|
|
|
|
 Tuesday, August 14, 2001
Sack Gathering
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
Most 10-year-olds don't beg their dads to pull off the highway to make a side trip when en route to Disney World. Not unless it's for a bathroom run or a refill on a Big Gulp. Yet that's what Greg Gathers did as his family approached Tallahassee on I-10 back in the summer of '91.
For a Florida State football fan, the lure of walking around where the Garnet and Gold roam was too much to pass up for a boy living in LaPlace, La. -- pure Tiger country.
|  | | Greg Gathers had four tackles and one QB pressure against Florida State last year. |
"That's how into FSU football I was," said Gathers, who recalled that Casey Weldon was the Seminoles' signal-caller at the time. "We got to go in the stadium and everything."
Seven years later, he was harassing QBs all over the Pelican State as a two-time all-state defensive lineman with 20 sacks as a senior for East St. John's High School. So, of course, he hoped to hear from the ACC powerhouse. The interest just wasn't there, though.
"I never received a phone call from them," said Gathers.
Perhaps it was his size (6-foot-1, 255 pounds) that scared them away or the depth the 'Noles already had on campus to back up All-American nose guard Corey Simon and then-juniors Jamal Reynolds and Roland Seymour at defensive end. Gathers gave Florida State the benefit of the doubt, saying that Bobby Bowden might have decided to stay out of his son Tommy's territory since he was at Tulane at the time after they had battled over current FSU wideout Talman Gardner out of New Orleans the year before.
Don't worry about Gathers, though. He landed on his feet, not to mention a slew of ACC quarterbacks. In fact, the undersized, overlooked 20-year old has totaled 20 sacks and blossomed into a feared All-American over the past two years for Georgia Tech. And, yes, that's the team that is expected to give Gathers' boyhood team nightmares in the chase for the ACC crown this fall.
Some observers even have the Yellow Jackets ranked ahead of Bobby Bowden's squad, which returns just 10 starters --- fewest in the ACC --- from last year's team that lost in the FedEx Orange Bowl 13-2 to Oklahoma. Even one of his sons, ABC's Terry Bowden, has whispered that the Ramblin' Wreck may be the team to beat in the conference.
Gathers won't listen to any of this favorite talk, though.
"Florida State is the defending ACC champion, so I feel like the pressure is on them," he said. "When we go in there (Sept. 15), they are the ones who are going to have the home-winning streak (52 games without a loss) on the line and the consecutive ACC titles on the line. People may be picking us as favorites, but we're not defending anything."
With George O'Leary's team returning 18 starters, including nine on the Gathers-led defense, they do have something to defend: expectations. That's not something they are used to around The Flats.
Of course, FSU has something to do with that. The last two years, Tech's hopes to finally snare an ACC crown away from its nemesis were shattered in early-season losses to the Seminoles. The Yellow Jackets nearly pulled off the feat last year in Atlanta (a 26-21 loss), but the one Gathers thinks about the most is the 41-35 beating they took at Doak Campbell Stadium in '99. That game featured a prolific QB duel between Joe Hamilton and Chris Weinke.
"It was crazy down there, and it was just my second college game," remembers Gathers. "It was really like a dream come true to be playing there, but at the same time, that was one of the worst defensive football games we've ever played."
As one of three freshman starters in that game on an already young defense, Gathers believes that season helped establish a building block for last year's D that allowed 19 points per game, and for this year's squad that is expected to be an immovable object. He earned freshman All-America honors and led Tech in sacks (7) and tackles-for-loss (18), but Gathers admits that he wasn't a complete player back then.
"I was thrown into the fire, so I was basically playing off of raw talent," he said. "At the time, I didn't really understand the importance of film and looking at scouting reports. In high school, you just show up and play."
That all changed last year.
"Coming into my second year, I became more of a student of the game as far as watching film and learning more about the game," he said. "I know how to break down my opponents now. I've matured too."
His position coach, Lance Thompson, saw that right away. He believes Gathers' combined maturity and understanding of the game helped him utilize his size a lot more than the first year.
"Most of the guys are 6-3, 6-4 and he's not that, but he's a kid that plays with great leverage, great strength and he's got a great motor," said Thompson.
Gathers, who is on the preseason watch list for the Rotary Lombardi Award for the nation's top lineman/linebacker, is used to proving people wrong when they question his size.
|
“ |
I've been told my whole life that I was too small to play this position or that position. To me, it just comes down to heart.
” |
|
|
— Greg Gathers |
"I've been told my whole life that I was too small to play this position or that position," he said. "To me, it just comes down to heart."
Among other things.
"He's a very physical player at the point of attack," said Thompson. "He's got a big butt, big legs and he has strong hands. He's very similar to a guy I had over at Alabama -- Kindal Moorehead (a standout DE who missed all of last season with injuries). He's a big-bodied kid who stays very quiet."
Quiet isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of explosive D-ends. No, it's high-profile talkers like Reggie White, John Randle and the NFL's all-time resident loudmouth, Deacon Jones. Yet, Gathers speaks in subdued tones with a Cajun flair and doesn't go out of his way to draw attention to himself. Thompson thinks this sort of personality has helped the unit.
"Greg helps us so much by being a silent leader," he said. "He leads by example and everyone knows that and responds to him in that way. His respect factor is very high."
As training camp continues, the coaching staff is bursting at the seams over what might be in store for opposing QBs with Gathers at one end and Nick Rogers, who was fourth in the ACC last year with nine sacks, on the other. One would be hard pressed to name a better defensive end tandem in the country.
"Gathers and (Nick) Rogers are both players who potentially beat somebody one-on-one," said head coach George O'Leary. "That's the name of the game -- you have to be able to rush the quarterback."
To prevent double teams and to turn quarterbacks into blubbering audible calls, Gathers will be stalking his prey from all sides of the gridiron this year.
"He's versatile in a sense for us because he can play any position across the front," said Thompson. "He can play the end, he can play the nose, he can play the tackle. We're able to get him into some good matchups and plan to do so.
"He's going to have an excellent year."
Gathers will be on display for the All-American voters that have bestowed several preseason first and second-team honors on him when G-Tech takes on Syracuse in the Kickoff Classic on Aug. 26 (ABC, 2 p.m. ET).
"We're all pumped up," said Gathers, who plans on sticking around campus no matter what type of year he has so that he can be the first person in his family to graduate from college. "That gives us a 12-game schedule. We'll also be the only game being played that day. Playing on ABC will give our entire families a chance to see us.
"It'll also give us a chance to show the nation what we're all about."
True, but Gathers and his teammates won't prove anything until they do it against Florida State three weeks later in the same hallowed grounds off I-10 that he stood in awe as an ecstatic 10-year-old.
"We got to have our A-game," said Gathers. "As a matter a fact, with their home crowd down there, it'll take our A-plus game."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
|
|
|
|
ESPN.com:
HELP |
ADVERTISER INFO |
CONTACT US |
TOOLS |
SITE MAP
Copyright ©2001 ESPN Internet Group. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Employment opportunities at ESPN.com.
|
|
