VT’s Thomas, GT’s Attaochu all smiles after last year’s slugging incident, ready for Labor Day matchup
Georgia Tech linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu had a chance to get within an arm’s length of Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas before the player interviews at the ACC Kickoff on Sunday.
He didn’t take a swing this time.
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Attaochu and Thomas were all smiles eight months after last November’s game in Atlanta, a 37-26 Hokies victory that all but locked up the Coastal Division title.
In that game, Georgia Tech had Virginia Tech on the ropes in the third quarter, with Thomas about to be sacked for a loss on third down that would have forced a punt. But Thomas wouldn’t go down, staying up long enough to frustrate Attaochu to take a swing at the quarterback’s facemask.
The resulting personal foul penalty moved the chains, allowed the Hokies to eventually score a touchdown and shifted the momentum of the game.
Their message to each other Sunday? No hard feelings.
“We’re cool,” Thomas said. “He’s a cool kid, funny guy. We talked after the game when we played them last year. It’s all good.”
Thomas said Attaochu, a senior from Washington, D.C., texted him after the game, “Man, you’re a d-end playing quarterback. You’re bigger than I am. How am I supposed to take you down?”
“It was nothing personal,” said Attaochu, who said it wouldn’t happen again. “It was just competition. … We’re football players. That’s part of the job. You get small quarterbacks sometimes, but sometimes you get big quarterbacks. You’ve just got to get the job done no matter what his size is.”
The two posed for a picture together Sunday, knowing they’ll face off to start the year on Labor Day night at Lane Stadium.
“Of course there’s that extra pressure,” Thomas said. “You know you’ve got to bring your ‘A-game’ from Day 1. You know you can’t have any slip-ups. Georgia Tech is a great team, a tough team. … It’s a great test off the jump.”
The Yellow Jackets know the stiff challenge they’ll face in preparing for the 6-foot-6, 262-pound Thomas.
“There’s nothing you can do,” Attaochu said. “You might need to get Cam Newton to run your scout team.”
I’ll have more notes in a little bit once I can sift through some of these quotes.
July 22, 2012 - 4:00 PM
Their smiles may actually hide their disgust with each other. Attaochu (bless you, sir) won’t go on record, but I am sure he is thinking, “Pay back is coming.” Thomas may be thinking, “If you are thinking pay back is coming, bring it on, it’s my house.”
I detest Paulie Johnson’s Bumble Bees. I would not want to share the same damned stage with any of the Bumble Bees representative. You can tell Paulie Johnson that I squash every yellow jackets I see in my yard as a reminder how much I loathe his team and his sneer on his face.
On a much positive note, Andy, did you get the chance to see how much weigh coach Beamer lost?
Haven’t seen Beamer yet. Coaches are up for interviews tomorrow.
I believe that both of these kids are sincere in what they say. The thing that kind of disturbs me is Attaochu chalking the swing up to “just competition”. That’s the phrase that always gets thrown around after these incidents (Marcus Vick kicking Elvis Dumervil a few years ago comes to mind)and is a way of excusing the behavior rather than taking responsibility. These kids need to understand that though football is a violent sport, it is controlled violence. Once you start throwing punches and kicking at people, you are just out of control.
Attaochu certainly took responsibility for it. I didn’t mean to write it to make it sound like he didn’t. Here’s another quote of his not on the post:
“It’s just something that happened in the heat of competition. It’s something that’s never going to happen again in my career. It was just an out of body, competitive reaction. I’ve definitely moved forward from last season. And I’m not taking any grudges into the game.”