New blocking style befuddles some Yellow Jackets

Scattershooting around the ACC, while wondering if Virginia can snap its road woes in Atlanta on Saturday ...

While Georgia Tech and its option offense ranks ninth nationally in rushing, the Yellow Jackets’ coaching staff still has some issues with the offensive line.

Tech is averaging 248 yards per game running the football, but the linemen have experienced difficulty in adapting to Coach Paul Johnson’s cut-blocking scheme. Johnson tried to address part of that problem over the winter and into the spring when he imposed a weight-loss program on his offensive linemen.

“You need to be able to move in this offense,” Johnson said. “We had some guys who needed to lose some weight and get into good shape.

“We’re asking guys to knock people off the ball,” Johnson said. “I don’t want a guy who is 6-9 and 340 pounds and takes two days to get out of his room and just lay on somebody. If a guy is 300 pounds and can move, that’s fine. There’s some at 300 that need to be at 280 because they can’t move at 300.”

Some of that has shown in the cut-blocking already this season.

Even All-ACC tackle Andrew Gardner, perhaps the only Tech lineman living up to expectations, finds the cut-blocking a little more difficult.

“It’s hard to run full-speed with your back flat, low to the ground, and look up to see where you’re going and to be able to change direction in that position,” Gardner said. “For some guys it’s naturally easier for them, but some guys have to fight against their own inflexibility. It’s harder than just, get lower, be faster. It takes a lot of effort.”

Tech’s offensive line is also somewhat thin, which came into light during last week’s comeback win at Clemson when guard A.J. Smith left the game with a head injury. Smith had just been moved into the lineup to take over for Joseph Gilbert, who had been pulled because of performance issues.

Musical QBs

Miami coach Randy Shannon is switching his quarterbacks at a Steve Spurrier pace.

Last week, in a rout over Duke, Shannon started Robert Marve. Marve played for three series, one for a score, and threw an interception on the third. He was quickly pulled and replaced by Jacory Harris, who accounted for two scores and threw two interceptions during his first six drives.

Yet Harris remained in the game.

“Somebody has to start,” Shannon said. “In the last two games Robert started but Jacory played the most. Jacory’s been hot, has been moving the football. It’s not who starts, it’s who gives you the most productivity at that time.

“Those two guys are our future, are in a partnership to make this football team the best that it can be,” Shannon said.

Marve will start against Wake Forest on Saturday.

Revisting ‘The Streak’

You think North Carolina’s players aren’t bothered by their 14-game losing streak at Virginia, dating back to 1981?

Check out what Tar Heels’ senior linebacker Mark Paschal, the guy who was run over at the goal line by Cedric Peerman for the game-tying touchdown, said about losing to Virginia over and over again.

“It’s damn heart-breaking,” Paschal said. “It’s frustrating for me as a senior. One of my goals was to be able to win up there and that’s no longer going to happen.”

Almost like death and taxes, Carolina is going to lose in Charlottesville, some way, somehow.

Quote of the week

When Duke head coach David Cutcliffe was an assistant for Tennessee the first time, he was assigned the fertile recruiting area of South Florida in 1983. He spent hours there in pursuit of some of the nation’s finest football talent.

One of the players that got away from him was a bone-crunching linebacker by the name of Randy Shannon, who went on to star at Miami and is now the Hurricanes’ head coach.

That and other experiences left Cutcliffe with this to say about recruiting:

“I finished second [with Shannon], and do you know what you get for finishing second? Your wife says, ‘Good job.’”

Stat of the week

In the Virginia vs. Georgia Tech series, the Cavaliers have won four of the last five games, but the home team has won 12 of the last 13 games.

Announcers beware

Public address announcers around the league have butchered the name of Duke defensive end Greg Akinbiyi this season and he might start looking them up before games to let them hear about it.

The correct pronunciation is “Ah-kin-bee-yee.”

Somewhere along the way he heard it pronounced as “Akinbogo,” which really drew his ire.

“I don’t have an ‘O’ or a ‘G’ in my last name,” he said. “I really think people look at my last name and they take it as an option to get creative.”

For whom the bell Toals

Perhaps the hard-luck story of the year so far is Boston College’s Brian Toal, a solid player who can’t shake the injury bug.

The senior linebacker’s season ended against Virginia Tech last Saturday night when he suffered a broken right fibula in the opening quarter.

For Toal, who was tough on defense and gained a lot of critical short yardage for the Eagles on offense, it has been one injury after another.

As a sophomore he experienced nerve damage in his neck that caused him to miss time that season and the following spring drills. As a junior, he suffered a shoulder injury early in the season, and although he played with it, he wasn’t as effective as he wanted to be.

Following surgery in the offseason, he took a redshirt year in hopes of finishing his senior campaign healthy.

Short yardage

The Hokies are 3-2 in their five games that have been decided by seven points or less. ... When BC blocked a Hokie punt for a touchdown last Saturday night, it marked the third blocked Tech punt this season (all for TDs), the most a Hokies team has allowed in one season since the early 1950’s. ... If you think the ACC is unpredictable, then take a look at Maryland: The Terps have won five in a row over ranked teams, but are 4-7 during that span against unranked teams; and QB Chris Turner has seven TDs and no interceptions in five career games against ranked opponents. In all of his other games he has seven TDs and 13 interceptions. Go figure.

The picks

Last week: 5-1. To date: 45-16. This week: North Carolina 24, Boston College 21; Vanderbilt 28, Duke 20; Florida State 33, Virginia Tech 27; Maryland 28, N.C. State 24; Miami 20, Wake Forest 17; Georgia Tech 27, Virginia 17 (The Cavs have to prove they can win on the road).