As mentioned in yesterday's article, we picked up two commits last week, the first being DT Darius Commissiong out of Forestville, MD. The second is a little more exciting for our program, more out of a position of principle than anything else.

This fall is the last time they'll wear those blue jerseys together, but not the last time they'll wear the same colored jersey. (via blogs.ajc.com).

Commitment #5 came last Saturday evening in the form of the big OL Jeremi Hall, from Tri-Cities, GA. Hall is listed at 6'4", 335lbs and is currently considered the #6 offensive guard in the country for his class by Rivals. He's got a huge frame that dwarfs even that of Omoregie Uzzi (6'3", 300lbs) and should be a major help in clearing up the middle of the field on rushing plays. You may recall that Hall is best friends with Shamire Devine, the big offensive lineman we picked up about a week earlier. Hall said that he had no idea what Devine's thoughts or plan were in the days leading up to the commitment, but hearing him go public with a commitment to Tech reportedly played a huge role in Hall's decision-making process.

As usual, another couple notes after the jump!

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Yesterday was the end of my vacation where there wasn't much time for writing an article between drinking beer by the pool and eating ribeyes grilled to perfection, so unfortunately I made you wait an extra day for the recruitment update. But there's some good stuff involved, so let's get to it!

We have a couple of commits to discuss, but first a note on a guy who's yet to commit. One of our top prospects who's yet to commit is 4-star legacy linebacker Naim Mustafaa, who is in the process of deciding between us and uga. He's making an important visit this week sometime, and could be making a decision between the rivals shortly after that. (link requires registration) Stay tuned...

"I'm coming to Georgia Tech, son!" (via media.247sports.com)

Now, on to the bigger news. Last Wednesday saw Georgia Tech receive its fourth commitment of the offseason from DT Darius Commissiong of Forestville, MD. Commissiong has been a project that the coaches have been working on for a while, and Coach Groh was able to lean on him enough to convince him to commit last Wednesday. (Notice yet another connection between Al Groh and a recruit from the state of Maryland...)

Another couple notes about Commissiong and a word on me being a skeptical pessimist after the jump!

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I was having a conversation with my Dad the other day about the world of college football, and we got to talking about how Urban Meyer is the new head coach of Ohio State, and how he'll benefit from being at such a major school, with such a recruiting hotbed, and having knowledge of the state of Florida (and possibly Georgia) for recruiting. It was then that it began to occur to me that there may be only one way to unseat the SEC from their reign of terror.

Monday I saw a tweet (don't judge) advertising an article spotlighting a very highly rated linebacker recruit who had committed to Alabama. The tweet basically read: "Top-rated linebacker commits, and you know where without even reading." It's true, most anyone who read that would immediately think of Nick Satan Saban and the Crimson Tide, because with 2 National Titles in 3 years, they're clearly the most dominating and impressive program in the country now. Add in the recruiting dominance (more often than not, if Alabama wants you, they're going to have you) and they start looking like my Dynasty team on NCAA Football '12 for Xbox 360 -- a team that establishes on-field excellence, recruiting dominance, and is never rebuilding so much as reloading. How can they be stopped? There's really only one way, and because I'm a sneaky bastard, you're going to have to wait til after the jump to see how.

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We had enough news in recruiting last week that we needed two entries in the new Monday Morning Recruitment Update. Yesterday's article covered the RB commit Donovan Wilson, and today's will cover the big OL Shamire Devine.

via media.scout.com

Surely you understand why I call him the "big" OL, because while O-Linemen are typically big, this guy is listed by Rivals at 6'6", 360lbs, and other places I've seen him listed at 6'7", 340lbs. Meaning this kid would walk up to TJ Barnes, look him directly in the eye, and match him pound for pound. This guy is BIG. He's also supposedly a hoss of an offensive lineman too, rated the #19 offensive tackle in the country by Rivals. He garnered a lot of attention at a regional camp recently as a very impressive blocker. Barnes was also recruited as an offensive lineman before moving to defensive line early in his time at Tech, but hopefully we can keep Devine on the offensive side of the ball to keep Synjyn, Vad, and Co. protected. Devine commits to Tech over offers from Florida State, Florida, georgie, North Carolina, Southern Cal, Pitt, Vandy, Kentucky, and Mississippi State. Translation: this is one Hell of a recruiting victory for Coach Paul Johnson and his staff.

Another couple of notes concerning him and some discussion about recruiting tactics we're employing, after the jump!

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Monday Morning Moustache unfortunately wasn't too much of a hit, so it won't be a weekly feature any more. Instead, we're going to go with the slightly more relevant but slightly less of an alliteration Monday Morning Recruitment Update. This week in recruitment features 2 new commitments!

via media.247sports.com

Commitment #2 was RB Donovan Wilson, out of Dublin, Ohio. He was very nearly a "spot commit" (as in, committed on the spot) but needed a couple hours to talk it over with his parents after receiving his offer from Coach Dave Walkosky before he committed on Tuesday evening. He becomes the second running back to commit to this class, and should be the final commit we have at the position since we're only looking to sign 2. Like the prior commitment, Travis Custis, he's listed at 6', 205 lbs, though Custis is slated to play B-Back and Wilson is slated to at least start at A-Back. You may be wondering what the difference is between them seeing as they're listed at identical sizes but are expected to play positions that have very different size requirements. I'll talk about that and more concerning him after the jump!

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As a young man who is not an avid golf-watcher, I was not aware of who our own DressHerInWhiteAndGold was referring to when he requested a profile of a man named Gary McCord and his "elegant cookie duster". However, after a little research, I've learned of the gentleman, his mustache, and why I've never heard such a famous golf commentator call the Masters.

via www.jspgolf.com

As you can see, this fellow does indeed have a magnificent mustache (a bit of an homage to Rollie Fingers), which when paired with a small patch on his chin makes for a flawlessly executed goatee. I love its presence in the game of golf too, as it adds a nice goofy element to a game that is sometimes taken a little too seriously. As some out there are likely familiar, McCord is a commentator for CBS's golf broadcasts 51 weekends out of the year, with the exception being the Masters weekend. Why on Earth would he miss the Masters of all weekends, you ask? Well, Augusta National hasn't exactly invited him back since 1994.

(The story, as well as other golf-related news, after the jump...)

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I was waiting on a little bit of closure, but after a few days of rumors I figured it was about time to post about this one. A couple days ago one of the fine writers here at FTRS sent me an article from the AJC with a URL that suggested an O-Lineman was possibly going to transfer from Auburn to the Flats, and my first thought was that it was referring to Will Adams, which would have just been dripping with irony.

However, it makes no sense to "transfer" from a school before you can even enroll there, so upon further inspection, I found that we were discussing Thomas O'Reilly. O'Reilly was a very highly ranked guard in the class of 2011 recruiting class, and has a big frame at 6'3", 325 lbs. He would have to sit out this year (2012), but afterwards would have 3 years of eligibility and could compete hard to fill the hole left by Omoregie Uzzi's departure. He's looking to transfer out of Auburn for a multitude of reasons, including playing time, an altered offensive scheme after the departure of Gus Malzahn, and an academic upgrade. His father was quoted in the AJC as saying "it's not yet a done deal", but JacketsOnline publisher Kelly Quinlan would suggest otherwise (link requires registration).

Either way, we should know soon whether or not he'll be the newest member of the Yellow Jacket family. With all of our O-Line's health issues this spring, we could certainly use the depth, size, and overall talent that O'Reilly would provide, and he would very much be welcomed. Stay tuned...

Here's a good musical kickstart to your Monday morning, as well as for this article: link. You'll probably want it as a musical background for reading this article.

Wait for it....wait for it.....there! When you heard that initial guitar hit, what was your first thought? Chances are that if you've ever been a fan of professional wrestling, it involved the following face:

via www4.pictures.zimbio.com

That's right, brother. We're profilin' this legend for all you Hulkamaniacs this morning! One of the most famous and distinct moustaches of our time belongs to none other than Hulk Hogan. It's an incredibly visually defining attribute for such a legend, and such an essential part of who the Hulkster is. With perfect thickness, a color that's not ridiculous while being very distinct against his skin, and a technically perfect execution of the handlebars, there is really nothing that can be criticized here. He's a living legend, one of the all-time-best in a business that has reached folks (men, in particular) across every corner of the world. He's done it all, from WWF/WWE to TNA to AWA to Japan to an MTV show, the man is always recognized as straight up charismatic greatness, and there can be no doubt that such a legendary, signature mustache has quite a bit to do with that.

All hail the Hulkstache, brother!

Next week's MMM article will profile one requested by one of our own. If you have a request for a hero with a mustache you'd like profiled, please send them to jeweaver700 [at) gmail [dot) com, and I'd be more than happy to write about it.

Last week's poll winner was Pitcher Rollie Fingers and his Salvador-Dalí-inspired 'stache (better known as the "Snidely Whiplash"). I make comparisons to Dalí not because each was curly, but because each had a ridiculous, identifying, and signature mustache.

That is such a 70's-tastic 'stache. (via profile.ak.fbcdn.net)

I say 'ridiculous' because, well, when's the last time you saw someone with a mustache like that and weren't at least a little bit alarmed? I say 'identifying' and 'signature' because if your son came up to you and asked, "Who's Rollie Fingers?", you'd be like, "Son, I can't be certain but I think he was a pitcher....though I KNOW he had an absurd mustache." Which is exactly like if someone came up to you and said, "Who was that artist with the ridiculous mustache?", you'd have no choice but to answer with, "I'm not an art fanatic, I have no idea," or "Salvador Dalí."

Seriously, this mustache looks like it's flying away, which makes me a little uncomfortable. (via cloud.lomography.com)

Fingers is widely regarded as one of the best relief pitchers in history, and a major source of the creation of the "closer" role. He was only the second reliever ever to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992 and is one of only 8 players to ever have his number retired by more than one team (Fingers had his retired by the Athletics and Brewers). Further, as baseball lore has it, Pete Rose offered Fingers to play for the Reds in 1986 after he had retired the previous offseason. However, Reds owner Marge Schott had a "clean-shaven" policy for each of her players, which would imply that Fingers would have to shave his 'stache in order to play for the Reds. In response, Fingers did what any man being asked to shave such a classic piece of facial hair would do and gave her a smart-ass remark, saying, "You shave your Saint Bernard, and I'll shave my mustache." I imagine he then put on a pair of sunglasses and sped off in a sports car, with her fuming and her husband laughing silently behind her.

All hail Rollie Fingers, pioneer of the closer role, and more importantly the classic Snidely Whiplash!

In recent events that I totally should have seen coming, last week's MMM article poll concluded with Tech's white helmets winning almost a simple majority of the vote (48%!) over Aaron Rodgers' porn-stache, Adam Morrison's pedo-stache, and the classic Rollie Fingers Salvador-Dali-inspired-stache. So, as promised, here is a profiling of the Georgia Tech white helmets.

That spoiled mustard color is reasonably ugly, but good Lord those helmets are sexy. (via www.utvols.com)

When looking for our historical uniforms, I found this really nifty PDF that details our uniforms through time. According to it, we used white helmets mostly through the 1960's, more specifically between '64-'66 (under Bobby Dodd) and again for '68-'71 (under the newly-appointed Bud Carson). Other than those years, our uniforms have always involved a gold helmet, and while it is a very classic look that is a signature of our program, there are some fans out there (48%, apparently) who wouldn't mind a swap to a white helmet. There was a wonderful blog post detailing some possible changes to our design scheme about a month ago that I would HIGHLY recommend reading if you haven't already.

I guess my obsession with white helmets is sorta based in my obsession with properly-done white uniforms. For example, here were probably my two favorite Nike pro combats from last year:

(....after the jump)

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We got pictures with a few players, because we're just that cool. This is Isaiah Johnson, who I've known since freshman year due to an awkward bus conversation where I thought he looked like Charles Perkins.

As I'm sure you are aware by now, the Georgia Tech football team had its annual T-Day Spring Game on Friday night. Always such a confusing occasion, as you have us playing against us, and so it's really uncomfortable trying to pick who to cheer for. So my strategy has always been to pick one team and cheer them, and jeer the other team, if nothing else for my own pure entertainment. I was even walking to class yesterday in Tech Square and passed a couple football players, and was unsure on whether or not to tell them "Good luck tonight!" Just a really weird situation.

Anyways, after a little bit of pre-game tailgating (campus was awesome, big props to the marketing department for making this game an awesome party of a spring game) we headed to the stadium, and I have some notes from the game. Without further ado, here are some questions that we got answered in varying degrees.

What's the depth chart looking like? First half saw Washington running the first string offense for two series, followed by Days running it for the remainder of the half. First string included David Sims, Robert Godhigh, Deon Hill, Tony Zenon, Chris Jackson, Jeremy Moore, and Jeff Greene. Vad Lee ran the second team offense in the first half, including Charles Perkins, BJ Bostic, Broderick Snoddy, Sam McNearney, Darren Waller, and some walk-on receivers.

We have 5 players in the secondary with only 4 spots to fit them in at. So who's where? First team defense included a secondary of Louis Young and Roderick Sweeting at corner, backed by Fred Holton and Isaiah Johnson at safety. Jemea Thomas looked to be the third corner, as he got subbed in throughout the game (just not in the first couple drives). Jamal Golden was playing corner for the second team, and they think that he's the next special player in our defensive backfield. Also, Corey Dennis played safety for the second string and looked to hold down the fort back there just fine (including a scoop-six on a very wild play in the early second half).

We have a new special teams coordinator. Is Beamer Walkosky-ball a thing yet?? There were no live special teams, because a lot of the idea of special teams is to create giant car wrecks on the field, which is not good when you don't want folks to get injured. However, a number of punt returners were used, including Zenon, Bostic, Sims, and Young (I think there were more, I just stopped taking notes after a while). Sims dropped a punt he was to field but other than that they seemed to do a good job getting under the ball and catching it. Punting looked pretty decent too, which is always good.

DID VAD LEE VAD LEE THE VAD LEE VAD LEE-LY??? (Translated from internet circlejerk-speak, what's the QB situation like?) As we've heard, Synjyn Days is quite a runner, Vad Lee is quite a passer, and Tevin is quite a game manager/decision maker. Unfortunately, any combination of the other two don't specialize in whatever the third guy does (watching Days throw what looked like about a 30-yard sideline pass that ended up hitting the brick wall right in front of the first row was at least slightly unsettling...he missed on a few passes BADLY), so we need to make some improvements or we'll be deciding on our priorities at QB come the fall. Word on the street says that Days is likely looking at a move to A-Back, which I think would be a smart one knowing his running ability. That would make Lee the second-string QB, and as much as everyone thinks Tevin is the guaranteed starter, Coach Johnson made a comment recently to remind folks that there are 33 practices left until we kick off in Blacksburg, making me think it's far from a done deal at this point. Stay tuned...

More pictures and questions answered (at least somewhat) after the jump!

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Just a few things to be aware of once you get here for the giant block party that will be our Spring Game tomorrow night:

1) Synjyn Days' status is unknown

Days injured his left (non-passing) wrist at the very end of Wednesday's practice. It's unclear at this point how bad it is or whether it will keep him out of the game, but if it does, expect to see a lot more snaps between freshman Dennis Andrews, transfer Tim Byerly, and walk-on Darryl Dickey. The plan seems to have Washington on the field for only a couple drives, as the coaches are very aware of what he's capable of at this point and he's pretty clearly still way out in front as the starting QB.

2) We've had quite the injury-laden Spring

I want to say we have a third of our O-Line down with injuries. They're down to 11 (including walk-ons), and that may drop to 10 if Shaq Mason cannot go (he has an undisclosed injury, also of unknown status -- included in the above link). So if anyone is interested in playing backup OL tomorrow, come to the game ready to go and chances are you'll get subbed in at some point or another. On a more serious note, this is the sort of thing you risk with as much full-contact practicing as Johnson does. I love that he does it and I think it's much more effective than two-hand-touch practice, but this is the downside, where you run the risk of injuries you can't get from just running.

3) Daniel Drummond will probably be suspended for the VT game

He pled guilty on Wednesday to boating under the influence last July on Lake Lanier, good for 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine, 10 hours of community service, drug/alcohol counseling through the athletic department, and in all likelihood a one-way ticket to the bench for the Virginia Tech game. Drummond is a pretty good inside linebacker (he's one of two ILB starters) and it sucks to lose him. Hopefully someone like Jabari Hunt-Days can step up and take his place for that prime-time game.

Other than that, get pumped for this spring game! We're going to see a lot of Vad Lee, a lot of young players, a new defensive scheme, more secondary talent than we know what to do with, a fireworks show, and a concert! If you don't have a serious commitment on Friday, join us on The Flats at 7:45pm as we take in the one game a year where you really have no idea who to cheer for.

Continuing with the theme of 'things I would find entertaining that we might as well write about since we don't have much else to discuss right now', I want to introduce MY new weekly feature that will run for as long as I can keep creating content for it. Every Monday morning for the next quite a few weeks, you will arrive to work (at or after 8am, EST) to an article profiling famous sports mustaches. Why? As we learned before through a very extensive video series, we here at FTRS enjoy manly things, and mustaches are reasonably manly.

The first mustache we'll profile here belongs to one of the best, most well-renowned coaches in NFL history, known affectionately as "Da Coach". Yes, we're talking about the one and only Mike Ditka.

via www.dailyharangue.com

I'm not sure that there's ever been a more appropriate mustache. Here you have a football coach, from the 80s, who wears a coat and tie mixed with a ridiculous, trademark sweater and aviators on the sidelines, with a 'stache that is none-too-overpowering. Well shaped, well groomed, and almost unnoticeable because it just fits so well. Not to mention that this mustache powered him to a .631 winning percentage and a Super Bowl ring in 11 years as head coach of the Bears. This is the kind of mustache that all men only dream of growing, in that it's classic, impressive, and brings success. All hail the Ditka-stache.

To encourage reader participation, I will leave a poll at the bottom so that you can vote on next week's mustache to be profiled. Each week you will get 3 choices, as well as the option to bring back our white football helmets.

(On a side note, I have a future roommate who is probably "pitching a tent" after reading an article concerning how awesome the Bears ("DAAAAA Bears") and Da Coach are. You know who you are.)

A few weeks ago, we offered a review of Georgia Tech's 2011-2012 basketball season, which not only introduced the Greg-o-rymeter (pronounced Greg-o-RIM-iter) to our fine site, but also functioned as a sort of performance review for Coach Gregory, so we won't bore you again with the same content. However, I need to hit 150 words to make this a legitimate article, so I'll give you a quick Gregory-focused rundown of our basketball program.

Nobody is really too concerned with how this season turned out, as nobody had any sort of expectations coming in. The idea was new coach, no home stadium, no reason to expect too much from these guys. There were a few bright spots in the season, even in losses that were a lot closer than anyone would have predicted, and overall there were some encouraging signs from the team that we didn't have under Paul Hewitt, including such absurd things as "organized offense" and "fundamentals".

Looking forward, we have a solid recruiting class coming in, including a couple of 4-star prospects, a 3-star prospect, and the son of "Ironhead" Heyward and brother of Cameron Heyward. Also, seeing as Gregory came out of the coaching tree of Tom Izzo, he has quite the defensive mind, and the team has already shown signs of picking up on that. Hopefully we can harness the talent on our roster next year and make a significant improvement going into next year. At this point, the fanbase will be thrilled to see some improvement of any sort, and as long as the team is improving noticeably I think folks will be as thrilled to have Coach Gregory around as he is to be around.

Paul Johnson concluded his 4th season at the helms of the Georgia Tech football program with a loss to Utah in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve. It was the end of a season that went much better than many expected, as the team met its expected win total for the season before it even lost (Tech started the year 6-0 before losing in Charlottesville to UVA). However, it was a rough finish to the season, featuring a huge win over then-undefeated Clemson on national television but also including losses to Virginia Tech and the DWAGS, followed by the loss in the bowl game. Basically a 6-0 start was followed by a 2-5 finish, for an 8-5 season. It was better than expected from such a young team with a starting QB who had minimal experience, but left a lot of fans feeling like the team had even more in it. Some mistakes were made that cost us games at times, and it's hard for the fan base to know we were only a few plays from a 10-3 season, an ACC Championship appearance, or at least a bowl win. But the bottom line is this: the team was better than expected, and should continue to improve and work closer to a Coastal Division championship.

Coach Johnson is a great fit at Georgia Tech because he's been able to achieve great success relative to the quality of players he's recruited due to being a fantastic coach. I don't think that we've had a Top 25 recruiting class since Johnson took over, and yet we're a major competitor for the division title each year. Though I believe in what he says about recruiting rankings being largely bullshit, it also feels good that we outperform teams who have higher-ranked recruits, regardless of the validity of the rankings. In his time at Tech, we have gone 34-19 overall, though 14-12 the past two years. Some are discouraged by that, but I would contend that he had to do a bit of rebuilding once Gailey's players mostly left. His disciplined redshirting and altering of our defensive scheme caused a temporary drop in success, but is a very good thing for this team in the long run.

In firing Dave Wommack as defensive coordinator coming off of a conference championship, Johnson showed a relentless desire to win and make any moves necessary to put his team in a position to do so. Al Groh's defense the past two years has been like ordering a delicious bison burger, only to find out that the burger was actually made from Taco Bell-grade meat. No knocks on Taco Bell or anything, but it's entirely questionable to compare that in quality to one of the bison burgers from Ted's Montana Grill. Basically the idea is that you're trying to create this beautiful things with subpar supplies, where Groh's defense was pieced together using players who were not really good fits for the positions they were playing (seriously, as quick as OLBs are supposed to be, watching former DE Anthony Egbuniwe try to chase down ANYONE was really painful...).

This year looks to be a big one for the Jackets. This is the year that we have the right pieces in the right places. This is the year that we don't have to settle for guys playing positions because they're the least bad at them, and the year where we have some really quality young players that will work hard and push each other so that we have the best possible athletes all over the field. Groh's defense is installed so that the right players are in the right positions and know what they need to be doing. Johnson has a lot of talented players in the right positions on offense, and swallowed his pride in hiring a special teams coordinator to correct issues with that part of the team. I look for this year to be a major one in Paul Johnson's tenure at Tech. I expect for us to be surprised and impressed with the team that we're watching, and I expect for us to outperform the expectations that people have for us.

Most importantly, I expect Johnson to continue doing anything he can to make our program the best it possibly can be, and I expect continued success with him at the helms. I'm very happy that he's our coach and think he's done a fantastic job to date, and hope to continue holding those sentiments for years to come.

How do you feel about Coach Johnson? Like him? Hate him? Just want the Throwback Thursday white helmets back? Let's hear it.

This week we're going to take a look at some of the leaders in our athletics department and give them a "performance review", checking in on their time and success here at the Institute. First up, the leader of the leaders, Athletic Director Dan Radakovich.

Director Radakovich is in his 6th year on the Flats after being hired to replace Dave Braine in 2006. In his time here, we've seen some pretty big changes in our sports teams and some bigger ones in our on-campus facilities. Hires that Radakovich has made include two more men who will be discussed this week in our head football coach Paul Johnson and head men's basketball coach Brian Gregory. It would seem that we have a lot of the right people in place, as our programs have seen a lot of success and our coaches have received significant recognition during DRad's tenure in the form of ACC and national coach of the year awards (10 and 3 times, respectively). His term has also seen the renovation of the McCamish Pavilion (neé Alexander Memorial Coliseum), the development of the indoor football practice facility, the renovation of the softball field, the creation of the Zelnak basketball practice facility, and the renovation of the Edge center to include more academic support services for student athletes (the tennis center is soon to undergo major renovations as well).

He's done quite a lot of good for the school's athletic programs, but there have also been some downsides. The fan base seems to largely be placing the blame on Radakovich for the loss of the 2009 ACC Football Championship, saying it was his poor administration that caused that to happen. Some are also frustrated with our recent lack of success in basketball (though I think that's more due to the bed that was made for Radakovich by the documented brilliance of one Dave Braine), and there are always the folks looking for Paul Johnson to be fired. Another major issue folks have with him is our continued inability to sell enough tickets to fill Bobby Dodd Stadium while other local programs don't have such an issue. Finally, the financial state of the athletic department isn't exactly what one would call ideal, as we suffer from Paul Hewitt's enormous buyout and have to make payments on our newly developed facilities.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with Dan Radakovich as Georgia Tech's athletic director. I think some folks have issues with him here or there, but in his 6 years on the Flats, he's done some incredible things for our campus and our school. The only sports that our school isn't a major national player in are football and basketball, and even then football can be debated on what counts as a major national player while basketball is in a rebuilding stage and is providing reason to be encouraged looking forward. As far as the ticket sales go, I would like to see a different approach taken that focuses more on attendance than money, but at the same time our athletic department's financial situation may not allow for a strategy along those lines at this point in time. Regardless, I think it's fair to say that the fans as a whole are generally pleased with Director Radakovich, and I personally look forward to seeing how he continues to better our campus, our institution, and our athletic programs.

March Madness is never quite the same when your favorite team isn't playing in it. However, a lot of us are still big enough sports fans to pick another team that we want to pull for. Who is your 'other team'? Do you have another favorite team? Are you hoping to see an All-ACC Final 4? Do you just pull against uga, even though they aren't in the tournament at all?

My second team is the Louisville Cardinals, which has come in handy at this time of the year quite a bit lately. My father was raised in Louisville, and between that and my mother's entire family being some seriously obnoxious Kentucky fans (annoying SEC fans exist....who knew?), I've always pulled for the Cardinals. I love Rick Pitino, but have the Cardinals going down in the Sweet Sixteen to my eventual champion, Michigan State. Do you let your allegiances affect how you pick a bracket? I guess I do, but more in that I trust that none of my favorite teams will ever win the big one, so it's more in figuring out where I expect them to lose. Yay for optimism!

They can take the trophy, but they can't take this moment from Tech fans everywhere. (via blogs.ajc.com)

An announcement was made last Friday of the NCAA's upholding of the sanctions it levied against Georgia Tech due to the alleged illegal benefits allegedly received by Demaryius Thomas and Morgan Burnett....allegedly. It is unfortunate, and Tech fans everywhere are less than thrilled over the punishment that included the return of our 2009 ACC Championship trophy. Honestly, I can't stand the fact that we were given such nasty punishments. Here are my top 5 reasons as to why this sucks so bad.

1) The Actions Investigated Were Never Proven Illegal

The initial reason for investigating Demaryius Thomas was his receiving $312 worth of clothes from who was believed to be an agent by the NCAA, but turned out to be his cousin's roommate. Also, he never wore the clothes and returned them to the NCAA with the tags intact. So basically, at the end of the day, the NCAA had no real reason to investigate us in the first place. It's like being pulled over for driving a car that's licensed to someone with a suspended license (even though you haven't stolen the car and have a valid license) and getting a ticket for not wearing a seat belt -- the reason for initial contact with authorities has nothing to do with the reason you were punished, and in reality you weren't doing anything wrong to begin with. That sucks.

2) The Investigation Was Conducted By A UNC Alumnus

At first glance, you may wonder the relevance of this. Why would someone who came out of a fellow ACC school have it out for us? We're not rivals with UNC and there's no reason that he would have ill will towards us, right? Well, partially. Keep in mind that UNC has been under investigations themselves, which ended in the firing of their head coach Butch Davis prior to the 2011 season, and more recently a 2012 postseason ban and the loss of 15 scholarships over the next 3 years. Needless to say, the NCAA was going to come down hard on them, and I'm sure someone on the inside saw the storm brewing. So now you have someone on the inside who is likely aware that his alma mater is in hot water with the NCAA, and to make matters more interesting, he's conducting an investigation of his own. Now, I'm not going to suggest that he wanted revenge or wanted to make his school look a little less bad through giving us ridiculous sanctions, but I WILL say that it was very, very poor judgment by the NCAA to put someone into power who could possibly have any incentive to not be 100% impartial and objective. If they really knew what they were doing, they would have taken someone with no affiliation whatsoever with Tech (i.e. not affiliated with an ACC school or georgie), and whose alma mater has not been affected by major sanctions any time recently. Again, it's not that he wasn't impartial, but the problem I have is that there's a legitimate reason to call into question whether his judgment could have been impaired, which is enough to make his appointment a poor move by the NCAA.

Reasons 3-5 after the jump!

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Meaning it's a fantastic day to link to articles that make us look better. First, the sports related one:

One of the best draft prospects coming out of Athens was TE Orson Charles. That is, until he had a bit of a crappy combine/pro day combination. Now it's looking a little more dreary for him going into next month's draft: he was arrested for DUI this morning. No doubt, the kid's had a rough week, and you have to feel for him. But then you remember he's from georgie, and you feel a little less bad for him.

On a less sports-related note but a more lol-it's-georgie note, some of Athens' finest freshmen have been joined in Creswell hall by a ton of rats....and not the "Tech freshman" variety (RATS), the has-a-tail-and-eats garbage variety. The infestation has apparently become pretty rampant this year, and I say "this year" because apparently they always get infestations in the winter but this year has just been particularly bad. If there was ever a moment I was more happy that I didn't go to uga, I cannot for the life of me remember it. I'm even more happy about it than when I found out about the security guard that keeps the dorms safe up there. For those unaware of what I'm talking about, here's a picture of him on duty:

(via)

Wait, crap....no, apparently that isn't a security guard. It's a third-year student. My mistake.

One more thing I'll mention today is the new SBNation YouTube show featuring Jason Kirk (of SBN Atlanta) and Spencer Hall (of EDSBS.com) named Shutdown Fullback. If you haven't seen it yet, I would highly recommend you watch it. Seriously, that show is one of the best things that's ever happened to the internet. Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend, and GO JACKETS! THWg!

On the eve of the 2012 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament starting, I thought I would take a look back at the season that was, providing some insight on what we should be encouraged about when looking ahead to next year. I'll break it down by month, and each month will include one of Coach Gregory's many entertaining facial expressions as a representation of how it went.

November - Slow Out of the Gate
Wins: Florida A&M, Delaware St, Virginia Commonwealth (ahem, VCU), Siena
Losses: St. Joe's, LSU, Northwestern

We went 4-3 in the first month of the season, and while it was a little comforting having an above .500 record, a 13-point loss to St. Joe's and a 9-point loss to LSU were pretty unsettling. I was at the Northwestern game at Phillips, and it was a pretty bad loss. Not because Northwestern's a bad team (they're currently on the bubble of making the Dance), but because we just looked awful. A major bright spot for us was a big 13-point win over the Virginia Commonwealth Rams, who finished 28-6 and CAA champs, and who you might remember went to the Final Four last year.

Greg-o-rymeter (pronounced Greg-o-rimiter)

Coach Gregory is not amused. (via)

December - Anything but Encouraging
Wins: @georgie, @Savannah State, Alabama A&M
Losses: @Tulane, Mercer, @Fordham

December's probably where the fanbase started struggling with any emotional attachment they had to the team. We had a good win over georgie in Athens that excited folks around the program and ignited another two wins, but back-to-back 6-point losses against Mercer (at home!) and at Fordham (which went 10-19 overall and 3-13 in the Atlantic 10...) were really not a good sign looking forward. I went to the Alabama A&M game on Dec 19, and while it was a win, it was awfully easy to see that we were struggling to beat a team that we would have expected to stomp. We didn't pull away until about 3/4 of the way through the game (maybe later), and that was pretty hard to watch. Also hard to watch was an AAM fan who was probably about a solid 350lbs of fat and obnoxious. Our band played the fight song as the players were running to the locker room after warm ups, and he subsequently stood up, clapping and singing the A&M song. Seriously, parents were covering their kids' eyes. Also our band reciprocated by pointing right at him and blasting a very satisfying chord progression.

Greg-o-rymeter:

I do NOT like where this is going... (via)

(rest of the season after the jump)

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via rcp.roslynschools.org

This likely won't be a consistent, daily feature, but as relevant rumors worth noting (recruiting-related and otherwise) come up I'll probably throw one up. Because who doesn't like to speculate about ridiculous things only to be shot down due to them being, well, ridiculous?

The first big one concerns conference realignment. Yes, that again. But this time it hits a little closer to home. There's a rumor being reported by Kelly Quinlan of JacketsOnline.com that comes from a couple contacts he has who work for a certain company with four-letter name (it doesn't start with F, either). This rumor states that the ACC is pushing pretty hard to get Notre Dame and Rutgers to join the conference, which would make the conference round out at 16 after the addition of Pitt and Syracuse. However, they're saying that this scenario does not have as much weight in likelihood as the next rumor: one that involves Tech leaving the ACC. (obligatory)

(now that you're hooked, rest of the story is after the jump)

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Now that we've discussed each recruit of our 2012 recruiting class, it's time to talk a little bit about how they'll work together as a unit. Yesterday we discussed the offensive signees, and now it's time to discuss the defensive signees. So without further ADO..... (see, I've learned things about words since I started writing here!)

DLs: Pat Gamble, Francis Kallon, Adam Gotsis, and Rod Chungong

The 3-4 defense requires a pretty distinctly different type of personnel than the 4-3, and one of the biggest issues we've had since our switch a couple years ago basically equates to trying to make a steak dinner using ground beef...it can still be decent, but never quite the same. Last year we addressed the '4' part by adding a lot of linebacker talent, and this year was clearly an effort to address the '3' part. The four guys we signed at this position look to be difference makers in making our defense a complete, effective unit. Gotsis was recruited as a NT at 6'4", 295lbs (and expected to add another 20lbs to his frame), but could end up at DE if he doesn't change his size. Kallon is a fascinating story, coming from England and never playing football until spring practice before his senior year of high school, and ending up with ump-teen scholarship offers and a four-star rating. Chungong seems pretty underrated with serious discipline and lots of physical tools at end, and Gamble should give Gotsis quite a lot of trouble at keeping the starting spot. We have an awful lot of talent in this class on the defensive line, something we desperately needed coming in. Not sure at this point whether or not they'll all redshirt or if any of them will see playing time this fall, but looking at Johnson's history with redshirting, he'll likely retain that discipline and not waste eligibility on anyone who isn't ready to be a real difference maker yet.

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Now that we've discussed each recruit of our 2012 recruiting class, it's time to talk a little bit about how they'll work together as a unit. Today we'll discuss the offensive signees, and tomorrow we'll discuss the defensive signees.

QBs: Justin Thomas and Dennis Andrews

This part of recruiting really could not have gone any better for us this year. We got two great prospects who each bring a slightly different set of skills to the team and who will be major weapons for us in years to come. I'm really interested to see how these guys and Vad Lee contribute to our offense, relative to the contributions of Tevin Washington and Synjyn Days. Thomas, Lee, and Andrews were much more highly touted prospects than the 2-star Washington in particular. The coaching staff expects for Lee to win the starting job by the time fall starts, so we should have an opportunity to see how these 3 young QBs impact our team very soon.

ABs: none

We didn't sign any A-Backs this year, but really that's fine. For us right now, A-Back is a good position for QBs, BBs, and WRs who don't really pan out too well at their own position, but who the coaches still really want to get on the field. For instance, if Synjyn Days doesn't make it onto the field too much as a QB, we'll move him to A-Back to get him playing time and make use of his skills as a ballcarrier. Similarly, if Charles Perkins doesn't win the B-Back starting role (or at least see significant time in it), he'll be switched to A-Back to get him on the field and use his athleticism. There's a lot of talk about one of our WR recruits playing A-Back instead of receiver, but we'll talk about that in a second.

(other positions after the jump)

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Prior stories in this series: ATH (QB) Dennis Andrews, ATH (QB) Justin Thomas, WR Michael Summers,ATH (RB) Marcus Allen, DE Francis Kallon, WR Travin Henry, DT Adam Gotsis, LB Beau Hankins, DT Pat Gamble, DB Anthony Autry, LB Tyler Stargel, OL Freddie Burden, DE Rod Chungong, DB Lynn Griffin, OL Chase Roberts, and DB D.J. White.

We did it. Finally, we're talking about our 17th and final recruit (as of now), and who else would get pushed to the end than the one who plays a position that is commonly joked about as being played by a guy who is "not a real football player"? That's right, our final recruit is the punter, P Ryan Rodwell of DeLand, FL. He stands 6'2" and weighs in at 215 lbs, meaning if he ever gets tired of kicking he might have a place in our secondary. Also, if he ever found himself as a punter who had to carry the ball on a fake punt, he'd be one of the least favorite punters that any defense ever had to tackle. He committed to Georgia Tech on January 22 over a few FCS offers, although he received some interest from Alabama, South Florida and Central Florida and was offered a walk-on spot with Miami and Marshall. He visited on that weekend, and was offered before he left. He met with Coach Johnson, and Rodwell recalled the situation, saying, "He just came out and said ‘We're going to do it a little backwards here. Normally, we want a punter or kicker to walk-on and try to earn a scholarship. We're going to do it a little different because you're from out of state and we think you can win the punter's job.' Coach Johnson offered me and asked ‘Is this what you want to do?' Yes, I did, and I committed." (via) Perhaps most importantly, he sports a GPA of a 3.9 and plans to major in the best program we offer at this fine institution, Industrial Engineering. Kid's bringing a tear to my eye and he hasn't even stepped on the field yet!

But when he does step on the field, here's what we can expect from him. As a punter in high school, his punts were usually around 4 seconds in hang time and maxed out around 50-55 yards in the air. He's also a very good directional punter, and seems to have good control over the leg strength vs trajectory combination that ends in opponents pinned inside their own 10 yard line a lot more than they'd like. Hopefully he's able to contribute a lot to our special teams situation (which is a little rough at the moment, to say the least), and I don't think it's anywhere near out of the question to think that he could be starting this fall. Welcome to Tech, Ryan!

Hopefully you guys have enjoyed reading a little bit about each of our new recruits in this class. We'll finish up this week with overviews of the offensive and defensive classes, as well as the class as a whole and what to look for in the coming year of recruitment.

Punter Ryan Rodwell | Georgia Tech Commit | Football Highlight Video ('08-'11) (via level37sports)