Calvin Johnson's Bowl Diary: From San Fran with Love

The Georgia Sports Blog has reached an agreement with the Georgia Institute of Technology to enable Tech football players to report back from the Emerald Bowl via blog diaries from the road. The first installment is from Calvin Johnson, wide receiver at Tech.

Georgia Tech vs. Utah: Welcome to Frisco!
Day 1: By Calvin Johnson

When I came to Georgia Tech, I wanted to lead this team to a very prestigious bowl game.

Mission Accomplished!

I couldn't be more thrilled with San Francisco. Reggie says that this beats the pants off of Boise, Idaho. Up there, they only fed the guys potatoes for three meals a day. Here we get all-you-can eat shrimps at this place called Fisherman’s Wharf. Shrimp are my favorite fish.

I'm really looking forward to this game. I think having the home field advantage is going to be really helpful for us. I mean it isn't Bobby Dodd Stadium, but the Yellow Jackets were made for a game like this. Big city. Lots of Noise. Tons of Traffic. Aggressive bums everywhere. Loose women with a variety of cold sores. We fit in here.

Secondly, it's a big advantage for the coaches to be here. Apparently, they are doing some heavy recruiting over in some area called Castro. That may bee a secret. I only know about it because I heard Coach Nix say he's going to spend some time there looking at tight ends over there. Awesome! Can't beat a tight end.

I think Coach Nix and the Tech Band Director will be recruiting together. I over heard something about "the search for another flag boy."

Anyway, the bus arrived in Frisco (that's what the locals call it) this morning at 3:30 a.m., and we all checked into the motel. 2,553 miles in a Greyhound is tough on the legs. We were exhausted and slept for a few hours before roster call.

[Photo: This is how the Jackets roll!]

During roster call, they gave us our bowl gifts which included a wax bust of Jackie Chan's head, a jar of collectible Sea Gull poop from the Golden Gate Bridge, 2 cans of Emerald Nuts Cashews and a Special Edition "Re-Take The Rock: Alcatrax Indians 4 Life T-shirt." In a word -- Jacketastic.

At this same meeting, Coach Gailey told us that we will be playing the game in a baseball stadium. At first, I was really freaked out because I didn't bring my baseball glove. Reggie tried to settle me down, and he explained that we won't be using gloves. No GLOVES? Is he serious? I'm the only guy on this team that can catch to start with, and playing baseball without a glove is going to be tough for even me. I hope the Utah guys didn't pack their gloves either.

Otherwise, things are looking great, and I'm feeling JACKET! Tell everyone back in the Great State of Atlanta that I said hello.

Love,

Calvin


Photo: Emerald Bowl Seating

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