For the second time in the 85 years of the AP poll, Georgia Tech will play back-to-back home games against top-5 teams, following its 73-7 loss to No. 1 Clemson on Oct. 17 with a visit to Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday from No. 4 Notre Dame. (The first time was 1983, with No. 5 North Carolina and No. 5 Auburn coming to Grant Field two weeks apart, both Tech losses.)
The Yellow Jackets, trying for what would be a landmark win for coach Geoff Collins, are 19.5-point underdogs to the Fighting Irish.
1. Staying penalty-free
Among many objectives, Tech will need to commit fewer penalties to have a shot Saturday. The Irish lead the ACC in fewest penalties incurred per game (4.0), while Tech ranks 13th at 8.7. The Jackets had 10 in the loss to Boston College, some that proved particularly costly.
Of Tech’s 52 penalties, 17 have been false starts. (Tech opponents haven’t done much better. They’ve had 14 false starts of their 44 penalties. Notre Dame has three false starts.) Offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude said that the offense was tweaking the snap count and cadence this week.
“We know in-house what the issues are, and we’re working on getting those right for the weekend,” he said.
The breakdown for Tech’s other penalties: offside (6), personal foul (5), holding (5), illegal block (4), delay of game (3), ineligible-receiver downfield (3), illegal formation (2), roughing the passer (2), defensive pass interference (1), facemask (1), illegal shift (1), offensive pass interference (1), substitution infraction (1).
2. Hope for the offense
Right guard Ryan Johnson, whose play might be the most consistent on the offense, believes in the development of the unit, which has turned the ball over 18 times.
The grad transfer from Tennessee acknowledged the mistakes and the need to clean those up, but added that “there’s a lot of good things on our offense that we’ve got going. We’ve just got to fix a few things here and there, and we will.”
He praised quarterback Jeff Sims and right tackle Jordan Williams, both freshmen, for their studious approach to the game.
“You sit in the film room with Jeff or if you sit in the film room with Jordan, you’re amazed,” Johnson said. “If you walked into the film room, you wouldn’t know they were freshmen.”
Besides Williams, Sims and fellow freshman running back Jahmyr Gibbs, the starting lineup against Boston College included two sophomores (tight end Dylan Leonard and wide receiver Ahmarean Brown) and a junior in his first season at his position (center Mikey Minihan).
“We’ve got some young guys that are coming along, but they’re coming fast,” Johnson said.
3. Focus on tight ends
Notre Dame’s slew of tight ends is top of mind for defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker. The group includes four players who were four- or five-star prospects and three who were rated in the top 10 nationally among all tight ends in their class (247Sports Composite).
Playing to their strength, the Irish typically have two tight ends on the field and use them as blockers as well as targets in the pass game.
“Their ‘Tight End U’ thing, there’s some reality to that,” Thacker said. “The multifaceted, multipurpose guys that they have that have both skill sets is really impressive.”
Tech’s tandem of Dylan Deveney and Dylan Leonard, in part because of missed games, has caught four passes (Jack Coco has two receptions). The position group caught 25 last season, and the expectation was that that would take a significant jump this season. Patenaude said the reduction is a product of the number of players needing touches, such as Gibbs and Brown, how defenses are playing Tech and matchups that he’s trying to exploit.
“There’ll be some called stuff with the tight ends, but it’s going to give you more of an opportunity to spread the ball around when you have guys that can line up, and be run/pass options for us offensively and set some fronts the right way,” Patenaude said.
4. Immense challenge for defense
A week after surrendering 264 rushing yards to arguably the weakest rushing offense in the ACC (Boston College), Tech will encounter a different challenge Saturday.
Notre Dame ranks third in the ACC with 231.8 rushing yards per game and has run the ball 64% of the time. The Irish can hammer opponents with three backs who’ve had 100-yard rushing games this season, including former Tech commit C’Bo Flemister, from Pike County High.
Against such an offense, which has gone 30 possessions without a turnover, it’s particularly critical to avoid falling behind. Tech has fallen behind by double digits in the first half of all six of their games, rallying to win twice. Notre Dame leads the ACC in time of possession at 34:11 and controlled it for 40:59 in a 45-3 win over Pitt. Against Louisville, the Irish had four drives of 12 plays or more and limited the game, a 12-7 win for Notre Dame, to seven possessions.
5. Throwback duds for Saturday
Cornerback Tre Swilling is understandably excited to wear the throwback uniforms that the Jackets will wear Saturday in homage to the Black Watch defense led by Ted Roof, Cleve Pounds and Tre’s father, Pat Swilling. The Jackets led the ACC in scoring defense in 1984-85 and total defense in 1984, categories that they haven’t finished first in the conference since.
The uniform consists of a black jersey, gold pants and gold helmet with a black “GT” decal and a black stripe down the center of the helmet. Defensive players voted into the Black Watch wore the black GT and black stripe to indicate their status as the most physical players on the defense.
“I want to go out there and bring back that feeling back to Tech fans that have been following us since my dad’s been playing," Tre Swilling said. "I want to go out there and make my dad proud and my family proud.”
Tech originally planned to wear the throwbacks, made by Adidas, when the Jackets were to play Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which was to be the first of a series of five games to be played at the $1.5 billion sports palace. The start of the series has been delayed until 2021 with a year added.
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