Technical Tidbits 9/11

In yesterday's edition of Technical Tidbits, I gave the Georgia Tech offensive line a lot of credit for what they have done so far in 2014. While I absolutely still stand by that assessment (Goon Squad for the win!), depth has been a key point of concern for the Jackets so far this season -- two of the key players listed on the two-deep are yet to play a down this season in Trey Klock and Shamire Devine. Both will be instrumental to the squad's success in 2014 (and especially down the road considering their status as freshmen), and fortunately they will both be able to start getting some snaps as soon as this week against Georgia Southern. I am especially excited to see Shamire Devine play -- he comes in at a massive 6'-7", 370 pounds worth of line-anchoring power. Seriously, it seems to me that all he will need to do on every down is fall forward to squander any hope the opposing team may have of applying pressure to Justin Thomas.

In other offensive line news, The Good Word recently sat down with RS freshman o-lineman Chris Griffin. Griffin, who apparently has no relation to Family Guy (and has probably heard that joke at least six thousand times), stands at 6'-6" and is second on the team height wise only to the aforementioned Shamire Devine. Having so much young talent on the OL is really a great thing to see if you're a Tech fan -- without good run-blocking, Paul Johnson's offense would obviously not be able to function at all. I am very excited to see Chris Griffin and the other freshmen contribute to the success of the run game for seasons to come.

This week's ACC power rankings, which came to you courtesy of ESPN, were not very well received among Tech fans; the Jackets were ranked just 10th in the conference and came in behind schools such as Virginia and  Pittsburgh among others. I for one thought that those rankings were bogus and set out to find a fresh opinion, and my search returned the results that, well... everyone is down on Georgia Tech. The Jackets even finished towards the bottom of that SB Nation article I posted above, with the authors citing poor performances against lesser opponents as the main reason for the Jacket-squashing rank they gave.

If you haven't already heard about the current fiasco involving Ray Rice, the disgraced Baltimore Ravens running back, then you must have spent the last few months under a rock. The news of the attack on his then-fiance, his not-so-harsh suspension, and then his extremely harsh suspension have been plastered all over headlines for weeks and weeks on end. The latest occurrence in this saga is the revelation that the NFL never asked the casino where the incident took place for a video of the actual punch from Rice. That is a MASSIVE mistake by Roger Goodell and company, and one that many people feel should end up costing to commissioner his job.

What impact do you think that Shamire Devine, Trey Klock, and Chris Griffin will have in 2014 and for the next few seasons? Which will be the most successful of the trio?

Have a reflective Thursday.