October 7, 2000

1. You make some valid points here and I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying. During O'Leary's first couple of years as head coach, I think he did have a tendency to "play not to lose" rather than play to win. The 1995 Tech-Georgia game is perhaps the best example of this mentality (Tech lost, 18-17), along with the 1996 Virginia game (which Tech held on to win, 13-7). I certainly agree with you that O'Leary has always struck me as a coach who'd like nothing better than to have his guys put their hats on and see which team can whip the other team's butt. Frankly, I think every successful football program needs that kind of toughness, and I don't criticize O'Leary for having that attitude. As far as I'm concerned, a team can never have enough hard-nosed kids like Keith Brooking, Travares Tillman and Chris Young on the roster.
   
   

   Having said that, I also think Tech has moved away from that "play not to lose" mindset since Ralph Friedgen came back to take over the offense in 1997. Tech didn't come back from a gigantic deficit and beat Virginia in 1998 by playing not to lose, and they didn't do it against North Carolina last weekend either. They go out there and play to win, and that's as it should be.

   As for your statement that Tech is "not the kind of program that will ever be able to draw the talent to simply overcome the better teams on our schedule with sheer strength or speed," I don't think that's correct. With the exception of FSU (and Tech has partly closed the gap there as well), the Jackets match or exceed the talent level of every other team on this year's schedule. The talent level has been getting better every year that O'Leary's been here - and there's no better illustration of that than the fact that Matt Miller, a starting linebacker on a 10-2 team in 1998, is now playing behind a true freshman. That's no reflection on Matt, who's a good kid. It's a reflection of how improved the young talent is. I think you may be underestimating the abilities of the guys who are playing in this program.

1. Maybe not. The North Carolina game was a weird, schizophrenic kind of victory in that you had players who made serious mistakes on defense and offense, then turned right around and made big plays to put Tech back in control.
   
   

   Take Jeremy Muyres as one example. On Carolina's very first series, Jeremy missed a big tackle at the line of the scrimmage that let a receiver get loose for a 52 yard gain, setting up a touchdown. And yet, Muyres came back later and smacked Ronald Curry down for no gain when Curry tried to scramble out of the shotgun. Shortly after that play, Muyres roared in on a safety blitz and tripped up Brandon Russell for zero yards.

   How about Chris Young? He blocked a punt to set up Tech's fourth touchdown, and on the very next series let Kory Bailey get behind him for a 78-yard score. But when Carolina had the ball deep in Tech's territory later in the third quarter, Young intercepted a crucial pass in the end zone to prevent a score.

   When Ronald Curry broke off that quarterback draw for a long touchdown, Felipe Claybrooks missed a tackle on him at the line of scrimmage. And yet, Tito came back to make two big plays during Tech's goal-line stand at the end of the game. He also ran Curry out of the pocket on another play and forced him to overthrow a receiver.

   In the third quarter, Greg Gathers had Curry in his grasp on a third and 10 play and should have taken him down for a sack. Instead, Curry wriggled free and completed a pass for a big first down. But Gathers made a tremendous interception in the first half to keep Carolina from taking a two-touchdown lead.

   On the offensive side, George Godsey threw two ugly interceptions in the second half, one of them a wounded duck that may well have been the worst-looking pass thrown by a Tech quarterback since Pepper Rodgers was floating knuckleballs back in the early 1950s. But George also directed four sustained scoring drives, including two in the fourth quarter that wrapped up the victory.

   Joe Burns fumbled the ball twice (Tech fortunately fell on it both times), but he also scored four touchdowns and made many, many bigtime plays on offense.

   The lesson to be learned from all this? Simply this: Tech has a bunch of young guys who make mistakes, but they don't sit around and brood over these mistakes for the rest of the game. Instead, they go right back out there and make big plays. That tells me a lot of positive things about their character and courage.

   Bottom line: Tech now has three straight wins over North Carolina, including two in a row at Chapel Hill. I can live with that.

1. As I said earlier, the Gathers interception in the first half was perhaps the most important play of the entire game. Carolina had scored once and was driving for a second touchdown that would have put them up 14-0 in front of the home crowd. Hard to overcome that kind of momentum on the road. Gathers not only dropped back into coverage and intercepted Curry, he chugged the ball out to the 25 yard line and put the Jackets in decent field position from which Godsey directed a touchdown drive.
   
   

   Nick Rogers had several big plays from his DE position, but the most crucial one came in the third quarter after Tech had gone up 21-14. On Carolina's next series after that score, Curry rolled out on third and one. Rogers fought through a block and pulled Curry down, inches from a first down. Carolina was forced to punt and, as we all remember, Young came crashing through to block the kick (which Tony Hollings pounced on for Tech's fourth TD).

   With the score tied 28-28, Tech had a fourth down on Carolina's one yard line. A lot of coaches would have played it safe and gone for a field goal, but O'Leary called for Joe Burns to run it. The offensive line had a good surge and Burns ran it in over Chris Brown at left tackle. That was a pure "guts football" call. And incidentally, it was the kind of call you'd expect from a coach who was playing to win rather than playing not to lose.

   There were lots of big plays last Saturday, but I think those three were especially crucial.

1. You're right that Godsey doesn't have the speed or quickness of Hamilton, and it seems a little silly to tell him to run the option like Joe did. As the old saying goes, you can't put a saddle on a mule and expect him to win the Kentucky Derby. But let's look a little deeper into this. Friedgen is making other option calls that are working very well. I'm talking about those plays where Burns lines up at fullback and gets the ball on the "first option" for a dive play up the middle. That call has worked well several times, most notably Burns' 51-yard run late in the Carolina game to set up the last touchdown and his 31-yard TD run against N.C. State. That's the genius and adaptability of Friedgen at work. If you'll remember, Navy had a lot of success when they popped their fullback up the middle on the first option against Tech. Friedgen worked the same play into Tech's repertoire and has had a lot of success with it.
   
   

   I thought Friedgen called a good game overall against Carolina - and he was matched up against a pretty fair OC in Mike O'Cain. That tunnel screen to Nate Curry for 33 yards on the second TD drive was inspired. I also like the way Friedgen has worked the tight end into his offensive scheme. Godsey threw two big passes to Russ Matvay and Will Heller that were key plays in scoring drives.

1. Absolutely. The pass protection for Godsey this season hasn't been that bad, and the running game has gotten a bit more effective every game, so that tells me the young O-line is gradually improving. During the first half of the Carolina game it seemed that the Tar Heel defensive line was overpowering Tech's offensive line, but that situation reversed itself as the game wore on. By the second half, Tech's big uglies were punching holes for Joe Burns to run through and were definitely winning the battle in the trenches. Give credit to Mac McWhorter for whipping them into shape.

1. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but I think the games against Wake Forest and Duke at home are as close to sure things as you can get. Unless space aliens abduct Ralph Friedgen and subject him to repeated rectal probes, Tech will win both of those games easily and be 5-2 heading into the Clemson game. At that point, it's lights out, baby. (In honor of Tommy Bowden's recruiting tactics, I plan to drive my pre-owned Jeep SUV to the game.) The Clemson game still projects as a loss, at this point, but I look for the Jackets to beat Virginia and Maryland and be at least 7-3 heading into the game at Sanford cesspool. And we all remember what happened the last time Tech was 7-3 going into the Georgia game.

1. I wish I knew. The defensive play has improved in so many ways this year: great pass rush from the front seven (Tech has 19 sacks after five games, compared to 16 for all of last season), a consistent ability to stuff the run, better tackling from all players, good calls by defensive coordinator Ted Roof. The one missing ingredient has been the deep pass coverage, and when a team gives up four pass plays in excess of 50 yards (as Tech did against Carolina), something is definitely missing. Bad coverage won't hurt you against a team like Georgia whose quarterback tends to overthrow wide-open receivers, but it can be a killer against Clemson and Virginia. I wish I could say that the coverage will get better as the season goes along, but I see nothing upon which to base that kind of prognostication. I really don't have a good answer here.

1. Anything's possible, of course, but the trends do not look favorable for the Athens Primate Center. I'm not only talking about the passage of 12 years since the mutts last beat the Vols - I'm also referring to Georgia's record against ranked teams in the Sanford cesspool, and it isn't pretty.
   
   

   Consider this: South Carolina won more games at home over Top 25 teams in the month of September (two) than Georgia has since 1991. The last time Georgia defeated a ranked team at home was nine years ago against Clemson. In the years since that win over Clemson, the mutts have been whipped 10 times in a row by ranked opponents at Sanford cesspool. Those 10 losses, of course, include the 1998 game against Georgia Tech. Georgia, in fact, has won only three games at home over ranked SEC opponents IN THE LAST 21 YEARS!!! Of Georgia's 10 straight losses in home games against ranked teams, Tennessee has been the winner in four of them: 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998. Why should we think the 2000 game will be any different? (Many thanks to Charles Odum of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer for his ground-breaking research into Georgia's home field performance.)

   It says something about the relative strength of the two programs that Georgia is only considered to have a realistic chance against Tennessee in a year when the Vols lost 12 starters to the NFL draft and are breaking in a freshman at quarterback and at several offensive line slots. Any other year and Tennessee would be picked as an easy winner by two or three touchdowns.

   I asked my good friend T.J., a resident of Big Orange country, to give me his take on the game. He said: "UT is in fine shape. Suggs is growing into a pretty good QB, in a situation not unlike ours with Godsey. Godsey has better receivers to work with, but Suggs has a better line, and also has the X factor for Saturday's game: Travis "Cheese" Henry. Cheese will run for 150+, and Dontae Stallworth will burn the secondary for at least 1 bomb. Defensively, UT will be helped by the return of Andre Lott in the secondary. His absence Saturday night had as much to do with the loss to LSU as anything. Remember, LaVonya will see 10 fast DL, and very quick LBs all night long. UGA beat an 'average' Arkansas team, playing without its best player (Cobbs). They are in line for another major wakeup call this weekend."

   That sounds about right to me.

1. I've seen lots of big hitters at the Flats: Smylie Gebhart, Tommy Carlisle, Duane Wood, Pat Swilling, Ted Roof, Marco Coleman, Coleman Rudolph . . . but the hardest hitter I ever saw in white and gold would still have to be the all-time Georgia Tech legend, Renso "Rock" Perdoni. As the nickname suggests, he was a block of granite with legs - a short, powerfully built pile-driver. Perdoni came out of Ferrum JC in 1969 and instantly became the anchor of the defensive line at nose guard. He absolutely killed Mike Cavan on a rollout early in the '69 Tech-Georgia game - Perdoni hit him so hard I felt the impact all the way up in the East Stands. Cavan was knocked silly and wasn't a factor for the rest of the game, which Tech won 6-0 in an incredible upset (for you trivia buffs, that was the last Tech-Georgia game in which one of the teams was shut out). Rock was a killer.

1. Before I got involved in the glamorous profession of reflex kinesiology, I would make some money on the side by appearing in gay porno films under the name "Buck Blew." It was not one of my better career moves.