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Since I have been dubbed by packerman as Benjamin "Bad News Bears" Tankersley, I decided I wanted to change that. This week, I'm going to be putting out a series of articles where we can discuss our favorite GT players and coaches. Today, we're going to discuss Georgia Tech offensive players. You can pick current players, or you can go all the way back to the days of John Heisman. That's for you to decide. So, without further ado, here are my top five favorite offensive Georgia Tech footballers:
1. Joshua Nesbitt - I was not very conscious of Georgia Tech football until the very end of the Chan Gailey era, so a lot of these players are going to be a little more recent (with the exception of number 3). As for why Nesbitt is my favorite player. In 2008, there were a lot of changes in Georgia Tech football: CPJ came in to replace Gailey, new offense, players transferring because of that offense (looking at you Taylor Bennett). Joshua was the first starting QB under CPJ. It didn't matter what the situation was, I always believed that if Joshua had the ball in his hands, something was going to happen. He may not have been the best passer ever (even though he did have more career passing yards than rushing at GT), but I always trusted him, and I know CPJ did too.
2. Calvin Johnson - Oh, Megatron how could anyone not love you (unless said person was a fan of a team in the NFC North instead of the Lions)? Megatron was probably the first player that I really knew about. Because of this, and other factors, he has always been one of my favorite players. Someone once said that wide receivers are only as good as the quarterbacks throwing them the ball. Calvin Johnson was so good, that he broke this rule in half. For Pete's sake, the man had Reggie freakin' Ball throwing at him. He still won the Biletnikoff award, was named unanimous first team all-America, and was named ACC player of the year in 2006. So, if that rule is true, Calvin Johnson deserved none of these accolades.
3. Clint Castleberry - My one old player on this list. I learned of Clint's story very recently. For those of you who don't know it (and you should), Wes Durham does a great job of explaining it here. The man did it all, and he was good at it all. He was a warrior on the field, and to this day is the only player in Georgia Tech history to have his number retired by the Athletic Association.
4. Jonathan Dwyer - Another one of the first players that I really remember. Just like it was with Nesbitt, I was always confident when Dwyer had the ball in his hands. The man was relentless, and honored the number 21 very well.
5. Tevin Washington - I HATED Tevin Washington while he was at Georgia Tech, as I'm sure some of you did as well, but I wish so much that we could have had him back last year. Tevin was never spectacular at QB, but the man got the job done. More often than not, he made the right reads, he was a wiz with the fake pitch, and he was the first CPJ-era starting QB to have a completion percentage over 50%. Again, he wasn't spectacular, but he could play. The thing I admire most about him is that even in spite of how many fans called for his head, in spite of how many times he got knocked down, in spite of how many times he messed up and CPJ yelled at him for it, Tevin took it all as motivation.
Those are my top five favorite offensive players at Georgia Tech. Who are yours?