This nutty Tech season could yield a truly hilarious ending
Believe it or not, both of these teams could land in Miami come New Year's. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
Georgia Tech could wind up in the Orange Bowl, or it could grace no bowl at all. At this moment, the Jackets are bowl-eligible; come Saturday night, they might not be. Got that?
“It’s been a different year,” Paul Johnson said Tuesday, which is an understatement on a par with, “Bill Gates isn’t hurting for money.”
After a full regular season, Tech is neither a winning or a losing team — but it might yet be a conference champion. Generally speaking, when serendipity takes a hand it lifts a good team to greater heights. Somehow serendipity seems to have taken a shine to these middling Jackets, who lost by 21 points to Middle Tennessee and by 32 to Georgia.
The Jackets have played 12 games, losing half. They have beaten one team (North Carolina) that finished above .500. Carolina was one of three teams that tied for first place in the ACC Coastal Division, but the Tar Heels couldn’t play for the conference title because the NCAA won’t allow it, and Miami decided not to play for the ACC championship for fear of what the NCAA might do. Ergo, Tech to Charlotte.
“You want to be playing for your conference championship,” Johnson said. “Would you have dreamed it would be with this record? Probably not.”
Should the Jackets lose to Florida State — they’re a two-touchdown underdog — they’ll be 6-7, which would render them bowl-ineligible after they’d moved heaven and Earth to get bowl-eligible. Tech people absolutely believe the Jackets will be afforded a postseason berth even with a losing record; neutral observers are less sure. “You guys (meaning the media) are having more fun with that than might actually be,” Johnson said, though “fun” mightn’t be the proper word.
The coach’s Tuesday briefing wasn’t nearly as acidic as his post-Georgia address, but he didn’t miss the opportunity to hammer home a Talking Point. “This is the third time in five years these players have finished with the best record in their division,” he said. (Not incidentally, five years is how long Johnson has been in place.) “To hear some people talk, you’d probably think the sky is falling. But that’s probably better than they’ve done here in a long time.”
True. Before Johnson arrived, Tech had finished first in the ACC or the Coastal three times: In 1990, the UPI national championship season under Bobby Ross; in 1998 under George O’Leary, and in 2006 under Chan Gailey. But it’s also worth noting — and here we risk being included on a list of “some people” — that Johnson’s Jackets are 21-20 since Thanksgiving 2009, and that the biggest victory of that span (the ACC championship over Clemson) was officially vacated, and that their last game marked the second-largest margin of defeat of Johnson’s five years.
Loading ...Even with Tech playing for the ACC title, it’s impossible to call this season a smash. (Though, as Johnson said, “If we can win the conference championship, it’d be hard to say they underachieved.”) It would also be impossible to characterize the program as being in the prime of health. That said, it would be utterly in keeping with this crazy-quilt season for Tech to topple Florida State and break its bowl losing streak, which stands at seven years, in a BCS game against a true heavyweight like … Kent State?
As Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports has outlined, if Kent State beats Northern Illinois for the Mid American Conference title on Friday and finishes in the top 16 of the BCS rankings, and if the Big East champion is ranked below that, the Golden Flashes would almost surely land in the Orange Bowl, which gets last choice in this year’s BCS rotation. (Dodd also calls a potential Tech-Kent matchup “a game you wouldn’t pay to see in September.”)
The Golden Flashes lost to Kentucky by 33 points, and Kentucky didn’t win an SEC game and fired its coach. (And just hired Mark Stoops, the Florida State defensive coordinator. Small world, huh?) And to this outlandish possibility, we say: Why NOT?
Nothing else about Tech has made a lick of sense, so why not go the full Monty? Upset Florida State, beat Kent State and stick around afterward to help welcome the Georgia Bulldogs to Miami. See, the Orange Bowl will be staged at Sun Life Stadium — the home field of the Miami Hurricanes, whose step-aside put Tech in in the ACC title game — on New Year’s night. Six days later, the BCS title game will be played at the same place. Could this strangest of Tech seasons reach any more suitable end than to have both Jackets and Bulldogs take their respective talents to South Beach?
Further reading: Heat Check — Destiny’s Dogs? No-bowl Jackets? Whoa, Nelly.
By Mark Bradley
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209 comments Add your comment
ShowMeYurTD's
November 28th, 2012
2:58 pm
I’m just glad Tech got rid of the chicken wire on their helmets….LOL
WDE
November 28th, 2012
3:45 pm
hey I think Middle Tenn St just scored….again!
Ty
November 28th, 2012
5:21 pm
Random musings for consideration:
1) GT winning Saturday would likely mean the Mayan calendar prediction is right too and thus, the Orange Bowl wouldn’t be stuck with the Jackets.
2) GT losing Saturday (most likely, but maybe not as embarrassing as the Athens trip) should send the Jackets home. Being able to claim a ‘bowl streak’ (especially in light of the recent bowls attended and their performance) is no reason to go. It would probably be one of the best outcomes to stay home at this point. (even if they weren’t playing in the ACC championship).
3) The CPJ era is fast approaching a close on the Flats. Word on the street is that if the other team took their offense to the locker room with 2 minutes to play, the GT defense STILL couldn’t get off the field. Similarly, if the other teams defense left once Tech got inside the 20, they would still need 6 plays and 2 minutes to score (and would possibly turn the ball over on downs) . . .yes, they are that bad.
4) It’s been said before and the theory is fast becoming a “law” – “The CPJ style WON’T work against teams with equal / better talent that have time to prepare (i.e. an open date before the game, or in the case of UGA, a warm-up game with Ga Southern the week before).” Even with the ‘wins’ this year against Duke and UNC (both with open dates beforehand), CPJ’s record against FBS teams that have extra time to prepare is a lowly 6-13 (31%). Prior to this year, that record was 4-11 (27%). Of note is that GT had FOUR teams with open dates before their matchup (and UGA scheduled Ga Southern to get a week’s scrimmage ahead of time). Opponents are figuring this thing out and reacting accordingly.
5) Similarly, CPJ will NEVER get talent to equal his opponents with this offense (keep in mind the first 2+ years were built on Chan’s recruits . . several of whom ended up in the NFL). Players in this offense will NEVER run this type of offense again (especially at the next level) and learn skills (cut-blocks) that they can’t use at the next level. Thus, to use ‘this offense’ and win requires equal / better talent than the opponent PLUS the schemes. Lesser talent (and time to prepare) neutralizes any advantage of the scheme . .. expect many years of more of the same.
6) So, what’s next . . . I think CPJ is around another year (despite the poor performance and even if he manages to get to a bowl and win (for a change). Reason being that Radakovich has left and a new AD is coming who will not want to make his first move changing the coaching staff (plus he’s got to finish the Hewitt payouts and building fund payments Rad left him/her).
7) On the unlikely chance that we really DO get to see a coaching change, the question becomes WHO? Not a whole lot of motivation for a coach to come to the Flats these days with a program on life support. Maybe an up and coming small-school coach . . maybe another “Chan” with NFL credentials that doesn’t need the money and only wants the challenge (think Andy Reid or Ken Whisenhunt)?
It saddens me to see the program fall apart like this (I think Bill Lewis may be breathing a sigh of relief possibly losing his title as “the worst coach”) . . . MAN UP Paul!! Either admit it isn’t working, or take the blame when it doesn’t (while updating your resume).
GTPak
November 28th, 2012
7:28 pm
This season has been an embarrassment and the game with FSU should not be. We will be the laughing stock of the college football world. Last weekend even the ESPN guys were saying that the two best teams in the ACC were FSU and Clemson and that would be a much better game. I know that they are both in the same division, but face it, our division is awful and even the one with FSU and Clemson is not even in the top ten.
The BCS bowls should only have those top ranked teams who deserve to be there. There are how many teams that would beat us this year if we had to play them in a bowl game, at least forty. Let those with the better teams go and provide some entertainment.
Yes the players want to go, but, guess what, they should have taken care of business against VT, Miami, and MTSU. If UGA had not played their second team defense in the 4th qtr, we would have lost probably 49 -3 or 56-3.
Sorry, but to me this is just pure embarrassment and no one should be petitioning anyone to got to a bowl with a losing record. I don’t care if we are called the Coastal champs, it sure does not feel like it.
I’ll be rooting for them in the ACC championship game, but please no bowl this year!!
Funny perspective
November 28th, 2012
7:32 pm
All these techies bashing UGA when they can’t beat UGA but once every DECADE.
Heard the fix is in FSU will win – seems the Orange Bowl and TV folks shudder at the thought of watching millions of dollars go up in smoke if GT wins – book it.
Face it techies your football program is a JOKE.
Buzz Kill
November 28th, 2012
8:50 pm
This season is turning into a blast………..the worse we play the greater rewards………..On forward Von Johnson…………..Take us to greater and greater glory!
1 Proud Seminole
November 28th, 2012
9:22 pm
What a stupid column! First you have to accept the premise that GT can beat FSU. You can stop right there. Secondly, if Tech gets invited to any bowl, they will get their butts kicked! I’ll always root for an ACC team against another conference, but the Jackets just aren’t any good this year.
I-DOG
November 28th, 2012
10:05 pm
Toe meets leather:
Rueben Houston wasn’t embarrasing? Tech getting NCAA sanctions for academic fraud a couple of years ago wasn’t embarrasing? Kenny Anderson getting into tech and passing all those calculus classes isn’t embarassing? 11 out of 12 isn’t embarrassing?
Allowing the guy that beat the hades out of the girl to play this season? Are you talking about Sanders Commings? The charge was that he shoved his girlfriend. It is he said she said and maybe he did and maybe he didn’t, but he certainly didn’t beat the hades out of anyone and he has NEVER been in any trouble before or since. I don’t know what happpened and if he did shove her, then what he did was dead wrong, but saying he beat the hades out of her is like saying tech and MIT are equally respected academically.
GTJohn
November 29th, 2012
6:54 am
Agree with you GTPak, either win the game against FSU or STAY HOME. We alumni have been embarrassed enough already.
And use the $$$ from the A-T fund to find another coach that knows a real football offense and any semblence of a real football defense. Oh yeah, he needs a personality that can recruit players and one that is able to delegate to subordinates who just may know more than he does about something. And when looking for a new coach, open it up to real coaches. Forget the GT ties and what not – it is not working. Bobby Dodd was a UT guy afterall. Urban Meyer was an OSU guy, Steve Spurrier was a UF guy and Will Muschamp would have been a tremendous choice back when.