Hello Top 25, Nice to See You Again

This weekend the Jackets went up to Clemson in what some might have called an emotional bear trap. However, the Jackets have a coach named Paul Johnson that instills a confidence and quiet swagger that not many teams have. The game started off fast with a Dominique Reese pick 6 off of Tyler Grisham’s reverse pass. The Jackets scored again right before the half to make it a 14-3 game at halftime. However, Clemson came back and scored on a throw to Aaron Kelly with Jahi Word-Daniels running off the field with a hamstring injury. They again scored to put the Tigers up 17-14. This was very scary as a GT fan because it looked like the Clemson emotion had caught up to us and all the momentum was in their favor. Josh Nesbitt and Bebe Thomas said screw that and hooked up on a 24 yard pass for the go ahead touchdown to cap the game at 21-17 in favor of the Jackets.

The defense played well, forcing six turnovers. Dominque Reese, Raashad Reid, and Morgan Burnett all had interceptions with Burnett getting two at the end of each half. The Tigers also had two fumbles and a failed fourth down conversion. Jahi Word-Daniels went out with a hamstring injury. From my information, I doubt we see him back any earlier than the Miami game. Raashad Reid will probably move into the starting CB position. Morgan Burnett will probably move down to CB or nickleback in nickel situations and have Cooper Taylor fill the empty safety spot.

The offense played well enough. The O-line once again played terribly and let Clemson blow up a lot of plays. We had just enough big plays to get the job done so I can’t really complain too much. Josh knocked off some rust and should improve as he gets some more continuity back under his belt.

Scott Blair made the play of the game by catching up to track-star Marcus Gilchrist on a kickoff return before the end of the first half. It saved a touchdown and probablyt the game.

Dabo Swinney, please stop with all the freaking motivational cliches. He tried everything in the book: tiger walk, holding arms and walking pre-game, orange out, etc. None of it worked. He just got outcoached.

With the win the Jackets debuted in the Top 25 at #21 in both the AP and Coaches poll. They also are #18 in the BCS polls. This gets us a lot of exposure for the program. Let’s just hope we can hold on it, which is something we could not do during the Gailey era. Then again, a lot of things this year probably would have gone differently if Coach Johnson wasn’t at the helm.

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