Georgia Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall affirmed his disappointment over the Yellow Jackets being passed over by the ACC's four tier-one bowls (Belk, Gator, Pinstripe and Sun) and then the Military and Independence bowls. Marshall tweeted his frustration with the process Dec. 2 after Tech was selected to play in the Quick Lane Bowl, which has the eighth pick of ACC teams.
Among the teams picked ahead of Tech were Virginia (Belk), Miami (Pinstripe) and Virginia Tech (Military), all of whom the Jackets beat head-to-head and finished ahead of in the ACC Coastal Division standings.
“You have to take it with a grain of salt,” Marshall said Saturday after the Jackets’ first bowl practice. “I think we put together a pretty good résumé to be able to go to a tier-one bowl. Once we got to six (wins), that’s what we were kind of playing for, for a better bowl game, and we thought that we did it.”
Marshall, whose team will play Minnesota on Dec. 26 in Detroit, said the team will take motivation from it.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Marshall said. “We’re going to go out there and try to put our best game together and try to show everyone that maybe they should have picked us for a different bowl game.”
Marshall has a personal goal that he’s hoping to attain – 1,000 rushing yards. After 12 games, Marshall is at 896 yards, ninth in the ACC and first among quarterbacks. If he can rush for 104 yards against the Golden Gophers, he would become the first Tech quarterback in the modern era with two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Marshall, who last season set the school record for most rushing yards in a season by a quarterback (1,146), is one of just three Tech quarterbacks to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Justin Thomas (2014) and Joshua Nesbitt (2009) are the others.
