Preview the Nerds, HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Ok, so not much time this week to blog, short work week, holidays etc but I do want to give a preview of the upcoming game against the in state rival, THE INSTITUTE. Unfortunately, I work so close to that place, I can smell the body odor of the Turkey neck himself, Paul Johnson. Ok, so you get the point that I DO NOT LIKE Georgia Tech. I will say, I have a lot of friends that are GT alums and fans. Most are truly good people and very good friends-in fact one of the best friends I have in the world happens to be a GT alum. He is NOT typical of their fanbase though. Here are all the common traits of the typical GT alum and fan. VERY smart,  NERDY, arrogant (a know it all) and they have a superiority complex. That is the common theme for most Tech folks, in fact I often say about Techies, they are very book smart but very ignorant when it comes to common sense. Now I have a brother in law that is a Techie and while a good guy he does exhibit some of the traits I mentioned. Another interesting trait to watch is his passion for his alma mater in football-he could care less if they are struggling but he is ALL IN if they are winning-to borrow from Auburn. That is typically the way of the GT faithful and one thing is for certain, those folks HATE UGA probably more than we hate them. Bottom line, when it comes to football, we are their Florida Gators, they seem to find ways to lose to us most every year. I HOPE that continues yet again this year. The thing about Tech is, I have always wanted to beat them because I can't stand the arrogance of the general fan base and their players-they buy into the UGA is a football factory, we are true student-athletes, YEAH RIGHT. But with Paul Johnson at the helm, it has gone to another level. It is very similar to when George O'Leary was coaching over there, the coaches themselves are PERFECT for that fanbase because they themselves are so arrogant. So, that makes this game even more important. Johnson has really been full of bulletin board material this week-here is a sampling from the AJC-

After practice Monday, Tech coach Paul Johnson sarcastically played the woe-is-us card.
“They’ve got a heck of a team,” Johnson said. “Won nine in a row, SEC East champs. Hopefully we can stay with them.”
Johnson interrupted a question about his players not needing much motivation this week by saying they are “probably scared.”

“Personally, I think the conference thing is way overblown. How are you going to evaluate? Are you looking at the top two teams in the conference or are you going to take the conference as a whole? There’s four SEC-ACC games Saturday. Let’s see what happens. Who’s favored in the Clemson-South Carolina game? Who’s favored in the Florida-Florida State game? Wake-Vandy? I don’t know. But you see what I mean? Now, if we’re just talking about Alabama and LSU, that’s different.”

He was asked about the strength of the Dogs’ defensive line. He responded with some praise but added, “I don’t know. We’ve played some really good players. [North Carolina's] Quinton Coples is a first-round draft pick. [Clemson's] Brandon Thompson is a pretty good player. This won’t be the first good players we’ve seen.”
He was asked about Georgia tight end Orson Charles. He responded with some praise but added: “We’ve played against other tight ends who are really good. The tight end at Clemson [Dwayne Allen] is probably an early-round draft pick in the NFL.”

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, whose oft-unfettered tongue and unwillingness to back down to rival Georgia have earned him the admiration of Tech fans, apologized for a poor choice of words on his radio show Tuesday night.
Near the end of his show, a caller, presumably a Georgia Bulldogs fan, came on the air and said, “Hello? Hello?” and then began barking before either hanging up or being cut off. Johnson responded, “Hello? Hello? He just got off from Walmart.”
Johnson, who earlier in the day had commented how most Georgia fans he encounters are cordial, said, “Anybody who calls into a radio show and barks is either retarded or doesn’t have a life.”

Now, take all of that into account and then read what Mark Richt said about GT yesterday-

“We have Georgia Tech coming up. Coach (Paul) Johnson and his staff have done a fantastic job during the time he’s been there. They are really an outstanding football team and one that we really have a lot of respect for and one that we know we have our work cut out for us. Anybody who has ever played Coach Johnson’s offense, they know it’s an awful lot of work to get done in a short amount of time. We’re thankful that we don’t have school this week. It helps us to get in a few more walkthroughs and a few more meetings.
“The toughest part for us it to get the scout team to try to vaguely resemble it. It’s hard to simulate what we are going to experience during the game. That will be one of the greatest challenges of the week as far as scout team to do a great job. They are number two in the nation in rushing and number six in the nation in pass efficiency. Third downs, which are so huge and we all understand how important it is to get an offensive team off the field, they are in the top five in the country in third down conversions. As we all know, Coach Johnson has a habit of going for it on fourth down too, and they make an awful lot of their fourth downs. That’s even more devastating, knowing that a lot of times if they don’t make it on third, they’ll make it on fourth, so they’ll continue the drive and put the pressure on your defense and your football team through that.
“I can’t imagine the atmosphere being anything but electric. I know that our players will be looking forward to the challenge. I’m sure they will too. We’re ready to prepare for that.”

Now you "get the picture" as Munson would say, the difference between having class and showing respect for your opponent, and being arrogant and showing no class.

Taking a look at the GT starting lineups, no doubt we have a big size advantage (and I will add a big talent edge as well).

Offense Triple Option
OT Ray Beno 6-2 290 Soph
OGWill Jackson 6-3 285 Soph
C Jay Finch 6-3 283 Soph
OG Omoregie Uzzi 6-3 300 JR
OT Phil Smith 6-5 292 JR
WR Stephon Hill 6-5 200 JR
WR Tyler Melton 6-0 206 SR
HB-A back Roddy Jones 5-9 202 SR
HB-A back Orwin Smith 6-0 202 JR
FB-B back David Sims 6-0 218 Soph
QB Tevin Washington 6-1 205 JR

Defense 3-4
DE Jason Peters 6-4 277 SR
NT Logan Wells 6-2 299 SR
DE Izaan Cross 6-4 292 JR
LB Jeremiah Attaochu 6-3 235 Soph
LB Daniel Drummond 6-3 240 Soph
LB Julian Burnett 5-10 222 JR
LB Steven Sylvester 6-2 240 SR
CB Louis Young 6-1 201 Soph
S Rashad Reid 5-10 191 SR
S Isaiah Johnson 6-2 195 Soph
CB Rod Sweeting 6-0 184 JR

Ok, so the first thing that jumps out to me is they are very young on the OL, and not overly big. They have guys that are more short and stocky, can move well to block for the option attack. Put it this way, the ONLY OL we recruited that I recall out of their group was Uzzi who happens to be their biggest OL. Their backs are small, even Sims for the B-back position is very small compared to the 230-240 guys before, Dwyer and Allen. Of course their biggest playmaker this year has been Orwin Smith-and he did not play last week but will play this week-I doubt he will be 100% however. As I have said before and will say again, IF our NT's can take care of the middle dive, with the speed, power and athletic ability of our OLB and also the strength and power of our DE's, I really like our chances. I am really curious to see how our D stacks up on Saturday. IF they can play smart, assignment football, I really want to see how much success GT can have running the ball. They can't pass the ball, they will pull out a deep pass here and there but that is because they get the corners to bite on their play fakes-I think our corners can feel secure enough with the other 9 that they can play bump/tight man coverage and adjust to the play as it comes to them. Hill is a big kid height wise but pretty thin, Commings should be able to match up with him after facing some bigger guys this year.

As for the Tech D, they do have more experience on this side of the ball and they have had moments this year of playing pretty solid D-the most impressive being the game against Clemson. They will no doubt come after Murray early and often with blitz packages, let's face it, they have to do that to create some possible turnovers. They have proven time and time again this year that a good QB can and will pick them apart if given time, so I look for them to pressure Murray often. I would imagine they will also do their best to stop our run game, hopefully we get Crowell and Thomas back-we have to have balance but we also have to utilize our TE's, TE's have killed GT all year, also take some deep shots on their corners. They are not short corners but I feel our guys can beat them deep-and certainly some crossing patterns as well. I watched VT run their white WR in some crossing routes and burn them time and time again. There is no doubt our OL has a HUGE size advantage as is usual this year, and especially againt GT. They do actually have a good group of LB's so we will have to do a good job picking those guys up on blitzes and against our run. If we can have some balance and control the ball, thus giving our D some breaks/rest, I really like our chances to win this game.

I look for this game to have some scoring and it will depend on how we adjust to the option and how well our offense clicks to see how this game shakes out. The last three games against PJ and company, we have scored 42, 30, and 42, to expect us to not score much would be probably not a wise thing. Course under PJ, they have scored 45, 24, and 34 against us. SO, all that being said, I predict us to win this game 38-28. The way I see it going is GT comes out strong early, maybe taking 7-0 or 10-0 lead perhaps but the second quarter has been our quarter here lately and I would expect us to get back into it and maybe lead at half 21-14 of maybe behind 21-14, then in the second half we score a couple of TD's while they get one or two. I think we probably ice the game mid fourth quarter with a TD/FG and then run the clock out on them. This game is scary because we do have the bigger fish game next weekend in the dome but, I simply think we have way too much talent and I really can see our defense punishing some of their guys-I don't hope for any injuries but the way we hit QB's and smaller RB's, if we get clean shots in on their guys early, they are going to be feeling it all game long and will be tensing up during the game trying to anticipate another hard hit.

I hope everyone that stops by to read my blog has a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING. Let us all remember how blessed we truly are. Let us enjoy all our time spent with family and friends and not take anything for granted. Let us enjoy our spouses,  parents, children, siblings, and friends letting them know either by words or actions just how much they mean to us. Life is short so let us all get along and be thankful for all our blessings. AMEN.

Go Dogs and thanks for reading.