What a difference a couple weeks make.
Georgia Tech begins its 11th week of the season smack dab in the middle of a conference championship game race, very much alive to make a bowl game for the first time in five years and preparing to play a rival on network television. Yet on Oct. 22, Tech was a game under .500 and very much in danger of having its season go awry.
Instead, the Yellow Jackets have won back-to-back league games and sit all alone in third place in the ACC. They have yet another chance to make a statement at noon Saturday at Clemson.
“This is a big opportunity,” Tech running back Jamal Haynes said. “Yes, we just won two in a row, but I still feel like we can’t be complacent. We can’t be settled with just winning two in a row. I feel like we still have to be hungry, we still have to be humble, we still have to go into next week ready to work, ready to, honestly, go 3-0. That’s the plan. That’s always the plan.”
Sandwiched around a home game with Syracuse on Nov. 18 for Tech are two games against bitter rivals whom the Jackets have long losing streaks against. Clemson has eight straight wins against Tech and Georgia, Tech’s final regular-season opponent, has won five in a row against the white and gold.
The first crack at breaking either of those dubious streaks comes this weekend in South Carolina where the Jackets face a Clemson team that is unranked and out of league championship contention, but no less dangerous. The Tigers (5-4, 2-4 ACC) are coming off a resounding win over No. 15 Notre Dame at home Saturday.
Tech has all sorts of momentum on its side, too, after a come-from-behind victory over North Carolina at home Oct. 28 and a shellacking of Virginia on the road in a venue it has rarely ever left triumphant.
“We’ve got to stay with our foot on the gas and continue to get better every week,” Tech coach Brent Key said at Scott Stadium on Saturday after his team defeated UVA, the volume of his voice loud enough to cut through the celebratory music coming out of Tech’s locker room next door. “We got a tough stretch of the season, we really do.
“These guys, I think they’re galvanized right now as a team. When you work like you do six days a week and you only get 12 opportunities guaranteed in a season to come play and do what you love, I want these guys to have fun and celebrate and enjoy the moment.”
Key’s team has a chance to win a fifth conference game in a season for the first time since 2018. Doing so would keep slim ACC championship game hopes alive – Florida State has already clinched a spot as one of two teams who will be playing the first weekend of December.
Louisville is a game up on the Jackets in the standings and also holds a tiebreaker by virtue of its 39-34 win over Tech on Sept. 4. Tech is one of six ACC teams with two conference losses going into this week.
Clemson was chosen in August to win the ACC in the preseason media poll. But the Tigers lost their season opener to Duke, then dropped 3 of 5 between Sept. 23-Oct. 28. Coach Dabo Swinney’s team proved it hadn’t thrown in the towel Saturday with its win over Notre Dame in a game it led for the final 53:03.
Now the Tigers and Jackets meet at a crossroads few likely saw coming at season’s outset given Tech has had four consecutive losing seasons and Clemson is three years removed from a College Football Playoff Appearance and five removed from a national title. The two programs will be fighting for bowl eligibility Saturday, and one program is relishing the good vibes it hasn’t had the fortune of experiencing in recent years.
“It’s quite a deserving feeling,” Tech defensive back Myles Sims said. “When you put in the work for it – when initially you put in the work and you don’t get the outcome that you get it’s like, ‘What can you do or what type of change can you make to achieve the result that you’re looking for?’ Now that we’re on this side of the spectrum it feels good. It feels great.
“But we can’t stop here. We just got to keep going, keep pressing that gas so we can continue having these moments and continue being better than the next opponent.”
NOTES
- The Jackets opened as 13-point underdogs this week.
- Tech ranks sixth nationally with .89 sacks allowed, 10th in takeaways (14) and with eight fumble recoveries, 13th in rushing (204.1 yards per game), 14th in total offense (465.3 yards per game), 19th in third downs conversions (46.5) and with 10 interceptions, 20th with 211 first downs and 28th in scoring (33.2 points per game).
- The Jackets rank 129th in rushing defense (220 yards allowed per game), 126th in total defense (455.2 yards allowed per game), 119th in red zone defense (91.7%), 117th in tackles for loss (4.6 per game), 115th with 204 first downs allowed, 110th in third down defense (44.7%t) and 102nd in scoring defense (30.1 points allowed per game).
- Tech kicker Aidan Birr now 12th nationally having made 90.9% of his field goals.
- Tech quarterback Haynes King now ranks seventh nationally with 164 points responsible for and with 319.4 yards of total offense per game, eighth with 22 touchdown passes and 30th with 2,330 passing yards.
- Haynes now 37th nationally by averaging 5.77 yards per carry
- Tech defensive end Kyle Kennard now tied for 32nd nationally with six sacks.
- The Jackets’ 12 opponents are now a combined 68-40. Tech’s five wins were against teams that are currently 22-2, its four losses against teams a combined 27-9 and its remaining three games are against teams that are a combined 18-9.
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