DUBLIN — It looked like a really good time to be a Georgia Tech football player.
Sprinting around the field Saturday in delirious celebration. Embracing teammates to celebrate a mission accomplished. Soaking in the cheers from the pockets of Yellow Jackets fans in Aviva Stadium while the sea of Florida State supporters stood in silence.
Watching Seminoles players exit the field, surrendering the spotlight to the team that was a double-digit underdog.
Knowing that the win was achieved in the face of obstacles and moments of trial. After an offseason of toil, receiving confirmation that the confidence felt about the team’s potential was now grounded in at least one confirming result.
The final from Ireland: Georgia Tech 24, No. 10 Florida State 21.
It was Tech’s first walk-off win (in which the game-winning points were scored on the final play of the game) since a game Seminoles and Jackets fans surely remember – the “Miracle on Techwood Drive” game at Bobby Dodd Stadium in 2015.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to do,” quarterback Haynes King said after kicker Aidan Birr’s game-winner tumbled through the uprights. “First thing I tried to do was go find the five (offensive linemen) up front. But other than that, I was just so grateful to teammates.”
There are 11 regular-season games remaining for coach Brent Key’s team to define itself. But after seeing what the Jackets put on the field against the defending ACC champions, there’s ample amount of fuel for Jackets fans to dream big.
Defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci’s unit turned in a winning performance in the coordinator’s Tech debut. After getting spun around on the opening possession of the game – a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in which the Seminoles took an 8-0 lead with a successful two-point conversion – the Jackets defense handled business far more cleanly. Over the final six FSU possessions of the game, Tech allowed 216 yards on 51 plays – 36 yards per drive.
The defense’s strengthening grip on the Seminoles particularly was evident in the running game – FSU generated 58 rushing yards on five carries in the first drive, but only 40 over the final 26 rush attempts.
“We knew that with that first drive, we had to respond,” linebacker Kyle Efford said. “We could respond negatively or positively. We were on the sideline talking about it – just saying, ‘Hey, it’s time to step up. It’s going to be on us. We’re going to have to play football.’”
The offensive line took control of the game in the fourth quarter, dominating an FSU line that had been touted to be among the best in FBS. In the middle of the game-winning drive that culminated with Birr’s 44-yard game-winner, Tech ran the ball six consecutive times for 28 yards at a time when FSU knew that the Jackets likely were going to stay on the ground to limit risk and keep the clock moving.
The results – seven yards, seven yards (first down), three yards, six yards, two yards (first down), three yards.
The final rushing tally for the game – 36 carries, 190 yards, three touchdowns.
“It’s a very good feeling,” center Weston Franklin said. “That’s just kind of our mindset going into every game. We want to run the football. We want to continue to push the pace and make defenses uncomfortable, and that’s definitely a good feeling. But we’ve got to show up next week (against Georgia State) and do the same thing or this game means nothing to us.”
In a number of moments, Tech rose to the occasion to make winning plays and drives, showing resolve. The Jackets defense’s rebound from the shaky opening possession was one example.
King offered two in the game-winning drive alone. He picked up his center Franklin after he was called for a false start that turned a simple third-and-2 into a more complicated third-and-7 from the Tech 28-yard line. If they had come up short, the Jackets would have punted from well inside their territory, giving Florida State the chance at the game-winning score with about 4:30 to play.
But, on that play, King faced down pressure to find running back Jamal Haynes for a 16-yard gain to pick up the first down.
The Jackets encountered calamity later in the possession when a botched shotgun snap fell to the ground and King had to scramble to pick it up and take a 10-yard loss.
With the score tied at 21-21, Tech went from second-and-7 on the FSU 28-yard line – well within Birr’s field-goal range – to third-and-17 on the FSU 38, from where a field-goal attempt would have been about a dicey 55 yards. But King met the moment as he has so often done, finding wide receiver Eric Singleton for a 12-yard gain to reach the 26 and hand Birr a much more palatable 44-yard try.
“When that ball went fluttering back behind, I was like, ‘Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no,’” Key said. “But you’ve got to have confidence in your players. You have to. You can’t just say you have confidence in them all week and then you’re scared that they’re not going to do their job when the game’s on the line.”
Birr himself had his own mistakes to contend with. He took the field for the game-winning try after having missed from 51 on his only other field-goal try of the day.
“My big thing is, you never want to miss two in a row,” he said. “I was going to make that next one, no matter where it was.”
Tech has some ball-security issues to resolve. But there were no other glaring weaknesses that 60 minutes against the talented Seminoles could reveal.
Leaving behemoth Georgia aside for the moment, and also the idea that gauging teams at this juncture is imprecise business, if Tech can beat Florida State in what essentially was a road environment, what opponent over the next 10 games would you doubt that the Jackets can beat?
No. 7 Notre Dame will be formidable, but that’s really it.
After the breakthrough in 2023, when the Jackets made their first bowl game since 2018, the path to improving upon last year seems clear after Saturday.
This would seem like a team that’s ready to take the next step, the one that Key outlined after the game. First, he said, he had to teach the Jackets how to not lose. Then it was to win.
“The next step in the journey is going to be learning how to win consistently,” Key said. “The team that I believe we have, we’ll go back to work.”
The Jackets fly home from Ireland on Sunday. But it’ll also be a work day.
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