It’s time to lock horns with the guys over at the GT site From The Rumble Seat for the second time this year. To review our first “Know Your…” you can click here. Check out our responses here. You might want to cruise on over there so you don’t miss our fabulous picture of Mike Hogewood followed by an explanation of why he is the King of the Hell in a Cell match for 2009. As always, WF, Dane, and Bird did a fine job.

1) This is the championship game so I feel it’s best to throw the stats out the window. What is the single most important factor in this game for the Jackets to secure a victory?

Jersey color.  GT has whipped out navy blues twice now on special occasions since 2006 and we lost both times.  Gold tops are rare under CPJ but have faired well under CPJ’s reign.  White tops are our staple.  FTRS kinda wants navy tops to break the navy curse, because simply, CPJ is a curse breaker!  If Clemson wears purple on purple, we know GT will win.  Purple on purple is the most abominable combination of uniform horror that man has ever conceived.  Boo purple on purple!  Hurray beer!

2) Earlier this season a lot of ACC people were mentioning something to the effect that, “As soon as Georgia Tech gets a decent quarterback, they’re going to be unstoppable.” Well the Yellowjackets didn’t get a new quarterback so how has Nesbitt (sp? help me here guys) matured to the point where Georgia Tech is on such a roll in the ACC?

Nesbitt has just come to an understanding of what is expected of him from CPJ.  He also understands the reads on the option better.  Everything is more fluid.  Transitioning from passing QB to option QB is just like switching from running back to wide receiver.  It takes time and game speed experience to really sharpen and hone your technique.

3) Clemson and Georgia Tech definitely overlooked their respective rivals. They were obviously concentrated on this week’s game. Do you think that all that over looking will do any good this week?

Who knows?  We kinda want to believe that this will be a great game with a sellout crowd.  GT fans have dealt with an ACC Title after a Georgie loss.  We’ll see how Clemson performs under similar circumstances for the first time.  As far as the overlooking, FTRS kinda believes that last week was a matter of who needed the win more.  South Carolina and Georgie’s seasons were in the shitter.  With wins over their ACC rivals they could partially salvage their garbage seasons.  We wouldn’t be surprised if Georgie scrapped game planning for all their games and just started scheming for Tech after the Florida loss because they really didn’t have anything else to play for post-Cockfest Party.

4) What’s the major differences between the current Georgia Tech team and the Tech team from the second half of game back in September? Can Clemson expect more trickery and crazy swings like the ones they saw that terrible, terrible Thursday?

We think Georgia Tech will be more prepared for Clemson than we were the last time we faced each other. Clemson should also be more prepared.  Paul Johnson will throw everything he has against Clemson.  Look for the lateral-pass-to-the-tackle.  We used it against Georgie last year.  Austin Barrick plays tackle and used to play tight end and running back.  The play is a pass route that involves Barrick running a delayed flat to the right after Nesbitt bootlegs left.  He then tosses the ball cross back and across the field to a waiting Barrick.  We haven’t run it since last year.  No surprises if we pull that out. Why will CPJ throw absolutely everything at Clemson? Because we had “bigger fish to fry” than georgie and that fish is clempson and the Orange Bowl.  He wants it and he is going to take it.

5) Explain to us why Georgia Tech’s game plan is succeeding so well. Willy Mac is convinced it’s because Tech has a respectable defense and an offense that’s so different from everyone else’s in the conference that one week to prepare for it isn’t enough. Chili is convinced that Paul Johnson is really just a football genius.

Two words: Chan Gailey.  Chan Gailey’s recruiting class from 2006 was the best GT class in 20 years.  In that class, we recruited Josh Nesbitt, Jon Dwyer, Morgan Burnett, Demaryius Thomas, Derrick Morgan, and Roddy Jones just to name a few starting third year Tech players.  Our team is built on the juniors and redshirt sophomores.  If Chan hadn’t made that great recruiting year happen in ’06, we wouldn’t have near the success that we have right now.  We’ve got several NFL draft picks at key skill positions and defensive positions.  The talent left in Chan’s dusty cupboard bought into Paul Johnson’s system immediately and we haven’t looked back.  The recruits of Paul Johnson have yet to crack the depth chart so in a couple years we’ll know what we’ve really got at HC.

Willy and Chili are both right in Tech’s offense and CPJ’s knowledge. Yes, the offense is a different one to prepare for and the defenses need to be ready for unique blocking schemes and to learn about that word “discipline but not too disciplined.” Paul Johnson is a genius because he knows the offense forwards, backwards, upwards, and downwards. We’ve seen him start cursing about how a play has crashed and burned before Nesbitt has full control of the ball after a snap (Duke). He sees defensive breakdowns and takes advantage of that misstep and we score touchdowns (Vanderbilt). He knows his offense. He knows his players. THE MAN DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A CLIPBOARD FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!

6) When we beat you on Saturday, how will you reflect upon the season? Will it be viewed as a success, failure, or par? Will you have a moment of reflection at your suddenly staggering arrogance displayed in much of this year’s content on your site?

A loss would be an epic failure.  Even though Clemson would love a ten win season – a feat which has eluded the Tigers for almost 20 years – Tech fans will not be satisfied with ten wins and a bowl bid.  Tech fans watched the offense grow, mature, and consume the ACC over the past two seasons. If we lose to the Tigers, it’ll be 2006 Part II in which we lost to an inferior Georgie squad, lost to an inferior Wake Forest squad, and lost our junior superstar to the NFL Draft.  2006 is now a blip in Tech history because we couldn’t muster up 9 more fuckin’ points.  2009 could fall into the same category as 2006 with a loss to Clemson.

As far as arrogance, FTRS has been pretty unbiased towards our opponents (minus our 3 SEC opponents). However the gold glasses and kool-aid sure do look and taste good!  Check out this article comparing CJ Spiller to former return men who won the Heisman. And we’ll quote our regular season preview of Clemson:

The average year of the Clemson starting defense is 3.45 or somewhere slightly below a senior but above a junior. That’s impressive and something that a lot of ACC pundits didn’t really mention in the preseason when all the chest-thumping was going on at FSU and VT. Expect the veteran defense to make some plays for Clemson this year. Don’t expect GT to run all day on Clemson. We’re gonna need big plays in one on one situations to win against Clemson because the veteran Clemson D has seen GT 3-4 times already and understands the importance of the Battle for I-85.

If you don’t like the fact that we like our football coach, wait until basketball season kicks in ’cause Winfield will be taking Hewitt down a peg all season.