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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
Bulldogs eager to go bowling - anywhere
By Marc Weisaer
Morris News Service
ATHENS - Georgia isn’t
expected to know its bowl
destination for certain until
Sunday, when the BCS selec
tions are sorted out. Alter
a midseason slide, in which
they lost four of five games,
the Bulldogs figure they
can’t be choosy.
The most likely landing
spot appears to be Atlanta’s
Chick-fil-A Bowl on Dec. 30,
which would give Georgia
(8-4) its third game in the
Georgia Dome since last
December.
A return trip to the Music
City Bowl in Nashville,
Tenn., where the Bulldogs
last played in 2001, remains
Consistent approach pays off for Georgia Tech coach
By Adam Van Brimmer
Morris News Service
ATLANTA - Chan Gailey
was due. The explanation
for Georgia Tech’s run to
Saturday’s Atlantic Coast
Conference Championship
game is much more compli
cated, of course. But with
the public’s need to know
what’s different about these
Yellow Jackets - Why did this
team finally meet fans’ lofty
ACC expectations? - the best
place to start is the head
coach.
So, what’s different about
Gailey this season? Plenty.
He has the job security
of a new contract. He has
restructured his coaching
staff. He has surrendered
the play-calling duties. He
has formed a closer bond
with his players. And he has
a talented, veteran team.
Yet strip it down, and the
simplest answer tends to be
the right one. Gailey was
due.
“When he first got the job,
there were so many things
left for him to deal with,”
said Wes Durham, the play
by-play man on Georgia
Tech’s radio broadcasts.
“Whenever you take a job,
you know you will inherit
some things, both positive
and negative. John Heisman
could have been the foot
ball coach here again, and it
would have been the same
issues.
“Finally after four years,
those things have balanced
out.”
Durham is passionate
when he talks about Gailey,
and not just because he and
the coach are close friends.
From a professional stand
point, he considers much of
the past criticism leveled at
Gailey unwarranted.
Because for all the chal
lenges - star tailback Joe
Burns’ unexpected decision
to turn pro a year early in
2002, the loss of 10 players
because of academics in 2003,
NCAA-mandated scholarship
reductions in 2004, 2005 and
this year - the football pro
gram never fell off college
football’s balance beam dur
ing Gailey’s first term in the
coach’s office.
The Yellow Jackets posted
winning seasons and played
in bowl games each year. Yet
many fans and alumni dis
agreed with the decision to
award Gailey a new contract
last fall.
The outcry never fazed
the coach. He heard much
worse during his NFL days,
particularly during his two
years as the head coach of
the Dallas Cowboys.
He kept the criticism in
perspective, and he refused
to experiment to appease the
armchair quarterbacks. He
stuck to his plan to build a
disciplined, title-contending
team.
“If you can’t handle the
critics, they accept resig
nations every day,” Gailey
said. “Whether its a corpo
ration or a football team or
whatever it might be, when
there is transition and turn
over, to maintain a certain
level of success is not easy. I
understood that. And so did
enough others.”
A different personality
Most Gailey detractors
seem intent on pointing out
what the coach is not, rather
a possibility, as does the
Liberty Bowl in Memphis,
Tenn. Both are on Dec. 29.
“Whatever we get, I’m
proud and I’m happy,”
junior defensive end Charles
Johnson said.
“You can’t have a choice
with the kind of season we
had.”
Senior offensive tackle
Daniel Inman echoed that
sentiment.
“To pull out a bowl at the
end is going to be a blessing
as it is,” Inman said. “We’ll
be happy with wherever we
go and whoever we play. It
doesn’t really matter to me.
Just another game in the
Georgia outfit will do me
good.”
The winner of Saturday’s
iisHr
Morris News Service
Goergia Tech head coach Chan Gailey has guided the
Jackets with a steady hand.
than what he is.
He is not charismatic.
He is not a schmoozer.
He is not an unpredict
able, seat-of-his-pants deci
sion-maker.
Quite simply, Durham said,
Gailey is not what Yellow
Jacket fans were accus
tomed to. His predecessor,
George O’Leary, possessed a
dominating personality. And
O’Leary had a proven history
at Georgia Tech: He worked
as Bobby Ross’ defensive
coordinator during the 1990
national championship sea
son, and as a head coach,
O’Leary rebuilt the program
into a national power after
his predecessor, Bill Lewis,
posted losing seasons in his
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SEC championship game
between No. 4 Florida and
No. 8 Arkansas likely is
headed to the Sugar Bowl.
Fifth-ranked LSU is widely
considered to be in position
for a BCS at large berth.
The SEC championship
game loser, No. 11 Auburn
and No. 17 Tennessee are
likely to be snatched up by
the Capital One, Outback
and Cotton Bowls.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl has
the fourth choice of SEC
teams after the BCS bowls
and could set up a match
up between No. 14 Virginia
Tech and Georgia. South
Carolina (7-5) and Kentucky
(7-5) are the other SEC
teams that would be in the
mix for the former Peach
three years, including a 1-10
mark in 1994. Gailey came
to Georgia Tech with no ties
to the school beyond having
grown up in the state. And
the Americus native inherit
ed a team that had won eight
or more games in each of the
previous four years and an
ACC title in 1998.
Fans and alumni found
Gailey guarded, honest to a
fault, and unwilling to carry
on some of O’Leary’s off-the
field traditions.
He alienated two power
ful entities - former Georgia
Tech players and the media
- by canceling the annual
summer golf outing at
Reynolds Plantation. Gailey
had moral objections to some
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Bowl if two SEC teams go to
the BCS.
“I’d love to go to it,”
Georgia coach Mark Richt
said.
“I would love it.” Georgia
Tech also is a candidate to
land in the Chick-fil-A if it
loses in the ACC title game
to Wake Forest on Saturday.
Chick-fil-A president Gary
Stokan did not return a mes
sage left on Monday, but said
two weeks earlier that the
bowl won’t set up a Georgia-
Georgia Tech rematch.
“If Tech lost to Georgia,
and they lost in the cham
pionship game, do we pass
over Georgia Tech?,” Stokan
said then. “We’d have to
look at what does Virginia
Tech do? Does Virginia Tech
of the things that went on
during the event: Namely
wagering. Gailey is a devout
Christian and opposes gam
bling.
“That golf tournament is
not Chan’s style,” Durham
said. “I get to know coaches
pretty well, good and bad.
And Chan’s personality fol
lowing George’s was two dif
ferent worlds. It took peo
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win out?”
That’s just what Virginia
Tech did. The Hokies
would head to Atlanta on
a six-game winning streak.
Georgia Tech would be on a
two-game losing streak.
Gator Bowl president Rick
Catlett, whose bowl picks its
ACC team after the Chick
fil-A, told the Newport News
Daily Press (Va.) that he
doesn’t think he’ll have a
shot at Virginia Tech.
“They’d have to get past
the BCS and past the Chick
fil-A Bowl for us to even
have a conversation, so I’d
think they are a darkhorse
in our picture at this point,”
Catlett said. “... We have to
go on the assumption that
they’re off the board.”
pie a while to understand
that this was a different
guy coaching their football
team.”
Players needed time
to adjust to Gailey’s style
as well. He did not share
O’Leary’s heavy-handed
approach and stressed per
sonal accountability from
teammate to teammate. He
encourages players to take
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After the Chick-fil-A, the
Music City Bowl and Liberty
Bowl have the next SEC
picks with consultation with
the conference office and the
schools.
Possible opponents in
the Music City Bowl would
include Clemson, Boston
College or Maryland.
The Liberty Bowl has
the first pick of Conference
USA teams. Houston is play
ing Southern Miss for that
league’s title.
The Chick-fil-A Bowl pays
out $2.4 million to the SEC
and the Music City and
Liberty pay out $1.7 mil
lion each, but Georgia gets
$1.04 million for expenses
for playing in any of those
jjiowls.
ownership of the program.
“I don’t have a lot of dos
and don’ts around here,”
Gailey said. “It’s about
doing things the right way
and making good decisions,
because I want a decision
maker when they get out of
here. If I lay down 400 rules,
then all we’ve proven at the
end of four years is a guy can
follow directions.”
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