I remember back when Joe Hamilton played for Georgia Tech; we had Ralph Fridgen as our offensive coordinator, George O’Leary as the head coach, a defensive coordinator that couldn’t put together a defense, and Joe Hamilton directing the most potent offense in the nation. Against FSU — the same FSU that had Chris Weinke and eventually won a National Title — Joe was 22-25 for 387 yards and five touchdowns.

He was flawless.

He was the best quarterback to ever play for Georgia Tech and, pardon the bias, one of the best college QB’s I ever saw, period.

And now he’s been arrested. The details.

Hamilton, 31, is facing charges of marijuana possession, driving under the influence of alcohol, hit-and-run and open container, according to a Georgia Tech police report.

He was taken to Fulton County Jail.

The former Heisman Trophy runner-up was pulled over shortly after midnight by a Georgia Tech police officer because his black Ford Expedition matched the description of a car that had been involved in a hit-and-run collision nearby.

It’s a sad, sad day. Hamilton just recently joined the Georgia Tech football staff, and I was hoping one day we’d get him back in a uniform. Given that he hit a car, took off, and then got caught drunk, high, and looking like the picture to the left, that’s probably unlikely.

I don’t want to say that I’ve been waiting for this very day for six years, but, well, I’ve been waiting for this day for six years. Chan Gailey, who has single-handedly ruined Georgia Tech for the better part of a decade, has been axed and will no longer be the head coach at Georgia Tech.

Not many people outside of Atlanta will care about this — I’m a Tech fan, but I’m not blind; Georgia Tech isn’t exactly the most prestigious joint in the world to coach at — but I will definitely take full advantage of enjoying every moment of the new-hiring process that takes place.

Possible candidates? Well, the list goes on. And until it’s narrowed to a few candidates and they’re actually spoken with, I won’t even begin to speculate. However, I will throw this out there: There’s a rumor floating around Georgia right now that Tech’s AD flew out to Columbia, South Carolina today to visit with a certain Ol’ Ball Coach who is from Georgia, has said he’d like to coach in teh state of Georgia, and currently had one of his worst seasons in recent memory.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

I don’t pretend to know what bowls feature what conferences — outside of the Rose Bowl and the Peach, which are pretty obvious — so I won’t even attempt to claim some of these bowl projections as my bowl projections. These are the predictions that CBS Sportsline has put out, and I find that CBS is often more accurate than ESPN. To read all of their bowl projections, go here; I’m going to just highlight some of the good ones that I noticed.

-Emerald Bowl, Dec. 28: Georgia Tech vs. Cal

• Most across the nation won’t find this to be too spectacular a game to watch, but I’m a Tech fan, so I couldn’t leave it off the list. And if I’m lucky, Chan Gailey won’t be coaching it.

-Independence Bowl, Dec. 30: Colorado vs. Alabama

• If Saban loses this one, shit may officially hit the fan in Tuscaloosa. They were so snotty and snide about hiring Nick Saban, and were sure that he’s the best coach in the entire nation, but after three straight losses, the wheels appear to be falling off.

-Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, Dec. 31: Auburn vs. Clemson

• This one appears to be set in stone, but it’s not quite official yet. Auburn has a pretty good run defense, but had a hard time containing KnowShaun Moreno, which might make it very difficult on them trying to contain James Davis and CJ Spiller, who, to me, is arguably the fastest player in college football. ACC/SEC games are always fun to watch, though, as VT and UGA proved last year.

-Capital One, Jan. 1: Illinois vs. Florida

• If there’s one team Florida doesn’t want to play, it’s Illionis. It’s not that they can’t beat Illinois — because they most certainly can — it’s that they don’t want to play a team that’s good who’s coached by Ron Zook. FireRonZook.com was a pretty big hit during his days as a Gator, and what more humiliating way to end a season than by losing to the guy that you ran out of town who took over a formerly cruddy program? Oh, and this game may also feature this year’s Heisman winner (Tim Tebow), and next year’s Heisman winner (Juice Williams)

-Outback, Jan 1: Tennessee vs. Wisconsin

• Last year’s game between these two was solid, and based on Tennessee’s inability to stop anybody on the road, you’d have to think it’d be a fun shoot-out to watch this year, as well.

-Rose Bowl, Jan. 1: Ohio State vs. USC

• USC hasn’t really been itself this year, and Ohio State, to me, has been vastly overrated. I guess this will give full closure. I hate the Trojans, but I’ll be rooting for them; Ohio State has been the most overrated team for the last two years.

-Orange Bowl, Jan. 3: VT vs. Georgia

• Last year’s Peach Bowl game was great to watch, and it was spiced up even more back in August when VT accused UGA of spying on them during practice. Georgia has a great running offense, and VT has a great running defense. Read earlier what I said about SEC/ACC games — they’re very fun to watch.

-National Championship Game, Jan. 7: Mizzou vs. West Virginia

• West Virginia was the team I called at the beginning of the year, and throughout the season I’ve thought they were the best team. Their defense isn’t the best thing since sliced bread, but that offense quite possibly is. Mizzou looked great against Kansas, but no one really knew how good or bad Kansas was. We all know how good West Virginia is. It’ll be fun, but Pat White and Steve Slaton will be holding the trophy up later on that night.

How I’m doing:

Last week: 3-2
On The Season: 6-7

It’s been a rough year, but this week features can’t-miss games that I can’t miss on. Here’s a few I’d take, and a even a teaser to really spice things up (crazy, I know).

Oklahoma (-23) @ Tulsa: They beat Miami by more, and you have to think that Miami, bad as they’ve been the last few years, still has more talent than Tulsa. I know that game was in Oklahoma, but it’s not like Tulsa is exactly the Swamp. Sooners cover.

Georgia @ Alabama (-3): ‘Bama has an offense, a defense, and one of the best coaches in the nation, loyal or not. Georgia? They’ve got none of the above. ‘Bama rolls, wins by two touchdowns.

Penn State @ Michigan (+3): Mike Hart delivered on his promise last week, but that was against Notre Dame, who recently became a 1-AA school (there’s a thousand App. State jokes to poke at that one). The bad news for Michigan is that they’re not facing Notre Dame’s offense; the good news is that they are facing Anthony Morelli’s. The gift three is nice, but Michigan wins straight up.

Georgia Tech (-3) @ Virginia: Virginia barely beat UNC. And Duke. They lost to Wyoming. I don’t know what Vegas is thinking, but I’m betting. Jackets cover, win easy.

PS: Looking through this, I lied about the teaser. I don’t want to chance anything when I’ve got four guaranteed winners. You heard it: Guaranteed.

Last Week: 1-3
On the season: 3-5
How I’ll do this week: Hopefully better

Last week was tough. This week will be better. Here’s my picks.

-Virginia @ North Carolina (-3): Virginia got waxed by Wyoming and then played a close game against Duke. I know nothing about either of these teams. But I know plenty about Duke. UNC covers, wins by 10.

-Notre Dame @ Michigan (-7): One team can’t score, the other team can’t stop anyone from scoring. This is a game people used to have marked on their calendar, now it’s a game to see which coach is closer to being fired. That coach is Lloyd Carr. But it’ll be at the end of the season. As long as Michigan has Mike Hart and Notre Dame has, uh, who they’ve got, Michigan covers.

-Tennessee @ Florida (-8): I hate picking against the Vols — I went to school there a couple years, ya know? — but they couldn’t stop Cal on the road, which leads me to believe they won’t stop Florida, either. I’d love to be wrong about this one. But I think I’m right. Gators cover, do the Tebow-Chomp.

-Texas (-19) @ Central Florida: It was a close game, but the scoreboard in the TCU/Texas game wouldn’t indicate so. Even when they’re sloppy, they still cover. Central Florida? Gimme a break. Horns cover, win a blowout.

-Boston College (+6.5) @ Georgia Tech: My Yellow Jackets are looking as good as they’ve ever looked, but unfortunately so is Boston College. This is the first year in a long time I can remember being 2-0 and thinking we’ve got a chance — I mean, I’m just saying a chance — of playing for a National Title. Problem is, Matt Ryan’s pretty good, and averaging 400 yards, regardless of who you’ve played, is pretty solid in a two-game span. My National Title dream won’t come to an end this week; that said, BC covers, loses by a field goal.

Not that we didn’t see this coming. It’s hard to justify voting for a team — even if you’re Lloyd Carr — that just lost to an opponent teams only schedule on their opening or homecoming games.

To add to the misery of their last three days, this was the first time since the creation of the AP Poll that a team ranked as high as number 5 lost one game and dropped completely out. So, Lloyd, no pressure or anything.

The Vols dropped to 23 (previously 18), and Clemson, No. 25, and Georgia Tech, No. 21, both moved into the Top 25 after their respective beatings of once respected powerhouses.

I’m not a compulsive gambler, first off. But the title’s an attention grabber, and at times I feel like one.

This weekend went well. I take that back; maybe not well, but it didn’t go bad, and any time you gamble things not going bad can often be considered very good. I was 2-2. My first two games of the weekend I was 2-0, thinking 3-0 all the way, but Tennessee fell way short to Cal and I splurged on Labor Day at a game I wasn’t really sure about (I find I do this when only one game’s on; I won’t know much about either team, but still feel this pressing need to make a bet on it).

All in all, I broke even. Even’s not bad. It’s better than down. It’s not what I shoot for — last year I finished better than 60% — but it’s certainly something I’ll settle for, especially on the first weekend. Because on the first weekend things happen that don’t happen on the last weekend. This is what I learned, good and bad.

-Georgia Tech isn’t as good as the 33-3 score would indicate. I mean that. I’m a Tech fan, and I wish they were that good, but they aren’t. Their defense looked fast and Tashard Choice looked as if he could run around anybody. But Taylor Bennett, who was supposed to end our four years of quarterback disasters, looked more like a high school quarterback than a college QB. We played against a QB who’s got about two snaps of gameday experience, against an offensive line that had three new starters. I wish every game would be as easy as this first one, but it won’t be; partly because there’ll be better teams than Notre Dame, and partly because Georgia Tech isn’t as good as a first week’s score would indicate.

-Tennessee doesn’t know how to tackle. I was half-coherent watching this game (I boozed through the GT game, then drank a bottle of cham-pag-ne after the win), and I think my drunk, stumbling, unathletic body could’ve made better tackles than some of the UT players did. Who would’ve thought a defense that gave up nothing to Cal last year would give up so much this year? Tennessee’s got Army, then Florida, then the rest of the SEC. It’s going to be up hill from here.

-LSU vs. VT is going to be an all-out defensive war. I know LSU had 45 points, which initially makes you think Matt Flynn is awesome and that ground game’s got nothing to worry about, but think again: If it wasn’t for five picks, that game wouldn’t have been the blowout the final scoreboard exhibited. VT struggled with Eastern Carolina, but the defense looked fine. The early nod’s got to be to LSU, but I think this game’s going to come down to the wire.

-FSU isn’t that good anymore. I bet on FSU because I grew up in an age where FSU, even if they didn’t have the greatest scheme or coaching, always had the best athletes. That simply isn’t the case anymore. I watched last night’s game the way through. All along, all I could ask myself was this: “Did these guys really work all month long, and in that time are these really the best offensive linemen they could put on the field?” Going into the game, I was worried about Drew Weatherford; he’s very erratic, and often inaccurate. He didn’t look great in this game, but Peyton Manning would’ve looked less than superhuman if his offensive line blocked as poorly as these guys did.

-I didn’t bet on the game, but I can’t believe Michigan’s really that bad. They better get used to going on the road and seeing a lot of App. State hats and t-shirts.

I’m a little on the hungover side. And when I say a little, I mean a lot.

Yesterday was the first real day of college football. My first day of college football is kind of a mixture of Bloody Marys, beer, fun and anger rolled into one. So writing this now, my motor skills aren’t at their best — I drank from noon yesterday afternoon until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. I’m hurting. Hurting very, very badly.

That said, I’m going to try and do a run down of yesterday’s games, at least what I remember of yesterday’s games. Here’s how my day went:

It’s a little after 1:00, and I’m watching Michigan State on ESPN2, absolutely dismantling UAB. I’m not surprised by this at all: Michigan State seems to jump out of the gates every year, only to lose their last six or seven games. They’ll do solid right up until the time they play Notre Dame and Charlie Weis sticks it in their hearts again. Then it’s a free-fall plummet through the standings, and we’ll all wonder the same question we wonder ever year: “With such a good offense, why does this team always suck?”

It’s sometime after 2:00, and I’ve gone through a couple Bloody Marys on an empty stomach. I realize if I keep up this pace, I won’t make it through the 3:30 GT/ND game. That said, fueled by Appalachian’s late lead over Michigan has me forgetting logic and responsibility, and I keep pounding them.

My friend calls me and tells me he’s about to his first of many parlays he bet on the day. He picked Miami to cover and someone else, who I can’t really remember.

Georgia Tech is about to kick off to Notre Dame. The “suspense” of who will be the starting quarterback is revealed just before this. My friend comes out from his room and tells us Appalachian has beaten Michigan.

That’s another celebratory drink.

It’s 16-0 at halftime of the Georgia Tech game. That’s a few celebratory drinks. I call my friend — the one with the twenty different parlays — because he’s a big Notre Dame fan. I tell him his team’s done, that Charlie isn’t really the Evil Genius everyone’s painted him out to be.

It’s the second half of the Tech game. We’re running away with it, and I’ve come to terms that the game’s over. Charlie Weis puts in Evan Sharpley, who goes 10-13 for 92 yards, and then is yanked in favor of everyone’s favorite Clausen. Young Jimmy goes 4-6 for 34 yards, but his accurate arm is much too late. It’s 33-3, and that’s the way the game ends.

This calls for champagne.

I flip over to the UGA game to find they’re not struggling as much as the so-called “experts” said they would. They’re pretty much running and passing all over Ok. State, who might need to be reminded that football teams do play defense. Occasionally, anyway.

The rest of the night is a blur. I watched the UT/Cal game for a while. . . I’m starting to get drunken rage as I see Cal able to do whatever they want on offense. UT needs those same classes Ok. State needs; with the tackling they had, they’ll be lucky to beat Vandy this year.

All in all, it was a fun day. Biggest upset was clearly App. State over Michigan, but the best part of the day for me was seeing Charlie Weis so confused and so lost during his press conference. He took responsibility for the team not being ready, but at some point — and that time may be coming soon — I think people need to start recognizing this guy as a coach who inherited an awful lot of talent and is now having to do it on his own. Notre Dame, I believe, will be fortunate to get five wins this year. Tyrone Willingham, in his third year, had more wins than that and was fired. We’ll see if Weis’ fate holds the same cards.

I’m looking forward to next week. I think LSU/VT is going to be an inredible game, and if it isn’t, it doesn’t really matter — this is college football, where every Saturday is a good Saturday.

A lot of blogs are doing this, so I feel I should jump in. And with the recent nothingness in sports, why not? Which brings me to this: Each day I will try and post major conference breakdowns for all you college fanatics out there. The Big Twelve, SEC and ACC will be broken into two parts, since there’s two different divisions. All others will be covered in whole.

I’ll have a ranking posted next to each team, and for the teams in conferences broken down by divisions, that ranking doesn’t represent the ranking for the division. . . it represents the ranking for the entire conference. To see past entries, click here. On we go.

• Virginia Tech (2): They’ve got the best defense in the ACC behind them — one of the best in the country, for that matter — and they’ve got all sorts of emotional momentum on their side, as well. They have to play Georgia Tech and Clemson on the road, but both games are winnable. It’s hard for me not to pick a team whose D is led by Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall, probably the best linebacking duo in the nation.
• Georgia Tech (3): Call me a Homer, that’s fine. They lost Calvin Johnson, sure, but return 8 starters on a defense that finished in the top 15 last year. Oh, and they lost Reggie Ball. It’s rare that losing a four-year starting QB is a good thing, but, well. . . you’ve seen Reggie Ball.
• Miami (4): Can Kyle Wright finally get it right (no pun intended)? If he can, they’ve got one of the best defenses in the nation. They may need it: New offensive coordinator Pat Nix had Georgia Tech ranked 67th in total offense last year. . . with Calvin Johnson.
• Virginia (8): I remember when people were saying Al Groh was going to bring this team back to prominance. Right now, .500 would be nice.
• North Carolina (11): Butch Davis will turn this program around, but not in year one.
• Duke (12): It’ll be fun watching the biggest rivalry in college basketball face-off to see who finishes dead last.