ramblin_man
Jolly Good Fellow
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- Oct 16, 2004
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I wanted to post this story from the AJC today b/c I thought that Joe Anoai's speech would encourage the ones on here who are wallowing around in the things we didn't do this year & I agree w/ Joe completly:
"It's time to be a man and grow up and get over it," Anoai said. "We still have things to do."
Per AJC 12/29:
Anoai commands Jackets' attention
Senior steps forward in aftermath of crushing defeats
By MIKE KNOBLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/28/06
Jacksonville — Joe Anoai didn't need 3-by-5 cards for this. He didn't need to write out the speech beforehand. He didn't need to practice in front of a mirror.
Anoai just needed to stand in front of his Georgia Tech football teammates and spill out his heart to them.
Johnny Crawford/AJC
Joe Anoai ranks third on Tech's team with 4.5 sacks.
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Anoai knew how much they hurt. Heck, he hurt as much as any of them, maybe more than most. Most of them would have another chance to win an ACC championship. Not him. Most of them would have another chance to beat Georgia. Not him.
But as Anoai stood on the practice field and looked his teammates in the eyes, he told them they had no more time to think about what they hadn't done. They had to focus on what they still could do. They had a Gator Bowl game to play against No. 13 West Virginia on New Year's Day, and it was time to get ready. No finger-pointing. No feeling sorry for themselves. No wallowing in the disappointments of their past two games.
"Whatever happens, through thick and thin, we're family, and we need to mend and we need to get back to our old ways," Anoai told them. "We need to just have fun. We can't let anything in the past affect us. We have a chance to have a great season with 10 wins, and we've just got to let things go and be the guys that we are."
Joe Anoai was being the guy that he is, which is why Tech coach Chan Gailey picked him to make that speech, the speech before the first practice after the ACC championship game loss to Wake Forest. Gailey often asks a player to talk to the team about where it's going and how it's going to get there. He spreads the duty around, and not just among the seniors.
But this was no ordinary moment. The Yellow Jackets, once 9-2 and ranked 16th in the nation, had lost their
rivalry game, their ranking and their shot at the Orange Bowl berth they had been working toward since the 2005 Emerald Bowl. It was no accident Gailey turned to Anoai to help get the Jackets, now 9-4, back on the track that won them the ACC Coastal Division title.
"Everybody listens when he talks," defensive end Michael Johnson said. "When he says something, it's like, 'Joe's talking.' He doesn't really say too much, but when he speaks, he speaks from the heart. He inspires you to do what he's talking about."
Anoai earned that authority through the way he plays, the way he practices, the way he acts. He earned it in three seasons as a starting defensive tackle, by playing through shoulder and ankle injuries as a junior, by coaxing and encouraging and teaching his teammates on the field and in the weight room. He earned it by showing he cares more about the team's success than whether he makes the tackle or the sack.
Anoai said his proudest moment from the 2006 season was the final defensive series against Maryland, when Johnson made back-to-back sacks to preserve Tech's 27-23 victory. Anoai, double-teamed, didn't get to make the play. His teammate did, and that's what mattered to Anoai.
"I've never been around a kid who's been able to put the unit ahead of himself and be a leader like he is," said defensive line coach Giff Smith, who has coached for 15 years.
So who else would Gailey ask to help bring the team back from its championship game disappointment? Who else would he pick to deliver what might prove to be the most important message of the season?
"I trusted what he would say," Gailey said.
Anoai wasn't always confident enough to speak up. If he had addressed the team his freshman season, Anoai said, his voice would have cracked.
But Joe Anoai isn't the same kid who arrived in Atlanta from Pensacola, Fla., in the fall of 2003. He has matured. Tech forces you to do that, he said.
"Just about every class, there's a presentation," he said. "That's more nerve-racking than anything. You don't know all these kids. You're at Tech, so everyone's pretty much a genius, and you don't know whether they're snickering about your project or making fun of you."
Just looking at him, all 6 feet 3 and 280 pounds, with the Samoan tattoo on his right shoulder and the hair hanging through his helmet down to his shoulders, it's hard to believe anybody would ever dare make fun of him.
His teammates occasionally do. They'll tease him that he's slower than his girlfriend, Tech sophomore sprinter, hurdler and long jumper Galina Becker. (They haven't raced. "If I lost to a girl in a race," Anoai said, "I might have to hang my cleats up.")
But Anoai and his teammates know when it's time for the laughing to stop.
The lone senior on Tech's defensive line learned what to say and how to say it and when not to say anything. He talked after the ACC championship game. He talked after the 24-point loss at Clemson. He talked in the tough times, when the team, and the defensive line in particular, needed him the most.
"It's easy to be a leader when things are going good," Smith said. "A true leader is when things are going bad, how are they going to approach it? He's kept that unit together."
Last season, with all his injuries, Anoai held himself out of a lot of practices. This season, he hasn't missed a single repetition, Smith said. Teammates have followed his example.
He ranks third on the team with 41/2 sacks, third with eight tackles for loss, tied for second with two forced fumbles, tied for ninth with 37 tackles. He also took a lot of double-teams, occupying the blockers so a teammate could make the play, so those numbers don't even begin to convey Anoai's impact.
"You can't put into words what he's meant to our defense," Gailey said.
Anoai wanted more than anything to carry the Jackets to an ACC championship and to a BCS game. He dedicated his life to it for the first 11 months and two days of 2006. But on Dec. 9, he told himself and his teammates they needed to focus on the one game that lies ahead, not the title hopes they've left behind.
"It's time to be a man and grow up and get over it," Anoai said. "We still have things to do."
"It's time to be a man and grow up and get over it," Anoai said. "We still have things to do."
Per AJC 12/29:
Anoai commands Jackets' attention
Senior steps forward in aftermath of crushing defeats
By MIKE KNOBLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/28/06
Jacksonville — Joe Anoai didn't need 3-by-5 cards for this. He didn't need to write out the speech beforehand. He didn't need to practice in front of a mirror.
Anoai just needed to stand in front of his Georgia Tech football teammates and spill out his heart to them.
Joe Anoai ranks third on Tech's team with 4.5 sacks.
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Anoai knew how much they hurt. Heck, he hurt as much as any of them, maybe more than most. Most of them would have another chance to win an ACC championship. Not him. Most of them would have another chance to beat Georgia. Not him.
But as Anoai stood on the practice field and looked his teammates in the eyes, he told them they had no more time to think about what they hadn't done. They had to focus on what they still could do. They had a Gator Bowl game to play against No. 13 West Virginia on New Year's Day, and it was time to get ready. No finger-pointing. No feeling sorry for themselves. No wallowing in the disappointments of their past two games.
"Whatever happens, through thick and thin, we're family, and we need to mend and we need to get back to our old ways," Anoai told them. "We need to just have fun. We can't let anything in the past affect us. We have a chance to have a great season with 10 wins, and we've just got to let things go and be the guys that we are."
Joe Anoai was being the guy that he is, which is why Tech coach Chan Gailey picked him to make that speech, the speech before the first practice after the ACC championship game loss to Wake Forest. Gailey often asks a player to talk to the team about where it's going and how it's going to get there. He spreads the duty around, and not just among the seniors.
But this was no ordinary moment. The Yellow Jackets, once 9-2 and ranked 16th in the nation, had lost their
rivalry game, their ranking and their shot at the Orange Bowl berth they had been working toward since the 2005 Emerald Bowl. It was no accident Gailey turned to Anoai to help get the Jackets, now 9-4, back on the track that won them the ACC Coastal Division title.
"Everybody listens when he talks," defensive end Michael Johnson said. "When he says something, it's like, 'Joe's talking.' He doesn't really say too much, but when he speaks, he speaks from the heart. He inspires you to do what he's talking about."
Anoai earned that authority through the way he plays, the way he practices, the way he acts. He earned it in three seasons as a starting defensive tackle, by playing through shoulder and ankle injuries as a junior, by coaxing and encouraging and teaching his teammates on the field and in the weight room. He earned it by showing he cares more about the team's success than whether he makes the tackle or the sack.
Anoai said his proudest moment from the 2006 season was the final defensive series against Maryland, when Johnson made back-to-back sacks to preserve Tech's 27-23 victory. Anoai, double-teamed, didn't get to make the play. His teammate did, and that's what mattered to Anoai.
"I've never been around a kid who's been able to put the unit ahead of himself and be a leader like he is," said defensive line coach Giff Smith, who has coached for 15 years.
So who else would Gailey ask to help bring the team back from its championship game disappointment? Who else would he pick to deliver what might prove to be the most important message of the season?
"I trusted what he would say," Gailey said.
Anoai wasn't always confident enough to speak up. If he had addressed the team his freshman season, Anoai said, his voice would have cracked.
But Joe Anoai isn't the same kid who arrived in Atlanta from Pensacola, Fla., in the fall of 2003. He has matured. Tech forces you to do that, he said.
"Just about every class, there's a presentation," he said. "That's more nerve-racking than anything. You don't know all these kids. You're at Tech, so everyone's pretty much a genius, and you don't know whether they're snickering about your project or making fun of you."
Just looking at him, all 6 feet 3 and 280 pounds, with the Samoan tattoo on his right shoulder and the hair hanging through his helmet down to his shoulders, it's hard to believe anybody would ever dare make fun of him.
His teammates occasionally do. They'll tease him that he's slower than his girlfriend, Tech sophomore sprinter, hurdler and long jumper Galina Becker. (They haven't raced. "If I lost to a girl in a race," Anoai said, "I might have to hang my cleats up.")
But Anoai and his teammates know when it's time for the laughing to stop.
The lone senior on Tech's defensive line learned what to say and how to say it and when not to say anything. He talked after the ACC championship game. He talked after the 24-point loss at Clemson. He talked in the tough times, when the team, and the defensive line in particular, needed him the most.
"It's easy to be a leader when things are going good," Smith said. "A true leader is when things are going bad, how are they going to approach it? He's kept that unit together."
Last season, with all his injuries, Anoai held himself out of a lot of practices. This season, he hasn't missed a single repetition, Smith said. Teammates have followed his example.
He ranks third on the team with 41/2 sacks, third with eight tackles for loss, tied for second with two forced fumbles, tied for ninth with 37 tackles. He also took a lot of double-teams, occupying the blockers so a teammate could make the play, so those numbers don't even begin to convey Anoai's impact.
"You can't put into words what he's meant to our defense," Gailey said.
Anoai wanted more than anything to carry the Jackets to an ACC championship and to a BCS game. He dedicated his life to it for the first 11 months and two days of 2006. But on Dec. 9, he told himself and his teammates they needed to focus on the one game that lies ahead, not the title hopes they've left behind.
"It's time to be a man and grow up and get over it," Anoai said. "We still have things to do."
