In the past five years, there has been a major decline in college football attendance. It has become very worrisome to athletic officials who are now wondering if the next generation of college football fans will even show up to games.

We’ve seen it firsthand at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Tech struggles to sell out games unless Tech is playing UGA or Clemson. Some of the decline in attendance at Tech may have to do with the slump of the Tech football program as they continue to struggle against Division I competition. Big time football programs like Alabama, Georgia, Florida and even Florida State have problems filling up their crowds, especially their student sections.

Tech expanded Bobby Dodd Stadium by 11,281 seats following the 2002 football season. For the 2003 football season, Tech sold out two games that year and had an average attendance of 52,862, and every game at home had a crowd over 50,000.

Tech has come nowhere close to those attendance numbers the past decade. Tech is selling more tickets than they did when the capacity was 43,719, but there are many more empty seats in Bobby Dodd Stadium. The fan base does seem to be larger as attendance at an ACC game has never been as low as the abysmal 35,724 fans who showed up to watch the Duke game back in 1998, which was a season where Tech finished ranked No. 9 in the country.

One reason for the decline may be that mobile technology has really exploded the last few years. In the past, it was only college students and business people with a smartphone. Now almost every parent, student and working class adult has a smartphone.

The outbreak of smartphones has caused a ton of mobile social media applications to be created. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have been extremely popular for adults and especially college students. An obsessive addiction has been caused by these apps and people often find themselves meaninglessly surfing the web and not able to be disconnected from the world longer than one hour.

At football games and especially at Bobby Dodd Stadium, you will be very hard pressed to find a quality phone signal for either Verizon or AT&T. Using popular social media apps and score checking apps becomes very hard to use. Students and season ticket holders cannot access Wi-Fi at the game. For some people, this inconvenience is enough to keep them from coming to the game.

Another reason for the decline are television contracts. Conference expansion seems to be wrapped up and the ACC is now home to 15 teams. Expansion was pushed by the television companies and conference officials trying to seek as much money as possible for new television contracts. Athletic departments are getting more money than ever before because of contracts with companies such as CBS, ESPN, NBC and Fox Sports.

Due to the outrageous price for some college football tickets, some fans are choosing to stay home and watch it on their couch in front of their HDTV’s where they are already paying a monthly fee for cable. At home, you have the power to watch multiple games, allowing viewers to easily keep track of the scores of other games.

Personally, I love to attend college football games. It’s my favorite sport, and the passion that the coaches and players have are second to no professional sports team. But there are some students who have become reluctant to attend games and choose to stay back at their rooms or houses where they can watch multiple games at once, eat and drink much more easily and not have to worry about being uninformed on other college football games.

The excitement surrounding college football student sections no longer seem to be the same either. Students have become more into tailgating and easily become disinterested with a game. Even the University of Alabama has had problems with students failing to show up to games and leaving at halftime. Their three national championships in the last five years do not seem to be enough to keep the energy high around their student fan base.

A solution to the attendance problem is to improve the overall fan experience at the games. The NFL has started to do this and it is succeeding as attendance problems for NFL games are very rare. But the NFL has more money and billionaire owners, so it’s easier for them to make improvements on their stadiums and game atmosphere. Adding free Wi-Fi for fans to use would definitely be a start and a big improvement that students would love here at Tech. Winning isn’t always a solution for fixing attendance as some of the best programs in the country cannot fill up their stadium, but winning more games against rivals would sure help attendance at Tech.

To try to fix their fan experience, the University of Texas has announced they will be selling beer at all sporting events. Football and drinking seems to go hand in hand and it will be interesting to monitor how much money they make and how quickly other schools follow their lead.

Athletic departments need to act fast to fix this problem because it seems that attendees of college football games are becoming a dying breed.

For the second time this season, the No. 5 ranked Duke Blue Devils defeated the Jackets, this time at McCamish Pavilion with a score of 68-51. Earlier in the season, the Jackets travelled to Durham, N.C. and lost 79-57, but this game featured several different storylines than the last time. Robert Carter Jr. was active for this game, but Solomon Poole has been dismissed from the team. Jason Morris is out indefinitely with a foot injury and leading scorer, Trae Golden, has been suffering a lingering groin injury the past three weeks.

“[Duke] came out very focused and played with great force to start the game,” said Tech head coach Brian Gregory. “They have dramatically improved defensively from the first time we played them earlier in January. I think playing more guys, and those guys buying into playing with the pressure that they played with was key tonight. That really put us in a tough hole. We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and do a better job of executing and getting into the offense. Defensively we got put on our heels a little bit with some of those early drives.  We got in some foul trouble, and they took advantage of that by knocking down some open shots. We’ve got to re-group and get ready for Saturday afternoon.”

Duke guard Rodney Hood started the game off with a wide open three point basket and Tech sophomore Chris Bolden answered immediately on the next Jacket’s possession with a three of his own. Duke got out to an early 12-3 lead, which led Coach Gregory to call an early timeout.

Carter Jr. hit a three coming out of the time out to cut the lead to six, but on the next possession Hood buried another wide open three for Duke. Daniel Miller’s only basket of the night was a thunderous alley-oop from Golden in transition, which made it an 18-12 game. Tech was unable to sustain the momentum as they continued to leave Duke shooters wide open at the three point line and Duke made six of their first eight three-pointers to give them a 32-16 lead.

Freshman Corey Heyward, who saw no playing time in the first matchup, has been forced into the starting lineup due to dismissals and injuries. Heyward had his toughest game of the year, scoring zero points and committing five turnovers.

At halftime, Tech trailed 43-27. Kammeon Holsey and Carter combined for 18 of Tech’s 27 points on 8-10 shooting, but the rest of the team was a combined 3-16 at half. Duke’s crippling pressure defense was the biggest reason for the big lead, which gave Tech guards fits all night and forced 13 turnovers.

Tech was unable to get the ball to Miller in their half-court offense all game. Miller had been on a roll in the last six games, averaging nearly 17 points and over three blocks per game.

“[Miller] didn’t get the ball that much and he didn’t because our perimeter defense was the best it’s been all year,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “We contested or denied. They have to run their offense pretty far out. Our ball pressure and contesting we thought was going to be a key for the ball game. It would make the passes longer and the vision tougher to see the post. Our perimeter was outstanding in that tonight and it helped our big guys. Our big guys did a nice job, but they got a lot of help from the perimeter.”

In the second half, Duke extended their lead to 50-30, prompting Tech to go on a 7-0 run where Chris Bolden recorded five straight points. Tech had several opportunities to cut the lead to ten, but was unable to convert. After cutting the lead to 12, Hood made another three and Duke forward Jabari Parker had a three point play to extend the lead to 18 with 9:02 remaining. Parker was a force on the glass all night, finishing the game with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Defensively, the Jackets did a much better job guarding the three point line and perimeter, holding Duke to 29 percent shooting in the second half.

Offensively, Tech was not able to take advantage of Duke’s shooting woes. They scored just 24 points on 35 percent shooting in the second half. Positives from the game were that Golden didn’t seem to be as hobbled by his groin injury and Carter Jr. appeared to be almost fully back after leading the team with 13 points and nine rebounds.

“[Carter] did some good things in 26 minutes which was a good number for him. He’s progressively getting better. He’s feeling more comfortable,” Gregory said. “The one thing we need from Kam—he played 21 minutes and didn’t get a defensive rebound. I think that’s humanly impossible. We need him more engaged on the glass for us on the defensive end. You need Daniel as your pressure release to set those ball screens and that takes him away from the basket.”

The loss dropped Tech to 13-13 (4-9 ACC) and moved Duke to 21-5 (10-3 ACC). The Jackets take on Clemson tomorrow at McCamish Pavilion.

A total of 21 student athletes  committed to this year’s football class, leading to the largest number of signees by the end of National Signing Day for Tech since 2011.

“We’re extremely excited about the group of young men we signed this year,” said head football coach Paul Johnson. “Almost every year at this time, that’s what everybody comes out and says, but I think we really fulfilled some needs. We took six offensive lineman, which was a priority for this year’s class, and we got some defensive backs we think can come in and compete right away. Overall, I’m really excited with this class. Right now, we’re at 20, with a chance to get one more this afternoon.”

Ten of this year’s 21 commits are from the state of Georgia, including two from nearby Norcross High School. Tech continues to grow the Norcross pipeline and will now have three players on the roster from Norcross. This class is also  very southeast oriented with 17 of this year’s signees from Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.

Headlining this class are four-star running backs Myles Autry and Christopher Leggett, four star cornerback Step Durham and Junior College defensive end Kenderius Whitehead. Tech singed four four-stars, according to ESPN recruiting services, which is the most a Paul Johnson class has ever had during his tenure at Tech.

Other top commits are four-star linebacker Terrell Lewis, three-star quarterback Matthew Jordan and three-star defensive ends Tyler Merriweather and KeShun Freeman.

Of the 21 signees, ten are slotted to play defense and 11 will play on the offensive side of the ball.

Tech also addressed several needs in this year’s recruiting class by signing six offensive linemen, including Trey Klock, who could line up at tight end in some packages. Tech signed three ends, having lost three defensive lineman to graduation.

“In the past couple of recruiting cycles, we had recruited some defensive ends who got big and now they’re inside guys. So the emphasis for this year’s class was more for outside guys then inside guys [on the defensive line],” Johnson said.

Whitehead is the first Junior College player to come to Tech since punter Durant Brooks, who won the 2007 Ray Guy Award. Originally at NC State, Whitehead transferred to Georgia Military College where he was a first team Junior College All-American. He recorded 7.5 sacks on the season and helped GMC to an 11-1 record. Whitehead will have three years of eligibility left and will look to replace the production of Jeremiah Attaochu.

Another position of need was defensive back, which Tech fulfilled by signing five defensive backs to this year’s class, including twins Lawrence and Lance Austin from Lamar County High School. The Austin twins are slotted to play corner back. They are joined by wide receiver Qua Searcy, who is also from Lamar County.

Autry and Clinton Lynch faced off against Leggett as Norcross played North Gwinnett for the Georgia High School 6A State Championship game. Norcross won 31-14 and Tech signees combined for three touchdowns in that game. Lynch and Autry combined for 233 receiving yards and 2 TDs with Autry also adding a 92 yard kickoff return TD. Leggett has the chance to play both A-back and B-back, while Autry and Lynch will play A-back and slot receiver. Autry is  the younger brother of Tech sophomore wide receiver Anthony Autry.

“I think CJ [Leggett] is a very talented guy,” Johnson said. “He led the Georgia 6A classification in rushing. He’s got a burning desire to excel. He could either be a b-back or an a-back. Once we get him and get him into the system we will see again where he has the best chance to see the field the fastest and where he fits—that’s where we’ll play him. We’re excited, and we think he can be a real good player.”

Overall, this was a great class for the Jackets as a lot of talented football players will be coming in next year. Many will get redshirted, but some will see a lot of playing time. According to rivals.com, this was the No. 47 ranked class in the country and the highest rated recruiting class Tech has had since 2011.

Roads were blocked, school was closed and ESPN cancelled their broadcast, but that didn’t stop Tech from taking on North Carolina Wednesday night. Due to wintry weather, many season ticket holders were not able to make it to the game, but a great showing from the Tech student body helped out. The student section was filled an hour before the game started, but no one was turned away.

The North Carolina basketball team also faced travel difficulties getting to Atlanta. However, the inconveniences of bad weather did not affect the Tar Heels as they pulled away in the second half, 78-65. The Jackets fell to 11-10 on the season and 2-6 in the ACC.

“In North Carolina you are starting to see the team that was 10-3 in the non-conference and had the number one strength of schedule. They beat Michigan State at Michigan State and Louisville and Kentucky. Those guys are starting to play really well,” said Tech Head Coach Brian Gregory. “I thought there were some things we did well today, but when you play a team like that you have to do a lot of things well.”

This was Tech’s first game since the overtime loss at NC State last weekend. Tech had one of their best rebounding performances of the year and looked to continue it against UNC, which ranks fourth nationally in rebounding. However, UNC was able to have their way on the interior and racked up 45 rebounds tonight.

Corey Heyward was given the starting nod and scored Tech’s second basket of the game. Daniel Miller had a monstrous dunk to tie the game at 10, but Leslie McDonald immediately answered with a 3 on the next possession to give UNC a 13-10 lead at the 12 minute mark. Miller pinned Brice Johnson’s lay up to the backboard and hit two fade away jump shots in a row to give Tech a 14-13 lead with 10 minutes left in the first half.

Tech allowed UNC to get 10 early offensive rebounds which helped UNC go on 11-2 run to take a 24-15 lead. Tech was able to close the gap to 27-26 at halftime after Trae Golden was fouled at half-court attempting a three pointer. Tech shot 45.5% in the first half to UNC’s 31%. Miller led the team with 8 points on 4-5 shooting at the half and James McAdoo had 8 points for UNC.

Tar Heels’ James McAdoo and JP Tokoto picked up their fourth foul early in the second half, and Tech was down 36-34 after Trae Golden hit a 3 with 15 minutes remaining in game. The foul trouble was a non-factor for the Tar Heels as Marcus Paige and Leslie McDonald began to heat up. Paige did not miss a shot and scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half. Tech struggled the entire half shooting the ball and continued missing one of every two free throws. Once UNC got a double digit lead, Tech was unable to cut it to less than seven. The Tar Heels scored 52 points in the second half and shot 66.7%. Tech finished the game shooting 42% from the floor, but missed 13 three pointers and 11 free throws. The trio of Miller, Georges-Hunt and Golden combined to score 50 of Tech’s 65 points.

Tech senior Jason Morris was injured in the first half and was unable to return. Tech is already down 3 scholarship players and they are hoping to get Robert Carter Jr. back before the season ends. Morris has struggled with foot injuries throughout his career at Tech. Morris has only been available for nine games this season and is averaging 2.2 points per game.

“Jason will have x-rays tomorrow,” Gregory said. “Poor kid can’t catch a break. He had two defensive rebounds in four minutes and he was dialed in pretty good, in terms of what we needed from him. One things he does is give us size at the perimeter and I’m hoping that it’s not bad, but we’ll review the x-rays tomorrow. Robert has been progressing and unfortunately because of all the snow, the doctor wasn’t able to get a look at him today. We’re hoping he gets to look at him tomorrow, and we will put him through in another workout tomorrow. The knee is responding pretty well up to this point and we’ll wait for the call from the doctor.”

Golden led the Jackets with 21 points and Daniel Miller had another big game with 12 points and five blocks.

“Daniel’s been great. You ask him to do so much. 12 points and again the rebounding total is skewed a little bit,” Gregory said. “But it’s hard right now because 35 minutes is a lot of minutes. We just have to find a way for him to survive right now.”

The Jackets fall to 11-10 on the year and 2-6 in ACC play. They travel to Winston-Salem on Saturday to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

The Tech golf team begins their spring season Feb. 5 in Kohala Coast, Hawaii where they will be playing in the Amer Ari Invitational.

Last year, the Jackets finished in fourth place. With a veteran team, the Jackets look to improve this year. Tech had a successful fall and come into the spring ranked as number two in the nation. In their four tournaments this fall, the team had two first-place and two-second place finishes. Junior Ollie Schniederjans led the Jackets individually with two first place finishes as well as a third and fourth place finish.

After the fall season, Schniderjans was named “Player of the Mid-Season” by Golf World Magazine and is the number one college golfer in the Palmer Cup Rankings. Schniederjans is from Powder Springs, Ga. and attended Harrison High School and has been playing golf for eight years.

The Jackets practice in Alpharetta at the golf club of Georgia so the players make the 30 mile trip up SR 400 several days a week to work on their game.

“Our schedule is different every week depending on how the school schedule is and if we’re in town, but ideally if I have time I go to Alpharetta to go to the Golf Club of Georgia and spend all afternoon up there, then I come back and take care of school work,” Schniederjans said. “We always work out at 6 a.m. so workouts are done early so we have the rest of the day to work on our game and take care of school.”

The Jackets made it to Final Four match play last year in the NCAA tournament and lost to Alabama, who wound up winning the national championship. However, Tech returns the core of last year’s team, including junior Anders Albertson, who won the individual ACC championship last season with a tournament record score of -15.

“We have a very experienced team now. Three seniors and two juniors make up the five players,” Schniederjans said. “We have no excuses and we’ve been through a lot as a team and made it far. We have had our struggles and success and we know what it takes and have a good chance to get it done this year.”

The team has set its goals high and when the season is over, they want to be able to look back on the year and know they gave it their all.

“The thing about having your goal to win the national championship is that it’s just one tournament and you have the other 14 events you play in the year,” Schniederjans said. “Obviously, our goal is to be the best team we can be, which would give us as good [of] a chance [as] any team in the nation to win the final tournament. But, you’re not defined by that one tournament. We just want to play at the level we can and work as hard as we can and be proud of our efforts at the end of the season.”

Schniederjans is excited about the team’s upcoming tournaments and is looking forward to getting out of the cold weather of Atlanta.

“This is my third year making the trip. It’s a complete blast going to Hawaii. We get to get out of the cold and go to 80 degree weather. We go to the beach every day after we play a round. That trip is probably my favorite because I love the beach and weather. It’s a great field; a lot of the best teams are there. Puerto Rico is another nice break. It’s another great tournament, and that’s where we’re finally going to see Alabama this year. Vegas is arguably the strongest tournament we’re going to see this year and maybe the hardest golf course we’ll play all year. I’m very excited to start the spring with three big tournaments,” Schniederjans said.

In the last two decades, Tech has been one of the best and most consistent golf programs in the country.

During his tenure, Coach Bruce Heppler has led the Jackets to nine ACC championships and 10 top eight finishes in the NCAA championships. Tech has been national runner-up three times under Coach Heppler. Seven of his Tech players are now members of the PGA Tour, most notably Matt Kuchar, who is currently ranked as the No. 8 best golfer in the world. Heppler was recently inducted into the Golf Coaches Hall of Fame.

“Having a strong tradition here is definitely a positive. It’s just a testament to Coach Heppler and all he has accomplished here and great players he has coached. Having him as a mentor as someone you can go to and ask what was Kuchar like [is great]. [It’s] nice to be at a place you know is successful,” Schniederjans said.

After a successful fall season for the Jackets’ women’s tennis program, the spring season begins this weekend, with the Lady Jackets playing in the Michigan Invitational.

The most notable performance of the fall season was the sophomore doubles team of Megan Kurey and Kendal Woodard winning the USTA/ITA National Indoors Championship. Originally ranked No. 26 at the time of winning their national championship, the team of Kurey and Woodard has since catapulted up to fourth place in the ITA women’s tennis ranking, which in turn makes them the highest ranked doubles team in the South and the ACC.

“We have been playing together technically only a little over for a year. We didn’t start out playing together freshman year. We played a couple matches together at the end of the fall and then played all spring season freshman year and have been playing together since then,” Kurey said.

Kurey grew up watching Kim Clijsters and Roger Federer and even though Kurey now has a national championship under her belt, she is still focused on improving and has her goals set high.

“We are really looking forward to the season starting this weekend. We play Georgia at home this spring so we are especially really excited for that match. Kendal and I had such a great fall winning National Indoors, but we want to continue that success this spring. We know that people will be after us and we can’t wait,” Kurey said.

The ACC is arguably the toughest conference in the country for women’s tennis. It boasts eight schools in the ITA Top 25 rankings, including Tech at No. 20. The team knows this will be the toughest the ACC has ever been with the addition to Notre Dame, Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC.

“The ACC is such a competitive tennis conference. Going into the conference season, you know that you are always going to have tough matches every weekend. We always have to be prepared no matter what team we have that day cause anything can happen,” Kurey said.

The Lady Jackets will have their hands full this weekend with the competition at the Michigan Invitational. Michigan comes into the spring ranked eleventh, but a first place finish this weekend could mean that this young Tech team has made significant strides since finishing 15-10 overall as a team last season.

“We are so excited about the future of this program. We have so much young talent on the team right now and of course our awesome senior captain, but with more great young talent coming in the next year, the future is looking so bright for the GT Women’s Tennis program,” Kurey said.

On the seven person roster for the Jackets, there is only one senior, Switzerland native Muriel Wacker, the lone captain of the team. The rest of the roster is made up of freshman and sophomores. Kurey and Woodard were a part of the No. 1 ranked 2012 recruiting class and last year’s class featuring Rasheeda McAdoo and Alexa Anton-Ohlmeyer was ranked No. 6 in the nation, according to tennisrecruiting.net. McAdoo is the daughter of NBA Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo and led the team with nine single’s wins during the fall.

After this weekend’s invitational, the Jackets go first to Nebraska for the ITA Kick-Off-Weekend then to Charlottesville for the ITA National Team Indoors before starting conference play. During conference play, the Jackets boast a home schedule that features nationally ranked opponents like Georgia, Clemson, North Carolina and Duke.

News broke last week that Jonathan Martin, a starting offensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins, had left the team because of emotional issues from bullying by teammates. This was a surprise to many people because Martin is a key part of the Miami Dolphins team, and grown men aren’t expected to bully others, especially in a league as prestigious as the NFL. The NFL is not middle school, and there is no excuse for players getting bullied off the team. It’s bad enough to get bullied at all, but in a professional workplace where grown men are getting paid millions of dollars, this is inexcusable.

Martin was drafted in the second round by the Dolphins in 2012. He is a 6-foot-6, 320-pound player of biracial descent who attended Stanford University.  Martin went AWOL last week after a cafeteria prank by his teammates. He went to go sit with teammates at a table and, as soon as he sat down, everyone else got up and left. This appeared to be the last straw for Martin as he then threw his food tray on the ground and stormed out of the team facility.

A few days later, it was confirmed that Richie Incognito was a suspected bully. Voicemails and text messages to Martin began to leak out. Some of the messages contained racial slurs and other despicable threats. This was a voicemail from Incognito to Martin from April 2013:

“Hey, wassup, you half n***** piece of s***. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] s*** in your f****** mouth. [I’m going to] slap your f****** mouth. [I’m going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. F*** you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”

It appears the NFL has a major hazing problem too. It is obvious that one reason Martin was targeted by teammates is because he was a rookie. Rookies are forced to do many things for veterans and have no choice in the matter. Dolphin rookies were handed the tab for a $30,000 team dinner. Some players have contacted the Miami Herald saying they are on their way to going broke because they cannot say no to veterans.

Incognito has had a very troubling past. He was suspended from both Nebraska and Oregon football teams and has assault charges from college. Incognito was voted the dirtiest player in the NFL in a 2009 vote by his peers in the Sporting News. He was released by the Rams in 2009 after an argument with his head coach.

Every team he has ever played on has either suspended him or cut ties. Notably, Richie Incognito was bullied himself as a child.

There are many people to blame for this situation. One is head coach Joe Philbin. Philbin is a second-year head coach, and it appears he turned a blind eye to what happens in the locker room. The Dolphins named a six-person leadership council, and Incognito was on it. One of his responsibilities was to carry team issues up to the council. Martin never went to coaches and team leaders about the problems. He must have found it embarrassing to go up to other players in a professional and “tough guy” environment.

There are very few of us to the walk this world without getting bullied. It’s a terrible feeling to not feel accepted and get ganged up on by our peers. The culture of the NFL needs to change because there is no need for bullying in any context.

Sophomore Adam Gotsis is not your typical college football player.

Almost all college football players are from North America, but Gotsis is one of the rare few who are from overseas. The six foot five inch defensive tackle is from the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. In the past few years, there have been a few other Australian players in American football. For example, Brad Wing played punter at LSU and Jesse Williams played at Alabama.

Gotsis did not actually get exposed to American football until he was 13, when he and his brother watched a replay of the 2006 Rose Bowl that featured Texas versus Southern California.

Gotsis grew up playing the usual Australian sports, such as rugby and Australian rules football, but he and his older brother Peter decided to give American football a try.

“I grew up playing Australian rules football and basketball and I wanted to change sports and try something new. I was just getting tired of playing the same sport. We were looking to play rugby league and we came across a football flyer. My brother and I decided to try it out and we went down there and fell in love with it,” Gotsis said.

Paul Johnson had some contacts in Australia and was given the advice by a player who played for him while Johnson was coaching at the University of Hawaii to take a look at Gotsis. Gotsis came on an official visit to Tech and was offered a scholarship.

“My brother and I decided to try it out and we went down there and fell in love with it.”

“I made the Australian national team and played in an international tournament. A few of the coaches back home knew coaches in America and were able to put me in contact with them. That got the ball rolling for recruiting and I went on from there,” Gotsis said.

To the surprise of many, Gotsis was not redshirted for his first season on The Flats. The coaches and players were extremely impressed with the way he was dominating offensive lineman in practice. He played in 12 games and even started against Duke. Gotsis had several things to adjust to moving to America, but his coaches and teammates eased the process.

“Living here was a huge adjustment because I didn’t have my family here. If you go out to eat, tipping is new. We don’t tip back home because it’s all included back home. All the people were new to me, but my roommates helped me adjust the most and on the field Izaan [Cross] and TJ [Barnes] really helped me adjust,” Gotsis said.

After the hiring of Coach Roof as defensive coordinator, the Jackets announced that they would be moving back to the 4-3 formation. This was no concern to Gotsis who better fits the 4-3 defensive tackle position and was very familiar with it, having played in it in the past.

“I played 4-3 back home so it was harder to adjust to the 3-4 formation as a freshman and it was kind of good to go back to the 4-3 and have a little more freedom, so it’s a bit more fun,” Gotsis said.

Ted Roof has coached several great defensive tackles including Nick Fairley from when Roof was defensive coordinator at Auburn. Gotsis is always looking at the technique of NFL defensive tackles.

“I like Suh just because he’s a mean man out there. He’ll fight to the end and that’s the mentality you have to have on the defensive line. You can’t go in there giving half effort and have to give 100% percent on the play,” Gotsis said.

This season, Gotsis won one of the starting defensive tackle positions. He starts along the line with fellow defensive tackle Euclid Cummings and defensive ends Jeremiah Attaochu and Emmanuel Dieke. Gotsis is the only non-senior starting on the line and has put up impressive stats.

Gotsis leads the team with nine tackles for loss and is second on the team with three sacks. Gotsis is also tied for fourth in the country for tackles for loss amongst defensive tackles.

This season, Gotsis is on pace to have the most tackles for loss by a Tech player in the Paul Johnson era. At his current rate, Gotsis will finish his career in the top five at Tech for tackles for loss and the top 15 in career sacks.

Gotsis credits his coaches and fellow teammates for putting him in situations to succeed and believes Coach Pelton and Coach Roof have had a tremendous impact on the defense.

Tech’s scoring defense is ranked number 20 in the country only allowing 19.9 points per game. That ranking is up from 65 from last season.

“The coaches are putting us in good situation to make plays. Having Jerry on one side, Dieke on the other and Euclid next to me, everyone has to be accounted for…I feel like it’s a whole unit just working together,” Gotsis said.

Gotsis has high expectations for himself and his team and is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish them.

“I definitely want to be All-ACC or All-American. I have team goals as well. I want to win an ACC Championship and beat Georgia,” Gotsis said.

The women’s volleyball team had a two game road trip this past weekend.

Their first game was played at Syracuse on Oct. 25. This was the first time the Jacket’s volleyball team had ever played in a football stadium. Tech lost in straight sets to Syracuse, 18-25, 22-25, 19-25. This was the fifth game in the row where the Lady Jackets lost in straight sets. Sophomore Callie Bivings recorded her first career double-double, tallying up 26 assists and a career high 11 digs. Jennifer Percy led the team with 13 kills. Tech struggled throughout the game with 9 service errors and 18 attacking errors.

Next, the volleyball team travelled to Chestnut Hill, Ma. to take on Boston College. Boston College entered the game 0-9 in ACC play and Tech had come into the matchup winning 12 in a row versus Boston College. Tech won the matchup 3-2 (25-16, 9-25, 19-25, 25-23, 15-12). The Jackets won the first set, 25-16, connecting on 34.3 percent of their kills, a game high. Tech’s offense and defense struggled in the second set as Boston College won 25-9 and Tech had a game high of 5 attacking errors. After losing the third set, the Jackets bounced back in a must-win fourth set, 25-23, to force a game deciding fifth set.

In the fifth set, Tech rallied from down 9-10 to win 15-12. Sophomore Wimberly Wilson had two key service aces in the fifth set. Her first gave the Jackets a 13-12 lead and her last ace was the match clinching point. The win improved the Jackets’ record to 8-14 and 2-8 in ACC play. The Jackets snapped their five game streak without recording a set and look to continue their winning streak tonight.

The Tech volleyball team is looking to turn their season around Friday night when the Jackets travel to New York to face off against Syracuse. The team has recently hit a bit of a rough spot, dropping five straight conference matches and being swept 3-0 in four straight games. While their ACC schedule has been very tough, the Jackets get a little bit of a break with their next three opponents in the bottom half of the ACC standings.

“Our conference is so tough. I don’t think you can take a night off in this conference because all of our teams are good,” said Coach Tonya Johnson. “That says a lot about our conference and the direction we [the ACC] are going in. There are no easy matches in this conference.”

On Oct. 4, the Lady Jackets handed Florida State its only ACC loss of the year—winning in dominating fashion 3-1, but since then consistency has hurt the Jackets as they have not reached that level of play since.

“I think it’s important for us to establish some consistency and being mentally. We need them to understand that every night is going to be a battle and we have to stay poised in the tough times instead of shooting ourselves in the foot. That is probably the most important thing for this group to take away from what’s happened to us and going forward,” Johnson said. “I just felt like we just played extremely well that night and came to play. That’s the match we keep drawing back on for our kids to understand that we’re capable of so much more and we just have to show that consistently.”

This has been a rebuilding year for the Jackets as they are replacing some of the all-time greats to play at Tech. Many freshman have been getting a fair amount of playing time in key parts of matches, which could help the Jackets in the future.

The development for freshmen London Ackermann, Teegan and Annika Van Gunst has been going along very well this season.

“Our libero, London Ackermann, has matured and grown up a great deal. She had a great week of passing last week. We’ve been harping at her about her discipline and she is getting better and you can see that in her play as she is passing better and getting more digs per set,” Johnson said.

“Anika is developing on the right side and playing a little bit in the middle. I think she is understanding the timing and the speed of the game,” Johnson added. “Teegan is coming along. She has been one of our steadiest passers this season. She has done some really good things for us on the back side of the court.”

Coach Johnson believes the future is bright for the Jacket volleyball program as she looks to build them back to their winning ways of the early 2000s.

“I think with so many young kids on the floor right now and going through some growing pains I certainly think the future is great. Young kids don’t understand the speed of the game until they are in it. This is a much faster game then being in high school,” Johnson said.

Senior outside hitter Jennifer Percy has stepped up this season and is leading the team in kills by a large margin.

“We’re having to rely on a lot of people from an offensive standpoint. Jennifer Percy has always played on our L2 spot so she has never had to carry the load for this team,” Johnson said. “From that perspective it’s a new thing for her as well. We’re trying to get her to step up her game and understand what the team needs her to do. I think she is responding and has improved tremendously.”

Percy has been a leader on this year’s team and is helping mentor the younger players on the team.

“It’s unbelievable knowing this is my last year and being a leader is definitely a responsibility and it’s nice the team looks up to you and they trust you in that role,” Percy said. “I’m helping to mentor them [the freshman] and understand that this is a process and you’re not going to be coming into college volleyball throwing lightning bolts right away. It takes time and helping them understand the game is also very mental.”

Percy believes the team can snap out of their bad habits and has set goals for herself and the team.

“Individually, I’d like to see myself put down more balls and get more kills. Averaging four to five kills per set is somewhere I’d like to be and become more of an offensive threat,” Percy said. “For the team. I’d like to see us turn this ship around and build in a positive direction which we are capable of doing.”

Both Coach Johnson and Percy agreed that mental toughness and competitive spirit were the two things the team needed to work on the most to improve and begin to win games during the rest of ACC play.

“One thing we need to improve on is our mental toughness and competitive spirit. We’ve been in a little bit of a losing streak and that’s taken a toll on some people. We have renewed mind right now and we are definitely getting our work ethic back,” Percy said.