Technical Tidbits 11/13: Jalen Johnson Named ACC LB of the Week

OLB Jalen Johnson Named ACC Player of the Week

The ACC announced their Player of the Week awards on Monday and among the honorees was Georgia Tech’s senior OLB, Jalen Johnson. In what was likely the best performance of his career, Johnson led the team with 8 tackles, including 2 for loss. The 8 tackles were one short of his career high, set the previous week against North Carolina. Johnson has long been a key contributor on special teams but is finally making an impact on the defensive side of the ball after moving from safety to outside linebacker in Nate Woody’s scheme.

Basketball Heads to Rocky Top

The basketball team is on the road for the first time tonight, heading to Knoxville, Tennessee to take on the #5 Tennessee Volunteers. This will be the final game in the four game series with the Vols. The Yellow Jackets took the first game back in November 2015 by a score of 69-67 but have dropped the last two 58-81 in 2016 and 70-77 last season. The game will also mark the return of Tech G Shembari Phillips to Thompson Bowling Areana. Phillips played two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to The Flats. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and tipoff is schedueld for 9:00 pm ET.

Hey, Band!

Our beloved Yellow Jacket Marching Band has received some much deserved press over the last few days and, as an alumnus of the program, I’m going to continue the trend and shout them out here. Last week, DL Tyler Merriweather tweeted at the band asking them to learn Sheck Wes’s hit “Mo Bamba” (why a rookie for the Orlando Magic has a hit rap song in his honor is beyond me but that’s neither here nor there). Band director Chris Moore was quickly on the case and sure enough, the band was ready and pumping the tune in Bobby Dodd stadium Saturday Night. The band puts in a lot of work throughout the season to get the pregame show, halftime show, and stands tunes up to perforamnce quality so kudos to those students and the directors.

GT Athletics Hosts Innovation Challenge

Two weekends ago, the Georgia Tech Athletic Department hosted the first-ever “Sports Innovation Challenge.” The Challenge, a hackathon type event, was spearheaded by assistant AD Doug Allvine who wanted to create a way for Athletics to work with Institute on research and innovation projects. Students from Georgia Tech (and other schools - the event was open to the public) worked on a variety of challenges. The winners worked on better ways to present and use data that the volleyball team has been gathering over the past couple of seasons. The winners earned a spot in a startup launch program and seed money to further develop the project. All in all, it sounds like the Challenge was a huge success and something to look forward to in the future.