DUBLIN — Georgia Tech departed Ireland on Sunday morning, the Yellow Jackets’ charter plane lifting off ahead of the threat of country getting submerged by a flood of Florida State tears.
The Seminoles stayed behind, having made the decision beforehand to spend an extra day here without the burden of an immediately approaching game. Given the outcomes of its back-to-back games against teams from the SEC (a 63-3 humiliation to Georgia in last season’s Orange Bowl) and its own ACC (Tech in a 24-21 thriller Saturday) as well as its ongoing attempt to sue its way out of the ACC, Florida State might have been wise to inquire about affiliating with the likes of Trinity College Dublin and the University of Limerick.
“There once was a team from Tallahassee…”
As for the Jackets, as their flight distanced itself from Dublin and approached home, a new challenge — and with it the possibility of a new plateau to attain — was taking shape.
If the Yellow Jackets can take care of business Saturday against Georgia State in their first game of the season at Bobby Dodd Stadium and the Panthers’ season opener, they will almost certainly find themselves in the first Associated Press Top 25 poll of the regular season, which will be released Sept. 3 after the FSU-Boston College game on Labor Day. (There will not be an updated ranking after this week’s games.)
If it happens, it would be a worthy achievement after beating No. 10 Florida State on Saturday and then moving to 2-0 with a win over the Panthers.
And it would end a nine-year exile outside of the Top 25. The last time Tech made the AP’s Top 25 was Sept. 20, 2015, following the third week of that season. That year, the Jackets starting in the preseason Top 25 following an Orange Bowl championship season in 2014. But they lost to Notre Dame to fall from No. 14 to No. 20 and then fell out for good after an upset loss at Duke the following week.
The only power-conference teams to have been on the outside longer than Tech are Rutgers (2012) and Vanderbilt (2013). In matters related to football, there is better company to keep. As Hall of Fame coach Paul Johnson once said, “I’m not real sure I want to copy Vanderbilt.”
For Tech, it means nothing and it means everything.
As an indicator, about the only thing less important than being in the Top 25 after Week 1 is being in the preseason Top 25. For example, after upsetting TCU in their season opener last year, the Colorado Buffaloes of coach Deion Sanders popped into the Top 25 and then won three of their final 11 games. It’s like being in the lead of the Daytona 500 after the first 10 laps. It doesn’t guarantee much.
But, for Tech, a return to the Top 25 would carry weight. It would be a symbol of Tech’s continued ascent under coach Brent Key following the historically ineffective management of the program under Geoff Collins.
It would be a fun reward for loyal Jackets fans and a boost to the team’s reputation. Even if it’s transitory, having a ranking number next to the team’s name on the ESPN scroll influences perception for as long as it lasts.
And, ultimately, if Tech is going to be in the end-of-season Top 25 — the only one that really matters — it would do well to take the first step and get into the ones preceding it.
All of this adds a dash of spice to the Jackets-Panthers game on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, the first-ever football meeting between the two schools. You don’t think first-year Georgia State coach Dell McGee would give his right arm — or at least the right arm of a loyal booster — to trip up the Panthers’ power-conference neighbors fresh off their big win?
Not to mention Georgia State quarterback Daniel Gibson and safety Kenyatta Watson II, who both transferred from Tech in the offseason, and defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer, who was not retained by Key after one season on his staff.
It’s not likely, but it can certainly happen. Every season, teams fall on their faces seven days after scoring a big upset. It’s part of the appeal of college football.
In having to keep his players’ attention from straying and their confidence from overinflating, Key might have a more difficult job this week than he did in preparing his team for Florida State.
Tech had no reason to be blithe about the Seminoles. But for Georgia State, while the reasons would be unwarranted, the Jackets have plenty of them. On top of that, players will have to recover from jet lag, however much that impacts the bodies of well-conditioned 21-year-olds.
At the least, Key and Tech players said the right things after beating FSU.
Center Weston Franklin said it was a great feeling to have mashed the ball down the throats of vaunted FSU for 190 rushing yards, “but we’ve got to show up next week (against Georgia State) and do the same thing or this game means nothing to us. We’ve got to go practice (Sunday) and fix the mistakes that we did have and continue to be better from it.”
It was Tech’s shortcoming last year. Three times, Tech followed hard-earned road wins (Wake Forest, Miami and Virginia) by losing in its next game, two of them at home (Bowling Green, Boston College and at Clemson).
It was why Key said after Saturday’s win that the next step for the team is learning to win consistently.
Part of that process is acquiring more talent and depth, which Key has. But the other is having the maturity and intelligence to prepare and play with the same effort regardless of what just happened. It is an idea that Key brought up after Saturday’s game that he has mentioned more than once, which probably means that his players probably have calluses on their ears from hearing it.
“Success and failure, those are the same,” he said. “They’re both distractions. You’ve got to stay in the moment and play the next play.”
Someday, I hope Key will recite Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” at a news conference — “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same.”
Acknowledging that reality is one thing. Putting it into practice is another. If the Jackets attain that next stage, a fancy honorific awaits.
Top 25 Georgia Tech.
SATURDAY’S GAME
Georgia Tech vs. Georgia State, 8 p.m., ACC, 680 AM, 93.7 FM
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