Originally Posted by
DustyDog
I think we need to apply some grace on all fronts in this - to the team, fans and the coaches. We all know that this game was emotionally super-charged for the entire Tech Nation. It is unfortunate that so much had to be riding on this one game - that the non-AQ's have absolutely no margin for error, while the AQ's do. EVERYBODY was hopeful, but naturally uptight. I think the pressure on the team by outside expectations was tremendous and that the pressure they put on themselves was even greater... "This is a destiny game", "This is the most significant game in Tech history", "Everything is riding on this one game", "This is a 15 million dollar game". That is pretty heady stuff, and certainly enough to wear on emotions. As far as the team goes, anyone who has ever competed athletically knows that your adrenaline goes into over-drive on game days, and it is tough to manage the physical highs and lows properly. Add to that the aforementioned issues, coupled with an extremely late start time, and I can certainly see why our team had some first half struggles because they had already had to deal with an emotional track meet all day.
Now, as for the fans, our emotions were also in over-drive and the massive dissapointment of getting down by 27 points was extremely tough to process. Frankly, in many cases, it is because people love Tech so much, and are so emotinally tied to the team, that getting away from the game was the only way they felt they could deal with the disappointment. They, too ,were crashing. (I am not agreeing with that choice, but I am saying that I do understand it). For the others who were not really that tied to Tech, they frankly were not seeing any reason to stay because we were only showing that it was going to get worse. (I know that I when I have been an outside observer of other teams in apparent blow-out games, I have left early as well.)
As far as the coaches are concerned, I give them grace too. Coach Dykes' post-game remarks only serve to prove to me how much he wanted to win, and that he was COMPLETELY emotionally invested and spent when we fell so incredibly close to our goal. It is the "almost, but not quite" losses that tend to sting the most. He was having to process mega-tons of disappoinment, and sometimes that gets a little messy around the edges. Coach, I cut you a break on that, and I really appreciate that you care that much about my school's success. Thank you for leading us to greatness and such high expectations.
Yes, I still have that "knife-in-the-gut" feeling about how close we were and what "might have been", but good grief, we are all grieving over the fact that we cannot be 12-0. We have a very real chance to be 11-1! Mercy, how many season have there been when we all been hoping to simply be "bowl eligible"? Rome/Tech was not built in a day, but Sonny has put us on an extremely fast-track for success. It is stunning how far he has brought us in a relatively brief time. BTW, I still don't give up hope for some amazing surprises this year. We all know college football is a wacky and undpredictable world. Let's just continue to learn and develop and move forward. When we finish 11-1 and are ranked again as result, the bowl situation may work out better than we now think. We just might find ourselves in a place that we would not have dreamed possible only two years ago. Man, I love being a Tech Bulldog!
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