AJC: Dennis Andrews no longer onthe Team

[AE 87]

Can we get a Mom emoji for the fonts who feel the need to pass judgment on what posts belong in public threads?

 

[RyanS12]

Maybe I missed it but do we know it was for smoking weed? If not why are we all assuming? My appologize if it was confirmed. I just do not want to look back through 5 pages.

 

[Boomergump]

Focusing back on the AB depth impact of this issue: This hurts. I think we have a lot of guys who can run with the rock just fine, but experience at AB is just so important. Knowing who to block is absolutely critical to the execution of our offense, so is knowing how to block effectively from that position. Typically those things take time. There are a lot of youngsters I like on our roster. I just hope they can meet this more aggressive time table.

 

[AE 87]

Focusing back on the AB depth impact of this issue: This hurts. I think we have a lot of guys who can run with the rock just fine, but experience at AB is just so important. Knowing who to block is absolutely critical to the execution of our offense, so is knowing how to block effectively from that position. Typically those things take time. There are a lot of youngsters I like on our roster. I just hope they can meet this more aggressive time table.

Marcus Wright and Embry Peeples played as true freshmen in 2009, iirc. We've got two RSFr and Ike as well as the nkotb.

 

[iceeater1969]

Focusing back on the AB depth impact of this issue: This hurts. I think we have a lot of guys who can run with the rock just fine, but experience at AB is just so important. Knowing who to block is absolutely critical to the execution of our offense, so is knowing how to block effectively from that position. Typically those things take time. There are a lot of youngsters I like on our roster. I just hope they can meet this more aggressive time table.

I am hoping the speed of the new ab will mesh much better with jet.
also back that have fast feet should be able to execute better blocks ( if they have the desire). As year progresses they ciu l d be exceptional.

 

[gtcrew]

Marcus Wright and Embry Peeples played as true freshmen in 2009, iirc. We've got two RSFr and Ike as well as the nkotb.

That's an interesting point. We have better ranked prospects to save the day this year. Will they? Don't know.

 

[Declinometer]

Hopefully Dennis will learn and grow from this.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

You're right. I wish I could take back my post.

To save time I did not quote your entire post.

It is a shame that this happened to Dennis. I hate it for him. I hate that we have pretty antiquated laws about marijuana in this country.

But I do not fault the coach. Console yourself with this thought. The coach is not a prude and the coach is not someone who has lived under a rock. He knows what kids do. But he has rules. One way to understand those rules is to say, "Don't be stupid and don't get caught doing something that will embarrass the team and the school." Another way to understand the rules is to say to the student athlete, "You are in the public eye and you are going to be judged by a higher standard than the average student. The question is not whether that is fair or not; the only question is whether or not you can sacrifice personal privilege for the sake of the team."

One more consolation for you. The coach gives kids like this more than one chance. If the kid can't take the hint after the first couple of infractions then he can't handle the discipline that it takes to play D1 football. Everyone knows the rules going in. And they can't be "bent" indefinitely. When you break the rules the consequences are well known.

 

[takethepoints]

This is very bad for us.

Dennis was the best blocking AB we had coming back. Easy. The Orange Bowl showed just how great his promise was. It is too bad that Coach felt he had to let him go or, as Dodd used to say, "fire him".

I agree with the Stinger that a lot of this is due to our grotesque laws on a variety of subjects. I was just reading an article on it; one in nine African-American males between 21 and 35 are incarcerated in this country, almost all of them for non-violent crimes. In the LA state pen - "Angola" - 90% of the inmates are in for life and almost all are black. This has to stop.

But, oth, teams have to have rules. When I played college ball, one beer or one cigarette during the season meant you were off the team for good. My Coach was stricter then ours by a long shot, i0w. If Dennis broke them and he was found out, then it was time for a parting of the ways. I hope he lands on his feet and I also hope that Tech has some kind of program in place to help him do so.

Good luck, Dennis! Thanks for your play for our team.

 

[kyle.smith828]

I try to avoid political bickering on here because it just gets me nuked, but I'm chiming in here. A couple of months ago a nice clean-cut 18yo close friend of ours was struggling over the decision to enlist in the USMC or go to college first. He's driving down the main drag here on his way to one of his 2 jobs after practice was over & a fine upstanding MJ smoker who's pretty well stoned runs out in front of his car while he's driving the 45mph speed limit. He swerves to miss him but catches the kid with his left fender killing him while the car careens off the right shoulder and into a fairly sizable ditch.

Now he's kinda jacked in the head with nightmares of the incident, he's being sued by the mother of the "victim", he can't leave the area until this mess is adjudicated (no time soon) so his immediate life plans are screwed- no Corps, no college. He has to figure out how to get the remaining credits to graduate as he missed too much class to walk the stage with his peers this past week, he's injured & although he had insurance he's now got medical bills that exceed his coverage and he's run out of money, he may never re-qualify physically for the Corps and least significantly his car is totaled & of course like many teenagers the $$ put into it far exceed the book value. Everything he saved for college is now gone, he lost the equivalent of Ga's Hope scholarship because he didn't graduate, plus his family has lost much of their life savings ptting him back together.

I'm sure DA's issues are not nearly this significant, but let's not flippantly dismiss things we all want to write off as insignficant because we personnally rationalized in our minds why a certain type of illegal behavior is not all that bad. Sometimes those innocent little transgressions turn out to be not so innocent. I hate to say it but this has me reconsidering many of my libertarian viewpoints. I'm sure the "vicitm's" MJ usage was no big deal to his friends and family, right up until the day he died with a nice buzz on or whatever they call it.

Where did the accident occur? Was it in a crosswalk? How long was the pedestrian visible to the driver before the pedestrian was struck? How far had the pedestrian crossed prior to being hit? How big was the road? Which lane was the driver in?

 

[takethepoints]

Pot is against the law, privately or publicly.

Actions have consequences. Whatever happened at Tech, Johnson gave Andrews a second chance to stop doing whatever he was doing. What part of that didn't he understand?

Yes. Drunk driving and, for that matter, being publicly drunk, no matter what the substance, is against the law for a reason and should be punished accordingly. The team policies are there for a reason too.

The problem is the fit between the two. Blanket bans on substance that are fun to use (the elephant in the living room for all intoxicants) will always fail. Always. I'd have arrested the kid who was hit if I were a cop and had been in time. I'm not so sure I would have dismissed Dennis. But I'm nowhere near the hard nose Coach is.

I feel for your young friend. I've had a friend who went through a similarly traumatic and similarly groundless wrongful death suit. It isn't easy. I hope he and his family come through this alright.

 

[TechPhi97]

Fwiw Georgia has no law legalizing medical marijuana.

Whatever the reason he was suspended, I wish him well and hope he overcomes this situation. Sometimes part of growing (up or otherwise) comes from overcoming our mistakes.

They just passed a law legalizing cannabis oil for medication - championed by some great Tech men, in fact.

 

[awbuzz]

They just passed a law legalizing cannabis oil for medication - championed by some great Tech men, in fact.

FWIW - not the same as legalizing medical MJ...

 

[awbuzz]

Now back to the OP -
WOW this bites. Go away and check in to find this bit of news puts a minor buzz kill (no puns intended) to the day regarding GT football.
Obviously explains the omission on the 2 deep roster.
Hope that DA is able to get his head on straight and learn from the incident(s).

 

[TechPhi97]

FWIW - not the same as legalizing medical MJ...

Yeah, but....,,it was illegal, and they had to change laws to make it happen, and it's for medical purposes. You may not be able to smoke it, but the plant has to be grown to produce it. Bates in the right direction, IMHO.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I try to avoid political bickering on here because it just gets me nuked, but I'm chiming in here. A couple of months ago a nice clean-cut 18yo close friend of ours was struggling over the decision to enlist in the USMC or go to college first. He's driving down the main drag here on his way to one of his 2 jobs after practice was over & a fine upstanding MJ smoker who's pretty well stoned runs out in front of his car while he's driving the 45mph speed limit. He swerves to miss him but catches the kid with his left fender killing him while the car careens off the right shoulder and into a fairly sizable ditch.

Now he's kinda jacked in the head with nightmares of the incident, he's being sued by the mother of the "victim", he can't leave the area until this mess is adjudicated (no time soon) so his immediate life plans are screwed- no Corps, no college. He has to figure out how to get the remaining credits to graduate as he missed too much class to walk the stage with his peers this past week, he's injured & although he had insurance he's now got medical bills that exceed his coverage and he's run out of money, he may never re-qualify physically for the Corps and least significantly his car is totaled & of course like many teenagers the $$ put into it far exceed the book value. Everything he saved for college is now gone, he lost the equivalent of Ga's Hope scholarship because he didn't graduate, plus his family has lost much of their life savings ptting him back together.

I'm sure DA's issues are not nearly this significant, but let's not flippantly dismiss things we all want to write off as insignficant because we personnally rationalized in our minds why a certain type of illegal behavior is not all that bad. Sometimes those innocent little transgressions turn out to be not so innocent. I hate to say it but this has me reconsidering many of my libertarian viewpoints. I'm sure the "vicitm's" MJ usage was no big deal to his friends and family, right up until the day he died with a nice buzz on or whatever they call it.

"Don't restrict my freedom or take away my rights," is a pretty popular stance today. Cars, drugs, guns, alcohol. Each in turn has caused more than its fair share of heartache and pain. To say any of them is harmless is naive and to think that any one of them doesn't need regulating is insane. But our political system is set up so that we will have perpetual arguments about the rights of the individual versus the collective good of the group. "They" tell me that over time the history of these arguments balances out but that is little consolation to the innocent victim of the person who tested or perhaps flaunted his "rights."

 

[awbuzz]

Let's move any MJ legalization discussion to another thread under the correct forum. GT Football is not the correct forum. (JMO)

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Marcus Wright and Embry Peeples played as true freshmen in 2009, iirc. We've got two RSFr and Ike as well as the nkotb.

Back in those days, our O was a lot simpler. Also, they had the element of surprise on their side as most of our opponents had no clue what was coming at them. Now let's look at how long it took last year's crop of Abacks to get really good at all the fine points of the position. Most of those guys didn't blossom till the final year of their eligibility. Now let's remember the gnashing of teeth around here when our perimeter blocking was crap a few years ago. Our offense doesn't work w/o the success of each element. Aback execution is just as critical to the overall success of our O as any other piece of the puzzle. It was a huge part of the success we enjoyed in '14.

 

[swampsting]

Talked to somebody who saw PJ today at the Pigskin Preview. PJ seemed really loose and relaxed throughout the day. So ... I don't think losing DA is going to keep him up nights.

 

[Techster]

Losing DA is not even close to what happened last offseason with all that attrition. Oh, we ended up in the ACCCG, won the Orange Bowl, and ended up in the top 10.

I think we'll be more than OK.