Watching Georgia Tech football has been hard this year. There have been lots of fumbles and turnovers and lost chances. In one game a referee called a penalty against them that never gets called. I forget the name of it, but it was something that every team does multiple times in every game. I never even realized it was a penalty, but college football rules don't always make sense anyway. It changed the momentum of the game, and after another bad call later, they ended up losing. Tech is one of the cleanest-playing teams in college. Save the never-called penalty calls for the teams that play dirty.
Tech's main quarterback has been playing with an injured foot for most of the season. For a while he was getting five hours a day of treatments. Why not let him heal? I've been metaphorically screaming at my television nearly all season to put in the backup quarterback. In every game he's gotten a few minutes to play, the opponents have not responded well. Tech seemed to go on a rampage. I thought it was because the other teams had practiced in anticipation of the normal quarterback and were thrown off by one with a different style or maybe had different plays to run.
Last night the backup got to start the game. I was wrong about the practice thought. The backup is a lot better than I was giving him credit for. Tech played Virginia Tech who was number one in the ACC Coastal Division and was undefeated in conference play. Tech was second from the bottom, and let's not talk about their defeats. They ended up crushing Virginia Tech 49-28. VT is still number one. Tech is now third from the bottom.
For the first time this year, I'm excited about the rest of the season. The backup quarterback, Tobias Oliver, wasn't perfect, but he did a good, solid job. I can't give him all the credit. The team as a whole played better. How much of that is due to the quarterback, and how much is due to unknowable factors? I don't know. I just know I really liked what I saw from Oliver. What I saw before in the games in which he got a few minutes of playing time really makes sense now. This kid can win. All he needed was a chance. I'm not dreading the rest of the season any more, not even the game against Georgia. The only thing I'm dreading is if they put the regular quarterback in.
Something else that makes it even more fun is that Oliver is only the backup quarterback, because the "real" backup quarterback got injured and was lost for the season. Oliver was supposed to be the backup to the backup, and now he looks better than the regular quarterback. It's a great story about the kid who wasn't even supposed to be in the game getting that big break and doing well. At the end of last night's game Oliver was taken out to rest, and his backup went into the game for the final few minutes. I'm pretty sure that was James Graham. The announcers were talking about other things. So, the backup to the backup to the backup got a chance to play, because the backup is out for the year. I love it when people who are on the team but don't normally get a chance to play get the chance. You can imagine how excited he must still be. He also did a good job for good yardage.
The Dodgers have lost the first two World Series games. I'm kind of dreading the rest of it, although they did come back from what looked like certain doom against the Brewers in the league championship series. Let's hope they bring their A game from here on out. It's not that I'm a Dodgers fan. I don't want to see the American League win.
Have a great weekend.
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