Is your sister a diamond girl now?
No. My only implication with the whole "baseball players" thing is that she's totally "taken a liking to them", we'll say. Luckily, her big bad brother is here to protect her from the evils of boys.
In what favorite piece of GT related SWAG might we see you on the campus? A beer stained FASET (free) T Shirt? Calvin’s Throwback Jersey, for all things casual? Buzz embroidered flip flops? Anything posse-able? One of these? An Old Gold and White tie, for that little added touch of class for a game at BDS@HGF WITH A DATE? A Pizza Dip stained white Oxford cloth buttondown?
Wow. I gotta hand it to you. That was an awesome Schenscher shirt. Where can I get one?? My swag-o-choice is probably my Russell Performance Polo...so comfy.
Who is smarter, Nathan or Joey? And does Nathan know this?
I'm going to take the high road here and not answer...but yes, he's fully aware of who's smarter. ;-)
Who do you REALLY think is going to start . . . At the OTHER wide receiver position? At the OTHER A-back position?
At wide receiver I'm really expecting Smelter to start at this point. I know the kid has been hyped almost to a point that he couldn't satisfy, but it seems like he and Summers are the best options at that spot. For the other A-Back spot, I'm looking at either B.J. Bostic or Dennis Andrews to start. That race has been so wide open that it's impossible to tell though.
Who is going to have the best game with Elon from the the B-back position and why?
My guess is that Laskey gets a few big holes to hit and is able to bust off a couple of long TD runs. Also we could see Snoddy have a field day against a less talented squad.
At what point in the season will we hear CPJ actually say something positive about the team?
Gonna have to pull off a big win, I think. He doesn't do much in the way of blowing smoke up their rear ends unless they've truly earned it. So only if they beat Virginia Tech, Miami, BYU, Clemson, and/or uga. Which, for the record, I can't imagine us losing all five of those.
-What’s your opinion on the about the diamond formation? (See the top picture at http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2010/december/9/film-study-stanfords-lone-loss) that GT has been running in practice. I think think it gives up too much compared to base spread formation. One of the drawbacks of the wishbone formation is that the backs are less effective in the passing game due to being so far from the LOS. The diamond seems like it will suffer from a similar drawback.
I would agree with your assessment. There's not a lot to be gained by backing up the A-Backs. I personally like the cross-formation, "jet" motion that they do when lined up in the slot for pistol formations. The only useful things I could see them doing out of that formation is either a veer-type play (where the QB can pitch back or shovel forward) or a read option with a lead blocker (or two). Will be interesting to see what happens though.
-Assuming the Elon games goes as expected, how should the playing time between Vad, J. Thomas, and Bylerly be allocated? I like giving Vad the first half, Thomas the 3rd Qtr and part of the 4th Qtr, and then letting Byerly have the last couple of series.
I'd expect to see Vad for the first quarter and about half of the second, then Thomas until halftime and for 2-3 drives after, and then go to Byerly or even Swilling. This is the game where they'll try to get as many people into the game as possible by the mid-fourth quarter. Keep in mind that in 2011, when there was no real QB discussion, Tevin only played one drive after halftime before they switched to Synjyn Days.
-Is any concern about OL depth merited, or is the apparent depth issue really just reflecting that there are effectively 10 OL positions due to need field two teams in order to scrimmage?
Honestly, 10 O-Linemen is a pretty shallow unit but plenty to get through a game with if nobody gets hurt. CPJ likes to rotate guys in to help with fatigue, and so if you have 4 tackles, 4 guards, and 2 centers, that's more than enough bodies. That said, how skilled they are is another issue. I think the O-Line is banged up a bit right now but will be fine by the time we head to Durham in just under a month.
-In 2010, Washington played in 8 games and started all the games in 2nd half of the season following the loss of Nesbitt. Washington had 166 rushes and 61 pass attempts for that season. In 2012, Lee played in 12 games, started none, and had 96 rushes and 56 pass attempts for the season. Washington and GT won 8 games in 2011. Can Lee and GT win 8+ games in 2013?
Absolutely. I think 2011 could have been even more special if Washington were more talented. We would have beaten Virginia, could have won the Sun Bowl, and may have been able to put up a better fight against uga. If only one of those things happen you're talking about an even better season in retrospect (9-4), and if two happen (Virginia and Sun Bowl) then you're talking about a 10-win team. Tevin was still learning, and I don't want to sound like I'm blaming him for anything, but given his experience level at that point, he wasn't talented enough to take the team to any greater heights than he did. Vad and Justin's talent will allow them to overcome a lack of experience at times and provide some big-time plays at key moments in games.
Story is that Jeff Greene has left Ohio State and is now enrolled at Tech. What do you know about this and what does it mean?
I haven't heard a peep about this and am really interested to know where you heard about it. Nothing would surprise me about Jeff at this point, he clearly doesn't have his life together and lacks a father capable of helping him in that regard. (Remember that it was his father who made it worse when Greene was being a prima donna towards Coach Johnson that ended in him transferring.)
Here in Atlanta we’re kind of a car town, and, unless you’re a freshman living on campus, Tech fans are no different. The mascot is itself a car, after all. People from every walk of life love to decorate their cars with decals here to declare their various allegiances. Different groups seem to have different codes of sticker type and placement to let everyone know who they are and what they’re about.
For example, the fratty crowd usually adorns their SUV’s rear window with a very specific constellation of stickers that is almost never different – greek letters in white serifed font, a sticker spelling out the full official name of your university (on smaller SUVs just the athletic logo will do, but these seem less avant-garde,) and one extra that connotes your specific hobby. All must be arranged in a triangle using the third break light as the tip (under which to place one of the first two stickers.)
Families like to do the cartoon family stickers. I see lots of those white ovals with two or three letters (TYB, OBX, SSI, etc.) to let people know where you spend vacations. And there’s the ever-growing 13.1 or 26.2 stickers letting people know you’re better than them.
Here’s my question, Rumble Seat Ramblers, what do you have on your car to let people know you’re a Ramblin Wreck? License tag on the front? Window flags on game day? Something altogether new and unique?
I could make something up, but I'm actually more of a "no bumper stickers" kind of guy who isn't a fan of putting my letters, an Apple logo, or my school's name on my car. The only decor I could go for would be a frame for my license plate or potentially some flags on game day (when the time comes that I need to drive on game day).
Will the rain ever end??
You know, I'm actually a pretty big fan of rainy days. It's a nice way to break up the grind of sun and heat all the time. That said, it's been breaking up the grind for the last 3 months straight and I, for one, am pretty damn tired of getting rained on. So I hope so.
How did you spend the miserable dog days of preseason? Shark Week on Discovery or Mob Week on AMC?
My days were basically spent writing articles for this fine publication, and watching ESPN die a very slow, unbearable death. Bring on FOX Sports 1!