Orange Bowl 12/30 Mailbag

Is the Orange Bowl a bowl with oranges or a bowl made out of oranges? If the latter, what should we put in it?

Well with the way adjectives work, the word "orange" is describing the word "bowl," so, therefore, I would say that it is a bowl made out of oranges.

Now what should we put in it? Both bourbon and a barrel of rum were both suggested (both good suggestions too), but I think there is something much better we can put in it. We can fill it to the brim with the tears of the Mississippi State players after we beat them.

What do we have to do to contain Dak Prescott?

Dak Prescott is a really good quarterback. He was a well talked about Heisman contender for most of the season and for good reason too. If Tech wants to win this game, they will have to find a way to do contain him.

With Prescott, there are two things with him that an opposing defense must be able to stop: both his passing and his rushing. To do so, we'll need to get consistent pressure on him while also playing good coverage on the MSU receivers. I think Ted Roof will also probably keep a spy on him most of the game (either PJ Davis or Quayshawn Nealy) to make sure Prescott doesn't run freely the entire day.

Is there any concern about Tech starting slow after having so much time off?

There's always some sort of concern with this. Personally, I'm not too worried about this. The biggest adjustment when they get back to playing in the game will be the actual physicality of playing football.

I think it'll probably take about a drive or two depending on how physical the team has been during practice to get right back into it.

Can we get a cooler t-shirt? Could you or a t-shirt expert make a cooler t-shirt than the "you got swarmed" and "do the math" shirts from the uga game? Why not just make a shirt with "the kick and the pick" with the score underneath? Why can't we have nice things?

I'm not much of a shirt designer, myself, but if someone wants to take up the offer, it'd be a cool idea. The biggest problem would be that since all of the Georgia Tech logos and everything are copyrighted, you would have to make sure you don't use any of that.

How would CPJ respond to a pre-halftime interview with Samantha Ponder, and how did Christian Ponder get her to marry him?

I feel like CPJ would probably ask her the same question. As for his responses, it'd probably be your typical "we just need to do better at " spiel that we get all the time.

CPJ has come close to swearing several times on his live television interviews going into halftime......Is anyone else hoping it actually happens soon?

For the most part, CPJ is able to control his mouth when he's doing an interview. I imagine that if he were absolutely pissed enough, he would probably swear a few times.

I think it will be interesting how CPJ will approach using his offense early on. Historically we have struggled in bowl games due to the added time of the other time to prep. I wonder if he will come out in something new to surprise them or run a base package to see how they are attacking it and adjust from there.

Regarding the extra time myth, I'm just going to leave a response to a similar question below with my thoughts on that.

I don't need stats. I'd rather use logic. When someone is working on a project of any kind, would it not be beneficial to have extra time to work on it? In the same way, when you are preparing a defensive game plan for any kind of offense, would it not be beneficial to have extra time to work on it? It's not difficult to understand at all.

I don't think CPJ will come out in anything but the base flexbone set that we normally come out in. CPJ has said since the end of last season that he wants to get back to the basics, and that has worked out pretty well so far.

From every report I've read, this team is way more focused during practices than in years past. So, we'll see. I think they'll come out, and if anything, maybe start a little slow. But they should be fine.

Who has the best game statistically? Laskey, Days, Thomas, or Waller?

Well, I hope they all have career games. I think with the combination of passing and rushing yards, Thomas will probably have the best game statistically. I think he'll probably combine for over 200-250 yards total.

How does this game or bowl performances in general affect Jackets headed to the draft?

I think the player with the best chance to show off here will be Darren Waller. Right now, I believe he's on the cusp of being drafted, but if he has a big game against a subpar secondary, I could see him getting drafted. Especially if he has a good combine and works out well for individual teams.

Is there a good chance that Zach Laskey or Synjyn Days busts through the middle of the Missy State defense on our first play from scrimmage and have a chance to take it to the house ala Jonathan Dwyer vs. Iowa 2010 but without a penalty against us? Then after our initial touchdown Missy State realizes that our flexbone offense is a triple-headed leviathan with no mercy to bull pups and take a woodshed beatdown?

This might just be my favorite question. Just so much yes to all of this.

I crossed over the B. Edward Tankersley memorial bridge on Friday. Related?

I'm honestly not sure. It's entirely possible. Something I've learned in my 20 years of life, though, is that Tankersley is a much more common name than you would think. There's actually a castle in England that bares the name Tankersley. We have no idea if we're related to those Tankersleys either.

For those interested, I found the legislation for that bridge. Here it is.

With the Fail-CONS breaking my hear yet again, where's a Tech man to turn? Day-TWAH and Megatron? I'm thinking of Morgan Burnett ~ that guy under center? Tough hombre!

Well those are definitely two options. Beyond that, you could also take a look at the Broncos with Demaryius Thomas. He's always a good one to root for. I feel like Tech is pretty well represented in the playoffs this season.

Do we have positive recruit surprises in store for the next few weeks?

Man, I sure hope so. Right now, we're in a dead period of recruiting, so there's virtually no communication between recruits and coaches.

Official visits will also be starting next month. Not really too sure who all will be visiting at this point. We'll definitely be bringing in some guys like Marcus Marshall that we've had a close eye on recently.

As for other surprises, the guys I would say to keep an eye on, other than Marshall, are Anree Saint-Amour and possibly Dorian Walker.

Why did Georgia Tech, in their National Championship season of 1990, have to play in the Citrus Bowl and not the Orange, Cotton, Rose, etc?

I know at the time the ACC had a tie-in with the Citrus Bowl. But why didn't they play Colorado in the Orange Bowl? I'm not sure. I did find this pretty interesting article from the Chicago Tribune from 1990 about the Citrus Bowl having its eye on Tech and Nebraska.

Why do we have shirts celebrating one regular season victory? Yeah it was an amazing win, but it's not like it was the National Championship or even a Conference Championship. Those are games worth getting T-shirts over.

I completely agree. But it was a total business move. The Athletic Association knew that people would buy them, so the made them. Unfortunate, but that's just how things work.

There's no doubt that JT and Waller (and the other WRs) have been working diligently on mutual understanding, reads, and telepathy in general over these last few weeks. Do you think it will have worked, and in doing so give us the passing threat we will need to keep our ground game going strong?

Yeah, that was a bad play. But he definitely started to redeem himself at the end of the game on Tech's last scoring drive. If I remember correctly, most of the passes on that drive went straight to Waller.

That along with three and a half weeks to continue working on that QB-WR telepathy, I think we'll be fine.