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SPORTS
Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com
Unties
gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, October 31,2018
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Where a legend was bom
‘Hot Rod’Blankenship kicked 1st game winner at Kentucky
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
Associated Press
JOSHUA L. JONES I Associated Press
Georgia place kicker Rodrigo Blankenship (98) gets ready
to kick a field goal in the first half of a 2017 game against
Kentucky, in Athens, Ga.
ATHENS — No one is
quite sure how Rodrigo Blan
kenship sees through those
big, thick glasses.
Georgia coach Kirby
Smart even tried them on.
“I don’t understand eye
sight,” Smart said, “but I
don’t see how those could
help anybody see.”
Clearly, they work just fine
for the kicker known as “Hot
Rod,” who has become one
of the sixth-ranked Bulldogs’
most reliable players and a
bit of a cult hero between the
hedges.
Inside
The season’s first College
Football Playoff rankings
announced, 2B
Let’s start with the glasses.
While Blankenship goes
with a much more subdued
pair of wire-rimmed specs
away from the field, he defi
nitely needs those black,
goggle-like sports glasses to
see what he’s doing on game
day. They’re not some sort of
fashion statement or market
ing gimmick. He’s unable to
wear contacts, so that’s really
his only option.
■ Please see RODRIGO, 2B
Georgia Tech QB
TaQuon Marshall will
start at North Carolina
TaQuon Marshall is
keeping his starting job as
Georgia Tech’s quarter
back after Tobias Oliver
posted huge numbers as
a runner in last week’s
upset win at Virginia
Tech.
Marshall won’t have the
position to himself.
Coach Paul Johnson
said Tuesday he plans to
play both quarterbacks in
Saturday’s game at North
Carolina. He said he won’t
take the starting job from
Marshall, a senior cap
tain, just because Oliver
ran for three touchdowns
in his first start last week.
“They’re both going to
play but I’m not going to
take a senior captain on
the team and sit him down
because Tobias played
really great against Vir
ginia Tech,” Johnson said.
Oliver’s performance
helped provide new hope
for Georgia Tech (4-4,
2-3 Atlantic Coast Confer
ence) entering the game
at North Carolina (1-6,
1-4).
Oliver, a freshman, was
dominant in the 49-28 win
over Virginia Tech . His
40 carries for 215 yards
were the second-highest
totals for a quarterback
in school history. His only
pass attempt was incom
plete, making the Yellow
Jackets’ spread-option
offense even more one
dimensional than with
Marshall.
Associated Press
GOLF | On The Fringe
Ryder Cup
over, Furyk
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Quite the turnaround
returns to
full-time job
Jim Furyk never quit his day job. It
just seemed that way.
During the 31 tournaments he
played over 20 months, his identity was
no longer U.S. Open champion, FedEx
Cup champion or 17-time winner on the
PGA Tour. He was the Ryder Cup cap
tain responsible for everything from
team dinners to
uniforms, all the
while keeping an
eye on how the
U.S. team was
shaping up.
What surprised
him about a text
message Monday
afternoon was not
the request for
his time, but the
topic.
“It’s been a while since anyone
asked about my game,” Furyk said.
His role as Ryder Cup captain
defined him the last two seasons and
ended Sept. 30 in a loss to Europe out
side Paris.
Now it’s time for the re-entry.
Furyk gets back to his real job this
week in Las Vegas, part of a field at the
Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
that includes four of his Ryder Cup
players — Jordan Spieth and Rickie
Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau and
Tony Finau.
It’s doesn’t feel as though he is start
ing over. Furyk, 48, last played 10
weeks ago at the Wyndham Champion
ship. He shot 63 in the final round and
tied for fourth. But
it’s never easy for a
player in his late 40s
to devote two years
to one job and then
move on.
“I’m excited about
trying to get my game
back in shape,” Furyk
said. “I’m going to try
to play three in a row,
and use those three
events to evaluate where I’m at. That
will give me a little body of work to
see what I need to improve, see where
things are at.
“I don’t have any expectations,” he
said. “I expect to be rusty.”
Furyk was No. 37 in the world when
he was appointed captain, the best
ranking of a U.S. captain since Tom
Watson was selected to lead the 1993
team. Watson was only 42, no longer in
his prime but ageless enough that he
won twice more on the PGA Tour and
nearly added a sixth British Open title
at 59.
Ryder Cup captains now tend to be
at the end of their careers, typically
serving in their late 40s, though Furyk
would hope he has plenty left.
His world ranking is now No. 251.
That tie for fourth at the Wyndham
Championship at least allowed him
to move up 30 spots to No. 141 in the
FedEx Cup, giving him conditional sta
tus so he can save his two exemptions
still available from career money.
But while the Ryder Cup is a month
behind him, it figures to linger.
Curtis Strange has been down that
road, though he spent half his time as
the lead golf analyst for ABC Sports. He
missed the cut at the Michelob Cham
pionship when the 2002 Ryder Cup
ended. Strange played 12 times over
the next two years without cashing a
check.
“It’s different, because everybody
continues to talk about the Ryder
Cup and you’re trying to get into your
■ Please see FRINGE, 2B
Furyk
DOUG FERGUSON
dferguson@ap.org
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Gainesville’s Quintavious Hayes runs the ball as Winder-Barrow players give chase during a game on Oct. 9 at City Park Stadium.
After two straight wins, Gainesville back in the playoff hunt
BY BILL MURPHY
bmurphy@gainesvilletimes.com
Donning the WWE cham
pionship wrestling belt of A.J.
Styles during a recent team-
centered steak dinner was just
part of a two-week span where
everything has come up roses
for the Gainesville High foot
ball program. Holding a 1-7
record on Oct. 24 and rather
tenuous outlook on making the
postseason, the reigning WWE
champion was brought in for a
surprise visit by Red Elephants
booster club president, Mark
Wright, who is also a long-time
friend of Styles. The
wrestler, whose real
name is Allen Jones,
shared his personal
story about coming
from a hardscrabbled
background before
graduating in 1996
from Johnson High and
going on to his national
acclaim.
Fast forward a
week, and Gainesville (2-7, 2-2
Region 8-6A) can lock up the
school’s 19th consecutive foot
ball playoff berth with a win
against Lanier (6-3, 3-1) on Fri
day in Sugar Hill.
“I’m so happy right now,”
Gainesville senior offensive
lineman Max Brand said. “We
were 0-7 early on, but didn’t
give up and kept fighting.”
One thing about Styles’ talk
really stood out to Brand as it
related to football.
“He told us we had to learn
to hate losing,” Gainesville’s
lineman said.
While the Red Elephants
are assured a playoff spot
with a win, other scenarios
are in play for the final three
spots between Lanier, Gaines
ville, Habersham Central
and Apalachee. Dacula has
already wrapped up the region
championship.
However, nobody at Gaines
ville wants to depend on others
for good fortune after a late-
season surge few saw possible
following a 17-point loss against
Habersham Central on
Oct. 5.
“We’re all out there
working like we’re
still 0-7 and trying to
get that first win,”
Red Elephants senior
defensive back Rassie
Littlejohn said.
First-year Red Ele
phants coach Heath
Webb never wavered
in his confidence in his squad,
even after finishing the non
region portion of the schedule
0-5.
After a bye week and 0-7
mark, getting that first win
against Winder-Barrow gave
Webb a tangible payoff his
team could enjoy.
“It was a relief to get that
monkey off our backs, for
sure,” Webb said.
Mere days after the team’s
first win, Webb got to see the
look in his players’ eyes when
the reigning champion of the
biggest professional wrestling
company came in the room
with his championship belt,
which is adorned with real gold
and diamonds, according to
Littlejohn.
Unaware of the surprise visi
tor beforehand, Webb’s play
ers immediately grabbed their
phones for photos. Gracious
with his time, Styles took count
less pictures and signed auto
graphs, Webb said.
Webb even got his chance to
pose with Styles and the flashy
belt.
“Man, that belt was heavy,”
said Webb, who said it weighed
20-25 pounds.
More importantly, for Webb,
was the message Styles had to
share about overcoming obsta
cles in life. The wrestler’s back
ground included growing up
poor and being told he wouldn’t
achieve his goals of being a pro
wrestler.
“AJ came from tough cir
cumstances, probably much
like some of the players on
our team,” Webb said. “He
was poor and lived in a trailer
park as a kid with no heat in the
winter. It really meant a lot for
our kids to see someone who
is from Gainesville be able to
make it.... They loved it.”
Webb said the tide turned for
the Red Elephants on the field
during the win against Winder-
Barrow. Marred by penalties
much of the season, Gaines
ville’s players kept their com
posure on the receiving end
of three personal fouls on one
play from the Bulldoggs, setting
up first-and-goal at the 5 and a
Gionni Williams touchdown
run on the next play.
Williams’ rushing score put
the Red Elephants ahead 7-0 as
it went on to win 20-7.
“We were so happy to finally
score against Winder, because
it was a hard game all night,”
said Brand. “Once we scored,
I looked back to make sure
there were no flags before
celebrating.”
Against Apalachee, the Red
Elephants also had to survive a
close one, winning 7-6. Midway
through the fourth quarter, the
Wildcats scored a touchdown,
but the kicker’s extra-point try
went wide right. Webb said the
pressure his squad put on the
Apalachee kicker, including a
pair of blocked field goal tries,
was likely why he hurried the
kick that would have tied the
game.
Now, the Red Elephants can
extend that playoff streak dat
ing back to 2000 — which is
before any of the current play
ers were born.
Quite a turnaround from a
season that just weeks ago was
in range of going winless.
“I never saw this coming,”
Brand said.
J
Webb
