Same Old Tech

 

UVA@GT: just when you thought it was safe to go back to Grant Field, the Jackets laid yet another nationally-televised egg. Sure, old Bobby Dodd Stadium looked great all lit up with the Atlanta skyline behind it. Blah blah blah. So much better than the product on the field. It was hard to watch. Announcer Pat McAfee asked his partner to perform a rain dance to generate some offense. The only positive he found was both team’s punters.

Turnovers and penalties and dropped passes. No offense from GT. Granted QB Sims was knocked out of the game. I try to remind myself that I shouldn’t expect GT to play well this year even though they’ve turned things around. Coach Key has simplified everything so the players can just play, react instead of thinking. Too complicated can be bad if its so complicated the players can’t remember what to do. No scoring in the second half. I turned it off and went to bed.

Rodrigo Blankenship kicked a 50 yarder in his debut with the Cardinals, but missed an extra point. Too bad the Cards were in those awful all-black uniforms. They used to have one of the best unis in the league. Now they’re like App State / Mizzou / GT / Norcross High School / etc.    Blankenship replaced the injured Matt Prater, former co-holder of the longest field goal record until Justin Tucker broke it last year. Prater was the subject of one of my first ever blog posts, back on Christmas Day 2005.

https://sacrificefly.blogspot.com/2005/12/kickers-christmas.html

Last week former GT kicker Harrison Butker booted a 62 yarder for the Chiefs. Butker celebrates too much for me. He goes overboard. No other kicker is so demonstrative. It’s like he never kicked a field goal before. He never screamed like that when he was at Tech, where he only made 71% of his field goals. Calm the kid down. The offense drove down the field to get you in position, the line blocked for you, the snapper snapped, and the holder held. You don’t see them screaming at the sky. Goodness. God forbid Butker ever score a touchdown. It’s just a football game. Glad to see Hot Rod hit the 50 yarder and calmly accept the congratulations from his teammates.

Thursday: loaded up on Halloween candy on the way home. Supper was stir fry and pot stickers over rice. During halftime we watched Young Sheldon. Saved In Todd We Trust for tonight.

Lifted weights at the gym this morning. Hitting the vitamins hard this week in preparation for my physical on Monday morning.

Not much else to report. Golf tomorrow AM, then ESPN College GameDay and Syracuse@Clemson, followed by sliders at a friend’s house. The whole family should be there. M is baking cookies. He has been helping Will with Shivonne this week while MC was out of town.

HARMON KILLEBREW  [SABR Bio] hit more home runs in the 1960s than any other player. Between 1960-1969, he hit 393 HR, just ahead of Hank Aaron’s 375. The college he attended boasts basketball Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor among is alumni: the College of Idaho was also known as Albertson College. Killebrew hit his 500th career home run the day SABR was founded, on 10-Aug-1971 in Metropolitan Stadium off Mike Cuellar.