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.

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.

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

Fumbles, a problem... Not so much

After watching Coach Johnson's new offense stumble & and more importantly fumble their way through the T-Day Spring Game, a lot of questions have arisen about the fumbling problems the team has suffered throughout spring practice. In my brief football playing career I am familiar with the option offense. It is a great test on the mental aptitude of your quarterback, not only to find the defender he has to read but then to read him and make the right play. All of these decisions have to be made in a split second leaving lots of pressure on the quarterback and plenty of wrong decisions early in the process. Now in terms of the fumble problems, the buck doesn't stop with the quarterbacks, the backs also have their own share of the blame. In my opinion though this is much less of a concern than made out to be, especially in a game that the players get to show the fans what they can do. These kids are still twenty somethings, and some part of their brain is conditioned to follow in the footsteps of their hardcourt And-1 peers, so the urge to show a little more than the offense asks for is expected. Jonathan Dwyer dropped perfect pitches due to the fact he was looking for the nearest defesnder, instead of looking the ball into his mitts and getting six or seven yards. However, not everything is so easily defending when talking about the team's performance. Where were the offensive line?!?! They protected the quarterback slightly better than a sieve holds water. I understand there's a change in blocking scheme, but it's still finding the person and hitting him. Especially in an offense where the O-line should never be noticed, the linemen made plenty of mistakes that stood out to me. Tech's frontline was made for this offense, slightly undersized and quick, the protypical building blocks of an option offense. The first team O-line made the second team defenders look like Reggie White and Albert Haynsworth. If you don't think this is Tech's biggest concern, just follow Coach Johnson. Even through all the fumble problems and turnovers, CPJ saved his intense dialogue for only one set of position players, the big hogs up front.

~Jason Boral