Sometimes you get a feeling. I had one about Georgia Tech. Emboldened by that rare bit of prognosticating success, I’m feeling another feeling.
Tech will play in the ACC championship game.
I know, I know. It’s way too early. One three-point victory in a stadium across the pond does not a season make. The Jackets’ biggest win of last year – over Miami on a night Mario Cristobal had a bad feeling about taking a knee – was followed by a home loss to Boston College. Handling unexpected success can be tricky.
One thing, though. I’m pretty sure Tech expected to beat Florida State. With that deed done, how many of Tech’s remaining games look unwinnable?
Granted, Notre Dame won’t be easy, even if the game will be played here. Georgia, yet again, seems the nation’s best team, even if Tech gave a decent account of itself in last year’s encounter. Notice anything else about those two matchups?
Neither counts in the conference standings.
The Jackets have beaten the team picked to finish first by the assembled press at ACC Media Days. They aren’t scheduled to face Clemson, picked No. 2. (When last did Tech and Clemson NOT play? In 1982. Don’t get me started on mega-conference scheduling.) Miami and N.C. State were tabbed third and fourth. The Jackets face both of those at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
No other ACC team cracked the Associated Press preseason Top 25, though Louisville and Virginia Tech just missed. The Jackets get both of those on the road. The Cardinals are coming off a good season that ended with losses to Kentucky, FSU and USC. The Hokies went 7-6 last year; it was their first winning season since 2019.
It’s possible if not probable that Georgia Tech just beat the best ACC opponent it will see. It’s all but certain that going 6-1 in subsequent league games would book the Jackets a place in Charlotte on Dec. 7. Heck, 5-2 might suffice. Oh, and Tech holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over FSU
I know, I know. It’s not Labor Day and we’re talking tiebreakers. Crazy, right?
Ambitious, yes. Crazy, no.
Tech beating FSU was no fluke. The Seminoles made no turnovers. They were flagged for one penalty. Mike Norvell had no Mario Cristobal moment. His team succeeded on a 2-point conversion. His kicker made field goals of 52 and 59 yards.
But the better team won. Tech held FSU to 291 yards and two touchdowns. Tech had touchdown drives of 79, 75 and 85 yards. It took the ball with 6:55 left and didn’t let the opponent touch it again. Brent Key got the game he wanted, which wasn’t an accident. It was coaching and execution.
We had no idea how he’d fare when bumped upstairs in October 2022. (We assumed he could do no worse than Geoff Collins. Nobody could.) Key played under George O’Leary and apprenticed under Nick Saban, but he’d never been a coordinator, let alone run his own shop. Key’s first move was to dump Collins’ “branding.” His next was to win enough games to persuade his alma mater to grant him a longer look.
Key’s first season as full-fledged head coach produced Tech’s first winning record since Paul Johnson’s last run in 2018. Not since 2015 have the Jackets spent a week in the AP poll. Assuming they beat Georgia State on Saturday, that will change. Only once since 2014 have they done better than 7-6. That’ll change, too.
After Saturday’s win, Key told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that his was “not a gimmicky brand of football.” That was an obvious nod toward Collins’ #404takeover, but it could have been a reference to Johnson’s option. For a time, the coach’s beloved offense was the great equalizer: With lesser talent, Tech would wrong-foot more gifted opponents. Key’s Tech doesn’t want to wrong-foot anybody. It wants to knock people backward.
“We’re going to build at the line of scrimmage,” Key told Thamel. “That’s where games are won.”
Nor does Key believe Tech should settle for lesser talent. It’s based in a state where every big-time school comes to recruit. If homegrown prospects see the program from Atlanta winning big games, why leave home? On the first weekend of college football 2024, Key’s team won the biggest game on the board.
Another prediction: This wasn’t Tech’s last big win. The guess is that big wins are just beginning. A team that beats Florida State can beat any team in the ACC. Key’s team just beat Florida State.
