Bird and Winfield gazed into the crystal ball of college football to determine what will happen in Georgia Tech's upcoming season. Today they discuss the month of September.
9/4/2010: South Carolina State
Bird: What do you need to know about SC State? They won a few games in the MEAC last season. They stole their emblem from NC State. They lost pretty bad to South Carolina last season and Carolina wasn't that great last season. And the only other loss came in a close loss to the I-AA juggernaut Appy State. I'd say the struggle put forth by the Bulldogs is greater than Jacksonville State last season but less than the effort put forth by Gardner-Webb two seasons ago.
Winfield: I am more worried about an unnecessary injury happening in this game (knock on wood) than
struggling in this game. Jackets win big!
9/11/2010: @ Kansas
Bird: CPJ is 3-0 against first year 1-A coaches (Cutcliffe, Swinney, and Mullen). I foresee him going 4-0. KU lost a lot of its offensive talent from 2009 returning only 0.59% of their passing yardage, 54.41% of their rushing yardage, and 30.13% of the receiving yardage. And the rushing game was fairly weak last season only tallying one 100 yard game after September. Even our shaky run D should put up good stats against this hapless offense. Tech should cruise.
Winfield: Who's going to Kansas to raid the Lawrence area?! Look for a group of recent alums who will be "partaking in the experience" all too well yet again. That'll be us. Loud, proud, and don't care who stares at us...what else is new?
Seriously though, Kansas had some firepower last year in Kerry Meier and Todd Reesing who were the big contributors to the numbers Bird posted above,but now they're gone. Jackets take Kansas.
Sidenote 1; I have a lot of respect for Turner Gill, only not on September 11th.
Sidenote 2: This game should be have been our trip to Ole Miss. **Harumph! Harumph! Grumble Grumble!**
9/18/2010: @ UNC
Winfield: Biggest game of the season up to this point. First of all , there is yet another love-fest with Butch Davis and UNC. I think this year it's something about a good defense. Two years ago we came into Chapel Hill and gave the game away because of turnovers. Sloppy is an understatement from 2007. With 2009 comes some new challenges such as a new defense and how to replace key players. However, an old issue looms ahead for this game, the infamous team with an off-week before they play Georgia Tech. North Carolina will be well-rested and well-prepared for the Jacket attack. If we can take this game, it's smooth sailing until late October with a 7-0 record. I'll step out onto the limb on this game and say we do it.
Bird: This is the toughest game (BY FAR) of the September games. UNC brings in their NFL defense against our anti-NFL offense. Tech has only scored 9 points per game in the three last Chapel Hill efforts. I expect this season to be fairly similar. Fortunately, we have KU and SC State to jump start our motor. Unfortunately, UNC has two full weeks following their LSU football-sexplosion-avaganza to prepare for Tech. I am worried that we may drop this one if UNC comes in with a lot of momentum.
9/25/2010: vs. NCSU
Winfield: Nervous about Russell Wilson. Not nervous about the Wolpfack as a whole. Therefore, NCSU stays with the Jackets for three quarters and they run out of gas badly in the fourth.
Bird: This could be our first 2009 FSU-GT of the year. NC State's defense allowed eight 100 yard rushing efforts last season. Four of those games were 200 yard rushing efforts. Only FSU allowed more rushing touchdowns to ACC opponents last season. Look for NC State to keep it close at first but to fall behind. RW throws some key interceptions and Tech rolls (ala Vandy 2009). Vegas line prediction O/U 85 total points scored.