September 30, 2004

1. This inconsistency seems to have become a trademark of the Chan Gailey era. He has an enviable talent for holding a team together in the face of adversity and inspiring them to win a game you think they are going to lose. Then the team under-performs and loses to someone it should beat. We saw that in Gailey's first season when Tony Hollings went down with a knee injury and it looked like Tech would fall apart. Instead, Chan took the Jackets into Chapel Hill and guided them to a win over North Carolina. Then Tech came home and stunk up the joint in a loss to Wake Forest.

   We saw it last year when all those players flunked out and some talk show types were predicting Tech would finish 0-12. Under Gailey's guidance, Tech instead whipped Auburn at home and gave FSU all it could handle in Tallahassee. Then the Jackets came back to Bobby Dodd and lost 39-3 to Clemson.

   I am forced to conclude that Gailey, for all of his experience and talents as a coach, just cannot keep Tech focused on beating teams that should be beatable. It's a skill that is not in his skill set; a tool that is missing from his toolbox. He can get the team up to play schools with superior talent, but appears to be largely incapable of keeping them properly grounded to put away teams with inferior talent. He is what he is. The Tech family has the choice of accepting this shortcoming or looking for someone else to be the head coach. I couldn't tell you which is the better choice to make.

   That said, there are other factors to consider when assigning the blame for this perplexing season. I predicted several weeks ago that Tech would have problems with inexperience among the linebacking corps and inconsistency on the offensive line. Unfortunately, that has proven to be all too true. The problems at linebacker are vividly illustrated by the rushing statistics. Tech has given up a lot of yards to teams that arent exactly renowned for their ground attacks: 199 yards to Clemson and 284 yards against North Carolina. That is frighteningly bad. Add to that the fact that the defensive line has not generated much of a pass rush, with a grand total of two sacks in three games. I know that the team misses Eric Henderson at defensive end, but youd expect guys like Travis Parker and Joe Anoai to step in and fill the gap. Tech ranks 77th among Division I-A teams in rushing defense and not that much better in passing defense (54th) and total defense (62nd). Not even Jon Tenutas best defensive schemes can fix that.

   On the other side of the ball, the offensive line can't seem to keep pass rushers out of the backfield. When the line does provide adequate pass blocking, Reggie Ball goes haywire and throws three picks against the Tar Heels. How do you explain it? I can't even try anymore.

   For those who think Tech is going to "play up" to the level of a superior team and upset Miami this weekend don't count on it. Even if Brock Berlin plays as horribly as he's capable of playing, I think the Hurricanes still have too much speed for the Jackets to handle. But I would love to be proven wrong.

1. Jordan's name is still listed on the roster and in the media guide so I guess he's still in the program, but he seems to have been pushed down the depth chart by every other kicker on the team. I don't know if thats because of injuries or because he just gets out-kicked in practice, but it looks like he will not be a contributor this year.

1. It would be hard to pick a "worst" article in the Journal-Constitution sports section since there would be so many contenders to choose from, but I think the funniest headline I've seen was this one that appeared in a recent edition: "School low-key on Greene's Heisman candidacy." The first sentence of that article began thusly: "Georgia has soft-pedaled quarterback David Greene as a Heisman Trophy candidate . . ."

   Well, duh. Georgia is pulling the plug on Greene's Heisman candidacy for a very simple reason: HE HASN'T GOT A FREAKING CHANCE IN HELL OF WINNING IT! I mean, come on, people. This is a guy who barely threw more touchdowns than interceptions last year. As for this season, in Georgias two games against Division I-A schools, Greene has directed the offense to 20 points against a mediocre South Carolina team and 13 points against an 0-3 Marshall team. That's an average of 16.5 points a game and Georgia hasn't even played the tougher defensive teams like LSU, Florida, Auburn or Tennessee yet. Greenes numbers in those two games wouldnt even qualify him for third-team all-SEC, let alone Heisman consideration. Are those AJC sportswriters really that stupid? You can't do anything but sit back and laugh at such thick-headedness.

That's all the questions for this week, but I'll leave you with some interesting statistics I gleaned from the official NCAA Division I-A record book (available at better bookstores or from an online bookseller like Amazon.com). We all have our particular favorites among Tech football players, but how do their numbers stack up against the best players from other schools?

On the list of career rushing yards, Tech's Robert Lavette ranks 54th with 4,066 career yards, which places him just ahead of the Citadel's Stump Mitchell. That's a long way behind Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams and Tony Dorsett, who all finished with more than 6,000 yards apiece. Eddie Lee Ivery's single-game record of 356 rushing yards, which was once the best of all time, now ranks 11th on the NCAA list (LaDainian Tomlinson currently holds the single-game record with 406 yards).

On the career total offense list, Joe Hamilton stands at 21st with 10,640 yards just three yards ahead of J-Lo, the immortal Jared Lorenzen of Kentucky. On the career passing efficiency list (limited to quarterbacks who completed 500 or more passes in their career), Joe ranks 17th with a career efficiency rating of 148.2 which puts him ahead of Eric Zeier (137.1). Hamilton also has a higher career pass efficiency rating than Peyton Manning, Rex Grossman, Ken Dorsey, Philip Rivers, Tim Couch, Danny Kanell, John Elway, Eli Manning and Shane Matthews.

We all know that Joe Hamilton had a mind-boggling season in 1999, but the NCAA record book confirms just how special it was. Joe's passing efficiency rating for the 1999 season was 175.0 - the sixth best seasonal mark of all time. The only quarterbacks who achieved a higher efficiency rating for one season were Shaun King (1998), Michael Vick (1999), Danny Wuerffel (1999), Jim McMahon (1980) and Ty Detmer (1989).

The NCAA statisticians also compile a career pass efficiency ranking for quarterbacks who completed between 400 and 499 passes in their career. George Godsey ranks 11th on this list with a career efficiency rating of 143.6 which puts him ahead of Mike Bobo, Thad Busby, Charlie Ward, Ryan Leaf, Bernie Kosar and Joey Harrington.

Some other oddities from the NCAA record book:

There have been just three games in which a quarterback has completed 50 or more passes. Wake Forest's Rusty LaRue accounted for two of those games in 1995 (against Duke and N.C. State). Drew Brees of Purdue was the only other quarterback to complete 50 or more passes in a single game.

Four quarterbacks have passed for more than 5,000 yards in a single season. Two of them did it in 1990 (Ty Detmer of BYU and David Klingler of Houston). The other two did it for Texas Tech (Kliff Kingsbury in 2002 and B. J. Symons in 2003).

Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State holds the one-season record for rushing yards with 2,628 in 1988, the year he won the Heisman Trophy. Sanders does not rank on the list of top 60 career rushers, however, because he played only three seasons and spent his first two seasons as a backup to Thurman Thomas.

On 34 occasions a quarterback has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a season. Thirteen of those quarterbacks played for one of the service academies: Air Force, Army or Navy.