On Saturday I watched the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets play the Boston College Eagles in what turned out to be a pretty good game of college football. Since I was in Atlanta this weekend I invited company over to share the fun. Mike, my best friend of 20 years, brought his three boys over to the house. They and the Greatest Kid in the World did just about everything but watch the game – walking on stilts, playing “baseball” with a plastic bat and ball, riding on bikes, scooters and wagons and goofing off with my iMac and her iPod. This left Mike and I sipping beers and sitting at times on the edge of our seats as the game unfolded.
For me it was the first game of the season that I got to watch. When Jacksonville State came to Atlanta a couple of Thursdays ago I was still in Dallas. Of course that game was not televised, so spectatorship by television wasn’t even an option for me. All of my friends living in Atlanta and many others besides, however, were at the stadium in the flesh, watching Paul Johnson’s very first game as the Yellow Jacket’s new coach. As we watched on Saturday, I got to see the difference he is already making for the team. I’m convinced that our 7-4 + Toilet Bowl doldrums will be behind us soon enough.
Welcome to Tech, Coach Johnson!
Interestingly, as we watched on Saturday technology enhanced the viewing experience in both expected and unexpected ways.
First, there is the magic of the DVR. Who can ever go back to the bad old days of a TV program that you can’t pause, rewind or fast forward once you’ve experienced it? Because we started watching a bit late due to one of the boys’ soccer games and a late lunch, we were gradually catching up to real time throughout the game, skipping over every TV timeout, commercial and vapid halftime segment. In short, we were mainlining college football. Awesome fix!
Second, the camera crew on field was astonishingly bad. Paul Johnson’s triple option offense can make it difficult to follow the ball in the first place. With the added misdirection of where the crew happened to be pointing the camera at any given moment, when the Jackets had possession we often didn’t know where the ball was until the play was well underway, or even until it was over. For me this made the game watching experience a little more like being a live spectator actually – no “help” from a seasoned camera crew in following the ball.
Finally there was, of course, the cell phone. Because my iPhone gets email I checked a new message when I saw that it came in – whoops – it was a message from Marshall.
Subject: We’re fine
Three fumbles and we’re only down two points?
PJ will have them ready after halftime.
@#&%!
Marshall was in a bar somewhere down in Florida watching the game in real time. Without knowing it he had just told us what wasn’t going to happen in the final few minutes of the first half. What was looking like a magnificent drive down the field by the Yellow Jackets – one that would have given them the lead – was about to become… something less. Sure enough, the prophecy from the non-DVR but email-by-cellphone-connected future unfolded before out eyes as our team ended it’s drive with a fumble. But other questions still lay in front of us. Were both teams going to score again before halftime? It would be a stretch, but there was certainly enough clock for it to be possible. Or might the unthinkable happen with the situation becoming worse than prophecy? Did Marshall actually wait until the start of halftime to send his email, or might the Eagles have capitalized on our goof and scored again without our team answering after he had sent his message? Fortunately he had waited – Georgia Tech indeed went into the locker room down by only two.
As the game progressed the Jackets took the lead and we slowly edged toward a nailbiter ending where the smallest mistake could cost our team an already won victory, my phone rang. It was Marshall. Without thinking I answered it, and in that instant both Mike and I shouted:
“Don’t say anything! Don’t say anything!”
Imagine Marshall’s astonishment on the other end of the phone.
“OK, OK, God Almighty! Call me back.”
I turned my phone off and we resumed watching the Jackets ride on to victory without the threat of any spoilers from the future.
It was a great way to start the college football season. Jacksonville State was a cupcake, and while Boston College is far from the team they were last year, they are not terrible. We beat a real football team, new coach and changed up program and all.
This coming Saturday at Virginia Tech will be another kind of test altogether.
Go Jackets!
