Technical Tidbits 6/4

Just weeks after it was announced that Georgia Tech OLB/DE Jabari Hunt-Days would be academically ineligible for the upcoming season, Paul Johnson made the decision to rescind his athletic scholarship at Tech. According to the article, Hunt-Days will be enrolled in summer school to help make up whatever class he failed last semester, and his parents continue to be model caretakers-- they won't pay his college tuition until he shows more dedication to his education. The article also touches on the topic of Travis Custis's transfer-- he too was academically ineligible. Paul Johnson told the AJC that Custis expressed intent to return to Tech when he gets his issues sorted out, but a re-enrollment seems unlikely at best.

Last season saw the Blue Devils of Duke take the conference (and the nation) by surprise and win the ACC Coastal while turning in an impressive performance against a Johnny Football-lead Texas A&M team as well, but which ACC team could potentially be the Duke of 2014? According to ESPN, it isn't likely to be Georgia Tech. They cite a lack of "established stars" at the running back and receiver position, which is not entirely true. As far as running backs go, Zach Laskey can easily be considered and established player at the position. He has rushed for over 1,000 yards over the past two seasons (people who aren't familiar with Tech's offense don't think that this is a lot, but given how many different backs CPJ uses it is a significant number) and is on track to be probably the biggest part of the offense this season. Wide receivers are just not as important to Tech as they are to other schools, but I'd even argue that DeAndre Smelter, Darren Waller, and Michael Summers are all proven. Each one has seen the field and has play making ability.

Georgia safety Tray Matthews was released by Mark Richt and is set to transfer to either Louisville or Auburn for next season. This is yet another huge blow to the uga secondary (which people still expect to be unbeatable for some reason) that already lost star safety Josh Harvey-Clemmons and a few other key contributors from last season. Harvey-Clemmons transferred to Louisville earlier this off season and if Tray Matthews joined the Cards as well, that would put two starting-caliber safeties from uga on their roster for this season.

Full disclaimer: THIS ARTICLE MAKES ME IRATE! It makes me wonder how much research that author had to do before he figured out that he could call Tech "The Flats" at the end of the article-- he obviously knows NOTHING about Georgia Tech football or what the fans are feeling here. And while I don't hold him accountable for that, don't write an article that claims things about how other people who he has met feel about him. How can he say that all the high school players and coaches see him as an "arrogant and prickly nerd who fancies himself far above the crowd"? What an irresponsible thing to say! Hey, and let's just refer to all those millionaire engineers as "knee-jerk Wreck fans" and talk about how much they all love Paul Johnson! That's not total crap, is it?

The knee-jerk Wreck fans still think that because Johnson won big at 1-AA Georgia Southern means that he can win big at Georgia Tech. And downright nutty - many Jackets assume that Johnson can and will become popular to high school coaches and players in Georgia.

No, actually. Everyone doesn't think that. I wouldn't even have a problem with that if it was coming from a uga site, but this site covers the ACC and SEC in their totality. What a joke...

Daily Debate: Is Paul Johnson bad for the ACC? Please elaborate because I have no idea how that makes any sense. Seriously, I guess every coach with a strange offensive system is terrible for their conferences. Fire Art Briles, Baylor! He's dragging you down!