Three Jackets leave team

Safety Jake Blackwood, veteran A-back Greg Smith, and walkon QB Bryce Dykes are leaving the football team before next season.

Blackwood was a hard hitting special teamer and son of former NFL safety Glen Blackwood. Blackwood is graduating before the season starts.

Greg Smith played wide receiver during the Gailey years and has shown flashes of skill as an A-back. Greg is transferring out of Tech. I remember Greg's first highlight as a Tech player was against either Troy or Samford in 2006 dragging multiple defenders after making a reception.

Bryce Dykes walked on to the Tech team and actually received a great deal of playing time this year as a walkon QB. Interestingly enough, his father was a Reck driver back in the day. Bryce is staying at Tech but leaving the football team.

All will be appreciated and can at least say they were featured in a video game. How many people can say that?

I would advise anyone looking for a flag football QB to actively recruit Bryce...

Maryland Terribles Preview

Tech's first ACC series is this weekend at home against the mighty 4-4 Maryland Terrapins. Generally speaking we should expect to sweep the Terps or at least take 2 out of 3. The Terps are batting .286 and just recently were swept by a scrappy UNC-Wilmington team. Hope y'all are ready for a blood bath.

Tech bball finishes the regular season against BC on Saturday. BC's recent upset by NC State makes GT a must win for BC's tournament hopes while GT is playing for pride and "momentum" going into the ACCT. I wanna win this game. I wanna win the ACCT. The best thing for the ACC would be Tech magically pulling a Georgia this year and taking the ACCT and sending an additional team to the tourney. That would be sweet.

Any thoughts on MD? I know Vu probably has some. Anyone think basketball season flew by?

Last night took us back to good times

to the good days when GT Basketball held a presence. It was Senior Night and Lewis Clinch went out with a bang as he led all scoring with 30 points and went 9-16 from behind the arc, only 2 away from Dennis Scott's record of 11 3-Pointers.

What felt good about this game? Everything. We never were behind and roared through the entire 40 minutes of play. Miami came out flat and we came out as if we were playing for something other than simple pride. Some key stats that I have not seen all season: 56% from 3-Point Range and a shocking 67% free-throw shooting percentage. (insert shocked face here). It feels good to win and I almost forgot what it felt like.

So what's up next for the Jackets? It's back-to-back matchups against the Eagles in the last regular season game and the ACC Tournament down here in Atlanta. The first matchup will be this Saturday the 7th. The rematch has the Jackets locked-in as the 12-seed in the ACCT against the Eagles as the 5-seed at 2:30 PM in the Georgia Dome on March 12. More info on the tournament as we get closer.

Stories of the Ramblin' Reck

In an effort to spread the history of the Ramblin' Reck here are two short stories (ok, well blurbs) from Ken Box who was the 1975 and 1976 Ramblin' Reck Driver. The first involves the Ramblin' Reck and the Notre Dame Leprechaun in Atlanta in 1976 and the second story is one of my favorites and includes some mutt-lovers in the cesspool. Hope you all enjoy them.

Ken Box w/ the Ramblin' Reck: 1976

Notre Dame

"When we played ND (and won in 1976) the ND Leprechaun wanted a picture standing on the running board of the Reck. As the picture snapped I opened the door and knocked him off pretending I didn't know he was standing there. Then I told him for his safety he shouldn't get close to the Reck while the student body was watching."

Georgia
"The 1977 Reck driver , Tom Smith, was a good friend of mine. He rode shotgun with me on out of town trips and he was a good 'engine head' so his engine repairs skills always came in handy. After the 1976 UGA game in Athens our police escort disappeared. The Reck was running very rough...misfiring a lot. I didn't think we would make it to the U-haul truck and get back to Atlanta. We were in an empty parking lot adjacent to Sanford stadium trying to tune up the engine. A car drove up with a bunch of drunk Dawgs. Two of the rednecks jumped out of the car and said they were going to take the Yellow Jacket spare tire cover. Tom Smith jumped out of his Blazer with a 9mm pistol aimed at their loud mouthed leader and said, 'Go ahead, make my day!' Needless to say, they left in a hurry!"

Can I get a HELL YEAH on that last story?

VICTORY!

Lewis Clinch - 10 of 19 shooting (nine 3 balls), 4 assists, 3 steals, and no turnovers. Player of the game. Performance of the season. Good win for seniors' last game at home.

Russell dealing with textile newbs

Russell is under fire recently for closing a plant in Honduras. Multiple universities are ending their contracts with Russell due to the happenstance that a union was forming as the plant was closing and supposed poor conditions in the textile plant.

Here's news for all the Russell haters: All cut and sew shops are exactly the same. They're all in the Caribbean, India, China, or Southeast Asia. And typically there are lines to work in these facilities because they have better conditions than all other companies in the host country.

American consumers have driven all of the cut and sew shops from America by demanding $8 t-shirts instead of $10. And here's something most people don't know... Typically, the different brand polos or sweatshirts come out of the same plant and the only thing that differentiates Nike from Reebok from Starter is the last man on the cut and sew line that stitches an emblem onto the breast.

Sure, there are "special products" but a majority of your apparel is made from the same polyester/nylon/spandex producers (like my company). Then, knitted by the same companies and finally cut and sewn by the same companies. The only real difference you see is a price tag based on brand.

Any thoughts on the Russell Athletics scandal? Do you buy only American made products?

Our Current Event

This is a direct quote from a source close to the program:

Last week, University of Miami scientists explaced... placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Alexander Memorial to blow Buzz out of the stadium. Sir Mo Miller of the Ramblin' Wreck summoned the help of Atlanta's local wizards to cast a protective spell over the Coliseum and its residents, and all those who seek a peaceful existence with our hardwood mascot.

Let's end the bleeding GT. Do it for the children. Please seniors. Win it for yourselves.

Any predictions for the game? Anyone paying to watch on ACC Now?

Tuesday News Musings

Football

Spring practice doesn't start until after Spring Break but conditioning for the Yellow Jackets has begun, the same conditioning that laid the foundation for us being one of the least tired units in the 4th quarter. All information and photos is thanks to Ken Sugiura.

Jon "Diesel" Dwyer workin' hard

So, here are two of the more difficult drills. You can read them all at the original link above. How would you fare and when would you pass out? Oh yeah, you are also getting yelled at by Paul Johnson.

• Pro agility drill

Players start in a three-point stance. Depending on which direction the coach commands, they sprint five yards left or right, touch the ground, then go 10 yards in the other direction, touch the ground and run back five yards to the starting point.

• Towel drill

Four towels are placed in a square about five yards apart. The players start at one square, place their hand on the towel and, with all their weight on one hand, circle the towel, get up, sprint to the next and do likewise at each corner of the square.

Austin Barrick says: “By far the hardest, especially for [offensive] linemen. You’re supporting your body weight with one arm and you’ve got to bend down and a couple of us have got some bellies. We’ve got to bend over that and spin around. Your legs burn, your back gets tired from bending over. It’s really tiring.”

Thanks for the report Ken.

Basketball

The season has been rough. The season has been long and pretty much unbearable. However, tomorrow is Senior Night. Come to the AMC to show your appreciation. Also, the ACC Tournament starts next week. Plan on us playing the 5/12 game next Thursday at 2pm.

Baseball

The multitude of polls have been released, and Tech is scattered among the rankings. Baseball America has the Jackets at #18. While the NCBWA has us ranked at #10

Beesball kicks off the ACC season this weekend as they host lowly Maryland. The Terps currently own the worst record in the conference at 4-4. The UM student newspaper delves deeper into the woes of Maryland baseball.

Perfect Option to become Non-Commie Roulette

Easily, the most exciting thing about next football season is the incredible amount of nasty firepower we can bring out of the backfield. A quick and incomplete rundown of our personnel:

-Lucas Cox (whom I personally saw drag VT players all over the field)
-Jonathan Dwyer (ACC Player of the Year, and the greatest runningback in the state)
-Roddy Jones I still want to hug him every time I see him around campus, simply because of the UGA game)
-Marcus Wright (fast as lightning, and apparently learned how to catch the ball at the bowl game that won't be named)
-Anthony Allen (the fairly beastly runningback from Louisville)
-Josh Nesbitt (as DRich once put, a straight up gangsta)
-Jaybo Shaw (played like a maestro at points last season)

A discussion over at StingTalk points out something pretty interesting about Allen's recent interview with Heather Dinich.

Of course, AA had a ton of time to learn all of the positions... but what if Nesbitt spends a little time at A-Back, even if only at practice? Not only will his reads improve, but what on earth does a defense do when it sees Lucas Cox at B-Back with Dwyer and Nesbitt at A-Back? Having Nesbitt throw out of a sweep play to Dwyer, Hill, or our favorite Demaryius Thomas, and we are seeing some exciting things happen with a scheme that most people write off as a football system of yore. Of course, I'm probably just talking crazy talk, but then again, we did see a pass to a lineman during our biggest game of the year, so I am not writing anything off.

Regardless, good things on our horizon, and Spring practice starts 3 weeks from today. Football has almost returned, even if it is only for a little while.

Barfly swatter

Is this really GT related? Probably not. The weekend, for me, was a nice return to ATL. I met up with old friends and acquaintances that I hadn't seen in years/months/etc.. Good times. We observed the Chapel Hill Massacre on Saturday.

However, Thursday night, I was out on the town in Florence. Went out to our usual dives and then decided to hit up a college-type bar closer to Francis Marion. I was mostly interested in consuming beer while my buddies were interested in the "live entertainment."

I sat down at the bar and was immediately latched onto by a drunk 40+ woman. She proceeds to lecture me on industrial safety after she hears my occupation is engineering. Then, she tells me her son owns the bar. So I think, "Sweet, let's ride this out and get my tab paid for." Well, as I get another beer from the bartender she tells him to put all of my drinks on her tab to which he responds, "No, you've got no tab and you're son bailed on us four months ago. We haven't seen him or received any payments on bills or tabs since. He's banned for life from here."

Wow. So, she kind of slithered out the back exit and I covered her $3.00 in wine. Why did I share that? I just wanted the blogging public to know where I'm coming from on this fine Monday morning in South Cackalack. Barhopping in Florence is like barhopping at a highway rest stop: No Shirt No Shoes No Service, only give money to women behind counters, and don't sit on the toilets.

GT-Rutgers series ends with snowballs

GT takes the best of three series with a doubleheader ass-kicking on Saturday. Sunday's game was cancelled due to rain/snow. GT outscored the Scarlett Knights 19-8 over the weekend and is showing an offense similar to the 2006 CWS team that scored 8.7 runs per game (FYI GT is scoring 8 runs/game this season).

We will not discuss a certain event that occurred in Chapel Hill this past weekend. I think the box score speaks for itself.

Looking ahead to this week BBall hosts Miami during the midweek and Beesball welcomes the Terrapins to ATL for the first ACC weekend series of the season.