October 11, 1999

Dr Football's Questions and Answers from 10/4/99

17. Looks like a bad week for the Jackets, Dr. Football: they barely beat a 1-4 team and dropped in the polls. Is there anything to feel good about?

1. No :-) Well, maybe a few things. We can hope that the team learned not to take any team in the ACC lightly (a lesson that Grumpy Welsh wishes his Cavaliers had learned before playing Duke). We can hope the team learned that even if you stink up the joint for four quarters, you can always come back and win if you don't give up. We can hope the defense looks back on the great goal line stand and builds on that success for the rest of the season. We can hope they get serious, dammit, about playing it "one season at a time" and focus their full attention on the Dookies this weekend.

1. Do you think Joe Hamilton is now the leader in the Heisman Trophy race?

1. You bet your sweet behind, baby. Now that the latest of Bobby Bowden's thugs has fallen prey to the law, Joe is in very good shape indeed. Ron Dayne keeps having sub-100-yard games, and Drew Brees and Purdue are now on a losing streak, which works in Joe's favor. Shaun Alexander is a real threat at this point, but Tennessee may take care of him in a couple of weeks. Joe's doing the kinds of things that make the highlights on ESPN Sportscenter, and that counts for a lot in this competition. It looks good for him right now.

17. Georgia fans claim their defense is much better than Tech's. Is it?
1. This would be a good time to take an objective look at the numbers. Tech and Georgia have both played five games, and those include a game against a Top 10 team (FSU for Tech, Tennessee for Georgia) and four lesser opponents. Tech has played two teams with a winning record (FSU and Maryland), Georgia has played one (Tennessee). If you give any credence to the computer rankings, then Tech has, to this point, played a tougher schedule than Georgia has. But it's a roughly comparable sample of games for both teams. Tech has given up 24.0 points a game, Georgia 19.6. Slight edge to Georgia. Tech has surrendered 166.2 yards per game rushing, Georgia only 105.8, so a significant edge to Georgia there. On the other hand, Tech has given up 206.8 yards per game passing, while Georgia has given up 258.4 yards per game. Significant edge to Tech in that category. Tech's defense has given up 373 total yards per game, Georgia 364.3. Georgia has given up slightly fewer points and done a better job of stopping the run, while Tech has done a better job of stopping the pass. The two teams are within 10 yards a game of each other in total yards given up. Georgia has slightly better numbers overall - but against a softer schedule. You make the call.

 

17. How do you feel about Tennessee's drubbing of Georgia?
1. Last week was the one week a year when a lot of Tech fans become serious Vols fans. It's become an annual tradition: after Georgia runs through the bearded-clam portion of its schedule in the friendly confines of Sanford Stadium, the Vols bring pup fans down to earth with a good old-fashioned butt-whipping. What's even funnier about it is that Georgia fans on the Vent are constantly mouthing off about what a dumb redneck Phil Fulmer is - but last time I checked, ol' Phil was 8-0 against the mutts.

This year's victory was special because Tennessee has now broken Tech's long-standing record by beating Georgia nine games in a row (Tech set the original record way back in the 50s). Good work, guys! Let's make it ten in a row next year. And Tech players: let's work on our own streak of nine or 10 straight.

1. Do you agree with those Georgia apologists like Grumpy Munson who say the team is not playing well because it's starting so many young guys?
1. If a coach is starting a lot of sophomores and freshmen, it's because his juniors and seniors aren't very good. Just whose fault is that? Jim Donnan has brought in four recruiting classes for Georgia, which means that the players he signed in years one and two are now juniors and seniors.

The fact that he's playing so many young players is proof on its face that he did a lousy job of recruiting those first two years. You can make the same criticism of Coach O'Leary for playing so many youngsters on defense. Coach O has signed five recruiting classes - he should take the heat for not having enough talented seniors and juniors to start on defense. In summary: a coach can legitimately use the "too much youth" excuse for his first season or two - after that, it's nobody's fault but his.

 

17. Wait a minute, how can you accuse Donnan of being a poor recruiter? Everybody knows that "if Donnan wants him, Donnan gets him"?
1. That may be the dumbest thing ever said by a Georgia fan (which is saying a lot), and any Georgia fan who seriously believes that should be stripped of his Domino's delivery shirt and demoted back to the graveyard shift. That's about as absurd as saying, "If Donnan believes the earth is flat, the earth is flat." The statement can be refuted by reading off a simple list of names: Cedric Cobbs, Nick Maddox, Jeremy Muyres, Deon Grant, Cosey Coleman, Derek Watson, J. R. House. Those are just a few of the players that Donnan has recruited heavily and lost to other schools (or sports). After watching Tennessee pound on the puppies, Georgia fans may finally be realizing this.

 

17. What is more important: developing an heir apparent at QB for next year, or going all out to impress this year? Does mop-up duty with the second string benefit significantly the development of a newbie QB? Enough to warrant using a year of eligibility? Does the benefit to the program as a whole of a Tech player winning the Heisman Trophy outweigh the investment to develop a QB for next year? Could getting a green QB enough snaps to develop for next season cost us in the polls enough to lose out on a more desirable bowl?
1. That's an excellent and tightly related string of questions - just what you'd expect from a graduate of one of the nation's finest engineering schools (Ma Tech obviously did a good job of nursing you at the teat of linear logic). Dr. Football isn't sure he can answer all of them to your satisfaction, but here are a few points worth considering:
1. Giving a young QB enough snaps to develop for next season will not cost Tech in the polls - for the simple reason that Coach O will not put in a young QB until the final outcome of the game has been settled. That's really not a relevant question for the purposes of this discussion.
2. Since Joe Hamilton will stay in the game until the issue is decided, he will continue to pile up impressive stats, so the Heisman Trophy question is also moot.
3. There is an attitude among some Hivers that, "I'll worry about next year - next year." And that's fine. But Coach O has to worry about next year this year, because he knows he'll be bringing in a new QB at the same time he's rebuilding four-fifths of his offensive line. Assume, for the sake of argument, that Tech finishes 10-1 this season. We'll all be happy and agree that George is a helluva coach and should stay at Tech forever. But George knows from personal experience that the first loss to a non-FSU team next season will bring out the wolves in force. So finding development time for a new QB - even if it costs Brian Camp a year of eligibility - has to be uppermost in his mind. The coach does not have the luxury of waiting until next year to worry about next year.
4. A very basic reason why it's good to give as many snaps as possible to your second- and third-team QBs is that it means Joe Hamilton spends correspondingly less time on the field, thus lowering the possibility that he'll be injured.

Considering all of that, we can probably expect to see Brian Camp get a little playing time - possibly against UNC.

 

17. Clemson looks like a much improved team under Tommy Bowden. Why did they struggle so much when Tommy West was the head coach?
1. Like a lot of other teams, Clemson had trouble adjusting to the salary cap. It didn't help that Tommy West had an IQ that always ran a few points south of room temperature. They seem to have worked their problems out and may actually post a winning record this year. If that happens, look for another tractorcade to come rolling down I-85 the day before the Peach Bowl.

 

17. Will O'Leary leave town at the end of the year?
1. Coach O'Leary will definitely leave town at the end of the year for any number of reasons: Tech will be going to a bowl game, he'll be visiting high school prospects, he'll be heading to the mountains of Montana to hide away with other Irish-American survivalists hoping to avoid the impending Y2K armageddon. But somehow, Dr. Football deduces you were talking about the possibility of George taking another coaching job and leaving Georgia Tech (geez, Dr. Football, you really are slow on the uptake today). I haven't talked to Coach O'Leary personally about this (he says I've got a little too much grass growing between the ears, if you know what I mean), but I see three scenarios that could result in the stout man's departure from the Flats:
1. Notre Dame grows weary of Bob Davie's mediocre record and offers his job to O'Leary. With the Irish facing the prospect of losing five or six games this season, this is looking more and more likely.
2. Syracuse grows weary of the football team's perpetual underachievement and offers Paul Pasqualoni's job to O'Leary (who used to coach at Syracuse, remember). Pasqualoni recruits great talent year after year, only to see the Orangemen go out and lose to N.C. State (or some other lesser-qualified program). That will happen again this season, making the beefy Irishman that much more attractive to the AD.
3. Joe Paterno grows weary, period, and finally retires at Penn State. If the school decides not to promote from within to replace "Grecian Formula" Joe, then O'Leary likely becomes one of the leading candidates.

You have to figure that each of those jobs would be very attractive to Coach O. They're bigtime programs with stadiums that are perpetually filled (and don't need expanding), they would all have the financial resources to buy out George's contract, they're magnets for great high school talent, and they're all located in the Yankee northland (where George would be much more comfortable, in a cultural/demographic sense). I could see George accepting a job from any of those schools, and why not? Such a move would give him the chance to "come home" and be a success at the very top level of his profession. Who among us would turn down a similar opportunity in our fields of endeavor?

 

17. I've been getting into arguments with my dad all season long and it's beginning to drive me nuts. You see, he's a graduate of Michigan and a big time Big 10 bigot. Even worse than the worst SEC fan you've ever met (except that he's actually intelligent, being an engineer himself). He makes Beano Cook look good on minor occasions...OK, maybe he's not THAT bad, but you get the idea. His contention is that had FSU played in the Big 10 over the last 10 years, they never would have won it. In fact, he is confident they would finish below .500 more years than not. His contention is that while FSU could beat any Big 10 team once, they are so fragile that they would be so beat up the next week a team like Iowa or Illinois or Minnesota could beat them without much effort. He thinks that Michigan is faster than FSU. He also thinks FSU couldn't win in bad weather, ever. He always refers to Southern teams as small and not tough, and thinks the good Big 10 teams are just as quick on the lines. No matter what rankings I show him, he won't accept them, because the rest of the country doesn't play "real football." So is there any hope? Or should I just write him off? I'm dying to find something I can use to turn his thinking upside down. He won't accept a victory over a Big 10 team in a bowl game because he contends they are just there to "have fun" and since the Big 10 season is over with, it's just a big party. I ask Dr. Football -- what do you prescribe???
1. Dr. Football would never presume to impose himself between a father and his son on a matter as delicate as this one. The last time I disagreed with MY father on a football issue, he whacked me so hard that by the time I stopped rolling my clothes were out of style. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that there are fans who will always favor teams from their region over teams from another region, and let it go at that. Or, if you want to try something a little more daring, you might show your dad a videotape of the Cincinnati-Wisconsin game.

 

17. First, I like nude photos. Please include some. Second, what do you predict for the Cleveland Browns? Could Tech beat them? Third, who do you predict will win the South Dakota Coyotes' homecoming match with St. Cloud? (I have a lot money riding on this). Yours in overtime, a depressed Browns fan.
1. Unfortunately, Dr. Football has given away the last of his autographed nude photos to Dr. Laura. As for the Browns, even Dr. Football isn't foolish enough to predict that Tech could beat them (although AstroDawg and Bassndawg assure me that Georgia would beat the Browns easily, "Bank on it!"). In the South Dakota-St. Cloud matchup, I look for South Dakota with its triple option-double tight end-single wing-four corners-nickel back-trips formation attack to either cover or not cover the spread - and that's my Weiser lock of the week.

 

17. What's Steve Spurrier's problem? How could Florida lose to those 'necks from Tuscaloosa?
1. Visor Boy has now gotten aced out of the national title race two years running because his kicker can't put it between the uprights (when Dr. Football had a similar problem, he consulted his urologist). If this were professional football (which it isn't, except around certain neighborhoods in Tallahassee), then I would propose that George O'Leary offer to trade one of his surplus kickers to Spurrier for DE Alex Brown. That sounds like a fair swap to me.

 

17. Since Alabama beat Florida in the Swamp, is it okay for Mike DuBose to start humping his sexretary again?
1. Coach DuBose would be well-advised to keep it in his pants. In fact, Alabama's recent success can probably be attributed to the fact that DuBose is focusing his attention on football rather than hosing the office help. Three weeks ago, Dr. Football was convinced that DuBose was one game away from being fired and bet heavily that Arkansas and Florida would administer the killing blow - which resulted in a lot of annoying phone calls from Guido and Giuseppe. It looks like DuBose will hang onto his job for at least another week or two, or until Alabama loses another game.