Half OT : Calling all MGofoodies, football insiders
I will be traveling to Chattanooga this weekend, I have never been there before. To anyone out there familiar with the area, where are the best places to eat? i loove look flare kind of food places( greasy spoons) that are unique culinary gems. Second half, i have heard that there is a serious battle between Cam Gordon and Jake Ryan for the SAM spot. Which is ok by me because i think eiather of them could be all conference LBers. The question is, what do you do with the loser of that battle? For Cam that could be pretty easy, slide him over to Will, but if its Ryan what do you do with him? Slide him to WILL, or do you put him on the line as a WDE? So far the coaching staff seems to be pretty consistent with putting the best 11 on the feild so i expect to see Cam and Jake in the starting line up, just don't know where I can expect them to play.
Travel Channel?
Watch the Man vs. Food episode of Chattanooga, that might be helpful.
Yelp > Man vs Food -- didn't Man vs Food go to Tios when in A2? Yuck.
I can't exactly pin down why, the but stream-of-consciousness style of the OP kinda reminds me of THE PARTY ROOM.
Yes i know my writing style is somewhat unique. It comes from my favrite literary sources which are in no particular order: Trumbo, Steinbeck, Vonnegut, and Ellison. I am nowhere near their order, but if you have read their work then you can probably see the influence HAHA.
Just as long as you don't start writing in the style of Hegel...
March 27th, 2012 at 10:02 PM ^
what if he were to write in the style of ee cummings? that would be interesting wouldn't it
March 28th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^
Honestly - anything would be - better than Emily Dickinson -
I - seriously - hate that whole - style of -hers
It's -
Pointless
Seriously, though, I can't stand Emily Dickinson.
tvfoodmaps.com is normally a site I visit before I go on vacation (it shows what restuarants in an area have been visited by a foodie tv show). However, Chattanooga only has 3 places listed on it...all visited by Rachele Ray (shudder). I think that should at least be a starting point of what restaurants you shouldn't visit.
I love Indian food. My wife and I were stranded in Chattanooga due to poor weather and wanted to avoid eating at Cracker Barrell, Fridays, pizza, et al. . . We took a shot on Indian Mahal despite its very sad appearance (inhabitating a former family chain restaurant of unknown provenance). The food was excellent. We have a pretty good assortment of Indian restaurants here in Chicago, but this little hole in the wall in Chattanooga held up nicely against our big city competition. We were told that there are a lot of hotel owners and operators up and down the I-75 corridor who were born and raised in India. This restaurant was frequented by a number of those proprietors because of the authenticity and quality of the food. We liked it and will go back if we ever find reason to return to Chattanooga.
If you somehow end up driving through Memphis you MUST eat at Gus's Chicken. Ive got family down there and we all joke that they add crack to the batter the chickens to adictive. Best fried chicken on the planet. Hopefully you actually are magically driving through Memphis, if not.... i got nothing, just detour to Memphis.
Why do we assume that the loser at the SAM is automatically better than whoever wins the battle at WILL? I mean, it's very possible, but Desmond Morgan started a lot of games last year, and although he was our weakest LB, he was a true frosh learning on the fly (and a little undersized).
We didn't hear anything about Jake Ryan his true frosh year, and then last fall he was quite good. Same thing with Cam Gordon (position switch playing a role as well). Point is, many guys make a big leap from year 1 to year 2, and I think we'll see some of that with Morgan. He's a smart guy and a tough player. With some actual college level S&C under his belt, and a spring practice to get everything down, he could be dangerous.
Former high school QB who loves to hit is a great player to have on defense. I expect great things from young Des.
This defense is fairly symmetrical in the front 7. The WILL is really more like a 2nd MLB while the SAM and WDE are somewhat interchangeable edge rushers. I expect Morgan to start at WILL and if he doesn't the likeliest replacements would be Hawthorne, maybe Jones, or Bolden if he's way ahead of the curve. Neither Gordon or Ryan is that type of player.
At SAM, I'm guessing both Gordon and Ryan see the field. They offer different skillsets (Gordon better in coverage/space, Ryan better at the line and rushing the passer) but both are very talented and have been productive players already in their young careers. If both are neck and neck, I figure the coaching staff will try to mix things up and use them situationally. At a position that is like an extra d-lineman a lot of the time, rotating guys also probably won't hurt with respect to keeping them fresh and chasing QBs at top speed.
I agree with this. Last year, Beyer got a lot of PT at that spot, even at the beginning when he hardly knew what he was doing and even though Ryan was much better. I have to imagine Cam will get at least as much PT as Beyer got last year, probably more.
I think you're right about using them situationally. On pass plays, I think Ryan will be the guy heading for the QB, and Cam will be in when you need another guy back in coverage.
As much as both excel at one facet of the game, both could also do some damage where it is less expected. We saw Ryan have a pick-six in last year's spring game and I imagine with a year of practice at the position under his belt Cam Gordon could give some opposing tackles/TE fits with his athletic ability coming off the edge (I remember he did a little bit of that in the Purdue game in 2010 where he lined up with a hand down quite often).
With both guys due to make a big leap (Ryan going from freshman to sophomore, Cam more comfortable after a couple position switches) that position should be a big strength in the fall if both guys can stay healthy and spell each other from time to time. Add to that a big leap from Clark/Beyer on the other side and all the hand-wringing about the defensive line starts to look a little silly as our edge pass rush takes a big step forward.
Morgan got picked on alot because of his inability to cover fast TE's or some shallow routes. Gordon gives you more of the ability to cover faster guys and still stand up against the run. I always figured that Morgan would eventually grow into a MLB, which i think is a better postion for him once he acquires the neccessary size. Honestly this is a good problem to have, so many talented LB that you don't know what to do with them all.
primariy to visit Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, but the food was an added plus. Lots of reasonable (non-chain) choices. We had just been in Memphis, so we didn't sample any of the numerous barbecue offerings. One of our favorites was Canyon Grill, across the border in Georgia, at the intersection of GA routes 189 & 136, about 16 miles south of Chattanooga. A varied menu, southern dishes as well yankee fare, excellent service, and since its in a dry county, you can bring your own bottle of wine and not pay a corkage fee. TripAdvisor
I am currently in school in Knoxville, and if you are going to chattnooga, you need to do BBQ. Sticky Fingers is the most widely known (and If you go, go to the original one; the satallites are OK but the Original is much better), but you have to go to a Local BBQ place (though I have also heard great things about Mahal); little else is going to be worth the trouble. Just ask around for best BBQ in the area. There is one other place whose name is excaping me; I can get it, but I'll have to try to get into contact with an old professor.
Finally! I've been waiting on some Cam Gordon news since last fall. He was supposedly a defensive stud until he tweaked his back during fall camp. Great to hear he's back on track.
Even after he recovered from the injury, he was likely behind on learning the new defense. He also needed to bulk up, so hopefully this extra time has helped in that regard also.
I went to boarding school in Chattanooga, I can't remember the name of the place but it was off of Dodds south of I-24 and our dorm head used to take us there. It was a southern soul-food place where they'd bring out helpings of greens, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, country gravy and put it all on a lazy susan. I'll try to find the name, but have very fond memories of the spot and would definitely recommend for a great taste of the south.
you're probably thinking of bea's restaurant, it is pretty good, but kind of off the beat path.
off the wall: aretha frankenstein's (shrimp and grits and beer for breakfast)
italian: tony's (low country alfredo or lobster ravioli)
japanese: sushi nabe (music city roll or pretty much anything sushi/roll/sashimi)
all are downtown and relatively easy to get to, kinda.
Try Subway so you can eat fresh
but St. John's Meeting Place on Market Street is great. It's relatively casual, and the food is outstanding, but it's pricey. If you go, ask for Joe to be your server. St. John's Restaurant is next door, too, which is very pricey, and more of a fine dining kind of place.
http://www.stjohnsrestaurant.com/
1-Sweet Basil Thai-Brainerd Road, best Thai food in Chattanooga
2-Bonefish Grille, PF Changs, Carabbas-shallow ford road/gun barrel road exit 5 off of I-75. Basically your best spots around Hamilton Place Mall
Downtown area:
1-Big River Brewery-this place has great beer and food. The beer cycle is phenomenal and the pepper hack chicken nachos are the best nachos I've ever had.
2-Blue Water-best seafood, great cocktails, appetizer lobster rolls
3-Food Works-north side of river downtown. Amazing food.
4-Mellow Mushroom-best pizza
5-Lupi's-massive amazing calzone, you pick your ingredients. It's the size of a football
i think desmond is a better lb than jake ryan but idk about cam gordon
I have a nit to pick and Bolivia me all you want but this just bugs me. The "ers" in "LBers" is redundant. The "B" in "LB" means backer, so LBers = Linebackerers. LBs is not only the right way to go, it's shorter too. /end nitpick
I completely agree. Now, could you hold my OJ juice? I need to run to the ATM machine.
Let's be honest, the problem with ATM machines is that their GUI interfaces suck. And even if I can figure out how to use them, I always forget my PIN number.
I hear the Chili's is superb. /s
Actually, if you're not from the South and you've never tried shrimp & grits (mentioned above), I would highly recommend this.
March 27th, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^
And let me add to that, if you have never been to Tennessee, you really need to at least have a bite of fried catfish and hush puppies. You'll finally get why people eat them.
Hey I dont know if there is a mellow mushroom where you live but it is a really cool pizza and beer spot. They have tv's for sports too but its real laidback. I have only been to Chatt once but I am sure when you drive around downtown Chatt you will find many others. It is a unique city.
March 27th, 2012 at 10:32 PM ^
Go to Krystal. My only advice.
March 27th, 2012 at 10:35 PM ^
I'm being kinda tough here, but when I remember Ryan on the field, I remember big plays being made. When I remember Cam on the field, I remember big plays given up. Cam's got all the athletic tools but just has to make that transition to game time pressure. I play Ryan until you show me.
March 27th, 2012 at 11:24 PM ^
dining at The Waffle House.