Jon "D-Train" Dwyer??

Jonathan Dwyer took part in a live chat today over on RamblinWreck.com. If you were like me and missed it, I have copied the chat from the original page for your viewing pleasure.

Timmy (Norcross): How do you compare yourself with Tashard Choice?

Jonathan: Good morning everyone! Our energy level is similar. Tashard is more of an elusive back. I learned a lot from Tashard and I'm glad he's doing well.

Derek Bloodworth Milledgeville Ga.: CONGRATULATIONS on last season and ACC PLAYER of the YEAR !! D-TRAIN ? DIESEL ? What is your NICKNAME ?

Jonathan: I like "D-Train". I know they used "Diesel" in the media guide, but I like "D-Train" better.

allen robinson (Atlanta): I know it is a while away, but haev you thought about the NFL and when do you plan to enter?

Jonathan: I think everyone who plays college football dreams of playing in the NFL one day. And I know this sounds cliche', but I am really just focused on this season and helping the team in 2009.

Ed, Atlanta: where is your weight and speed compared to end of regular season '08?

Jonathan: Right now I weigh 227. I probably weighed around 230, in the low 230s, at the end of last season. My speed has improved from last season.

Eric, Macon: JD, The sports media outlets are saying our Offensive Line has a lot of question marks, but Coach Johnson says its one of the most improved areas of our team. How do you think the OL will play this year compared to last year?

Jonathan: By being in the system for a second year, they have better knowledge of what's going on. I saw some real improvement this past spring.

JT (Charlottesville VA): Jon, do you or the other backs ever take your O-Line out for dinner? Feed the guys who open holes for you kind of thing? Good luck this fall. (And please win on Oct 24 up here)

Jonathan: I took them out to dinner once last season and they almost burned a hole in my pocket. I took out Claytor and Gilbert. They ate a tremendous amount of food.

K-Dogg: Hey Jonathan! Counting down the days until toe meets leather! What player who redshirted last year do you expect to make the biggest impact in 2009?

Jonathan: I would say its between Jerrard Tarrant and Richard Watson. Richard gives us another talented back who will really help us out, make us more versatile in the backfield.

Shubs Virk: Yo Jon as your friend since your senior of high school can I have your game worn jersey? PLEASE :) lol

Jonathan: No! (laughing) I think that might be an NCAA violation.

Allen (Atlanta): Jon, what are your personal goals this season? I know the team wants to win championships, but I am interested if you had any numbers, awards, or accomplishments that you had your eyes on.

Jonathan: To become a better leader and to be the best player that I can be; to help us win an ACC Championship.

Kevin (Smyrna): Hey JD! Following last year's ACC Player of the Year season, obviously expectations are higher for both you and the team. How are you guys dealing with the added pressure of being one of the preseason favorites in the ACC?

Jonathan: Honestly, we haven't thought too much about any pressure. We are just working hard to reach our goals this fall.

Scott (Atlanta): With so many options at A-Back and B-Back this year, what combination of personnel in the backfield are you excited about taking the field with -or- what combination do you see really causing problems for defenses and why? Really looking forward to watching y'all this season and good luck!

Jonathan: I don't think it matters what combination we have on the field, with the talent we have, any of those combinations can cause problems for the opponent.

Ben (Atlanta): So D-Train, what game has you most worried right now?

Jonathan: Not worried about any one game in particular, just excited. Excited about all the games, but especially our ACC opponents.

Drew (Loganville): What is your favorite memory from the past couple of seasons?

Jonathan: Probably our running back meetings from my freshman year. Why? We had Tashard Choice in those meetings. Enough said. Mike Cox was also in there. On the field, probably beating Georgia this past season.

John(lake lanier): Anything fans don't know about you that they should?

Jonathan: I sleep with my eyes open. Roddy (Jones) came and talked to me in my room one time and talked to me for 30 minutes, not realizing I was alseep. I've got time for one more question.

Jamie Wheeler Louisville GA: Is it true that we only saw about 40% of the playbook last year?

Jonathan: Yes. We'll see more of it this year, but I'm not sure how much. OK, one last question. For real.

Tom, Roswell: Great season last year, and I'm looking forward to 2009. Has anyone asked you what the good word is yet? :-)

Jonathan: To hell with Georgia! THANKS to everyone who sent in a question today. You guys really asked great questions -- better than we get from the media sometimes :) I hope to see everyone in BDS September 5th when we open the season.

Dwyer's Case for the H-Man Trophy Part II

I like completely objective statistics. Like total touchdowns or total yardage per game. Things like that. So here're some interesting stats broken down for Dwyer across last season that should show he's gonna be a force to reckon with. I took Dwyer's rushing/receiving stats off each box score and broke down some critical info for your perusal.

Workhorse: Averaging 7.8 yards per play on offense is not as important as actually accumulating first downs as the GT b-back. Dwyer is capable of the big run but also runs for 4 yards or more 43.4% of the time (3 carries of 4 yards = first down). His consistency is undeniable averaging less than 5 yards per play in only one game last year (VT in which he was injured).

Big Plays: Dwyer racked up 23 plays over 20 yards or more not to mention that over 18.0% of his plays are equal to or greater than 10 yards. 6.3% of his total plays resulted in touchdowns, which seems like very little but is quite efficient for a big ol' runningback.

Career Stats/Records: According to Jon Dwyer's ramblinwreck.com profile, he will need 2,235 rushing yards to tie Robert Lavette's record set in 1984. He will also need 23 rushing TD's to tie Lavette's career TD record. If he were to tie or break these career records, he'd be beating single season records as well as no Tech player has ever eclipsed 2,000 all-purpose yards in a single season. Currently, Jon is 7th all-time at Tech for career rushing TD's and 10th all-time for rushing yardage. Meeting or surpassing these records WOULD BE HUGE. Mentioning these records is huge optimism on my part but Hell we've got 99 days 'til someone kicks a football off the tee so I'm allowed to be optimistic.

"Who?"

So I was hitting up the Tech message boards like I've been known to do in my free (and not so free time), and over at Stingtalk I ran across this article on running back prospects for the 2010 NFL draft.

It doesn't surprise anyone who watched him play, but Jon Diesel Dwyer is #1, named a future franchise star in the Scout article.

So, if you have never heard of Jon Dwyer, it's because you are an overrated douchebag, not because Jon Dwyer isn't absolutely amazing.

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.

Congratulations Jon 'Diesel' Dwyer!

Jon Dwyer: ACC Player of the Year

All-ACC Selections

All-ACC Awards came out yesterday afternoon. Here is the list of which I have copied from Heather Dinich's blog. Members of the ACC media voted on the awards. My thoughts are below.

NOTE: A first-team vote was worth two points and second team vote one. An asterisk denotes unanimous selection.

OFFENSE
FIRST TEAM
QB: Russell Wilson, N.C. State (106)
RB: Jonathan Dwyer, Georgia Tech (134)*
RB: Da'Rel Scott, Maryland (76)
WR: Hakeem Nicks, North Carolina (130)
WR: D.J. Boldin, Wake Forest (76)
TE: John Phillips, Virginia (88)
OT: Eugene Monroe, Virginia (117)
OT: Andrew Gardner, Georgia Tech (107)
OG: Rodney Hudson, Florida State (99)
OG: Cliff Ramsey, Boston College (78)
C: Edwin Williams, Maryland (62)

SECOND TEAM
QB: Thaddeus Lewis, Duke (28)
RB: Darren Evans, Virginia Tech (58)
RB: C.J. Spiller, Clemson (50)
WR: Eron Riley, Duke (57)
WR: Aaron Kelly, Clemson (56)
TE: Ryan Purvis, Boston College (45)
OT: Garrett Reynolds, North Carolina (42)
OT: Anthony Castonzo, Boston College (41)
OG: Sergio Render, Virginia Tech (48)
OG: Cord Howard, Georgia Tech (45)
C: Thomas Austin, Clemson (48)

DEFENSE
FIRST TEAM
DE: Everette Brown, Florida State (131)
DE: Michael Johnson, Georgia Tech (99)
DT: B.J. Raji, Boston College (103)
DT: Vance Walker, Georgia Tech (62)
LB: Mark Herzlich, Boston College (118)
LB: Michael Tauiliili, Duke (110)
LB: Aaron Curry, Wake Forest (106)
CB: Alphonso Smith, Wake Forest (134)*
CB: Victor Harris, Virginia Tech (125)
S: Trimane Goddard, North Carolina (105)
S: Michael Hamlin, Clemson (89)

SECOND TEAM
DE: Orion Martin, Virginia Tech (61)
DE: Jason Worilds, Virginia Tech (39)
DT: Ron Brace, Boston College (52)
DT: Darryl Richard, Georgia Tech (50)
LB: Clint Sintim, Virginia (79)
LB: Alex Wujciak, Maryland (43)
LB: Mark Paschal, North Carolina (40)
CB: Ras-I Dowling, Virginia (49)
CB: Tony Carter, Florida State (34)
CB: Kendric Burney, North Carolina (34)
S: Morgan Burnett, Georgia Tech (85)
S: Myron Rolle, Florida State (55)

SPECIAL TEAMS
FIRST TEAM
K: Graham Gano, Florida State (127)
P: Travis Baltz, Maryland (105)
Specialist: C.J. Spiller, Clemson (66)

SECOND TEAM
K: Matt Bosher, Miami (34)
P: Matt Bosher, Miami (60)
Specialist: Michael Ray Garvin, Florida State (41)

HONORABLE MENTION

OFFENSE: Riley Skinner, qb, Wake Forest (26); Antone Smith, rb, Florida State (33); Cedric Peerman, rb, Virginia (30); Darius Heyward-Bey, wr, Maryland (34); Kevin Ogletree, wr, Virginia (32); Dan Gronkowski, te, Maryland (41); Scott Burley, ot, Maryland (34); Thomas Claiborne, og, Boston College (38); Calvin Darity, og, North Carolina (34); Jaimie Thomas, og, Maryland (33); Nick Marshman, og, Virginia Tech (24); Ryan McMahon, c, Florida State (35); Matt Tennant, c, Boston College (33); Ryan Shuman, c, Virginia Tech (23).

DEFENSE: Derrick Morgan, de, Georgia Tech (26); Willie Young, de, N.C. State (25); Vince Oghobaase, dt, Duke (40); Boo Robinson, de, Wake Forest (31); Jeremy Navarre, dt, Maryland (29); Nate Irving, lb, N.C. State (28); Paul Anderson, s, Boston College (35); Anthony Reddick, s, Miami (23).

SPECIAL TEAMS: Dustin Keys, k, Virginia Tech (25); Brandon Tate, spec., North Carolina (33); T.J. Graham, spec., N.C. State (31).



Biggest question is how in the world is Morgan Burnett not a first team All-ACC selection? How did Everette Brown get more votes than Michael Johnson? The second answer is easy...the tv networks love Florida State and they were on in the afternoon and prime time all year. We were noon games. Interesting selection on Andrew Gardner as well.

Ah well, no one expected anything from us this year and clearly our presence was felt. Congratulations to the All-ACC team!

Thoughts?