Chaos in Clemson

Huh, what are these expectations you speak of?

If you’ve been living in a hole or just use this blog as your primary source of Tech news (highly unlikely) then you know that Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden has “resigned” from his duties as the head man at Clemson. Wide Receivers/Assistant Head Coach Dabo Swinney will take over as the interim coach.

Shortly after his takeover Swinney also let go of offensive coordinator Rob Spence. It was obvious a lot of people were calling for his head as well and Swinney knew that.

So lets look at this madness from a few different angles…

First, why did it happen…

Athletic director Terry Don Phillips said his intent Monday morning was to have a candid heart-to-heart with Bowden about the football team. But Phillips said he was surprised when Bowden offered to resign.

“There wasn’t a gun to his head,” Phillips said.

I say, “Nay!” Mr. Expectations had a debt owed to him and he finally put the gun to Tommy’s head. For several seasons now Tommy has had very high expectations and not lived up to them. Couple this with the fact that he has recruited very well so the talent has certainly been there to do so. He also has been haunted by what I like to refer to as the annual Clemson choke. Even if they look awesome and everyone is showering them in praise at some point the Tigers will choke and fall short of the lofty expectations set forth by the fans and media.

So we’ve got failed to live up to expectations, wasting talent, and…oh, yeah, players who have quit on him. When Chan Gailey left not everyone may have liked his football philosophy but almost everyone respected him as a person and wished him the best. Either Tommy was just a douchebag coach or he has some douchebag players. Honestly, I think it is the latter and I would hope our players would have the class not to ever say anything like these quotes from Cullen Harper and CJ Spiller (at least not in public anyway):

“It’s what he deserved,” Harper said. “Dabo Swinney is a fine man and will do an excellent job.” … (Harper’s father) “I’d call it karma,” he said. “I thought it needed to be done. I think anytime a head coach or someone in a leadership position starts to place blame on his coaches and players, it weakens their respect on the team. His past experiences have shown he’s done that.”

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“I’m shocked. We are 3-3 because we didn’t make enough big offensive plays,” Spiller said. “I’m shocked by our record, and now I’m shocked that our coach is gone.

“I enjoyed playing for coach Bowden and I liked him, but in the end he was yelling at us to be leaders and it wasn’t working. He did all he could to motivate us, but guys weren’t buying into what he was saying. And he said a lot of the same things over and over again. “He let the offensive coordinator [Spence] run the show, and we got away from me and James [Davis]. I think part of the problem was when he benched Cullen. Some people wanted the offensive coordinator fired; [Bowden benched] the quarterback and then he got fired.”

So where does this leave Clemson?

It leaves them confused, distracted, and running around trying to figure out how to run things without Tommy while preparing for a Paul Johnson-coached team. Dabo Swinney is taking over play-calling for the offense and really there is nowhere to go but up as far as that is concerned. We might some more risks taken as the season is pretty much already written off and they have nothing to lose. CJ Spiller is said to be out this weekend with a hamstring injury. It also leaves them with a pissed off Harper after Willy Korn (why he didn’t go to Nebraska I have no idea) has been confirmed as the starter for this weekend.

Defensively, the Tigers should remain the same. I think they play somewhat undisciplined and while they fly all over the field I’m not convinced they play good assignment football and with Nesbitt coming back this weeknd that could be very dangerous for the Tigers.

Some names that have been thrown around to replace TB:

• Will Muschamp
• Lane Kiffin
• Bobby Johnson
• Jim Grobe (pssshhh)
• Bill Cowher (oh stop, it hurts)

The first three are legit candidates. I don’t think the other two are. Bobby Johnson makes the most sense to me. He’s a Clemson alum, a darn good coach, and moving to situation where he can consistently compete. Muschamp and Kiffin could be good, but are unproven at the college head coach level. Personally, I want the Tigers to get a good coach and take that step. I just believe Coach Paul Johnson is better and that to be the best you have to beat the best.

So what does this mean for Georgia Tech?

Well, it’s kinda foolish to look beyond this weekend’s game because everything is going to be overhauled this offseason. But things could go one of two ways for this Tigers team. They could lie down and quit since there’s not a whole lot to play for anymore other than a midtier bowl game. The team could also rally and play lights out for the remainder of the season.

This rivalry game usually is pretty much independant of the rest of the season in that you can throw out the records because this is probably going to be a close, exciting game.

Josh and Jaybo should be back.

He's back!

Will Korn is another factor. He’s mobile and we haven’t done that great with mobile QBs. We did contain Chris Crane, but Tyrod Taylor got the first downs (and a touchdown) when it was needed with his feet. I doubt Willy is as fast as Taylor, but the Jackets need to contain him and put a ton of pressure on him by blowing up a beleagured offensive line.

The defense needs to stay consistent and play like they have been. Brad Jefferson played in the Gardner-Webb game (if you can call it that) so he got to shake some dust off and should be back to his Gladiator self this weekend. Derrick Morgan has played possesed and hopefully can continue that trend this weekend. I especially like this 3rd down wrinkle we are doing where we have 3 down linemen and Derrick lines up as a lineback in blitz position behind the nose tackle. We got a sack out of it against Duke and great pressure against Gardner-Webb with it. I bet you we are setting up something where he drops into coverage and hopefully confuses the QB enough to get a sack, a bad pass, or an INT.

This Clemson fan base is going to be rabid after the change. I’ll be there this Saturday so all the GT fans there need to be loud from our little corner of the stadium (and space).

This is a game where we definitely need to get on them early and take the crowd out of it and let the doubt once again soak in.

ITE BYE

Sorry everyone, just been really busy. I’ve got a loaded week this week with several assignments dues this week, lots going on at work, and one of my good friend’s wedding stuff going on. I’ll do some short snippets if I get some time, but otherwise I’ll be back next week with analysis of Duke and preview of GW.

GT vs. Miss State Preview

The Jackets have two out of four of their ACC road contests out of the way and head this week into an out-of-conference matchup with the Mississippi State Bulldogs of the SEC. This is the first time the two have matched up since 1929 and the Jackets hold the series at 2-0.

Special Teams

The Jackets certainly improved at Virginia Tech. We did have an extra point, but then again we were playing VT and made up for it with the conversion later in the game. The bulldogs have a pretty good punter in Blake McAdams. He is on the Ray Guy Watch list and while his average isn’t eye-popping he is pretty good at pinning his opponenet inside the 20. Adam Carlson is their kicker and has made 18-29 field goals in his career and was 10-13 last year. Not bad, but he’s gotta get within range first.

GT Defense vs. MSU Offense

I fully expect us to dominate. Vance will play and AT Barnes will be back for this game. Kyle Jackson has been playing very well and I believe he might be the leading tackler on the team right now. The secondary has continued to play well and will continue that against a horrid MSU offense. Wesley Carrol has taken the majority of the snaps for the bulldogs. I’ve heard that their one of the RBs might be injured for this game. If the dogs can’t get some sort of running game going in this game then they don’t have much of a shot to put many points on the board (at least from their O).

GT Offense vs. MSU Defense

The pattern of coaches practicing our O in the summer continues as Sylvester Croom mentioned that they looked at our offense some during the summer. Their D is stout. They are just as good as the past two that we’ve faced. I expect them to get tired though after having their offense out there for very short periods of time and our offense to break some big plays late in the game to put it out of reach. This offense is obviously getting better each game and Josh showed us how special an athlete he is. Dwyer will not miss this game and Lucas showed us what he can do last week. I expect to see a few more passes this week though.

Sylvester Croom

Coaching

Sylvester Croom is a good man and a pretty good coach. Not spectacular but good. Their D coordinator obviously knows what he is doing. There’s a lot of calling for the O coordinater’s head though. The people of Starkville are getting restless and tired of such a productionless vanilla offense. Let’s hope that trend continues this week.

Who to Watch

Jessie Bowman – Will he get as much pressure up the middle as VT and BC have?
Wesley Carroll – Can he get any semblance of a passing game going?
Michael Johnson – Is this his breakout game of 2008?
Roddy Jones – He showed us how can be utilized in the passing game, will he be a threat in both aspects of the offense this week?

Prediction

Ugly, hard-fought game. Big plays by GT late.

GT 24 – MSU – 9

Sorry for the short preview, but I’ve got a busy week and, honestly, Miss State is a boring team to research. They are at the bottom of the SEC and have a boring defensive-minded team with no offense, kind of like NC State.

Interesting Note: My wife’s cousin is a strength and conditioning coach at Mississipi State.

It’s Here! Toe Meets Leather!

It’s felt like forever, but today is finally here. New Uniforms. New Coach. New Offense. New Defense. New Attitude. This is going to be an interesting year for GT fans. It may require some patience, but I do not doubt that we will see improvement throughout the year. I’m ready to see some hitting, pitching, throwing, and scoring.

I apologize for not doing the rest of the preview for JSU, but I got held up in some stuff.

I will be on campus between 4:30 and 5:00 for tailgating between 4th Street Apartments. I hope to see many of you there. Coach Johnson needs our support as he starts his long career at Tech. I’ll be sitting in Section 121, Row 19, Seats 9-11 tonight.

Go Jackets!!

M-Train Guys Go Big Screen

Many of you remember the video of my buddies Swaff and D-Bay, aka gtg491y and gtg562h, doing a rap about Tech’s M-Train. If not, here’s a refresher:

Well, it appears that the GTAA enjoyed their work so much that they decided they would hire them. So, the guys have gotten together and made another video, this time for our very own football team.

UPDATED: The video will premiere this Thursday on BDS’s big screen pre-game right before the team comes  onto the field. It is entitled “The Perfect Option” to go along with this year’s theme. From some of my other friends who have worked with them on this video it is going to be quite a treat for GT fans.

I could not obtain a copy of the video yet for obvious reasons, but will have it up on Friday for all of those who can’t make it to this Thursday’s game.

10…

Only 10 days until the start of the season!

Here’s a wallpaper I put together for anyone to enjoy. It’s at 1280×800 resolution.

2008 Season Wallpaper

Also, here’s a poll for what you want to see next. Leave your answer in the comments.

• A preview of a position (D-line, B-Backs & A-Backs, etc..)
• An ACC Week 1 preview/analysis
• A general knowledge football tutorial (Penalties, Postions, Routes, etc…)
• What a XenoAbe gameday is like
• Other

Michael Hutts Autopsy

For those visitors looking for news on Michael Hutts, I am choosing not to write on the cause of death out of respect for his family and friends. If you need to know then visit the AJC. It was a terrible way to go and his family and friends should not be subjected to any more press (even though I’m not real press) about Michael’s cause of death. I am deleting any comments that may be offensive to Michael’s family and friends so please don’t leave anything other than good words and condolences. Thank you.

Athens Regional: Lipscomb Preview

Hopefully, the Jackets won’t have to play the Bisons, unless they beat UGAg of course. Many of their fans are also probably Tennessee fans so they probably hate the mutts almost as much as we do. Here’s some info on the Bisons from Nashville.

1. Starting Rotation

• Rex Brothers, LHP, 3-5 record, 5.69 ERA, Sophomore. He led the A-Sun in Ks (93), 2007 Freshman All-American, 2008 All-Tournament Team
• Brandon McClurg, RHP, 6-5 record. 3.11 ERA, Junior. McClurg had the lowest opposing batting average in A-Sun, 2008 All-Conference
• Mike Dunn, LHP, 5-4 record, 4.89 ERA, Senior transfer from Austin Peay.
• Josh Smith, RHP, 3-3, 4.88 ERA, Sophomore, returned from Tommy Johnssurgery in 2007.

2. Bullpen
Top Reliever is Chris Burnette, 2-1 record, 2.60 ERA, Senior transfer (Palm Beach CC) 2008 All-Tournament Team

3. Offense
There is plenty of power in the lineup, but they are able to play small ball when needed. There will be 5 lefties in the batting order and one switch hitter. The top hitters are Caleb Joseph with a .352 BA and 60 RBI and Allen Bolden hitting .343 with 47 RBI.

4. Defense
Very nifty infield, with great double-play ability. Branden Cadavid (3B) will probably make some spectacular plays, as can SS Jorge Guiterriez. The team led the Atlantic Sun Conference in double plays (64).

5. Speed
No information given, but would expect nothing really above average speed from the lower tier conference team. I guess we’ll see this weekend.

6. Coach
Jeff Forehand is a 2nd year coach at Lipscomb. Forehand coached the past six seasons at Trevecca University, compiling a 211-142-1 record. In 2004 he was named NAIA Region XI Coach of the Year and TranSouth Conference Coach of the Year. He was also named TranSouth Conference Coach of the Year in 2005. Forehand, a Nashville native, also guided Goodpasture Christian School to three state titles in 1995, 1997 and 1999 in his eight seasons as head coach. He was also named State Coach of the Year three times. Coach Forehand is said to be a players coach and a very good motivator. He is not a ranter and raver on the field like Perno and McDonnell.

6. Experience
The starting nine is upperclassmen except for 1B, but the pitching staff is young.

Lipscomb is in it’s fifth year of Div I play, having previously been a powerhouse NAIA team with 2 national championships. They went 32-28 in the regular season and conference tournament. Honestly, the Bisons will most likely be two and through in Athens. However, I think we are all Bison fans on Friday as they take on the Mutts in Game 1 at 3:00.

Athens Regional: Louisville Preview

Georgia Tech enters its 24th NCAA tournament appearance at 7 pm on Friday against the Louisville cardinals. If they win they would very likely end up matching up against the Mutts on Saturday. I know that not a lot of Jacket fans know much about this Louisville team so here’s some info.

1. Starting Rotation

• Justin Marks, 9-1 record, 2.21 ERA, Sophomore. He has been very good for the Cards. Only loss was a 1-0 loss to the Citadel.
• Zack Pitts, 6-5 record, 4.74 ERA, Senior. Was very good last year, but hasn’t lived up to the hype this year. He got roughed up in the BET going only 2 innings and giving up several runs.
• Matt Lea, 5-0 record, 2.72 ERA, Sophomore. Transfer from Mississippi State.
• Bob Revesz, 1-0 record, 3.90 ERA, Freshman. Pitched well in BET.

2. Bullpen
Lots of freshmen. Senior BJ Rosenberg is the closer after taking last season off for Tommy Johns Surgery. He came into the season expecting to be the Sunday starter but would collapse after a few innings so he has converted into the closer role where he has been solid. He throws in mid 90s with a good slider.

3. Offense
The Cards run a pretty good hitting team. They are Francouer-ish in that they are a free-swinging team and hack away at a lot of first pitches. The top hitters for average are Justin Mcclanahan who had 7 RBIS in game 3 of the BET and Chris Dominguez who has hit 20 HRs. Both these guys hit .369 and hit in the 3 and 4 hole. As a team, Louisville hits .313.

4. Defense
Solid defense with a very good glove at the SS position in John Dao.

5. Speed
Aggresive baserunners although they certainly don’t produce the blinding speed we’ve seen from Miami.

6. Coach
Dan McDonnell is another Perno and Leggett that will complain about anything. If you are headed to Athens get ready to boo something other than the mutts.

6. Experience
This is an EXTREMELY young team overall. The lineup:
John Dao SS Jr
Josh Richmond LF Fr
Justin McClanahan 2B Sr
Chris Dominguez 3B So
Stuart Ijames RF Fr
Jeff Arnold C So
Andrew Clark 1B So
Phil Wunderlich DH Fr
Drew Haynes CF Fr

This team is young, but has won something like 25 out of its last 31 so they are very dangerous. Granted, the Big East is nothing close to the ACC or SEC, but they are still going to be tough. GT actually has an advantage in experience so hopefully that will help us pull out the win on Friday and face off against the Lipscomb Bisons or the mutts on Saturday. I expect that David Duncan will be on the mound for the Jackets and hopefully he can last some innings and recover from the HR derby we had against Miami in the ACCT. I have a wedding to attend in Athens on Sunday so hopefully the time will work out for me to see the Jackets take the regional.

Wolfpack feeling Generous

I’m back! I took a little trip to Disneyworld last week so thanks go to Matt for holding ITE down while I was gone. Time for some Jacket news!

NC State wrapped up and tied a nice little bow on Game 1 for us. The Jackets quickly scored 2 and then went cold as the Pack scored 6 unanswered. Murton then hit a HR in the 7th to get the Jackets going again. NCSU answered back in the bottom of the 7th with a run. However, the Jackets told the Pack to shut its mouth and threw up 5 in the top of the 8th to take an 8-7 run. NC State snapped its fingers and said I don’t think so sister by answering with two runs to take a 9-8 lead going into the ninth.

This is where it got a bit ugly. After the go ahead run, Tommy Foschi thought it would be cool to nail Hanigar in the mouth when trying to score by not sliding. See, the problem with that is it is against NCAA Baseball rules and Foschi was quickly thrown out of the game. Both benches cleared and things got heated for a bit.

After 3…that’s right…count ‘em…1…2…3 errors in a row, Tech scored 2 more to take the lead. Brad Rulon came in to quickly sit down 2 hitters. He decided to make things interesting by hitting a batter and walking the next, but redeemed himself by having the last batter ground out to first. Tech ended with a very exciting, although quite sloppy, 10-9 win.

They play #1 Miami tomorrow at 5 pm.