Bad Advice, Bold Prediction and Something Else: Bye Week Edition

(Without Chan Gailey, Tech never lands Morgan Burnett. Think about that.)

Ah, rivalry season. It's the greatest time of year.

The Jackets will spend the first weekend of this wonderful stretch on their first real bye week (it's sort of fair to count long week after the Miami game).

But a bye week should never, ever stop bad advice, bold predictions, absolutely not. So away we go ...

Bad advice

We're going to depart from the regular script this week and just treat this a little bit more like a notebook. With that in mind, my bad advice is to read this article by Doug Roberson of the AJC, which talks about how some of the Jackets' best players came to be playing football on the Flats.

It's full of the usual recruiting stories—kid leaves Bulldog country/family, recruit bonds with coaches, the works.

What's really interesting is something that actually sort of snuck up on me. With all the ranting Tech fans will do if you start them down the "Chan Gailey got a raw deal" path (I don't think he did), they have Gailey and some current and former coaches to thank for their success this season.

It was Gailey's second-to-last class, with help from recruiting coordinator Giff Smith (still there), that would later become the foundation of this 10-1 Georgia Tech team.

That 2007 class, ranked No. 18 in the country by Rivals, including players like Josh Nesbitt, Joanthan Dwyer, Burnett, Derrick Morgan and starting tackle Nick Claytor. But it also yielded some less-expected returns, like two-star-turned-starter Joseph Gilbert, a pair of linebackers by the names of Brad Jefferson and Kyle Jackson, and a three-star receiver named Demaryius Thomas.

It was far and away Gailey's best class, and the talent it provided set the stage for one of the best seasons in Georgia Tech history.

Bold prediction

Clemson wins the ACC Atlantic tomorrow. Shocking, I know, but forgive me, bye weeks are slow.

I also predict—retroactively, of course—that plenty of Tech's best players sat out most of practice this week, probably only strapping up full pads once or twice.

Having a bye week this late in the season can either be a blessing or a curse. Ask Auburn, who's got talent, but not a lot of depth, and could have used a bye week to rejuvenate a month ago (They're getting one this week as well).

For the Jackets, things have generally gone well. The injury bug has, for the most part, stayed away, similar depth issues have not arisen and the Jackets get to treat their bye week as a luxury, not a necessity.

A bye week at any time is a good chance to give your No. 1s a rest, your twos and threes a few looks in practice, to try a few things and mostly, to get healthy. At this point in the season, seriously, nobody's 100 percent, and everybody would welcome some time off.

Beyond that, it's also a good chance for Tech to get the post-Coastal clinching jitters out and bear down on Georgia. The Jackets have struggled with focus this year, and the extra week could be helpful in alleviating some of that after an emotional stretch run in the conference.

Something else

The Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate (is the best rivalry name in college football and) has for years fostered the usual feelings of animosity and trash-talkery—that's an industry term—between opposing fanbases.

But it's clean, and it's old-fashioned, which I assume means that it's respectful.

Which is why even Tech fans ought raise a glass tonight in memory of Uga VII. Yes, Uga VII.

The seventh in a prestigious line of Ugas passed away unexpectedly Thursday, suffering a heart attack. There won't be an Uga on the sideline against Kentucky, but there will be a stand-in for the Tech game and whatever bowl game Georgia plays.

I offer you this take on Seven's passing.

It's a common question, the one you're asking yourself right now: Why so much fuss? It was just a dog.

Well first, I'll say that as an owner of six different dogs and the two cats sitting next to me now in my lifetime, I have never known "just a dog."

Second, I understand, to Georgia fans, it's not just a dog. Uga is a tradition, the symbol of a beloved past-time that is handed down through families like a rite of passage. To steal a great writer's line, it's what our fathers taught us.

There have been seven Ugas, each more beloved than the last, and none of them were ever just dogs.

Finally, A Prediction

I predict that I will be awake at 7:30 tomorrow morning to watch my beleaguered Reds take on Manchester City in a game they, sadly, will not win.

I predict, as I said before, that Clemson will clinch the ACC Atlantic this weekend.

And finally, I predict my beloved alma mater, Indiana, will avenge last season's 52-point loss to Purdue (go ahead, laugh, we get that a lot) with a 31-17 victory over the Boilermakers in Bloomington.

But what do I know?