Could Tech end its bowl skid against the preseason No. 1?
Give this tactical genius a month to prepare and ... he'll probably lose by two touchdowns. (AP photo)
If, on Labor Day morning, you’d have known Georgia Tech would be facing USC in a bowl, you’d have guessed that everything would have broken right for the Jackets. As it happened, Tech had a rough season, which is why it’s again headed to El Paso and not, say, Miami. But spare a thought for the Trojans, who have been the greatest flop in almost half a century.
Ranked No. 1 in preseason, USC finished its regular season 7-5. Not since Ole Miss in 1964 has a preseason No. 1 wound up unranked, and back then the Associated Press poll included only 10 teams. Today it has 25, and you still won’t still find the Trojans until you sift through the “also receiving votes” category. They’re 12th on that not-exactly-stellar list — behind the likes of Vanderbilt, San Diego State and Arkansas State.
So there’s your Sun Bowl matchup: A team that has gone from No. 1 to No. 37 in the time it takes to say, “Lane Kiffin can’t coach a lick,” against a sub-.500 opponent. You wouldn’t think there’d be muchat stake, but again you’d be wrong.
USC has no reason to try hard on Dec. 31. Georgia Tech does. Not since Dec. 21, 2004, have the Jackets won a bowl, and that was so long ago that Chan Gailey was the coach and Reggie Ball, then a sophomore, was the game MVP and the team Tech beat (Syracuse) was so mortified by losing 51-17 that it fired coach Paul Pasqualoni eight days later.
Since then, nada. Tech has lost to opponents great (West Virginia, LSU and Iowa) and small (Utah twice, Fresno State, Air Force). That seven-year skid strips the luster from the Jackets’ string of 16 consecutive bowl appearances, and the past four losses have come under Paul Johnson. On the list of bowl-winning Tech coaches, Johnson ranks behind Mac McWhorter, who led the Jackets to victory in the 2001 Seattle Bowl as a one-game fill-in for George O’Leary.
This can’t-win-a-bowl thing has rankled Johnson for a while, and it has also gotten to his players: Tech’s seniors made “Win a bowl” one of their preseason goals. As of Halloween, there was no guarantee the Jackets would qualify for one. But they beat Duke on Nov. 17 become bowl-eligible, and then they lost to Florida State in the ACC title game to dip to 6-7, requiring an NCAA waiver to book passage to El Paso. But they got it, and off they’re going.
Of the Trojans, Johnson said Wednesday: “They were ranked No. 1; they had the Heisman frontrunner (quarterback Matt Barkley), and they’ve got the Biletnikoff winner (receiver Marqise Lee). They’re a talented team. Like I told somebody else, we’ve had a pretty good trifecta.”
Well, yes. Tech just played Georgia and Florida State, two gifted aggregations, losing to the former badly and the latter honorably. Can’t say the Jackets aren’t used to playing NFL-ready opposition.
“They’re very talented, but we’re not scared of them,” cornerback Louis Young said. “They’re 7-5. They’ve showed they can be beaten.”
They have, repeatedly. There’s a chance the Trojans, who figured to be spending the holidays in more scenic places, will sleepwalk through the Sun, and there’s no chance the Jackets will. This hasn’t been the season they envisioned, but tying Miami and North Carolina for first in the Coastal Division and playing for the conference title helped ease the pain. Beating USC in a bowl would be a nice New Year’s tonic.
On talent, the Trojans should win easily. But on talent, the Trojans shouldn’t be 7-5. For the first time under Johnson, Tech enters its bowl with more to prove than its opponent, and sometimes the lesser bowls come down to who plays harder.
There’s also this: Monte Kiffin, father of the lamentable Lane, has announced his resignation as USC’s defensive coordinator, for good reason. The Trojans rank 63rd nationally in total defense — that’s 10 spots below Tech, which fired coordinator Al Groh at midseason — and were overrun by Oregon on Nov. 3. The Ducks managed 62 points and 426 rushing yards, including 321 by Kenjon Barner.
If Tech can do nothing else, it can run the ball. It’s doubtful that the Jackets’ defense will shut down Barkley and Lee, but if the Tech offense can score early and control the clock, this could be one of those scoring lollapaloozas Tech occasionally wins. (To wit: Tech 68, North Carolina 50.) It would be utterly in keeping with this bizarre year if it ended with the Jackets breaking their bowl drought and finishing 7-7 by beating a team that was supposed to be unbeatable.
By Mark Bradley
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181 comments Add your comment
dawgfan
December 19th, 2012
10:00 pm
LOL @ Bradley trying to make this game sound interesting.
Put in Timeout by Ken Suguira,Filtered by Mark Bradley, Banned by Bill King, Chip Towers & only slightly loved by Jeff Schultz.
December 19th, 2012
10:06 pm
Tech will win.
lol
December 19th, 2012
10:07 pm
dawgfan, at least we didn’t cry for 3 weeks after getting beat like UGA did after Ala. won….crying and calling foul?
You better worry about your bowl game….
A person SMART enough to know.....
December 19th, 2012
10:07 pm
I wouldn’t bet on this game.
List Mama » Could Tech end its bowl skid against the preseason No. 1? – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)
December 19th, 2012
10:15 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Rick James
December 19th, 2012
10:32 pm
If the team that played Florida St shows up it could be a good game.If its the one that showed up against Georgia they’ll get blown out by 40 points.Kiffin will be trying to make statement and will run up the score if he can.Best of luck..
dawgfan
December 19th, 2012
10:36 pm
No, you’ve just been crying for the better part of 12 years as Georgia has owned your joke program like a three legged dog.
Tech
December 19th, 2012
10:36 pm
Know what the Bulldogs and a sandcastle have in common? They both look good ’til the Tide Rolls in….. GA just lost its last chance to ever play for the national title again. This was the year and you blew it…….. How’s that choke collar feel now.?
Tech
December 19th, 2012
10:37 pm
….and you backed into that with a creampuff schedule….. Hahahahahaha
dawgfan
December 19th, 2012
10:37 pm
I wouldn’t watch this game.
Varsity
December 19th, 2012
10:54 pm
As a Tech fan, I hope we get run out of the building!
FireHydrant
December 19th, 2012
10:58 pm
That’s ok dawgfan…You cry when you look at your pay stud compared to our! But it’s ok, your jailbirds sure can play ball but notin else!
FireHydrant
December 19th, 2012
10:59 pm
BTW..UGA is a joke of a university!
11 of 12
December 19th, 2012
11:25 pm
I don’t think USC will stop Tech from rushing for over 300 yards but Tech needs to put the ball in the endzone. We saw what Oregon’s spread offense did to the Trojans. Good luck and looking forward to watching it.
To the obnoxious posts about UGA losing to Bama just remember what the score was in our game. Hard to talk trash if u yourself lose by more than 4 TD’s don’t ya think???
Dacusville Bill
December 19th, 2012
11:34 pm
Southern Cal will beat de rain and hail outta Tech, and Pitiful Paul will blame the Tech players & not his sillyassed “system”–Fire him and get a real Coach, somebody named “Bobby” as in Dodd and Ross–
USMC DAWG
December 19th, 2012
11:48 pm
I hope Tech SPANKS Usc. Go Jackets!
Footballrules
December 20th, 2012
12:33 am
What do all Tech fans and 99% of UGA fans have in common? Neither went to UGA.
Boo Boo
December 20th, 2012
12:36 am
Saturday, September 22, 2012, Middle Tennessee State University had an open schedule. No game to play. On Saturday, September 29, 2012, MTSU travelled to Atlanta, GA and whipped Paul Johnson’s offense and defense, 49-28 (and the game was not as close as the score indicated).
On Saturday, November 17, 2012, the University of Georgia played a carbon-copy offense, in GA Southern, as a warm-up to playing Georgia Tech the following Saturday. UGA beat Southern 45-14, then after that practice week they beat Paul Johnson’s offense and defense 42-10.
The point is simple. If every team had a whole 2 weeks to prepare for and practice against a Paul Johnson offense, Paul Johnson’s offense gets stopped COLD.
It does not matter if USC is unranked. It does not matter if USC is coached by Lane Kiffin. It does not matter if USC’s quarterback is blind. Their defense will be able to stop Paul Johnson’s offense, and because of 4 years of Al Grogh not teaching anyone how to tackle, Paul Johnson’s defense could not stop a Jr. Varsity team (if they still had any).
Sad, but true.
john
December 20th, 2012
1:42 am
So amusing to read the hatred of GT from the dwagfans. Their pitiful, worthless lives…working in McDonald’s or bagging groceries at Publix…..And these are the dwag who graduated from UGAg!!!
lanier
December 20th, 2012
6:27 am
tech will loose big. lets get this garbage game behind us
dawgfan
December 20th, 2012
6:29 am
What do all UGA fans and 99% of Tech fans have in common? They can’t stop thinking about UGA.
Owned.
I’m glad Tech fans took the time to watch our game against Bama. I would have watched the embarassment known as the ACCCG but I had other things to do, like washing my hair or watching paint dry. I can’t remember which.
Georgia Tech= JOKE.
Fred
December 20th, 2012
6:36 am
Hey UGA fans,,,how’s your basketball team this year??? Stay off our blog….
Fred
December 20th, 2012
6:37 am
Hey DAWGFAN, it’s time for you to pick up your welfare check…..
Ben
December 20th, 2012
7:03 am
Anytime Kiffin is on the other sideline, a team has a chance. Has there ever been someone who has gotten so many jobs while failing at every step?
I could compare that with a certain politician, but this isn’t the forum for such things.
David
December 20th, 2012
7:04 am
GT is not got to catch USC sleeping. USC should win by a good margin. The worse thing that could have happened to Tech fans is the team slipping into the ACCCG. Now Johnson will be there for the next few years with a high school offense.
Boss
December 20th, 2012
7:39 am
Go to hell Mark. Don’t write about GT ever, you’re not worthy to write about the school. GT does things the right way, you are a scumbag.
gt4ever
December 20th, 2012
7:47 am
@Rick James
FSU gets beat or survives a close game, GT is pitiful… The only way GT doesn’t lose is if the Mayans get it right Friday and we don’t play…
HammondB3
December 20th, 2012
8:03 am
Will the GA starting line up be out of jail by bowl time i hope so, I heard that some have even learned how to spell and write there name……warms my heart makes me want to go out and by a red truck
You missed the point
December 20th, 2012
8:06 am
Tek doesn’t care about winning bowl games – the only concern is keeping the bowl INVITATION streak alive.
I know its true – I read it on the internet.
Never the less Tek can actually win this game because – USC will be uninspired and looking at Tek as most do – a wanna be Division 1 team that can’t play with the “Big Boys”.
Yup – CPJ is doing well – upholding the Tek tradition.
Anybody have the over under on attendance – LOL
lol
December 20th, 2012
8:09 am
Look at Johnson’s record against any decent team, and you’ll know the outcome of this one. It will be UGLY!!!
Jayden
December 20th, 2012
8:14 am
USC didn’t play in a bowl game last year and maybe the year before so they will be eager to play in one. I guess you’re setting both teams up. Gt to look bad when they lose and the opposite for uga if they lose. Well, they didn’t want to be there.
Anyone notice that guy who was going to gt, stephon tuitt, made some top defensive awards lists. It’s all about recruiting. Tech will never get star players because of the offense and no star defensive players will go because of the offense. There’s a reason nebraska abandoned the offense 15 years ago.
Jayden
December 20th, 2012
8:15 am
That should be last season for usc and maybe the season before last. year gets confusing.
Iluvnutella
December 20th, 2012
8:25 am
We’re gonna get crushed.
You missed the point
December 20th, 2012
8:28 am
But I will not miss this game. I may even Tivo it. There is nothing I enjoy more than watching Tek get pounded.
Every year Tek has some close games (mostly losses) and the fans miss the point. Tek is over looked by most teams and taken lightly. I mean really – how do you look at Tek and think – wow those guys are really good we better play our best game.
How much longer will the Tek fan base (all 12 of them) support CPJ?
BOY THAT DAWG IS UGLY
December 20th, 2012
8:30 am
Dawgfan…..sort of like the USC versus Dawgs? You could only have wised it was interesting. It was humilating before the end of the 1st Quarter. I hope Spurrier stays a long, long time in Columbia.
You missed the point
December 20th, 2012
8:35 am
Tek “could” win – and pigs “could” fly if……………………
Punch em in the mouth CPJ – fry some fish CPJ – then call out your players CPJ – Tek should be proud.
BOY THAT DAWG IS UGLY
December 20th, 2012
8:36 am
Actually Dawgfan I can’t stop thinking about UGA. What do I think of? An average academic reputation (I think of only Vandy when I think of academic respect in the SEC), arrests, suspensions, a supposdedly elite program whose last national champtionship in football was 32 years ago, an AD with panties between his legs and a DUI…..do I need to continue?
GTT
December 20th, 2012
8:38 am
Not going to happen.
Birmingham Jacket
December 20th, 2012
8:53 am
@MT
“Tide would take the Dawgs 9/10 times” if played.
Nope.
And you wouldn’t bet anything you couldn’t afford to lose on that.
juvenal
December 20th, 2012
9:18 am
maybe we can join the big east basketball refugees……
ramblingbuzz
December 20th, 2012
9:34 am
For some reason I’m looking forward to watching this game. Better than playing Utah or Air Force in a bowl. If Johnson & Co don’t win this one, GT fan base is going to be pretty POed.
scratch this
December 20th, 2012
10:06 am
hope you georgie boys like being king of the local mountain,because out side of this state YOU are the ones being made fun of
Smyrna Gold
December 20th, 2012
10:06 am
We should be in a rematch with MTSU not playing USC. Come on folks, with 6 wins over the likes of Presbyterian, UVA, Duke and losses to every decent team on the schedule, USC will embarass us so badly. CPJ and GA TECH football is a JOKE.
Bobcat
December 20th, 2012
10:13 am
GT does not deserve a bowl game. It is embarrassing how they begged to be selected. I detest Kifflin and USC (they were made for one another), but USC will trounce GT. Instead of USC, GT needs to be playing Savannah State. At least GT and SSU play at the same level.
Bazooka Joe
December 20th, 2012
10:29 am
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA You bungle bees are too funny…. First of all, you dont even deserve to be in a bowl game, second you are totally outclassed by USC and are going to get drilled. Come on now, take your whoopin like a man. When is this game again ? Is it going to be on tv ? I want to be sure I watch it.
RedandBlackDAWG
December 20th, 2012
10:33 am
The question has got to be, “Does GT Have the Defense, To Stop USC’s Offensive Game Plan?” They will pass GT to death until, GT finds a way to shut it down. GT has trouble with teams that are fast.
Of course, USC hasn’t stopped too many teams all year either, so it could get interesting.
Gorilla Biscuit
December 20th, 2012
10:37 am
USC might have bigger fish to fry?
Trojan Man
December 20th, 2012
10:39 am
Please, all TW’s passes look like he is spiking the ball. Tech does not have a QB that can even throw a spiral in pregame…Tech is awful in every aspect but USC will probably sleep walk through the entire thing so I think they have a tiny chance of an upset.. unless USC wakes up.
Booze Hound
December 20th, 2012
10:40 am
6-8 coming right up. Then we’ll be back to the usual chorus of PJ-defending clowns on here telling us how the offense isn’t the problem (somehow, Johnson as head coach isn’t responsible for atrocious special teams and defense, and when his offense gets stopped by some team that had more than a week to prepare, it’s only because the Jackets got out of rythym), how they have faith in Johnson “turning it around”, how Johnson gives Tech the best chance at winning, how his record his first four years was the best in Tech history, etc.
2013? The usual…losses to VT, Miami, UGA, FSU, probably Clemson, and definitely the bowl opponent. Wash, rinse, repeat!
RedandBlackDAWG
December 20th, 2012
10:42 am
HammondB3
December 20th, 2012
8:03 am
Will the GA starting line up be out of jail by bowl time i hope so, I heard that some have even learned how to spell and write there name……warms my heart makes me want to go out and by a red truck
Link
Report this comment
Obviously a English major, who feels free to criticize anybody’s intelligence, when you use ” There”, instead of “Their”, and have no knowledge how to use a comma. Strong sentence structure.
Must have made your mom proud as you displayed your intelligence.