It had been seven years since the Florida State Seminoles have travelled to Atlanta to take on one of their regional rivals. Seven years since the “Miracle on North Avenue,” where safety Cooper Taylor forced a fumble on the goal line that was recovered in the end zone to seal a 31-28 Tech victory over the No. 15 Seminoles.

Fast forward seven years and the undefeated No. 9 Seminoles have the ball on Tech’s 39 yard line with 6 seconds to go. The score is tied at 16 and Florida State sent out one of the best kickers in college football history, Roberto Aguayo, to attempt a 56 yard field goal. Aguayo had never missed a fourth quarter field goal in his magnificent career. It appeared that Tech might suffer its second straight loss on a 56 yard field goal.

The Seminoles entered the game having won 40 of their last 42 games, 30 regular season games in a row, and 28 straight ACC victories. Oct. 6, 2012, was the last time they had lost an ACC game.

Against all these odds, the Tech special teams unit was not in the mood to lose their sixth game in a row. At the snap, Tech’s line got a good push and junior defensive tackle Pat Gamble blocked the kick as it crossed the line of scrimmage. The ball rolled to the Tech 22 yard line and some Tech players thought the play was over. However, sophomore cornerback Lance Austin, who usually doesn’t play on the field goal block unit, picked up the ball with the intention to score. Austin ran the ball with an escort of fellow Jackets immediately to Tech’s sideline to have the best chance to score. Once he got to Tech’s 30 yard line, there was nothing but teammates and 70 yards of grass ahead.

Austin got a key block from senior cornerback Chris Milton, who took out FSU’s holder 30 yards away from the end zone. Only Aguayo stood in Austin’s way from a miraculous Tech win and becoming an instant legend. Aguayo tried to run Austin down, but he made a cut away from the sideline at the 18 yard line, causing Aguayo to fly in the air like a helicopter.

With nobody in the way, Austin scored the touchdown, giving Tech a 22-16 win and cementing himself into the history books.

Chaos immediately broke out. Austin was mobbed by teammates in the end zone and students began to swarm the field. Austin and Gamble helped Tech pull off one of the greatest and most stunning plays in Tech and college football history.

The “Miracle on Techwood Drive” had just occurred, breaking Tech’s five game losing streak and giving the Jackets a Homecoming win nobody will ever forget. Players and coaches were overcome with raw elation and disbelief.

“I was just hoping he was going to kick it low because it was such long a kick. It was crazy because we blocked it, and I see it run across the line. I go from yelling ‘Get away from it’ to ‘run, run, run.’ What a great play by Lance [Austin] to pick it up, Johnson said. “We were due. It was our turn. We’ve seen so many of these close ones like this go the other way, it’s good to finally be on the right end of one for a change.”

The return was a special moment for Lance Austin as his twin brother Lawrence crossed the goal line with him. They both shared a special bond with their grandmother Louise, who had passed away. The play was dedicated to her as she used to attend all of his football games.

“When I picked it up and started running up the field, I saw a lot of green. So, I was like okay, maybe I can return it,” Austin said. “Also Jamal [Golden], Chris, [Milton], everybody, when I came around it was a wall. My teammates did a great job of blocking. So when I came around and I kind of got by Aguayo, and I got in the end zone, it was kind of surreal.”

The game would not have been won without the heroics of the defense. Tech’s defensive unit had arguably the greatest performance in the Johnson era, holding Heisman candidate Dalvin Cook to only 82 yards. The stat sheet may say that Tech gave up 16 points, but 10 of those points were at no fault to the defense. FSU scored zero points in the second half and after two close defeats to FSU in the 2012 and 2014 ACC Championship games, this momentous victory was four years in the making.

“We just played better against the run. We made a couple tweaks this week in the way we were playing and it worked out,” Johnson said. “Guys played hard. [Cook’s] a very talented guy. He broke some tackles and we missed some, but we had other guys there.”

Tech had some big plays on offense from quarterback Justin Thomas who had a 60 yard touchdown run and a key 36 yard pass on 4th down to freshman Brad Stewart. Junior kicker Harrison Butker made three huge kicks including a 53 yarder.

For a team that had been decimated by injuries all season, winning against Florida State is huge for the program after suffering so many heartbreaks this year. The Jackets now sit at 3–5, but they did not play like a five-loss team against Florida State. They played like everyone expected them to this year and gave us arguably the greatest, most improbable and most miraculous play in Tech football history. What a time to be alive!

For the 2013 college football season, the NCAA announced the targeting rule that would eject players from the game for hitting a player in the head with excessive force, carelessness or an intent to hurt. Players would be ejected from the game for “targeting,” and the officials would review the penalty to see if it actually was targeting. However, since then, the targeting rule has been enforced horrendously and is an embarrassment for college football. The rule was created as an overreaction to concussions. The NFL, which has a much bigger concussion problem than the NCAA, does not have a targeting rule. Every week in the NFL, you see players commit what would be targeting in college football. A lot of times, those plays are lauded by the announcers as good football plays despite defensive players lunging towards ball carriers with their helmets first. You rarely ever see penalties for helmet contact in NFL unless it is extremely obvious and excessive.

College football refs have become soft and if a player, especially a quarterback, happens to get touched in head, there’s a good chance that player will be ejected.

The inconsistencies between officiating crews on this rule is an absolute joke, too. What is targeting in one game isn’t in another. Now, college football refs have long been absolutely terrible at doing their jobs, but this rule has given them the chance to make even bigger fools of themselves.

This past weekend, America got to witness possibly the worst and most disgraceful call in college football history. This disgrace of a call took place in the Michigan versus Michigan State football game. Michigan senior linebacker and team captain Joe Bolden was ejected for “targeting” in the first half of the game. Going into the game, Bolden was Michigan’s leading tackler and one of the anchors behind a defense that hadn’t allowed a point in almost three games.

On the play in which he was ejected, he was pushed in the back by a Michigan State offensive lineman and fell on top of the Michigan State quarterback who was lying on the ground. Watching the play live, I had no idea what the officials saw. I still have no idea how a referee thought the alleged hit was targeting and not just incidental contact due to being pushed. There was no malicious intent by Bolden on the play, and he didn’t lead with his head: he just fell on top of the quarterback. After the penalty was called, the play was reviewed in the booth by Big Ten replay officials.

The commentators and pretty much the rest of America thought the targeting call would be overturned due to common sense and the context of the situation. But common sense has always been too much to ask of out of college football referees, so I don’t think anyone was surprised that they confirmed the targeting call.

That ejection changed the game: Michigan lost their star linebacker, and instead of forcing Michigan State into punting, the penalty gave them a first down, leading to a touchdown to tie the game. Michigan State ended up winning this game on a botched punt, but Michigan probably would have comfortably won with their captain and leading tackler playing all four quarters.

After the targeting call was confirmed, there was outrage by fans at the game, the commentators and the millions at home watching the game. Even people who were cheering against Michigan felt bad for the player. Players from Michigan’s archrival, Ohio State, even expressed their displeasure of the call.

Now, the sentiment from coaches and members of the media is that the targeting rule needs to be fixed as officiating crews are clearly not able to identify what targeting actually is. These ejections change games, and it’s unfair to the players for such lapses of judgement to hurt their team’s chances of winning.

Hopefully during the offseason, the NCAA rules committee scraps the current targeting rule and comes up with something else. Protecting players is right, and there are several plays a week that are correctly called targeting, but the inconsistences in officiating can ruin team’s seasons. For Michigan, the incorrect targeting call was a big factor to their now non-existent College Football Playoff chances.

After a disappointing loss at Notre Dame, the Jackets’ offense plans to get on track this weekend versus Duke. Tech had a chance to burst onto the scene with a statement win but had an extremely difficult game solving Notre Dame’s defense. Saturday marked one of the worst offensive performances in recent memory for Tech. The players and coaches echoed that sentiment.

“The blocking was poor, but we had triple the missed assignments I believe we’ve ever had in a game that I was a part of,” Head Coach Paul Johnson said. “It was a terrible way to start, and then we got rattled a little bit. When you have a lot of young guys on the road in a hostile environment against a good team, sometimes that happens.”

The team had to replace some key players but returned four out of five starters on the offensive line. Despite being one of the most experienced lines in the country, the veteran group still struggled on Saturday.

Frustrations from the offense showed all game as mistake after mistake left the team unable to get into a rhythm or keep any kind of positive momentum.

Some of the difficulties the offensive line and other players had blocking could be attributed to Tech’s first two opponents of the year being just not very good, but credit has to be given to Notre Dame and their defensive staff.

“Give [Notre Dame] credit. They played well. We played horrible. I don’t know if we can play any worse, especially offensively. That’s for sure,” Johnson said.

Notre Dame defenders swarmed all game to the ball and hardly ever made a mistake. Their performance made it a much more difficult task for Tech’s offense. According to Johnson, there were 70 missed assignments. Thankfully for Tech, many of the problems are correctable, and the veteran offensive line should quickly fix
its mistakes.

Earlier in year, Johnson repeated that the team isn’t as good as they think they are right now, and players weren’t recognizing their mistakes due to demolishing their first two opponents with little effort.

Against Notre Dame, Tech started the game 0-9 on third down conversions with an average distance of 9 yards to pick up a first down. That is unheard for a Johnson-coached Tech offense, as the team led the nation last year at converting third downs. Their 60 percent conversion rate was one of the best recently.

With new faces at A-back and B-back, Johnson is not satisfied with the results from the backs yet. Graduate transfer Patrick Skov starts at B-back, but being the most utilized back is still new territory for him.

“We’re not getting the production we need out of those spots right now — either one of them — running the football,” Johnson said. “[Skov] gets some tough yards. He’s hard to tackle, but there’s more to it than that. Can’t just be a bull in a china shop.”

Inexperience has started to be felt in regards to the passing game. At times, Notre Dame stacked the box and dared Tech to throw. Tech did not a complete a pass until the second half, which is concerning due to the run game struggling as well.

“We had chances in the passing game. We need to run better routes. Especially on third down, we had some horrendous routes,” Johnson said. “We need to be more consistent and know our assignments and not get wide eyed [during the game].”

Unfortunately, the Jackets will be without leading wide receiver Michael Summers against Duke. True freshman Brad Stewart will get the start in replace of Summers, and Johnson raved about Stewart’s physicality in the Notre Dame game.

Going into the Duke game, the team will look to recapture the performances they had on offense at the end of last year and before Notre Dame. Duke will be no easy task as they were the lone team to beat the Jackets last year at home and held them to a season-low 25 points.

Johnson called Duke’s defense this year the best they’ve had in his time at Tech. Tech and junior quarterback Justin Thomas will have their work cut out for them this weekend. After a tough game, Thomas will look to get back to his usual self. Recently, he’s had some problems pitching the ball that he will look to correct, and coaches want him to be calmer and not get frustrated during the game.

“There’s a lot of things fundamentally he needs to do to get better. You start pressing, and usually when that happens it gets worse. We’ve got to help him more. The guys around him got to help him more. He can’t win the game by himself,” Johnson said.

The new college football playoff was an overwhelming success this past year. The ratings were outstanding, and the two new semifinal games were a huge hit for college football fans.

The fourth seeded Ohio State Buckeyes won the national championship, and they are the favorite to win again this year.  Their championship last year was a major surprise after they suffered an early loss to Virginia Tech.

They also lost their top two quarterbacks during the year. Third string Buckeye quarterback, Cardale Jones, became a national star after his performance against the top ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the New Year’s Day semifinal game, and he will be fighting for a starting position this year.

This year the College Football Playoff semifinal games will be on New Year’s Eve at the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl. Last year a team was represented from each of the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences. Two teams from the Big-12 (Baylor and TCU) were 11-1 and were passed over for Ohio State who went 12-1 and played in and won a conference championship game.

Other than Ohio State, the top teams to watch this football season are Auburn, Alabama, Baylor, Clemson, Oregon, Southern Cal and TCU.

The race for the 2015 Heisman Trophy will be a different one than past years. The past five winners have been quarterbacks, but two favorites to win this year are Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott and UGA running back Nick Chubb.

TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin and USC quarterback Cody Kessler are notable quarterbacks who could win. After rushing for over 2000 yards and leading his team to the Big Ten Championship, the 2015 Heisman Trophy will likely be won by Elliott. Expect Arizona’s Scooby Wright III to clean sweep the defensive player of the year awards for the second straight year.

As for predictions for this year, the 2015 ACC Championship game likely will be played between Clemson and Tech, led by redshirt junior quarterback Justin Thomas. The Championship will serve as a rematch from earlier in the year in Death Valley where the Tigers won. This time Tech will prevail 38-28 and represent the ACC in the Chik-fil-A Bowl Game.

In the Big 12, TCU will win their rematch against Baylor and go undefeated throughout the regular season to become the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. Baylor will finish the year at 11-1 but miss out on playoff for second straight year.

The Big Ten Conference will once again come down to a game in the regular season between Michigan State and Ohio State. Ohio State will win again and crush Wisconsin for another Big Ten Championship. Ohio State will finish the year at 12-1 with their one blemish at Virginia Tech but still make the College Football Playoff as the third seed.

Despite the loss of Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, Oregon will beat 11-1 Southern Cal in the Pac-12 championship for the second time in two weeks and finish the year 13-0. The Ducks will be named the second seed in the college football playoff.

In the SEC, Auburn will win the SEC West division with a victory over archrival Alabama. UGA will clinch the SEC East early in the season with wins over South Carolina, Missouri and Florida.

Auburn at 11-1 will beat 10-2 UGA again to clinch the fourth seed in the College Football Playoff. Georgia will finish the year at 10-3 but still earn a bid to a New Year’s Six Bowl.

Teams that will miss the playoff but participate in the other New Year’s Six bowl games will be Alabama, Baylor, Boise State, Clemson, Michigan State, Southern California, Tech and UGA.

As for the College Football Playoffs, the committee will select  No. 1 TCU to play No. 4 Auburn in the Cotton Bowl and No. 2  Oregon to play No. 3 Ohio State in the Orange Bowl.

The CFP national championship game will be played between TCU and Ohio State in the University of Phoenix Stadium. Led by the QB duo of J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones, Ohio State will win 41-34 to win their second straight national championship. The Buckeyes will become the first team since Alabama (2011-12) to win back to back national championships.

After the game, Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer will announce his retirement to spend more time with his family.

Why Tech will win the conference: by Grant Heffley

With the return of quarterback Justin Thomas, four-fifths of a stellar offensive line and nine of 11 starters on defense, Georgia Tech will be the best team in the ACC this fall — and they will prove it when they beat Florida State in the ACC Championship Game.

Yes, there are plenty of question marks on offense, specifically at receiver and running back. The loss of wide receivers DeAndre Smelter and Darren Waller, B-backs Zach Laskey and Synjyn Days and A-backs Charles Perkins, Deon Hill, BJ Bostic and Tony Zenon seems to be an almost insurmountable obstacle for the Jackets to overcome. In the eyes of most media outlets it is; many publications have the Jackets ranked towards the bottom of their preseason polls.  To be fair, this is a valid concern. The above players accounted for 60 percent of the rushing yards and 90 percent of the receiving yards for the entire season. That is a lot of ground to make up.

But the key stat here is that the Jackets return the player responsible for almost 100 percent of last year’s offensive production: Justin Thomas. As a redshirt-junior, Thomas already has a year’s worth of starting experience, in which he amassed 1,719 passing yards and 1,086 rushing yards on his way to leading the team to victories over Virginia Tech, Clemson, Georgia and Mississippi State. Given that an option quarterback plays such a unique and read-based role in a team’s running game (as opposed to pro-style quarterbacks who simply hand the ball off), Thomas also deserves at least some credit for the roughly 3,700 rushing yards the rest of the team produced in 2014.

Any marginal drop-off in offensive production should be made up for in what looks to be the best defensive unit Coach Paul Johnson has fielded at Tech. The Jackets return almost their entire defense. A stifling defensive line laden with talent and depth combined with a secondary that tied for tenth in the nation in interceptions last year should prove to be a dangerous combination in Coach Ted Roof’s 4-2-5 alignment.

Facing one of the nation’s hardest schedules, the road that lies before the Jackets is certainly full of obstacles. Road contests at Notre Dame, Clemson and Miami will all prove to be very difficult match ups. A home schedule highlighted by games against Virginia Tech and Florida State does not appear to be any easier, either.

But within this challenging slate of games lies a golden opportunity for a Tech team that appears to have almost all of the pieces in place. The Jackets’ two hardest conference match ups are both with teams from the Atlantic Division. If Tech can go 6-0 against their Coastal foes, they should find themselves in the ACC Championship Game facing a team they’ve already seen once this season — and the Jackets aren’t the type of team to lose to the same opponent twice.

Why Tech will not win the conference: by Mark Russell

Coming off an 11 win season where Tech won the coastal division, they will look to win the ACC for the first time in six years, but it will not happen this year. Despite Tech having a better overall team this year, they will be tough pressed to match or exceed the success they had last year.

Last year, a lot of things went Tech’s way in ACC play. They suffered only two losses in the division and ironically against the teams they had beaten six plus years in a row. They broke big losing streaks against Virginia Tech and Miami and sealed the division at home against Clemson thanks to forcing turnover after turnover. However, a tougher schedule and the loss of many key players from last year means Tech will have their work cut out for them on the offensive side of the ball.

Tech lost nine offensive players to graduation who played big snaps for them. On top of that their top two B-backs suffered major injuries in spring and their leading returning A-back, Broderick Snoddy, is coming back from a broken leg injury.

However, the biggest loss of the offseason may be A-back Dennis Andrews, who would have been the team’s best blocker for the year. On the perimeter, Tech will have to turn to new faces to pave the way for starting quarterback Justin Thomas and Snoddy.

A major key to success that is often overlooked is blocking by the wide receivers and A-backs. At wide receiver, Tech will be missing two players who got drafted to the NFL. It is very rare for both starting wide receivers for a team to get drafted in the same year and even more rare for it to happen in a triple option offense. With four new starters in these two positions and very inexperienced players all over the two-deep, Tech will have to have herculean showings by them to beat the likes of Clemson, Miami, FSU and Virginia Tech.

With the major inexperience on the offensive side of the ball and brutal schedule for ACC play, Tech will have a tough time winning the division, let alone conference. If they win the division it means they will likely have to beat Clemson or FSU twice to win the ACC championship and it is very difficult to beat a team twice in the same year.

This offseason the NCAA rules committee made some major changes to the college basketball rulebook that could have a big impact on the future of the sport. The biggest rule change is changing the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 seconds. However, there is some doubt that this rule change might not be good for the overall game. On the contrary, many pundits and analysts believe that this rule change and others are a big first step in the improvement of the game and the watch-ability of it.

Other additional rule changes include expanding the restricted area under the baskets and cutting the number of timeouts from five to four. The five second closely guarded rule will also be removed from the rulebook and coaches will no longer be allowed to call timeouts except for in dead ball situations. After much talk, the 10-second backcourt clock will no longer reset after a timeout and that rule has been exploited by coaches for many years. This rule change will reward teams for playing strong full court defense and will not allow the other team to call a timeout just to avoid a 10-second violation.

The last time the shot clock rule received a makeover was in 1993, when the clock was changed from 45 second to 35 seconds. By reducing the shot clock to 30 seconds, offenses and defenses will have to adjust their plays and strategies to fit this new up-tempo and higher possession game. But, with less time to get a good shot off, teams who struggle to score with a 35 second shot clock could potentially struggle more with less time.

Considering Tech struggled to score when they had 35 seconds to run their offense, the new 30 second shot clock rule could make the offense even less efficient. Last year Tech played a very slow paced offense, ranked as the 220th slowest paced team in the country. Their offense was rated as the 210th most efficient according to Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings.

To succeed in college basketball with these new rules Tech will need to overhaul their offense. Many of their games were loss due to the team being unable to score at the end of the game when defensive pressure was the highest. Countless possessions resulted with forced shots at the buzzer and players unable to create high quality shots on their own.

These rules were made to help improve the quality of games for the best teams in the country, but the committee did not think about the bulk of the NCAA teams and the ones who already struggle to score with a 35 second shot clock. For many teams, this rule might allow them to score more points a game, but it could also result in a lower field goal percentage due to the less time to get into a half-court offense.

Over the past year Wisconsin and Virginia were notorious for winding the clock all the way down to 10 seconds before even attempting to try and shoot. Both of those teams were ranked in the top 5 for much of the entire year despite fact they were also in the top 10 for slowest paced teams in the country.

Wisconsin had the most efficient offense in the country by a landslide, but they had the talent and the skill to score whenever they felt like finally shooting. Most teams in the NCAA don’t have that skill and more teams might adapt Virginia’s style of play. Virginia plays a grind it out on ball defense which suffocates their opponent’s offense. With less time to shoot, there is also less time to defend. Virginia has shown it is possible to succeed with shooting as little as possible, but defending for as much time as possible. Their goal was to shorten the number of possessions as they could. The committee’s goal was to increase that number. If more teams begin to play like Virginia, the rules committee will not see the improvement in the game they were looking for.

College basketball is not the NBA and some people like college basketball for that specific reason. The NCAA rules committee seems obsessed with making the game as close to NBA as possible, but in reality the talent in college basketball may not be best suited to be playing with NBA type rules. Most teams have players who cannot create their own shot and with such huge talent disparities between leagues, one should not be  trying to emulate the other. These rules might punish the smaller programs and make an even bigger disparity between the best teams and the teams who struggle to win half of their games.

After next season, there will be plenty of data to analyze on how the rule changes actually impacted the game, but the one thing these new rules should definitely accomplish is making it easier for teams to cut large leads, and possibly lead to more exciting finishes come March.

The annual spring game for the Jacket football team kicks off today at 7 PM at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It looks there will be rain for the third straight year, but the weather won’t damper the spirits of the football team and the thousands of people who make their way over to the stadium that night. Coming off arguably the best season in the last 25 years, expectations and attention are at an all-time high as Tech has been one of the stories off the college football offseason. Generally, Tech is not given much media attention, especially national media attention. However, this spring has been different due to their 11 win season where they took down two SEC “powerhouses” and finishing ranked as high as No. 7 in the country.

With the return of junior quarterback Justin Thomas, the country expects Tech to do big things next year and show that last season was not just a flash in the pan. Johnson has raved about Thomas all spring and noted his value to the team, saying that if he could only keep one player off last year’s team, it’d be Thomas. With Thomas leading the charge, the offense isn’t expected to have much of a drop off from last year, despite losing ten players who were big contributors. Johnson and the team have always had a “next man up’ philosophy and last year similar questions were asked about replacing players when former running back Robbie Godhigh had graduated.

The offense will have six new starters this season and four of the positions are up in the air. The spring game will show how far some players have come and to see who the frontrunners are to win the positions. Junior A-back Dennis Andrews and wide receiver Michael Summers are the two players that have locked down their starting positions. Summers started many games in 2013, but did not get as many touches this year with the rise of former standout Darren Waller, who is expected to be picked in the NFL draft. Andrews played a big role in last year’s key games and he will be counted on to carry the ball and be the team’s best blocking A-back. On the offensive line, Tech will have to replace All-American Shaq Mason. They do return the rest of their line and the most likely candidates to replace Mason will be sophomore and redshirt freshman Shamire Devine and Gary Brown.

The biggest improvement on Tech’s football team should come from its defense. Last year the defense was extraordinarily young and still helped Tech win 11 games with several huge plays throughout the course of the season. Many turnovers were forced by Tech’s defense, but in games where they forced none, they lost. The mindset on defense was bend, but not break as Tech gave up many yards per play, but found a way to keep teams from scoring touchdowns at key moments.

This fall, Tech’s defense has a chance to be special. They’re going from a young defensive line to a veteran defensive line with many players who have star potential. If everything goes according to plan fifth year Jabari Hunt has the chance to take Tech to the next level. Hunt has been academically ineligible the last year, but has been a member of the scout team at defensive tackle. A duo of Hunt and senior Adam Gotsis in the middle of the defensive line would be one of the very best in the country. When you combine them with sophomore defensive end Keshun Freeman and redshirt juniors Pat Gamble, Rod Rook-Chungong and Francis Kallon the Tech defensive line has the depth and talent that could be the difference between a good season and a championship season.

Players to keep an eye out for in the Spring game are redshirt freshman running backs C.J. Leggett, Qua Searcy and Clinton Lynch along with redshirt sophomore wide receivers Antonio Messick and Ricky Jeune. On defense, transfer defensive end Kenderius Whitehead makes his much awaited debut. Once the spring game takes place, the players will have the rest of the semester off, but many players will be working hard all summer to accomplish their goals of making next season better than the previous one.

Today, Tech Athletic Director Mike Bobinski announced that men’s basketball head coach Brian Gregory will return to coach the Jackets next season. Following a 12-19 season there was much speculation about Gregory getting terminated. After details came out about the contract buyout being $2.4 million, the smart financial move was to retain Gregory. With Tech paying off former head coach Paul Hewitt until 2019, it would be a very tough situation to pay three basketball head coaches next year, and Tech would not have the money to pay a salary that an average ACC coach would make.

However, one of the consequences of retaining him is risking losing fan support and even more student support while the Athletic Department hopes to save money. It is a possibility that not enough donors stepped up to the plate to cover the Gregory buyout. Knowing how hard it is to turn around a basketball program without lots of money, Bobinski made the financially correct decision. Since the outlook of next year’s team will be just like the past season, regardless of coach, saving $1 million was Tech’s best option. It may be a tough pill to swallow for many, but the reality is that Tech has more potential next year with Gregory as head coach than starting over from scratch with a new one. Tech will save money making this decision, and Gregory will get another chance to show progress in his fifth year. Many ESPN pundits and former coaches have voiced their support for Gregory this past week. Former Tech head coach Bobby Cremins was among them, even saying that he is a fan of Gregory and has never seen a team with that many close defeats.

With an overall record of 55-71 and 19-51 in conference play, the pressure will be even higher as the majority of the fanbase is outraged with Gregory’s performance. After having his worst season at Tech in four years, if there is not considerable improvement and a postseason berth to the NIT, the same discussion will be had once again next year. If Gregory is not Tech’s long term solution, and this was just a money-saving opportunity, keeping him will only continue to set back the program even more, as top recruits will not come to a school with the current coaching situation. Ironically, Hewitt was fired from George Mason today, and they will be joining Tech in paying him not to coach. 

This past season, Tech suffered many close losses, including more close losses in conference play than any season in the program’s history. Some of it could be attributed to luck, but talent and coaching played a large role in losing 15 conference games. Tech has to play better, especially in crunch time situations. Junior guard Marcus Georges-Hunt will be the number one option on offense once again, and in his last year as a Tech player, he will be relied on even more.

Now that Gregory has been retained, he can focus on recruiting for next year. Tech is losing starters, Robert Sampson and Demarco Cox, but Alabama transfer Nick Jacobs will be eligible next year. Jacobs is projected to be a starter in Tech’s frontcourt. Currently, Tech only has one high school player signed, but getting high school kids to commit and stay to Tech has been the biggest challenge of Gregory’s era. Gregory has relied on “transfer roulette” the last few years and will once again recruit more transfers for next year. Since Gregory arrived, eight players have transferred into the program; however, seven players have also transferred out or been kicked off the team. With such high roster turnover, it is difficult to build a program that can compete at the highest level in the ACC. As the ACC is the toughest conference in the country with all the established programs and new high profile coaches, it has been a challenge for Tech to get out of the basement of the ACC.

12-19, is the record that will go into the history books for the 2014-2015 men’s basketball season. Even the most pessimistic of Tech fans wouldn’t have believed that 12-19 would be this year’s record, as many people had expectations of making the NIT. It has now been five years since Tech has made the NCAA tournament and there have been no NIT berths in that span either.

In 2011, Brian Gregory was hired as Tech’s basketball head coach by former Athletic Director, Dan Radakovich. At the time, Tech was paying off former football coach Chan Gailey and former basketball coach Paul Hewitt. The athletic department also did not have the money to attract a high profile coach. Tech, decided to hire a disciple from Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo and was well held in high regard by other college basketball personnel. Gregory won a national championship in 2000 as an assistant coach at Michigan State and won the 2010 NIT Championship against UNC. Gregory, who was hired in 2011, had a contract that added up to be around one million a year. One million dollars is a cheap contract by ACC standards and it was more friendly to Tech as the buyout was not large.

Coming into this year, Tech did lose several key players, but gained players who were expected to come in and contribute. But, the season didn’t work out to the expectations that were set after a convincing victory against arch-rival Georgia this year. Gregory became 4-0 against the Bulldogs, but the UGA-Tech basketball rivalry is meaningless compared to ACC play and ACC play would be Gregory’s kryptonite. Through his four years, Gregory’s regular season ACC record is 19-51 (.271) and his overall record is 55-71 (.436). Gregory is still on contract through the 2017-2018 season, but Gregory signed the extension knowing that his status would be reevaluated at end of year.

Current Tech Athletic Director, Mike Bobinski, showed his support of Gregory with the extension. But, after a 12-19 season and the most ACC losses Tech has ever had, it is very unlikely that Gregory is retained.

The student and fan support dwindled throughout the year as Tech lost many close games to ACC opponents. But, close losses are irrelevant and being a college basketball coach is about wins and wins only. The outside factors such as graduation rate matter, but when millions of dollars are in play, winning results are expected. Hewitt, showed that the Tech basketball program has the potential to make the Final Four. If Bobinksi does not believe Gregory is capable of leading Tech to success in March then it should be an easy decision.

Bobinksi, is expected to make a decision soon and Gregory has the character of a coach that every program would want. He just hasn’t been able to produce a team that isn’t in the bottom of the ACC. Credit should be given to him for always inspiring the team under adversity, and no one wants Tech to do well more than him. But, sometimes things don’t work out as they are planned. Due to the non-existent basketball atmosphere on campus and upset fans, it would be a surprise if Gregory returned to coach next year.

If Bobinski goes the route of keeping him, Tech will once again return a team made up of all Gregory recruited players. But, will be losing two starters in the front-court. With only one recruit signed, Tech will once again look into the transfer pool for temporary players. Given the results of the last two years, that strategy does not appear to be working.

If Gregory is let go, Tech will be paying off Hewitt and Gregory. Gregory’s buyout is around $2.4 million and this will be Bobinski’s first major hire as Tech Athletic Director. Given the circumstances, Tech is not expected to pay a lot of money to their basketball coach, so it is unlikely that Ben Howland or Archie Miller are offered the job.

At Xavier, Bobinksi hired three basketball coaches during his time at Xavier. Thad Matta, Sean Miller (Archie’s older brother) and Chris Mack. Neither of the three were big name coaches upon hiring and all three have been very successful. Matta is now at Ohio State and Sean is on track for a Hall of Fame career at Arizona. Bobinksi has an excellent track record when it comes to hiring basketball coaches, but his three hires at Xavier had a combined one year of head coaching experience. If Bobinski goes that route again, Tech’s coach may not have the name recognition that will instantly rejuvenate the fanbase. However, Tech will be paying off Hewitt until 2019 and Bobinski has proven that he can be trusted in this type of situation.

A formal announcement on the fate of Gregory and the basketball program is expected to be made within the next week.

After a strong 3-1 start to their 2015 campaign, the Georgia Tech baseball team went 2-2 on their latest road trip. The 28th ranked Yellow Jackets began the weekend’s 16th annual Caravelle Resort’s Baseball at the Beach in Conway, SC by scoring 8 runs in the 9th inning to defeat #23 Florida International University 16-9 under light rain, highlighted by A.J. Murray’s second career grand slam. The senior designated hitter went 3-for-5 with a career high 6 RBI and 4 runs scored, as his ninth inning heroics put the Jackets up 14-9.

FIU turned in a 3-run 7th inning to lead 9-8 going into the 9th, but Tech tied the game after senior first baseman Thomas Smith has hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Sophomore catcher Arden Pabst added 2 RBI on 2-for-4 hitting (both doubles) and sophomore shortstop Connor Justus went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI as well. Freshman phenom right fielder Kel Johnson extended his hitting streak to 5 games with a double off the wall in the 2nd inning.

Junior southpaw Jonathan King gave up 5 runs on 5 hits with 2 strikeouts in 5 innings and gave the bullpen a 7-5 lead. After sophomore Zac Ryan gave up four runs in relief of King. Sophomore lefty Tanner Shelton came in and pitched 2.1 innings of scoreless ball to earn his first career win.

The second game of the day matched the Yellow Jackets up against the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina University. As the rain wouldn’t let up, CCU used a 7-run 5th inning to defeat Tech 7-5. Sophomore lefty Ben Parr was charged with the loss, as he allowed 6 runs (5 earned) in the 5th inning after 4 blank frames to start the game. The Jackets led 2-0 before Parr’s 5th inning troubles, which weren’t helped by him walking 6 batters and giving up two home runs.

“It was a tough day (weather-wise)…It made it a little difficult to pitch, but it really made it hard on ground balls,” said head coach Danny Hall, courtesy of ramblinwreck.com. “We made a few uncharacteristic errors and they ended up costing us…Give Coastal credit. That seven-run inning is hard to overcome.”

Johnson was able to extend his hitting streak to 6 games, as he went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and a solo homer in the first inning. After his RBI groundout cut the lead down to 7-5, Tech wasn’t able to take further advantage of their scoring opportunity and stranded 2 runners in scoring position.

Danny Hall’s men rebounded in style on Sunday with a walk-off 9-8 win over Albany, courtesy of Pabst’s 3-run 9th inning home run. Tech again took the first lead with a 3-run 1st inning, but another big inning given up by a Tech pitcher- this time a 6-run 2nd inning by senior lefty Devin Stanton- had the skipper going to his bullpen early once again. This time, sophomore third baseman/pitcher Brandon Gold hurled a career-high 5.1 strong innings of relief, striking out 4 while scattering 2 runs on 5 hits.

“That was a great comeback win and a great swing from Arden Pabst,” said Hall, courtesy of ramblinwreck.com. “We did some good things there to win the game, certainly in the ninth inning. I was very impressed by Gold on the mound. He gave us some crucial innings.”

Trailing 8-6 going to the bottom of the 9th, sophomore Keenan Innis reached on a one-out error, followed by a pinch-hit walk by freshman Daniel Gooden. Pabst then stepped up and wasted no time, crushing his first pitch over the wall to send the Yellow Jackets home happy.

Sophomore Matt Phillips was credited with the win, as he came on in relief of freshman Patrick Wiseman, who gave up 2 hits to open the top of the 9th. Senior righty Cole Pitts who had Tommy John surgery in the offseason, pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning with 2 strikeouts in his first game back. Innis got the start in left field and went 2-for-4 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI, while Johnson extended his hitting streak to 7 games with an RBI single in 2nd inning.

After a day off, Tech traveled to Alabama to take on the Tigers of Auburn in the first leg of a home-and-home and the first matchup between the two teams since 2005. The Yellow Jackets were unlucky to run into Auburn ace Keegan Thompson, a freshman All-American, who gave up only 1 run in 7 innings and struck out 9 Jackets. Sophomore righty Ben Schniederjans (younger brother of senior Tech golf star Ollie Schniederjans) was dealt the loss, lasting only 4 innings after allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks.

“[Keegan Thompson] is very good and he over-matched us tonight; he commanded everything well,” said Hall. “But we banged into two double plays with guys on, and we had lead-off guys in the first and second. So you have to credit him (Thompson), he was able to get out of those situations.”

No Tech hitter had more than 1 hit and Pabst scored the team’s lone run after doubling in the 6th. Smith extended his hitting streak to 6 games, but Johnson’s 7 game streak was ended by the Tigers pitchers.

The offense has had no trouble producing runs (except for the Auburn game), averaging 9.4 runs a game (10.8 before Auburn), but the pitching has been a struggle so far. Tech pitchers have allowed 6.5 runs a game, 5 or more runs in more than half of the games, and less than 4 runs only once (3 against St. John’s on Opening Day). It doesn’t come as a complete surprise though, as the team lost pitchers Sam Clay, “Trusty” Dusty Isaacs, Jonathan Roberts, and Matt Grimes in the offseason. King and Pitts are also coming off tough season-ending injuries from last year. Predictably given those numbers and facts, Tech has trailed in every game this season and all 5 of Tech’s wins have had to be comeback victories.

“We’ve got to bounce back with a big series at home this weekend against Indiana State,” concluded Hall. The Sycamores come to Atlanta this weekend, with the first game on Friday at 4pm. Tech’s Wednesday game against Georgia State was cancelled due to the threat of inclement weather.