Monday, September 24, 2007

Ryan TD and other links

Here's a nice shot of Ryan's TD to Robinson.
It is a fairly straight forward play, but you have to admire his ability to hit Robinson in a tight hole. The pass should have led BRob a little, but the timing and the route look like they would have gone right into the umpire, so Matt wisely or instinctively avoided the ref and hit Robinson's right side.
Also reminder to all those students with camera phones and other devices -- take some more TD videos. You're in a great location, so share the wealth.


This is from last week, but here is Ryan's Q&A with the New York Times. The Heisman talk is nice but very premature. As the guys at the Ryan for Heisman blog pointed out, since the BCS started only one player has won the Heisman and not played in a BCS bowl (Ricky Williams). For Ryan to get the famous trophy this year, we are going to have to win and win and win.

Finally, Georgia Tech fans are not proud of their behavior during the BC game.

Hello everyone!
I want to talk about a subject today that is very important to all of us. That subject is the reputation of our institution and, ultimately, ourselves.
Being a Ramblin' Wreck has always meant something very special to me. It is a badge of honor earned from hard work, perseverance, learning and failure. It is proof to myself that I could succeed as long as I focused and worked hard. It continues to be a source of confidence and rock-solid pride.
Many of you may not realize what happened at the Boston College game Saturday night. Unfortunately, poor judgment on the part of a number of our fans - some were students, some were alumni, some were simply fans - resulted in Georgia Tech being represented on national television by spectators screaming obscenities en masse at referees, insulting the opposing team and its - fans and hurling debris on the playing field. The game had to be interrupted five times to deal with this misbehavior. Ultimately, 28 people were ejected from the stadium.
The excuse for all of this was some unpopular calls by the referees. But there can be no excuse for the lack of basic sportsmanship, common courtesy and decency. You should also be aware that alcohol consumption played a significant role.
The administration, the Athletic Association and our student leaders are working together to keep this situation from occurring again. Your help is needed as well.
By far and away, we have very gracious Georgia Tech fans, and we need your help in creating a family-friendly experience in our stadium for everyone who comes to see the game - no matter what team's colors they are wearing. We want to be able to bring our families, including our children, without them having to endure inappropriate language and boorish behavior.
Friends, when people think of Georgia Tech we want them to be proud of the reputation of this wonderful, classy school with a great tradition of strong academics and athletics.
Every now and then we have to step up and be who we really are. Now is that time. Thanks for your help!
Sincerely yours,
Joe Irwin, IM 80
president, Georgia Tech Alumni Association


Alumni Association Contact Information
Joe Irwin
president, Alumni Association
Visit gtalumni.org

7 comments:

Brian said...

Glad to see the Alumni president said something about Ga Tech's fan behavior. Also glad we most likely won't be seeing them in the ACC Championship after they dropped to UVA this weekend. I'm guessing QB Taylor Bennett didn't tell the media that UVA was "lucky" to win this week ...

Go Eagles!

Big Jack Krack said...

This is a test - we older Eagles are challenged, what can I say?

I'm having trouble commenting......

Big Jack Krack said...

This BC alum and fan has been to Bobby Dodd stadium a half a dozen times. I always found the great majority of GT fans to be very gracious and exhibiting great sportsmanship.

This was my first game when BC was the opponent and I really enjoyed the experience for several reasons - and of course a victory was one of them.

Alcohol is and always will be an issue at football games - college or pro. I stopped drinking before (and during) games when Doug Flutie was our quarterback - too many missed touchdowns while I was running to the men's room. (I quit altogether at a point after that).

Night games are especially challenging because a certain element will have been drinking for hours before the game.

Every school needs to look at this. Thanks for recognizing the problems - I know that GT is much classier than what some fans portrayed.

Jack
BC '68

Chris said...

Bill,

Related to your New York Times link, I thought it was interesting that the NYTimes #1 college football writer covered the game in person. This is good. He was also really bored (http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/saturday-observations/). This is bad. BC will receive limited national media coverage this year, so Saturday was unfortunately a missed opportunity for Ryan and Jags. Not that I'm complaining about 4-0 ....

eagleboston said...

Brian: Aren't you jumping the gun a bit by already placing us in the ACC Championship game? We still have Clemson and Va Tech on the road and perennial conference leaders Miami and FSU at home. Granted, Miami and FSU are not what they used to be, but they will still play us tough and we have not defeated Miami since Flutie's pass. There is not one current BC student that remembers us beating Miami.

I think we are going to have a very good season, but I think it will take the best season in modern BC history to get to the Championship game. And, we will have to do so with a defense missing many key players and an offense that has no running game. I know everyone is excited but let's just ease off the gas pedal and take things one game at a time.

Brian said...

Jumping the gun? I don't think it hurts to be optimistic. The ESPN gurus have us winning the ACC Championship early on too in their bowl projections.

I am cautiously optimistic that we can beat FSU and Miami at home. Virginia Tech is a good team but they struggle on offense, which I think we can expose in a close game.

Which leaves us with @ Clemson. I attended this game in SC two years ago when we won in overtime. I think this will be a close game but I am confident we can win this given that:
1) We contained GT's Choice for 3 quarters and hopefully can minimize the 1-2 punch of Clemson's RB as well
2) Matt Ryan has experience playing at, and winning, in this very hostile environment


We also don't have to go undefeated in ACC play to get the the ACC Championship game. We just have to win the right games. If we win out on our side of the ACC, a loss to VTech or Miami still gets us into the championship game.


For baseball I cheer for the Yankees, so I guess I don't have a "Red Sox fan, the sky is falling" mentality when it comes to BC football. Call me crazy.

Brian said...

I mean, I am all about taking it one game at a time but I don't see how you can trash our running game? Callendar/Whitworth aren't exactly Thunder & Lightning, but they are legit. I'll take Whitworth's 6 yards/carry any day. Not to mention they pretty much won the NC State game with 200+ yards on the ground and 3 TDs.

Go Eagles!