Coach Johnson In Trouble For “Animal Cruelty”

Coach Johnson might be after Saturday when the Jackets look to end that 7-game losing streak to the mutts. We might have to call him Coach Vick for a week with the hurtin’ he’ll put on the dogs. Although this is what I’m hoping for, let’s look at this game objectively.

Spoonman’s Offense versus Stick’s Defense
Spoonman (Matt Stafford, google ‘matt stafford joe cox) will try to move the ball against Stick’s (Michael Johnson) defense. Honestly, UGA has a lot of offensive weapons. Knowshon has some great moves and is very speedy. AJ Green is a great young receiver and Stafford has a cannon for an arm. We have a very young secondary and if Stafford gets going it could be a long day. Having Jahi Word-Daniels back for this game should certainly help with that. Massaquoi can be a weapon but has been known to have a hard time holding onto the ball (both drops and fumbles) sometimes. We need to make that an issue for him again on Saturday.

Keys on Defense:

1. Shutdown Knowshon
2. Pressure Stafford into mistakes

Diesel’s Offense vs. Undisciplined Dawgs
Georgia’s D is fast but has been known to play undisciplined. If they do the same on Saturday then we should be able to throw up some points. Rennie Curran is the guy to look out for as he flies to the ball. If the O-line plays like it did against the U then we should be able to get the ball rolling. Dwyer and Nesbitt are slightly banged up but should be more than good to go this weekend. Both offenses have advantages and it might come down to which Defense plays better. We need to look like we did against Miami, FSU, and Mississippi State and not like we did against VT and UNC.

Keys on Offense:

1. Good Line Play
2. Keep UGA’s D offbalance

Coach Johnson Factor

While at Navy, Coach Johnson went undefeated against Navy’s main rival, Army. He also posted a 5-1 mark against Air Force. He knows how to coach in rivalry games. Let’s hope he brings that to Tech.

Numbers & Stats

• Georgia has won 7 in a row, but Tech holds the longest streak of 8 in a row
• First time since 2000 that both teams are in the Top 20
• Similarities to 1998 season (thanks to GoldenTornado on the Hive)
  • Both times GT was trying to beak a 7-year losing streak and playing in Athens.
  • In 98, both GT and UGA were 8-2.   This year, GT is 8-3 and UGA is 9-2.
  • I believe in 98, GT was AP #18 and UGA was #12.    This year, GT is AP  #18 and UGA #13.
  • GT was tied for the ACC crown in 98.   GT will most likely tie for the division crown in 2008.
  • Both years, UGA played two elite teams and got destroyed by both — UF and UT in 98, and UF and Bama in 08.
• #4 Rushing Offense (GT) vs. #15 Rushing Defense (UGA)
• #24 Offense (UGA) vs. #19 Defense (GT)
• #31 Scoring Offense (UGA) vs #12 Scoring Defense (GT)
• #41 Turnover Margin (GT) vs #66 Turnover Margin (UGA)
• Ranked ACC teams do not do very well (don’t know the statistic)

GO JACKETS!! TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!!!

790 the Zone Scavenger Hunt

I participated in a scavenger hunt put on by 790 the Zone to win 10 tickets to the GT-UGA game. It didn’t play out how I wanted. I’m still a little bit bitter about what happened.

The UGAg father/son team won the hunt. I talked to them several times throughout the event and other than being mutt fans they were very friendly and deserving of the tickets (the son served in Iraq for us).

But back to why I’m still a little upset about it. At first, Steak Shapiro told me that if we would have gotten a picture with Coach Richt we would have won, which is kinda true. We tried, but his assistants didn’t really want us to and kept giving us the runaround. We had to get back to Tech for pregame stuff so we never got time to go for a third try for him. Funny part of that exchange was that I have RWFGT as my ringtone and it went off when I was talking to Richt’s assistant, so that may have had something to do with it. But the father/son team just happened to run into him in the parking lot later in the day even though he normally parks in a private lot that is closed to the public. Lucky break for them part 1.

Lucky break part 2 is what ended up killing me. We came back a little early from Athens for two reasons. One was to get some of the pregame stuff. The other was that one of the tasks was to get a free throw shot in AMC with a jersey on. The shot was 10 points and the jersey was a bonus 15. I knew some of the basketball managers from my days as a trainer with the basketball team so we got back before AMC automatically locks up and waited for practice to be over so I could get a manager to help me out and get that one done. We did and with only missing 2-3 tasks at UGA and getting everything done at Tech we thought we had it for sure.

Keep in mind that we only lost by 10 points. Somehow, the father/son team found an unlocked door to AMC at 6:30 in the morning. That’s not supposed to happen. Secondly, one of the basketball managers happened to leave a jersey laying on a chair on the AMC floor. If either someone at facilities locks up, like they are supposed to, or the manager puts up the jersey, like they are supposed to, then we win.

There was one task we could have done back in Athens after the game, but it was finding some “Iron Horse” out in the middle of a field about 30 miles outside of Athens. We were told by the other teams that we probably would have never found it in the dark. Plus, we were exhausted and driving to and from Athens at that time could have been pretty dangerous. (My dad died falling asleep at the wheel so I wasn’t risking it.)

So basically we got outlucked when they got two extremely lucky breaks.

I’m a little upset about it and mad I won’t be there when we break the losing streak and crush the mutts season, but I always say that God has me somewhere for a reason. Plus, I get to flip back and forth between our game and the UVA-VT game to see if we are headed to Tampa.

Go Jackets! THWG!

Back to Life

I apologize for the extended hiatus. I have been moving around on projects at work and trying to get my Master’s project together. This is a big week though and I have a lot of stuff coming your way today and hopefully throughout the week.

It’s good to be back.