Genius at work

I never get tired of seeing stats like these.

… Tech has been searching for a wide receiver since the Denver Broncos took Demaryius Thomas in the first round of last year’s NFL draft. The Yellow Jackets’ leading receiver last season was Stephen Hill, who caught just 15 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns. No other wide receiver caught more than six passes…

… The Yellow Jackets were counting on Hill to emerge as their deep threat following Thomas’ departure, but he never came close to providing the same kind of big-play ability as his predecessor last season. Hill caught just three passes — including a 79-yard touchdown against Duke — in the last five games of the season…

Again, somebody remind me why Johnson letting Ealey score late in last year’s game so that Tech would have to go the length of the field in something like a minute to have a shot at a tie was such a brilliant move.  Desperate, yes.  But brilliant?  With that receiving corps?

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Good Lord, Kwame Geathers.

I can’t say what the new S & C program has done for other players, but Geathers looks impressive.

(photo via AB-H/David Manning)

If his game has stepped up as much as his physique, I’m looking forward to what comes of the nose tackle position this year.

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UPDATE: I’m not the only one.

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UPDATE #2: And check out the picture of him standing next to Tyson here.  Dang, that’s a big man.

Not too shabby, Gus.

In Gus Malzahn’s five years as a college assistant coach, his quarterbacks have combined to throw for 175 touchdowns  and rush for 45 touchdowns.  That works out to 44 touchdowns a season.  And, yeah, I know Cammy Cam and Tulsa are in the mix there, but so are Casey Dick and Chris Todd.

Dude can coach a little.

How can you tell when Ohio State isn’t being straight?

When Jim Tressel nods his head and says “um-hmm”.

… everybody’s got ’em.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that in its way-too-early assessment of the SEC’s 2011 season, College Football News has Georgia finishing third in the East with a 8-4 (4-4) result.

What might surprise you is how CFN sees the Dawgs getting there.

Sep. 3 Boise State (in Atl) W
Sep. 10 South Carolina W
Sep. 17 Coastal Carolina W
Sep. 24 at Ole Miss W
Oct. 1 Miss State L
Oct. 8 at Tennessee  L
Oct. 15 at Vanderbilt W
Oct. 22 OPEN DATE
Oct. 29 Florida (in Jacks.) L
Nov. 5 New Mexico St W
Nov. 12 Auburn L
Nov. 19 Kentucky W
Nov. 26 at Georgia Tech W

That’s right – wins over Boise State and South Carolina to start the season out, followed by home losses to Mississippi State and Auburn as well as a road loss to Tennessee.   How?  Well, other than saying this…

1) We’re going off our beliefs about how good we think the teams are going into spring, ball, and of course we can and will change these up a bit as things happen. We’ll do this all again during Preview 2011 time. 2) Remember, there have to be upsets somewhere. No one could’ve ever seen Texas being so bad last year and no one would’ve ever picked Jacksonville State to beat Ole Miss. 3) Remember, timing is everything with schedules. Getting a week off at the right time can change a season and lead to a huge upset.

… no other reason is given.  Maybe they think it’s that obvious.

At least they got me to link to them.  What do you guys think?

You can lead a horse to water…

We’ve heard about Lorenzo Mauldin walking away from Gamecock limbo and signing with Louisville, but what about his cohort Jordan Montgomery?  Chip Towers tells us Montgomery still likes the cut of Spurrier’s jib.

… The other one was linebacker Jordan Montgomery of Groveland, Fla., whose coach at South Lake High, Walter Banks, was furious about South Carolina’s treatment of his player. I called down there this week to find out if there had been any developments in Montgomery’s recruitiment.

“At this point it looks like him and his family are going to still be going to South Carolina or to prep school,” said South Lake assistant coach Terrance Larmond, who handles recruiting at the school. “I can’t understand it myself, but that’s apparently his intention. He had an offer from Temple but he turned it down.”

Skip past the part about turning down the opportunity to play for Steve Addazio.  Here’s a kid and his family who clearly know where he’s at in the process.  It’s not like he hasn’t gotten an earful from his high school coaches about how dastardly he’s been treated by South Carolina, either.  Despite all of that, he hasn’t wavered.  And I presume that South Carolina still wants him in one form or fashion.  That sounds like your basic meeting of the minds; may they both wind up happy with that call.

So exactly what’s the point of the SEC or the NCAA stepping in and interfering with that by changing the signing rules?  I hope it’s something more than “we think it’s for your own good”, because if there’s one thing I can say about both organizations, that’s not usually whose good they have in mind when it comes to making rules and decisions.