After Tech’s 49-21 drubbing at the hands of the Clemson Tigers Saturday, Paul Johnson announced that he would be taking a more active role in Tech quarterback’s development and conditioning. Tech, which leads the country in fumbles per game at 4.0, saw its quarterbacks fumble six times on Saturday, including multiple fumbles on the snap.

Johnson expressed considerable discontent with how Tech played Saturday, saying, “I’m frustrated with the way we’re playing… it’s embarrassing.” Johnson singled out his quarterbacks, senior and team captain TaQuon Marshall and redshirt freshman Tobias Oliver, promising that “[Tech is] going to get better fundamentally at quarterback.”

Marshall shouldered some blame for Tech’s issues with ball handling during the game. “I take responsibility for it — bad pitches, should have put the ball in some guys’ hands, [and] unfortunately that put us behind the chains.” In response to Johnson’s comments that he would be more active in coaching QBs, Marshall again pointed to his pitching as a likely area for Johnson to target for improvement. “I think one of the things he’s going to pinpoint is pitching the ball on the perimeter. I know he said that about the end of the game when Tobias is in … I think that’s one of the things he’s going to emphasize, like, ‘Hey, when they have the guys blocked, we need to get the ball on the perimeter, so the A-backs can work.’”

The Jackets saw Johnson in action in a more hands-on role this week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Via the report, Marshall indicated that Johnson had made good on his promise, especially during the option-period of practice, when quarterbacks practice coordinating with the other offensive backs. Marshall was quoted as saying, “We’re definitely working on the quarterback and A-back and B-back pitch relationship because that’s one of the things we’ve been having trouble with.”

Tech has floundered early this season, though the fault is not wholly on Marshall and Oliver, as Johnson acknowledged, noting that the offensive line had struggled against Clemson as well. “If you have no lane, there’s nowhere for you to go… so it’s not all TaQuon,” Johnson acknowledged.

Still, most of Tech’s struggles on Saturday where wholly between the quarterback and center; the Jackets lost 74 yards against Clemson on tackles for loss, and many of those yards resulted from fumbles on the snap, dropped hand-offs and pitch plays.

But the real focal point of Tech’s struggles this season has been the defense: The Jackets have failed to pressure the backfield consistently, frequently allowing deep passes and open scrambles. Tech has allowed the highest completion rate by opponents of any ACC team, while recording just four sacks and thirteen tackles for loss — both, again, the worst in the ACC.

Tech has a reprieve from their tough conference schedule this Saturday, facing off against Bowling Green State who have allowed 44 points per game this season, the second worst figure in all of college football. The clock is running out on Tech’s season, however; already 0-2 in the conference, Tech faces an uphill climb to a conference championship game. With how weak the ACC Coastal Division has been, anything is possible, but nothing will be easy.

Can you really call an issue an “elephant in the room” when one party in the “discussion” is constantly making attempts to start a discourse but the other refuses to engage? The power dynamic between Tech football coaches and the fans that come to spectate the sum of their efforts on Saturday afternoons is one that requires no explanations from on high detailing the logic behind coaching decisions. That being said, when there is a banner proudly hanging from the rafters of a fraternity house with “FIRE PAUL JOHNSON” boldly emblazoned on its front, there is clearly a conversation that needs to be had.

Many armchair athletic directors have qualms with the team that are relatively reactionary and are most likely just parroting what ever hot take made it to the top of a Tech discussion board this week, but there is one central question that even the most casual Tech fan has most likely asked themselves at some point in the past few years: why does Tech still run the triple option?

Like most physics proofs over the centuries, the easiest way to build an argument as it pertains to sports is to make a definitive statement based on a single broad assumption and build the rest of the model from there: the reason the Jackets run the triple option is solely because Paul Johnson is the coach, and the reason it isn’t working is because they do not have athletes with enough talent in the necessary skill pools to execute it — at least right now.

The second half of this statement is fairly obvious, and in some ways, is one of the biggest problems with the triple option; recruiting players to run this system is different than recruiting for a ground-and-pound or aerial assault offense. Tech’s A-back and B-back recruits need to be good enough at their specialty route paths and pass blocking to be flexible, but talent like that is rarely content in a non-workhorse role that limits their ability to showcase talent for NFL scouts. Meanwhile, the quarterback needs to be run-first and athletic, but cerebral and capable of making the proper read on the pitch/keep, difficult skills to find.

Credit where credit is due: Johnson has a knack for recruiting and polishing his running backs, and over the years, the Jackets have enjoyed the fruits of his labor through one of the winningest eras in Tech history. That being said, finding the “right” quarterback for the triple option is extremely difficult, let alone selling the prospect of being blasted as a runner every time the pocket is abandoned to some highly-rated recruit. Quarterback TaQuon Marshall is a phenomenal athlete, and if returning 1000-yard B-back KirVonte Benson had remained healthy, it’s not unrealistic to think that the two over them would have paired with AB Qua Searcy for a successful rebound season capped with a bowl win.  Even with the Benson injury, Jordan Mason has stepped up admirably and is in no way a liability. Unfortunately, what Marshall has in raw talent he lacks in football IQ, and watching him maddeningly refuse to pitch when necessary — or worse, miss an open A-back streaking down the side — does not pair well with an inaccurate arm and losing record.

Just a few years ago, the triple option steered Tech to an Orange Bowl win and ACC championship game. It would appear that the right personnel (and a little bit of luck) is all it takes to make the system work, and it is entirely possible that may be true. However, if the system designed to “steal” wins off teams with higher mean talent is so inflexible that it fails to work against those with lower mean talent, an argument can be made that the lack of consistency makes implementing such a system pointless in the first place when the core of most rosters is only operating together for a year or two at maximum. Of course, since Paul Johnson has already been labeled as the reason that the triple option is being implemented here, it is only fair to also make the assumption that his in-depth knowledge of the system far exceeds that of those spectating, and the micro-adjustments to his game scripts and year-to-year playbook reflect this in a manner imperceptible to the common fan. This conclusion, that Tech is trapped in a system paradoxically consistent with the right protocol but with high variance dependent on said protocol, is frustrating on the down years and inevitably leads to bad-mouthing of Johnson, the man behind the curtain.

It is easy to make excuses for Tech’s inability to draw talent in when recruiting against UGA, Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, UF, FSU and South Carolina all within in a 200-mile radius. The athletic department still has not finished paying Paul Hewitt’s albatross of a contract that was bought out in 2011, and Tech has been out-spent by Georgia State the past two years on recruiting — and that program is less than a decade old, there are many external factors to the team that make Tech an undesirable destination for blue-chip recruits. But even with that all taken into consideration, the triple option is at best a double-edged sword in the recruiting process, and at worst the final nail in the coffin that buries any hope the team has for relevance in the decade to come.

By operating a different system and looking for different styles of athletes, Tech is theoretically looking at a different pool of high school students to bring in and mold into Johnson’s vision of perfection through marginal gains and efficiency. Unfortunately, there just are not that many athletes out there that are good enough to play high-level collegiate football, and even though Tech’s focus is on different aspects of a player, the individuals on the Jackets’ radar are for the most part more likely than not similar to all the other Power Five programs.

Yes, Tech may value different characteristics in its running backs than most teams do, and on occasion they can steal an athlete from a top school because they can offer him a chance to play his dream position — Justin Thomas, for example, turned down the chance to be a defensive back at the University of Alabama and instead decided to play quarterback at Tech. No fan will argue that such a turn of events worked out poorly for the Jackets. But scheme cannot overcome deficiencies in talent, and that, unfortunately, is where Tech is afflicted. Neither the Air Raid nor the West Coast offense will fix that.

In a reversal of their outing against Clemson, Tech quickly overcame a shaky start to blow out Bowling Green State, 63-17. Tech thoroughly dismantled the Falcons’ weak defense to the tune of 532 all-purpose yards, and after allowing BGSU QB Jarret Doege to get into a rhythm in the first half (at one point, Doege was 14-19 with one TD and a 150.3 QBR), Tech held the Falcons to just 7 points in the second half and thoroughly outclassed Bowling Green’s offense.

Marshall shines with pass and pitch plays

After some sloppy ball handling against Clemson, Tech head coach Paul Johnson vowed that his QBs would improve on their ball handling. Johnson’s coaching efforts were evident Saturday; neither QB TaQuon Marshall nor QB Tobias Oliver fumbled the ball once on 56 snaps against Bowling Green, and Marshall especially used the pitch play to perfection against the Falcons. Multiple times, Marshall read the play excellently and executed his pitches well, resulting in 372 rushing yards for the team.

“It was nice being able to step back and watch everyone else play, watch everyone else have fun,” Marshall said postgame. “We got a really fast start today, so I was really excited about that, and things just started flowing.” On Johnson’s coaching efforts this week, Marshall indicated that they translated well on the field: “As you can see, we didn’t have any balls on the ground with [our] pitches, so I think the correlation [sic] between me and the A-back was pretty good.”

Marshall was also exemplary on his passing game, going 5-6 with 160 yards on multiple deep, breakaway plays. Marshall’s QBR of 307.3 was the best of his career since going 5-7 with 112 yards and three touchdowns against FCS Jacksonville State last season. Tech’s WR corps got a workout, as Jalen Camp, Clinton Lynch, and Stephen Dolphus each posted 30+ yards – the first time Tech has had three receivers post 30+ yards since their 36-40 loss against Virginia in 2017, when Camp, Qua Searcy, and Ricky Jeune posted 49, 34, and 96 yards respectively.

Still, Tech’s offense running wild over the Falcons was nothing unexpected: Bowling Green State had allowed the second-most points per game of any team in the country entering today – only Connecticut has been worse. Tech entered the game today with the third most rushing yards of any team in the country and Bowling Green State had allowed the most rushing yards of any team in the country. Out of Georgia Tech’s 10 completed drives, just one ended in a punt.

Johnson shakes it up at kicker

A surprising development was that, instead of Shawn Davis or Brenton King at placekicker, true freshman Wesley Wells got the start against the Falcons. Wells received no field goal opportunities, but was perfect on extra-points, going 9/9. For a position that has had a rocky time since the departure of now-Pro Bowl kicker Harrison Butker in 2016, Wells’ strong performance stood out.

Postgame, Johnson revealed the reason for the switch: “We had a kicking competition this week in practice and the freshman won. So, when he won, he got to kick.” Johnson stated that Wells would continue to receive kicks “until he misses.”

Anree Saint-Amour leads strong defensive showing

It wasn’t quite the shutout against Alcorn State, but Tech’s defense still performed well. Anree Saint-Amour had a career game, recording 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack, and recorded a pick six – his first career touchdown – to finish off his day. Victor Alexander also recorded a sack and a fumble, recovered by Antwan Owens for 21 yards. Bowling Green State, which averaged a 64.5% completion rate and 238.5 passing yards per game, completed 59.1% of their passes and posted 330 passing yards, an indictment that Tech’s defense still has some work to do with limiting the passing game.

Clynton Lynch Sets All-Purpose Record

With a 41-yard reception during the game, Senior Clinton Lynch broke the 1000-yard mark for receptions, becoming the first player in Georgia Tech history to record 1000 passing yards and 1000 rushing yards in the white and gold. Lynch was quite aware he could accomplish the feat today, joking that after his catch, he “was listening in for the announcer” to report the yardage on his record-setting play. Asked how he would celebrate, Lynch said he was ready to go for some wings from J.R. Crickets – lemon pepper wet, of course.

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives

There are a few important developments in a college’s adolescence: a name, a mission and the institution of some sports teams. Even though Tech had a football team, it lacked a unifying mascot. For years, players were referred to as “Blacksmiths” or one of the other many nicknames that came and went. Nothing stuck — not until 1905.

That’s when the nomer “Yellow Jackets” was first used, in an article written by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC). The name was bestowed upon the players because of their yellow jerseys and was enthusiastically endorsed by then-coach John Heisman.

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives

A year later, the Jackets saw the first graphic production of their namesake; it was a cartoon in the AJC depicting a cartoon yellow jacket buzzing around a rather ugly University of Georgia football player, who cowers and begs not to be stung. The cartoon, signed by “Brewerton” is accompanied by a caption: “Somebody’s going to get stung.”

For decades thereafter, the mascot was drawn by various artists, cartoonists and illustrators, all with different interpretations.

Some depictions were more popular than others. Most featured an imagined creature that was half man and half insect. A few, according to Director of Living History, Marilyn Somers, were considered offensive because of their allusions to offensive blackface illustrations. The rest, luckily, were inoffensive and the offense intended was towards the Jackets’ rival.

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives

These illustrations are carefully preserved by the archives department of the Tech library.

Tech produced programs that would feature these illustrations of the yellow jacket. Despite different logos coming into fashion, there was no standardized cartoon of the character.

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives

In 1979, a student named Richie Bland ran onto the field dressed as a yellow jacket and soon after became the official mascot of Tech, alongside the Reck. This goofy character inspired the drawings that came after.

In 1984, one of those football programs — the Tech vs. Alabama game — featured the yellow jacket that Tech students know and love today.

This illustration was done by Mike Lester, who was a cartoonist for the AJC and eventually became known for his football programs. His piece grew to be the most popular depiction of the yellow jacket, used by the general media, fans and promotional materials from the Institution.

Lester drew about 130 football program covers for Tech’s Athletic Association, and his illustrations were so well-loved that he was presented with a plaque during halftime after 100 illustrations.

Lester, currently a syndicated cartoonist with the Washington Post, still considers this series of drawings one of his greatest accomplishments. He has been a Jackets fan since the start, when he was growing up in Atlanta.

“My dad worked at Capitol Automobile and took me to GT games on [Saturdays]. We walked to The Varsity and then to the game after he got off work. Bobby Dodd was my idol,” said Lester. “Georgia Tech has always been very good to me and my family — and I’m a UGA grad. Go Jackets.”

Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Archives

The yellow jacket, who became known as Buzz, faced a few bumps in the road. In 1998, Tech officials filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Salt Lake Buzz, the mascot for a minor league baseball team. After some back and forth, Tech won the legal battle — the team now goes by the Salt Lake Stingers. Tech students remain the only Jackets.

In 2002, Tech officially bought the copyright to Buzz from Lester. The image and name of the Yellow Jacket has remained safely guarded by the students of the Tech community.

“I think every time someone sees the caricature or the image …  you look at it and it’s familiar,” Somers said. “It’s something you’re proud of. I think he’s for fun. He’s not to be taken seriously, not for one second.”

As Donald Trump’s controversial Supreme Court nominee awaited the start of his confirmation hearings, a group of women stood by in protest. Their message was not loud, like those of the more disruptive dissidents around them; Nor was it written on a sign, like those that met the Senate Judiciary Committee as they walked to the chamber. Instead, the medium of their protest was clothing — stark red robes and featureless white bonnets.

Two years ago these women would be seen as nothing more than an anachronism, their outdated dress representing a poor fashion choice rather than a political statement. That was not the case as they filed into Washington D.C.’s Hart Building in mid-September. Their costumes were instantly associated with female subjugation, and it’s all thanks to the power of television.

TV shows have very quickly shifted from disconnected thirty-minute one-offs to longform narratives, conveniently split into bingeable hourlong segments. This new format, promoted by an explosion of digital streaming technology, brings several affordances that traditional television lacked. Stories have become more complex, viewers need less hand-holding between episodes and the censorship wrought by network/advertiser bureaucracy has largely been mitigated. 

So how did this new television landscape contribute to bonnet-clad protesters in our capital?

In late 2016 Hulu began production of “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a television adaptation of the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood. The idea was ambitious, expensive and controversial — the three biggest enemies of network television. Its timing was no coincidence either; feminism had fully penetrated the public consciousness and an impassioned effort to elect our first female president had just fallen flat.

In the show, a theonomy arises from the ashes of a near-future United States. This new government relies on the “Handmaids” — a select group of women immune to a worldwide infertility crisis — to maintain the population. These women are treated as property  of the male elite and are forced to wear the now-iconic red robes and white hats.

A show of this scale — and with this level of narrative complexity — would have been impossible just a few years ago. But this revolution in television has provided fertile ground for unique narratives, and those that use their new affordances to play off of our cultural anxieties have found resounding success. “The Handmaid’s Tale” has become a cultural phenomenon. HBO’s Westworld, though also based on a novel, rose to prominence at the same time that issues of AI and sentience began creeping into the public consciousness. Netflix’s Black Mirror shows viewers the rotten truth of a world drunk on technology. All three of these non-network shows premiered to critical and commercial success.

These shows are no longer the exception; they are the rule. A quick glance at Netflix demonstrates countless socially charged programs, from lazy jabs at President Trump to revolutionary commentaries on America’s social landscape. Shows like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Black Mirror” get their power from building a world that is familiar enough to be relatable while foreign enough to engage us in social, cultural or political dialogues — whether we know it or not.

On another front, this year’s hyperpolitical Oscars and Emmys have shown us that Hollywood is fully committed to beating the dead horse of diversity. Throw this into the mix, and we are set to see an explosion of stories told and created by underrepresented populations on both the big and small screens.

America has seen a mass exodus of cable customers join services like Netflix and Hulu. These, along with long-standing paid networks like HBO and Showtime, are dictating the new paradigm of network-free TV that relies less on ads and more on engaging, creative content.

TV is changing, and our attitudes are changing with it. We are living through an explosion of media that will fully engage us, force us to think and challenge our beliefs. And the proof is already here, standing silently in red and white.

As Hurricane Florence swept through North Carolina last week, the state’s infrastructure withstood flooding that it has not seen since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Unfortunately for North Carolina, much of the same preventable outcomes from Floyd are also happening with Florence. Most notably is the leaking of toxic chemicals into groundwater due to flooding of hog farms, coal ash ponds and chemical sites. 

It would not be a problem if these locations were not located on many of the waterways that snake their way through North Carolina. 

Each time a hurricane comes through there are always worries that the pig manure lagoons and coal ash ponds will flood, breach or otherwise leak, and each time nothing changes. Measures have been put in place to prevent the flooding of these facilities; even as recently as after Hurricane Matthew in 2016,  companies such as Duke Energy made changes to how their coal ash facilities work, but the main problem still persists.

The fact of the matter is that North Carolina is at an impasse: does it continue to support its largest industries like pork and coal, or does it prioritize the health of its citizens? 

The answer so far has been a continuation of the status quo. I understand that the state wants to prioritize the industries that bring the most money. What does not make sense is the continued lack of progress in regulation to prevent the spread of carcinogenic chemicals and animal waste.

According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, at least 110 hog lagoons have or are at risk of releasing their contents into the environment. Greater regulations need to be put in place to prevent this from continuing. 

One step has been taken: new hog lagoons cannot be created. Since 1999 no more lagoons have been opened in North Carolina. However, thousands of these lagoons still exist throughout the state, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and harmful chemicals into groundwater. It has been almost 20 years since more lagoons were prohibited from being open, but in that time the existing lagoons have continued to operate on outdated policy. 

Furthermore, nothing has been done to move these operations away from the waterways in the state. While costly for the farmers, moving the lagoons and the farms away from waterways is definitely in the best interest of the state. According to the North Carolina Pork Council, after Floyd hit the state paid for some of the farms to shut their doors permanently. While not a long term fix, some of the most egregious offenders in terms of location could be subsidized to help move their operations.

In the long term, the state will have to look at sustainable farming. 

The livestock industry is a large offender when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and harmful runoff, so relocation and regulation are both musts. Manure has been a problem for centuries, wherever there is livestock their excrement follows. 

What needs to be done right now is to refocus and redouble efforts into new technologies regarding these hog lagoons. 

As for coal ash ponds, the best solution possible would be to move away from coal as a whole. While not feasible in this current political climate, I hope that gradually shifting viewpoints will move the state energy industry away from coal as a primary source of energy. 

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Based off of Floyd, Matthew and Florence, North Carolina should take a long hard look at how its cash pig and coal operate.

A powerful sense of determination, grit and focus have led the Tech women’s tennis team to a multitude of noteworthy achievements in the past. With a run in the NCAA championship semi-final last spring and an incoming recruiting class ranked No. 6 in the nation this fall, the team is perfectly poised for a strong start for the 2018-2019 season. 

Last spring ended on a high note for the team: women’s tennis made their first appearance in the Final Four since 2007 and rose as high as No. 2 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings. Tech finished with 26-5 overall record, falling only to top-seeded Vanderbilt. A testament to the strength of the program, the Yellow Jackets pushed through some tough competition, battling teams such as No. 3 North Carolina, No. 4 Duke, and No. 7 Georgia and fighting hard on the court to come out on top. Finishing out the season ranked No. 4 by the ITA, it’s safe to say the team is one of the best in the nation. But now the question becomes, how well will the success of last season translate this year? 

Losing three of four players who powered Tech through to its NCAA semifinalist title last year is quite the blow for the team: Paige Hourigan and Johnnise Renaud reached the end of their NCAA eligibility, and Ida Jarlskog transferred to the University of Florida. However, the team still boasts a selection of great competitors and superb athletes, including veterans and team captains Kenya Jones and Nami Otsuka. Tech’s mixture of experienced upperclassmen and group of talented new recruits means that the chances of the team’s success in upcoming tournaments is high. As the team bid farewell to some key athletes, they welcomed Valeriya Deminova, Baijing Lin and Dalila Said. The three represent one of the top classes in the country, courtesy of tennisrecruiter.net.

Because of their past success and highly ranked incoming class, Tech women’s tennis ranks highly both individually and collectively. Jones and Otsuka are nationally ranked No. 44 and No. 108 respectively in ITA singles, and Jones and sophomore Victoria Flores are ranked No. 25 in doubles by ITA.

Gearing up to take on top ranked schools such as Georgia and Florida, the team finds themselves with a competitive advantage. Though unable to compete at Duke due to weather related issues, the team is now set to start their fall off at home, with the ITA Southeast Regionals on October 18. Later, the Jackets will see action in Nashville, Tenn. with the June Stewart Invitational starting October 26. Auburn’s invitational, starting November 2, will round out the fall season, and the Jackets are scheduled to start back up again in January by hosting the MLK Invitational, then kick off intercollegiate team matches later that month.

The Jackets face a tough team schedule, including away matches against Georgia (ranked No. 8 nationally last season), Miami (No. 15), and Duke (No. 3). Tech also faces off against Texas Tech (No. 14) in their home opener in addition to facing Northwestern (No. 12) and North Carolina (No. 2), before wrapping up with the ACC Tournament in April. The ACC is arguably the single strongest conference for women’s tennis in the country, leaving a lot of pressure on Tech to keep up the superb performance to hang with the best in their sport.

But for the veterans, that pressure is nothing new; a record of not only meeting, but exceeding expectations means the team begins the season with a strong foundation. Part of the team that has always put up a fight, returning Jackets should contribute to their leadership, experience and skill to the team, while the newcomers bring an injection of young blood and talent to the table. This season will likely be one consistently uphill battle, but the women’s tennis team has the right mix of talent and seniority to tackle whatever the season may bring.

It has been a tale of two quarterbacks this season. TaQuon Marshall has had to play many roles this season — first string quarterback, team captain, and bearer of the burden of Tech fans’ hope among them. But a leg injury to Marshall during the USF game allowed the Jackets to give redshirt freshman Tobias Oliver some reps at the position, and Oliver excelled; he notably led multiple deep drives to drive Tech out of an early deficit, recording three of Tech’s five touchdowns that day while rushing for 97 yards on just 18 attempts. 

Oliver looked superb in some extended glances, and with Tech struggling in the standings, to fans’ perception, Oliver getting further looks could represent Tech trying to change up their formula in seeking success. But despite Tech’s early season struggles, Tech is still all the better with Marshall on the field.

Statistically, it is difficult to make the argument for Oliver over Marshall. Both players have been stalwarts on the ground. That is something that was expected out of Marshall this season, and something with which Oliver has surprised many. Tech has faced off against some very weak defenses this season, so Marshall and Oliver’s stats are a bit inflated, but Marshall has rushed for slightly more yards per carry — 5.9 — than Oliver’s 5.6. Marshall’s speed and slipperiness have allowed him to show off much better breakaway potential than Oliver; Marshall has multiple 20+ yard rushes this season, but Oliver’s longest rush is just 15 yards. On the ground, Marshall has been better than Oliver in terms of both rate statistics and in terms of explosiveness.

But the principal flaw in asking Oliver to see more reps at QB by benching Marshall is that it completely ignores the fourth option in the triple option: passing. The threat of a bomb deep downfield further complicates defending against the triple option, and Marshall, to his credit, has improved his completion rating dramatically this season. It is the least important part of Marshall’s game, but a notable part of his game nevertheless. 

And crucially, it is a part that Oliver has not displayed at all. Oliver has yet to make a single pass attempt despite having thirty plays from scrimmage under his belt. Oliver was a capable passing quarterback in high school, yet he has not thrown the ball at all this season. That Johnson appears to be uncomfortable with asking Oliver to pass shows that Oliver’s arm is not where Johnson would like it to be. Seeing as Marshall is quite close to hitting his preseason target of a 50 percent completion rate, Marshall is performing exactly as well as Johnson has asked him to do: accumulating yardage on the ground and heaving the ball rarely yet more successfully. Oliver has not quite demonstrated that he can play both roles better than Marshall — or, in the case of one of those roles, at all. In fact, when Tech faced a third and nine during the USF contest, Johnson pulled out Oliver and inserted the still-injured Marshall, who promptly completed a pass for a first down. That decision should tell observers all they need to know about Oliver’s one-dimensionality, at least at this point.

If Tech wishes to shake things up, it should not indict the offense, which has averaged 500-plus total yards per game while burning up as much clock as possible. The offense, and by proxy, Marshall, has done its job this season. Tech’s struggles have come defensively, failing the Jackets on the road yet again. Aside from the new head coach, there is no highly visible, singular person to blame with regards to Tech’s struggles defensively as there is usually on the offensive side. 

Regardless, there should be no blame placed on Marshall, who by every measure, has been an effective and improved quarterback. To ask for Tech to shake things up by running Oliver is to fail to understand the depth and cause of Tech’s struggles. Yes, he is far from polished as a passer. Both the sailed pass to an open Jalen Camp and a miscommunication with Camp later during the Pitt game that led to the interception underscore that. And yes, he could stand to make better decisions on the pitch on occasion; that failing has quashed a big play or two. But Marshall is solidly Tech’s best option at quarterback this season, and there is no reason to demand change at the position.

Saturday, Sept. 8 kicked off the cross country season for the Tech men’s and women’s teams as they competed in the Bulldog Invitational in Athens, featuring runners from Tech, UGA, Augusta, Georgia State, Kennesaw State and North Georgia. For the next month, both teams will fiercely compete to prepare for the ACC Championship on Oct. 26 in Jamaica Plain, Mass. Coming into the season, the Jackets men’s team ranked No. 9 out the 15 ACC teams and the women’s team ranked No. 12 on the preseason ACC coaches’ poll after placing No. 8 and No. 12 respectively at last year’s ACC Championships. 

The rosters of both teams are comprised of veteran runners aiming to repeat their success as well as new faces looking to make an impact on the team. While not earning stellar preseason rankings, both teams impressed as they brought home the win in Athens with multiple standout individual performances. 

As a part of their victory, the women’s team managed to defeat the No. 19 nationally ranked Bulldogs women’s team on their home field, making the win that much sweeter. The women’s team, who competed in a 5500-meter race, had five runners finish in the top 10. Among the top finishers was senior Mary Prouty, who finished second overall with a career best 20:27.1. Although the veteran competitors on the women’s team performed well, the Jackets had some young talent step up too. Freshman runner Mary Kathryn Knott finished in the top ten of the race and subsequently earned the ACC Freshman of the Week award for her performance. It is rare that a freshman places so well in her first career race, and Knott’s running earned her the prestigious accolade. Although the Tech team had some top-placing times, the depth on a cross-country team makes all the difference; after all, it is a team sport. 

On the other hand, the men’s team won the Invitational as favorites in a 7600m race. As Coach Drosky put it, “the men were the strongest team on paper,” courtesy of ramblinwreck.com. Still, considering the unforgiving heat during the competition, anything could have happened. It is reassuring that the men’s team was able to play up to, if not exceed, expectations and bring home the win. 

The men were led by All-American runner Avery Bartlett, who finished as the top runner in the men’s race. Originally a strictly track and field runner at Tech, Bartlett has since brought his talents to the cross country team where he currently leads as the number one runner on the team. Bartlett ran a personal best 24:20:7 in Athens, helping the team convincingly topple the Bulldogs by more than 30 points. To contribute to that 30-point differential, the Jackets were also able to secure a few more top-10 finishes with junior Andrew Kent securing second place in the competition and Matthew Munns finishing tenth. Similar to the women, the men’s team also had a standout freshman performance with Braeden Collins running a 24:44:1 to earn seventh place. 

Both cross country teams got off on the right foot this season, but the ACC is a highly competitive division led by repeat winners in men’s and women’s. NC State is the team to beat on the women’s side of the division, as they have won the ACC twice in a row and are looking to make it three this season. As for men’s teams, Syracuse has proven to be a juggernaut after their fifth straight division win last year. And the Jackets’ win against a few teams at a local invitational is in no way compelling evidence that they will seriously contend for an ACC Championship; too much season is left for that to be anywhere near decided.

Yet unlike football and basketball, the cross-country season does not start with pushover opponents, and what happens at the beginning of the year does matter. The Jackets can take their performance at the Bulldog Invitational as proof positive that they have the depth and top-level talent to compete with and even vanquish ranked teams like Georgia. Perhaps it will give them confidence against top opponents.

It will not be easy for the Jackets teams to ascend the ladder in ACC rankings, but they will have a chance to climb the next rung on September 21 at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown. 

Truly out of the box, Panos Cosmatos’ newest film “MANDY” takes creative licensing to an entirely new level. This is exactly what one of the movie’s investors, fan-owned entertainment firm Legion M, intended.

Nicholas Cage (“Leaving Las Vegas”) stars as Red Miller, an isolated tree farmer living in the serenity of the woods with his wife Mandy, played by Andrea Riseborough (“Birdman”). When a perverted, hallucinogen-fueled cult blows through town, Red’s life is completely upended by the violence and tragedy that ensues. The rest of the film is devoted to his manic, bloody revenge.

With a strange plot and strange stylistic choices of shot angles and color-highlighting that accentuate the production’s experimental approach to filmmaking, this film is certainly not for those fans who are seeking the latest classic action film by Cage.

Legion M was founded in 2016 by Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan as the first fan-owned movie production company. The idea was not originally theirs, but thanks to the JOBS Act, they were able to make it a reality. Unlike every other corporate-run film conglomerate, Legion M is funded and owned completely by single fan investors. This gives the company leeway to invest in films Annison and Scanlan deem to have enough creative vision.

During an interview with the Technique, Annison laid out his ambitious vision. The idea that movies would be made as a work of art instead of a sequel-producing blockbuster is one that reaches out to viewers interested in the movie itself and not only in being entertained. Upcoming movies starring Stan Lee and Anne Hathaway are promised to provide this artistic attraction. When presented with only the script of “MANDY” and the promise of Nicholas Cage as the star, Legion M was quick to invest. This may turn out to be an over-investment in a director’s unique way of thinking. The film is unlike any other to grace the silver-screen in the past. The first half is filmed to appear hallucinogenic in itself. From scenes filmed all in red to others where both the sound and image are distorted in a haze corresponding to the character’s on-screen trip, “MANDY” requires the viewer’s full and undivided attention just to follow the plot, and at several points, even this amount of dedication is not enough. The absurdness of the plot combined with the inconsistency in filming angles and coloring leaves viewers confused and unsatisfied. Ironically, the film only begins to lighten up when Cage begins his violent rampage against those who wronged him. From fights with a twenty-foot chainsaw to axe melees, the goriness is comparable to that of a horror film. The carnage openly displayed onscreen is just as shocking as the fragmentation of the first half of the movie.

Overall, “MANDY” is an alarming film, in part due to its avant-garde nature, but mostly because the disjointed plot leaves viewers wondering where the film is going to go next, and often disturbed with the results. If one seeks suspense, bizarreness and visual atrocity in a risky independent film, this is their movie.