Your Coastal Division Champs

During last week’s show I said something that most considered to be ridiculous, claiming that GT had as good a shot as anyone to win the Coastal Division. Most detractors claim the biggest problem for the Jackets is the tough early schedule for Tech, much in the way that experts have said UGA can’t get through their gauntlet of games.

However it’s more likely that Tech’s most difficult opponents will come later in the year, at a point where Coach Johnson will have had a few months to implement in his offense. It is apparent, without seeing a single regular season play, that the team will have to rely on their defense in the early part of the season. And the benefit of the early games is the two teams don’t pose a great offensive threat.

Boston College is looking to replace their starting quarterback, Matt Ryan, and the replacement, Chris Crane, won’t have consistent weapons offensively to help him out early. They will rely mostly on their All-ACC tight end Ryan Purvis, a position Tech’s defense seemingly forgot come last season. However, the defense has changed and now that the linebackers will stay at home more often, the last guy on the line is less likely to be forgotten.

The following week sets up the battle of Tech’s, as the REAL Technical Institute will try and continue the trend of the road team winning. Now while Blacksburg is an extremely tough place to play, could there really be a better time to try and knock off the Hokies at home. It’s not their first home game, so the crowd won’t be extra raucous, and VT won’t have played extremely tough opponents to polish their offensive game. Most likely they will still be attempting to solidify all three skill positions, in hopes of replacing running back Branden Ore and four receivers who graduated from last year’s Division Champion. Plus it can’t get any worse now that Eddie Royal and Brandon Flowers won’t draw up nightmares in Jacket fan’s head. But maybe Josh Nesbitt should still have his jersey stolen for good karma, it helped out Sean Gelnnon.

And the best part about these two roadtrips is that they’re in early September!!! You could have easily been sent to Boston and Blacksburg in late October or November and then you would have had to dealt with not only two polished teams, but the weather conditions as well. In my opinion there is no place more beautiful than Boston in early fall, and yet a city more treacherous just a few months later.

Now while it seemed like a gauntlet early, Tech fans should be excited about the schedule. Now you don’t have to wait through multiple mediocre opponents before getting to the ACC schedule. Along with getting bay breezes and sunshine instead of hail storms and frost bite.

Matt Wieters Interview

Interview with former Georgia Tech All-American Matt Wieters.

Matt Wieters Interview.mp3