Today, the T-book talks about the history of Georgia Tech and the traditions that make the Institute so unique. Personal letters to the owners are written by Football Coach Paul Johnson, Men's Basketball Coach Paul Hewitt, Athletic Director Dan Radakovich, Interim p\President Gary Schuster, and SGA President Nick Wellkamp.

The T-book is comprised of two parts. The first part is history. Timelines and letters, famous athletes and coaches of old can all be found in the front half. The second part is for the student. It is time for the owner of the T-book to "Complete the Tradition". To complete the tradition, the student must take a picture of themselves doing the tradition and then paste their own personal picture into their book in the space allotted. This allows everyone to not only learn about the traditions that make Georgia Tech so unique but they also get to partake in them.

So for the 2008-2009 a tradition hasn't been started, rather it has been picked up and continued.

Editor's Note: The 2008-2009 T-Book is now online. Click below!

Click Here to see the 2008-2009 T-Book!

Other History Lessons in Tradition: Buzz and the Yellow Jackets and the Ramblin' Wreck

Monday In-Class Update 10/13/08

Ok, I'm not really in class. In fact, I'm on 'vacation' back in wonderful Warner Robins, Georgia. However, I did get to watch some football this weekend, and it was fantastic.

EXCEPT FOR OUR GAME. What the fuck was that shit? We played offense like old people fuck. It is more than clear that we will be recruiting at least two quarterbacks every year, because we are going to need at least four people on the level of Shaw (or hopefully, as athletic as Nesbitt) to safeguard ourselves from eating shit after two injuries.

However, I will say that I don't hold it against any of our players (well, except maybe our O-Line, they really have to start playing like they want to win a championship). We came out and won the game, so screw it, I will say nothing more about it.

Dane's Top Five, in order. Alabama, Texas, Penn State, Florida, USC. Quite simply, the Tier 0 of college football.

Thank you Florida, for showing why I love you. I never lost faith. Everyone else did, UF, but I knew you would be back. The Gators played an excellent game against LSU this weekend, and I think they might have shown why they don't need Tebow to, you know, carry the entire team, and actually look like they might have the best overall offense in the nation. It will be nice to see Tebow not have his ass kicked all year leading up to the game against the georgia Bulldogs, where he will lead the team to a 24 point margin victory.

Mizzwho? No, just kidding. The Tigers' passing game is still absolutely outstanding, and if they can manage to get to the Big 12 Championship, are not out of the picture. While it was a big win for the Cowboys, it will be interesting to see if Oklahoma State will stick around. If they do, honestly, the Big 12 will no doubt be the best conference in the nation for the next few seasons.

I am so pissed that I didn't get to see the whole Red River Shootout. So, I don't have much to write about it. However, between the first quarter that I did see, and the extra 30 minutes of highlights I watched, I think that may be the best football played this season.

Bowden is out, and the dregs are following. In the same fashion as one big violent bowel movement, Clemson's future looks alot less poopy. A program that should be fielding a top ten team every year may actually start doing that. Anyone who says that Clemson couldn't be competing in the SEC is already wrong, but hopefuly soon enough, the Tigers will be a dominant team in football, one that loses to Georgia Tech every year.

The Legacyx4 has officially moved to http://thelegacyx4.blogspot.com!

While WordPress was a great host to get us off the ground, we have decided to move over to Blogger, as we feel like it better suits our tastes as far as posting and editing goes. We hate to leave behind any readers/anyone who has ever linked to us, so please, please don't forget to bookmark us or change your links!

We may continue to update the WordPress site for a week or two just to help the transition, but for now you can find The Legacyx4 crew at http://thelegacyx4.blogspot.com.

We appreciate all of our readership, and the increase in readers has been the main motivation in the changes and upgrades to our blog. We hope you join us for the rest of the football season, and keep reading up on our take on Georgia Tech's place in the college athletics world.

P.S. Also, this blog may be under minor construction for a few days. Let us know what you think, even if you think we suck, which we know you won't because quite frankly we are fantastic. Thanks.

At least we are ranked somewhere, damnit.

Brian and Jeff of BC Interruption apparently love us, as they rank the Yellow Jackets at the #12 spot in their latest blogpoll.

Hot damn! I'd put us at around 17th or 18th right now, not breaking the top 15 until after we play Clemson (assuming a big W there), but it sure as hell is nice to see someone giving us some credit. I'll put it like this - they ranked us higher than UF.

Edit: Zach at Old Gold and Blog give us no love, as we are nowhere to be found on his poll. That makes us sad.

Also, Spencer Hall (a.k.a. Orson Swindle) of EDSBS managed to see our game live and in person on Saturday. He gives Georgia Tech a fairly large thumbs up albeit only on the front end of a bunch of backhanded compliments; however, I take this the same as a recording artist takes having one of their hits being covered by Weird Al. The Jackets have made it - we're back.

It's not as bad as it looks. Yeah, I said it.

Right now the ACC is the laughingstock of the college football world, and rightly so. The only team from the ACC that is ranked right now is Wake Forest. Now, I don't mean any insult to the Deacs, but that would basically be like Vanderbilt becoming a top team in the SEC in 5 years from now. No one would give them their full credit, everyone in the SEC would still say "whatever, they are just Vandy," and everyone outside of the SEC would make fun of the conference for having Vandy as their best team.

It's true, as I posted before... the ACC, for now, blows. It is ridiculous. There is no respect for the conference anymore. FSU now also applies to Fresno State. Gone is Miami - Miami(FL) now takes its place. Georgia Tech plays second fiddle to uga. Now Clemson, in the year it is supposed to be in the MNC hunt, has gone and dropped the ball.

Brace yourself. You will be shocked to read that I don't think it is as bad as it sounded on Sunday. In fact, on second glance, it seems like the ship is finally righting itself. Expansion may be finally happening, 3 years after it actually happened. Hear me out on this one.

Georgia Tech, who malaised through the past six seasons with spurts of brilliance and dregs of just plain badness, finally has a coach that, well, acts like a coach should. Paul Johnson is a proven winner, who is expected by basically everyone (apart only a few Bulldog fans and other uneducated nobodies) to be very, very successful. FSU actually kind of had a decent season last year, toppling the ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, losing by a field goal to Wake Forest, and knocking off Boston College from the #2 spot. Honestly, they would have beaten Kentucky in their bowl game if it weren't for the trouble they found a few dozen of their players in, resulting in a depleted squad and a touchdown margin loss for the New Year's Eve game.

Clemson will always be solid (except for 2 games out of the year where they get embarrassed), and even though VPI lost to ECU, they will be back. Miami is on the upswing - GT fans like to think Randy Shannon is a moron because he kept a moron (Pat Nix) around for more than a year. Say what you will - they have the talent to win some big games, and as of right now, in my view, look to be Tech's biggest ACC opponent this year. Apparently Shannon has cleaned house (which, at Miami, would obviously take a looooong damn time) and has the program running like it isn't made up of a bunch of drug slingers and criminals - the first step to becoming competitive year after year. I'm not calling Miami to win this weekend against Florida; however, I will make it known that Miami hasn't lost to Florida during my lifetime, and they damn sure don't want to start now. It won't surprise me one bit if that game surprises everyone else, especially the Gators.

As I said already, BC grabbed the #2 spot last year, and even though a few dozen other teams seemed to do the same thing, it was still impressive. I think the team as a whole will continue to get better, and eventually be better over all without relying on Matt Ryan to make it rain like a true baller.

The jury is still out on UNC, and Duke can suck it until they go 3-5 (this year marks a decade of them not doing so) in the ACC and win a decent OOC game. And, even though I've already kind of talked smack about Wake, they are a good damn team (it's weird, it's almost like I'm turning into a Wake fan...).

So, what exactly is happening? In the Atlantic, Wake is great, BC is good, and FSU has the chance to become good to great again (even if it takes Bobby Bowden finally leaving to do so). Clemson will remain very solid, Maryland can play ball, and NC State will continue to embarrass the state of North Carolina in everything it does. In the Coastal, GT and Miami are both going to be damn good teams, and will easily challenge if not surpass Virginia Tech every year for the Coastal Title, starting this season (these two teamse will also very successfully carry the banner for the ACC in OOC games, mark my words). Not saying VPI won't compete, but I think everyone else is growing up around them very, very quickly. North Carolina will hopefully shape into a solid team, but I am not sold on the predictions that they will start winning conference or even division championships. Virginia - well, screw UVa. Duke will have at least 1 conference victory this season, and that will be against UVa, who is really, really at risk of having a 1 win season. More like the Cavalqueers. (Anyone who is a UVa fan, go ahead, bookmark this entry, mark October 25^th on your calendar, and remember to email me at EffinDane at gmaildotcom. I always manage to eat my own words.)

That's right, BC, Miami, and VT will be strong, strong teams, in addition to GT, Wake, Clemson, and hopefully FSU. All of these teams will get better, very, very soon, and as much as any commentator wants to bring up this season, these teams will be competitive with anyone in the country. (Except for USC, because Jesus is to humanity what Pete Carroll is to Trojans football).

This whole post may be completely wrong, and sorry if it is. However, I do think I have made some pretty valid points. The ACC blows, at least for now. Soon though, the mega-conference will finally arrive.