Zenon to return KOs; Roddy checking team's pulse...

00Burdell

00Burdell

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Time for an overdue tip-o-the-hat to Mr. Suguira for his prolific and informative articles thus far this year.

I have had my issues with the revolving door that is the Tech beat writer job at the AJC but Ken has something I haven't seen out of that position in a long time: enthusiasm. Seems to me he actually enjoys covering Tech.

Two things caught my eye today:

The kickoff return team will have new personnel, possibly including Tony Zenon as a replacement for return man Orwin Smith. “Just to see if we can get something going,” Johnson said. Four of Tech’s past nine kickoff returns have not gotten past the 19-yard line, prompting the change.
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I actually thought our KO return problems were less about Orwin and more about the other 10 guys but no sense keeping Zenon on the bench. On those occasions when I actually check to see who the other return man is, I have noticed its Charles Perkins. Curious why we would replace Orwin with Zenon instead of replacing Perkins but I am assuming that speed/quickness (TZ) is more of an asset on KO returns than size and strength (CP).


And this (which is music to my ears):

A-back and team captain Roddy Jones said he has monitored the team for signs of complacency or satisfaction after reaching 4-0 and earning a No. 21 ranking in both polls. He hasn’t detected anything, which he attributes in part to strong leadership in all of the position groups.
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Not only good that he is checking but better still, he's not finding any signs of taking a W for granted.

Good reading.
 
Agreed. Ken has done a great job, that's a nice article and it's content regarding lack of complacency was good to hear. Could not agree more on Ken.
 
This was going to be brought up eventually, so I'll say it. Do you think Roddy would tell the AJC if he had found lots of complacency? I don't know if any football player anywhere is going to go to the media with news like "We're pretty sure we can just show up and win. We're cheating on drills and workouts and not really watching much film."

That said, Ken has been doing an astounding job. Every one of his articles shows up in my google news feed. I'm excited to see Zenon return a kick, he's a really fast guy, and hopefully he's agile enough to make people miss. If our blocking improves, he could get us better field position on the regular. Not that we've seemed to need it much. :lol:
 
00Burdell said:
Curious why we would replace Orwin with Zenon instead of replacing Perkins but I am assuming that speed/quickness (TZ) is more of an asset on KO returns than size and strength (CP).
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Could be that Orwin has been too valuable carrying and receiving to risk getting hurt on a KO? Zenon just seems like the guy that should be doing our KO returns anyway. He's got the speed, shiftiness, and he's not a starter. Perfect.
 
ThisIsAtlanta said:
This was going to be brought up eventually, so I'll say it. Do you think Roddy would tell the AJC if he had found lots of complacency? I don't know if any football player anywhere is going to go to the media with news like "We're pretty sure we can just show up and win. We're cheating on drills and workouts and not really watching much film."
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No but he probably just wouldn't have said anything.
 
It's not what he 'found' as much as it is we finally have some GD leadership unlike last year (and some Chan years).

And Ken has indeed done an exceptional job. I never liked Doug Robertson (the man's ardent defense of P*** H***** is enough of a reason to place him in the same class of journalistic ineptitude as Ms Spinach). Informative articles, and some iota of passion for Tech have been another nice change.
 
Really not trying to troll here... And I'll start it off by saying that I appreciate the hard work Ken puts in and appreciate the injury/roster notes... but I am really not a fan of his writing style. His blogs, where he interjects with his thoughts about quotes, seem unprofessional and annoy me. Yes, I know they are blogs and by nature are less formal. And I sometimes question his football knowledge with some of the questions he asks or the little thoughts in his head he types out.
:crapstorm:

In the end, I'm thankful for the coverage and I guess that should be enough.
 
I actually enjoy his writing style. Most of his interjections are good for a laugh. Blogs aren't just by nature informal, they are supposed to express the views of the blogger. He gives us great info and gives his interpretations - which often helps since we can't be there to hear the tones/context of all the info passes along.
 
00Burdell said:
Curious why we would replace Orwin with Zenon instead of replacing Perkins but I am assuming that speed/quickness (TZ) is more of an asset on KO returns than size and strength (CP).
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It seems like every kickoff goes to Orwin or Stephen Hill. Essentially the guy opposite of Perkins. Its just hard to judge since he hasn't had many opportunities.
 
I like his style too. His articles are good and his blogs are very informal. Plus, the quantity is way better than what we used to get. I give him until the end of the year before they put him on something else.
 
Ken is a Michigan grad, which is awesome compared to the many uga grad reporters in Atlanta.
 
ThisIsAtlanta said:
This was going to be brought up eventually, so I'll say it. Do you think Roddy would tell the AJC if he had found lots of complacency? I don't know if any football player anywhere is going to go to the media with news like "We're pretty sure we can just show up and win. We're cheating on drills and workouts and not really watching much film."
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Agreed, I have always found the whole "how is the team practicing?" or "OMG, are they complacent" questioning to be completely pointless.

I remember the week leading up to the UGA game of '09, the team apparently was practicing really well according to reports. Then in the game, they looked completely flat and unprepared in the first half.
 
KCJackets said:
His blogs, where he interjects with his thoughts about quotes, seem unprofessional and annoy me. .
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It's a blog. I love his thoughts on the questions and responses. His information is very uncensored. He pretty much gives it to us as he receives.
 
Zenon on returns makes sense. Also, mega dittos for the job Sugiura is doing. Will probably work into a promotion.
 
KCJackets said:
Really not trying to troll here... And I'll start it off by saying that I appreciate the hard work Ken puts in and appreciate the injury/roster notes... but I am really not a fan of his writing style. His blogs, where he interjects with his thoughts about quotes, seem unprofessional and annoy me. Yes, I know they are blogs and by nature are less formal. And I sometimes question his football knowledge with some of the questions he asks or the little thoughts in his head he types out.
:crapstorm:

In the end, I'm thankful for the coverage and I guess that should be enough.
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I wish I could turn those on and off.

Before I am critical, I'll just say that I like Ken's consistent coverage. I see a pattern where I see at least two articles/blogs per day keeping us updated on practice, news, and interviews. That's a strong positive.

Back to being critical... some of the comments have been at least relevant; there have been ones where he goes off in a tangent and talks about something out of left field. Here's one that sticks out to me as being completely irrelevant:

(Odd that MTSU opens with two consecutive engineering schools, although Purdue’s non-engineering offerings are more diverse. Maybe they’ll play Cornell next week. I actually spent a summer at Cornell while I was in college. If memory serves, their cafeterias are run by the renowned hotel management school and I ate pretty well. I remember eating a lot of cheesesteaks.)
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Don't know about anyone else but I don't give a frick about Cornell and the fact that he ate a lot of cheesesteaks there.
 
I just hope our coverage teams actually hit their blocks so Zenon the Phenom can return a few.
 
Let's hope so.
Also, I am officially calling Tony Zenon "Zenon the Phenom". Seems to work.
 
gtcompscientist said:
Could this be the end of the KO return for TD drought?
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OMG, please, yes. Does anyone have a longer drought? I desperately want to hear Wes' call of the breaking of the drought. :turbonoes: I'm just beginning to worry that Wes will retire and/or I will die before it happens.
 
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