Bowl Roundup

Good win by Georgia, coming back from 31-23 to win 45-31. Had Tavares King caught that last pass, and had Georgia recovered the blocked punt in the end zone, the score would've been 57-31. Still, there were people on the blogs not satisfied with the Dawgs' performance. They HOPE Aaron Murray goes pro, and want coaches fired. They say 12-2 isn't good enough. Unbelievable. The defense struggled and bent, but they didn't break for the last 25 minutes of the second half. Crazy how the middle of the field was so wide open for those two touchdown passes, first to the tight end, then to receiver Conley.

USC showed how coddled athletes can spoil a football game. Instead of being thankful for the free ride and bowl trip, USC players groused about the host city, showed up an hour & a half late for a dinner in their honor, then let Tech beat them in the game. I kinda like watching a highly-touted young quarterback fail so miserably, and get outplayed by the likes of Tevin Washington. How can years of QB camps and grooming for big-time college football not prepare the freshman for a game in the wind? How could USC not know they could run the ball at will against Tech? No wonder Lane Kiffen is on the hot seat.

Tech did exactly what they needed to do to win the game. USC shut down the runs to the outside, but not the runs up the middle. Vad Lee did ok, but Paul Johnson made the right call by sticking with Washington most of the way. Then when Tech seemingly had the game locked up, they commit three personal fouls on USC's last possession. Johnson was rightfully miffed. Then the Sun Bowl MVP cusses on national TV: real classy.

Not sure how an official misses calling a field goal no good. Must've been the wind. Everyone else knew the kick had missed, including the kicker.

After two years of wanting Vad Lee to play, now I'm not so sure, He is a great runner, but often tries to do too much, turning a two yard loss into a seven yard loss. He needs to improve his option reads. When he throws he steps to the left, instead of stepping straight ahead. He's making ill-advised throws, and has thrown too many interceptions considering the few passes he's thrown. I hear the kid behind him is good, the guy that spurned Alabama. Running back Orwin Smith made a great play to score on the fourth down pass. He still gets hurt too much. He tried to take himself out after the first play. Based on his outlandish stats, I'm sure a NFL team will draft him. I wouldn't, but I've been wrong before.

I'm still amazed that Clemson won. LSU lost the game by failing to run down the clock on their last possession. QB Tajh Boyd played well, but if I were an NFL team I still wouldn't draft him. The season opener against UGA will be fun to watch. The Dawgs have everyone back on offense, and I'm sure they have defenders ready to step in and play.

A good story from Reid:
Speaking of Southern Cal not wanting to be there. There was the distant year that Tech had a bad year, but was invited to play Mississippi in the Peach Bowl here in Atlanta. It was no bowl trip to the players and they voted as a team not to accept the invitation. The Administration learned of the vote and the story as told to me by some Tech insiders was that they told the team they WOULD play the game because of the $$$$$ involved.

E and I ate a pre game dinner at the Downtown Marriott before going to the game where we had Charter Member tickets on the 50 yard line at Grant Field. While eating dinner, I happened to notice Coach Bud Carson eating dinner at the table right next to us. He was eating with 3 other people (coaches I guess). He wasn't eating much and was glaring the whole time.

At the game, it was a steady rain throughout the entire game. Tech got CLOBBERED the entire game also. Might have been Carson's last game. Don't remember. Carson was married to the local TV weather girl named Linda Faye.