Technical Tidbits 12/20: Dedrick the grave-digger and Christian the treacherous

Long before he was planting opposing defenders in the ground, Georgia Tech B-Back Dedrick Mills was hard at work digging graves and performing other interesting tasks at his job in a funeral home down in Waycross. Mills is expected to draw a whole delegation from his hometown, including a number of his former coworkers from that funeral home, which he estimates has bought forty or so tickets so far. That’s one of the stranger jobs you could find in high school, but it sure does give us a lot of material for future photo-shopping and general shenanigans.

We also got some great news yesterday when Kelly Quinlan dispelled any rumors surrounding Mills’ bowl eligibility, announcing that he is good to go academically. That’s a big deal for Tech, especially given the transfer of Marcus Marshall earlier this month, and Mills should play a big role against Kentucky in just a few days.

The Internet has to be angry about something at all times, and this week’s needless rage is directed towards college athletes who have decided to forgo their bowl games in favor of early NFL Draft preparation. Called “quitters” and “selfish” by paid laborers around the country, guys like Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey and LSU’s Leonard Fournette are facing heavy criticism for a decision that makes too much sense not to make. We saw Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith miss out on millions of dollars a season ago after tearing two ligaments in his knee, and we’ve seen countless coaches leave college programs before the bowl with nothing but well-wishes and congratulations. The former example shows why not playing is generally the smart decision, and the latter shows the hypocrisy of the whole ordeal. There’s another side to the argument which contends that players, being on scholarship, should be playing. That’s fair, but it also ignores the fact that two Heisman-quality players have contributed plenty to their respective programs monetarily.

Speaking of coaches who leave before the bowl game, future Georgia Southern offensive coordinator and current Georgia Tech B-Backs and quarterbacks coach Bryan Cook is having none of that. He will coach Tech in the TaxSlayer Bowl before heading down to Statesboro for good, hopefully adding one more feather to his hat with yet another very impressive performance from his two positions. Cook took a few moments to reflect on his time at Tech in the above piece from the AJC, hitting on everything from the development of Justin Thomas to the lessons he’s learned as a protege of Paul Johnson. Best of luck to him at Southern.