8-20-08 Part 1

In case you missed last week's show, hear the full show right here. The panel discusses which games will be Tech's toughest as the opener is quickly approaching.

8-20-08 Part 1.mp3

8-20-08 Show Part 2

In case you missed it, listen to last week's show. Here the panel talk about the team's biggest concerns with just over a week left before Tech's opening game.

8-20-08 Part 2.mp3

Paul Johnson Song

You may know the Bo Pellini Polka, but this is the song inspired by the newest addition to the GT Football Family. The newest single by the host of the Ramblin WREK Report, set to the song Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio, although he may have originally sampled it from Stevie Wonder.

Paul Johnson Song.mp3

Aug. 8 Episode Part 1

Part 1 of the Ramblin WREK Report from Aug. 8 2008. Hear our discussion on why Tech is ranked so low in some prognosticators' eyes.

8-06-08 Part 1.mp3

Aug. 8 Show Part 2

The re-broadcast of Aug. 8 broadcast of the Ramblin WREK Report. This half contains the PAUL JOHNSON SONG and everyone's favorite Olympic Update.

8-06-08 Part 2.mp3

Alade Aminu Interview

Georgia Tech Men's Basketball player Alade Aminu stops by the studio to talk about his organization, Brotherhood of the World, which allows athletes to help out under privileged children in the Atlanta-area.

Alade Aminu Interview.mp3

Coach Wommack Interview

Coach Wommack stops by the show to talk about Tech's upcoming football season and what you can expect from his defense come August.

Coach Wommack Interview.mp3

Richard Cirminiello Interview

We talk with CollegeFootballNews.com, Senior Writer, Richard Cirminello. We talk the state of the ACC and his expectations for Georgia Tech this season.

Richard Cirminello Interview.mp3

Four Things to Do To Prepare For The Season

As we slowly approach the beginning of the football season there are a few things that need to be accomplished before the kickoff. Everyone will be getting their new grills and pimp out their pick-up truck, so I strive to bring you a few of the things off the beaten path:

 

1. First I would like to applaud Coach Johnson on his decision to wear white uniforms at home. No this isn't Bravo so I don't care about the aesthetic feeling on the field or how each color motivates our fans. This isn't about the players, really would they play with any less motivation if they wore magenta?? No this is about the fans. Every Saturday Tech fans have the question of what to wear, which game did we do best and what was I wearing at that moment. It's complicated even further by the fact that WHAT COLOR IS OUR GOLD!?!?!?! IS IT YELLOW, GOLD, BRONZISH!! What in the world are our colors. AND THEN PEOPLE START WEARING BLUE!!! It is quite annoying. But now we have white home uniforms, so let's go for the WHITE OUT!! Think about how excited people get when they see some snow on the ground in Atlanta, we could make Bobby Dodd look like it got hit by a avalanche. There's only one shade of white, unless you go to Home Depot. (Eggshell is not a color, its trash)
2. Speaking of snow, now is a good time to get caught up on the winter shopping. I'm sure plenty of fans were surprised when they had to travel to Boise for the Smurf Bowl, (Did anyone even go??) so in hopes of avoided that situation, start buying those heavy coats now. I think the bowl streak won't end, and if it doesn't it won't be in sunny S. Florida. A heavy coat would come in handy when traveling to San Fran., Boise or even Washington D.C.
3. On your way back from JC Penny's make sure to stop by your drug store and stock up on those Tums, especially the fruity ones, they're like candy!!! With an offense that is still developing and a defense that can easily hold almost every opponent below 20 points, there will plenty of tense moments late in games. Expect a lot of 10-7 or 14-13 scores, especially early in the year. Those little white tablets will really help digestion, and that's a win-win for everyone.
4. Staying on the Gastric Intestinal Tract, may I suggest consulting a local physician about inserting a catheter for those really tense moments. There are plenty of benefits for this out of the box medical procedue:
• Coach Johnson's offense has been predicated on scoring quickly. He has been tops in the NCAA in average time of scoring drives. Do you really want to be in the bathroom when Dwyer puts together an 80-yard run? I didn't think so.
• New Clock rules will be in effect this year. Officials are claiming the same number of plays will occur, just the game will take a lot less time. The prediction is 10-12 minutes being cut in average game length. Big plays will be happening more often and the time can't be wasted standing behind the guy with 'stage-fright'
• It was easier before to take a break when Tech's offense had 2nd and 30 to assume we'd get our best player on the field, Durant Brooks, and allow for a little free time to visit the concession stand and a few other places. Now Coach Johnson brings his military academy mentality and the penalties will be down the tube. No penalties, no free-time. MORE SCORING!!!

Honestly, please don't do Item #4, but if you do when the police ask, make sure you say it was Mark Richt's idea.

 

So there you go, just a few things to remember when getting ready for Kickoff 2008.

 

And this means what....

With the kickoff to the football season quickly approaching all the prognosticators are coming out of the woodwork to give their predictions on the Conference Champions. The latest is Heather Dinich of, the new ACC beat/blogger for ESPN.com. Nothing really shocking, as she picked VT to take the Coastal Division, but when you look at here reasoning for putting GT and VT in their respective positions, is it really all that unfathomable that Georgia Tech could be in Tampa come December??

In an earlier post I talked a little about why I'm so confident this team will do better than most think come September. And Dinich's reasoning doesn't make me feel any less confident. I mean seriously, here's a team in the Hokies who lose their top running back, Branden Ore, their top three receivers, Morgan, Harper and Roayl, along with their defensive studs, losing Vince Hall, Xavier Adibi and Brandon Flowers. I know we have a new coach and all, but the biggest thing we have to replace are our kickers.

If you went to Vegas and a guy walked up to you and said, "Hey I got a bet for you. I'll give you a 1000 dollars if you tell me which will do better this season. One team lost a 990 yard rusher, and three receivers who caught 60% of their team's yards along with their top sack man, tacklers and leaders in interceptions. While the other lost a quarterback who couldn't start ahead of one of the most criticized quarterbacks in team history, a running back who was oft-injured, and their kicker and punter."

WHICH WOULD YOU TAKE????

Stats sometimes are misleading, in a vacuum they are just numbers, because while numbers don't lie they can be made to say anything. (Favorite statistic quote: The average human has one breast and one testicle) But in this case when you take away the emotion why shouldn't this team challenge for an upper echelon bowl.

You have a coach in Paul Johnson, coming from one of the military institutions, who will instill discipline in a team that was in the Top 15% of penalties committed. (Navy had 52 penalties last year putting them in the Top 5 overall) The defense brings back its brightest young star from last year in Morgan Burnett and has two All-ACC performers ready to stop the run in Vance Walker and Daryl Richard. If Michael Johnson comes anywhere close to the potential we've heard the last few years the defensive line will be the best in the ACC. With that type of pressure along with Dave Wommack's new system, the often criticized secondary will not be put into the same pressure situations as before.

As I've always said, the kicker and punter are one of the lowest worries on a team's totem pole. If everything else takes care of itself those positions become obsolete. Name the punters and kickers on any of the last five national championship team's?? Exactly like a referee if they are average the game will run smoothly. Travis Bell shouldn't have been in the situation to make game-winning field goals, and when a punter has a high net punting average that means you are close to your own endzone.

There is a lot of excitement to see what Coach Johnson brings to the table come August no matter what the expectations. But we should expect more from this team simply because we've suffered in mediocrity before. Set the bar high and let them shoot for it.

And plus, when they do make it to Tampa I'll make sure to get a front row seat with a shirt saying "I told you so" on the back. And being right, that's all that really matters.

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

Baseball America Interview

An Interview from Wednesday's show with Baseball America's College Baseball Writer Aaron Fitt. Aaron discusses the NCAA Tournament and more specifically the Athens Regional.

Aaron Fitt Interview.mp3

Sean Moth Interview

An Interview from Wednesday's show featuring Sean Moth, the Play by Play voice of the Louisvile Cardinals Baseball Team. hear Sean talk about what to expect from U of L in the NCAA Tournament.

Sean Moth Interview.mp3

Possibly The Greatest Ever!?!?

As the days get longer the list of the sports topics and things to catch our interest dwindle as the mercury creeps up. And every summer the same thoughts creep into my head, who is the best or the greatest at various things. For most things it's easy like best Basketball player ever, or best golf player, but when you get down to it picking the best athlete in Georgia Tech history is a lot more difficult to discuss. First you have to lay out the groundrules:

1. Must have played at least two years at the school - While I don't think Thaddeus Young will ever be a Hall of Famer, it still doesn't feel like he was a real part of the Flats.
2. Their pro-career must be taken into account - It isn't just what they've done with the Old Gold on, but what have they come to represent as a professional or in stages off the Tech campus.
3. They must have contributed SOMETHING to Tech - Whether it was personal, All-American, hitting record, or team related, a National/Conference Title.

With that squared away let the debate begin (Feel free to leave suggestions in the comment section) and my nominee would have to go for Matt Wieters. In what is a pre-emptive strike on my part, I want to begin the Matt Wieters as Best Ever talk here today so I won't be described as a bandwagon. While his stay in pro-baseball has been brief just look at his numbers. Matt Wieters is playing a video game, while everyone else is struggling to make the majors. He leads the Carolina league in HR's, RBI's, OBP, Slug. and he's second in BA, & OBP. There is no hole in his game, and while Baltimore doesn't want to rush him to the majors it will soon be time for ESPN to put a "Get To Know Matt Wieters" montage put together. Who's your greatest Yellow Jacket of all time.

NOT The ACC Rookie of the Year!!

After climbing their soapbox to profess their preference for the new football coach, Tech fans should join together to clamor and make their opinion heard, this time for an injustice done to one of the school's outstanding baseball players. Earlier today the All-ACC team's were released, a group of players who performed outstandingly during the baseball season. There were the obvious names from the power schools like FSU, UNC and Miami. Even four Jackets made the 2nd team, a surprise for this unheralded team.

Reading down the press release I wanted to verify something I had assumed, that Derek Dietrich would be named Freshman of the Year. I mean he's leading all freshman in RBI's, OPS & Slug. so of course there's no way this guy will be not given this award. But like when you pass a bear on a journey through the woods, my brain hit the brakes and stopped. Alas, Dietrich wasn't the ACC Freshman of the Year, but instead it was Miami's SP Chris Hernandez. Now don't get me wrong Hernandez was a worthy candidate. He lead his team with 10 victories, the lowest ERA of any starter and had the highest strikeout total on the team. It looked like the toss-up between Kobe and CP3 in the NBA, but here's why Dietrich is Kobe to Chris' Paul.

It's not just the stats that Dietrich received, but also how he earned them. Early in the year he didn't have a Feltes and Plagman behind him who were crushing the ball, instead he was a one-man show out there carrying the team offensively. In one early series he even won games all alone with his bat. Secondly Miami's pitching staff has been aided by their team's great offensive outbursts to put pressure on the other team. When your down by six in the first two innings, it makes it easier to have a low ERA and great winning percentage. On the other hand, Dietrich has had to fight through times when his pitching staff was blowing leads and putting the bats in precarious situations.

Fortunately however, Dietrich can still do something about when the Jackets take on the Hurricanes in the ACC Tournament in Jacksonville on Thursday at 5 p.m. (That Game can be heard on WREK-Atlanta 91.1 FM, along with all other postseason games. Play-by-Play courtesy of Jason Boral and Kyle Tait at the ACC Tourn.)

Hopefully for all our sake this argument won't end like the BCS, untied with a bunch of loose ends, or the Democratic primary, instead Dietrich is talking his own smack, silently celebrating with an ACC Championship.

Elimination of Aluminum Bats

While I was browsing through the New York Daily News website (mostly to find more about the Yankees in yellow thongs), I noticed a family in New Jersey is filing a lawsuit against Little League Baseball because of the medical damage a line drive off an aluminum bat did to their son. It is a debate that has raged for decades on the safety and plausibility of wooden versus aluminum bats at levels below the professional ranks, and with the College World Series there is no better time to reignite that fire. Most people still debate the truth to the fact that a baseball leaves the bat faster off a metal bat versus the wooden, but just look at the physics behind a swing. If you go back to your first Physics class, you remember that energy can't be created or destroyed, but instead is transferred. So when a bat shatters in a thousand pieces (hopefully nowhere near Roger Clemens) imagine the energy it took to break that bat, and where did that energy come from? The baseball.

Not only would this solve some of the injury concerns parents have it would also improve the college game by an exponential amount. One reason, beside the money, a lot of players elect to skip the college experience and begin in the minors, is because of the ability to begin swinging the wooden bats as early as possible and develop a feel for them so that when they hit their mid 20's they are already stars on their way up the list of Baseball America's Top Prospects.

The simple cost of paying for a few extra bats would be well worth the develop of more refined college ball players and reduce the possibility of injury at younger levels. Plus that cost isn't even really THAT big of a hurdle to jump over. With all the wood around us, used for infrastructure and such, I'm sure that is a tree out there that can handle the constant barrage of force a wooden bat goes through.

An all wooden bat concept throughout baseball would usher in a brand new error, while ending the era of "Fear the PING".

Looking away from Division I for the real Championship

With all the attention given recently to the BCS and possibility of moving to a +1 or playoffs system, it would be easy to miss another NCAA championship outside of Division I. In the next couple of weeks Houston will play host to multiple Division II championships for competitors at the Division II level. These sports, golf, softball, baseball and tennis, rarely get fanfare even at the Division I level, but this time in Houston the competitors will be treated like the champions they are. The week of festivities will include opening and closing ceremonies just like the Olympics before finishing out with the championship competitions. Giving an Olympic type feel to some of the lesser viewed sports is a great way to give them some of the same emotion that both football, basketball and baseball receive. These teams and players compete just as hard as football and basketball players and should be awarded with some of the fanfare. Obviously with tradition and precedent it is a little more difficult to put together such a series of events. Seeing that Omaha has signed a contract to have the College World Series for the next MILLION years things would have to be modified for the Division I level. But let's start somewhere, and maybe the place to start is right here in Atlanta. The city already hosted the Olympics, how much more difficult could it be to put together facilities for Tennis, softball and golf (I mean who doesn't want to play some of the links in the Metro area). Something to think about.

~Jason Boral

Big TECHs vs. Frenchie, who would you take??

As an avid Mets fan, I often contemplate during games which player on the opposing team I would least like to see with the bases loaded and the game on the line. Recently this situation came up, not exactly but close, during the Mets-Braves series over the weekend. At first thought names like Larry Jones (b/c that's his real name) and Jeff Francoeur come to mind but after watching Georgia Tech's own Mark Teixeira he is clearly enemy #1. The numbers back it up too, last season Teixeira had a .600 slugging percentage along with a .400 OBP. Larry is nipping right on Mark's heels, while in those stats Francoeur's numbers fall to the wayside. Most Braves fans wouldn't probably think these thoughts are crazy because Jeff is such a godly figure in the area, but it really makes sense when you analyze it at a further level. Frenchie came out of Parkview High as one of the most highly recruited athletes, not only in baseball, but also in football. Fans and Braves personnel couldn't wait to get him to the major league level and were just looking for a reason to. Because of this Jeff was more than willing to swing for a homer with every at bat, instead of playing an intelligent form of baseball that helps out the team in the long run. On the other side, Mark Teixeira, who played here at Tech, learned to play the game of baseball and played to win in his years on The Flats. Throughout the game, more examples of this selfish mentality of high school vs. college players. While most still agree that going right out of high school and facing professional baseball talent, along with learning to swing a wood bat early is a must to make it into the majors, think about who you think is a better asset to the team. Forever will there be a stigma on players who opt for the college experience instead of jumping straight into the minors, but should their really be when a case can be made that three years of school against possibly lower talent is more beneficial to someone as a team player? Next time you're at a game of your favorite team think about who you'd like to have up there with the game on the line, and why? Then check out their bio, and see if they spent that extra year for calculus class or opted straight for the business of baseball, you might be surprised.

~Jason Boral

RWR Show Highlights (Apr. 23)

Did you miss this week's Ramblin WREK Report, well you're in luck because here are some highlights from Wednesday's show. Listen as we discuss the possibility of a shake up in the starting rotation for the Georgia Tech Baseball team. If you want to hear the entire show check out the 7-Day archive at wrek.org.

RWR Highlights Apr. 23.mp3