TGIT

posted by LW, Thursday, September 10, 2009

The priorities and interests of sportswriters are often vastly different from those of fans.

Fans root for their teams. We root for the clock (at least those of us who are on deadline).

Fans detest noon games. We like them, because it allows us to clock out at a reasonable hour and watch some evening football with choice of frosty beverage in hand.

Thursday night games are hard on fans, and nowhere is that better evidenced than by Clemson's virtual refusal to play host to them.

For us hacks, they're actually quite nice. The short week means your work is compressed into a three-day window, then you cover the game Thursday, then ... bliss.



I'll never, ever complain about my job. Very, very lucky to do this for a living.

But sometimes you get jealous of fans who get to follow this stuff for fun. Sometimes you want to sit on the couch from noon to midnight on Saturday and follow college football without having to worry about keeping track of anything.

So yeah, this Thursday-night thing is pretty cool.

Moving right along...

Looks like I'm in the minority in picking Clemson.

Paul Strelow of The State takes the Jackets 21-17.

Travis Sawchik of The Post and Courier takes the Jackets 24-17.

Greg Wallace of the Independent-Mail takes the Jackets 20-17.

I've taken the Tigers 27-23, and it goes against the grain of not just my peers, but everything I've been thinking the past few months.

Huge believer in Paul Johnson. Not much of a believer in Georgia Tech's defensive line.

Then again, not much of a believer in Clemson's OL. But Clemson's OL doesn't have to be great for the O to move the ball. Not with better pocket presence from Kyle Parker, and all that speed with Spiller, Ford, Harper, Ellington, etc.

Going with the Tigers just doesn't seem particularly smart given the circumstances, because I'm firmly in the "believe it when I see it" camp.

Nevertheless, I'm sticking with it.

In the Macon Telegraph, a story on the Jackets' defensive backs.

Handed the ball off on a reverse, Tigers receiver Tyler Grisham started running back across the field, stopped and tried to fire a strike past Georgia Tech’s secondary. But with Griffin supplying some unexpected heavy pressure on the receiver-turned-passer, Grisham’s pass flew straight into Reese’s open arms.

“Actually, I was in the wrong position. They were setting up the reverse pass, and I was coming down for the reverse,” Reese said. “Luckily Sed got some pressure on Grisham, and he ended up making a bad throw and I was there to intercept it. Plus, I had (cornerback) Mario (Butler) and (defensive end) Michael Johnson in front of me, so I knew I was going to score.
“Sed kind of saved me on that play.”

Thirty-four yards after picking the ball out the air, Reese cruised in for a first-quarter touchdown that gave the Yellow Jackets a much-needed spark en route to their 21-17 road victory.

And another scribe picks the Jackets.

This AJC fan blogger is concerned about Clemson.

If you haven’t noticed yet…I’m not sold on the GT defensive line. Outside of Derrick Morgan I feel they’re pretty pedestrian. I hope and pray I’m proven wrong…and I’ll gladly eat my crow blackened with a little splash of lime if the Tech defensive line turns out a better than expected performance tomorrow night. (My GT friends keep telling me that the defense was very vanilla against JSU, but I maintain that vanilla should have performed better against the level of competition this past Saturday.)

Here's a piece on the big tailback matchup.

Three years ago, C.J. Spiller had his coming-out party against Georgia Tech. Three years later, it's still his most high-profile moment at Clemson. Who'd have thought we'd be saying that?

In the P&C, a story on how the Tigers will handle being in the spotlight. Didn't handle it too well on their last visit to Atlanta.

John Feinstein has a column ripping the ACC, and the ACC deserves to be ripped. But man ... a little over the top here.

Wonder what Tommy West thinks of the successful beer sales at Memphis?



LW

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