Georgia Tech looking to stay in Coastal Division race
September 24, 2009 10:30 AM
Posted by ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich
Georgia Tech has been in this position before under coach Paul Johnson -- a 1-1 September start in conference play. Last year, the Jackets beat Boston College on the road, 19-16, and came home to lose a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech, 20-17.
While last year’s conference race wasn’t determined until the final few weeks of the season, in retrospect, it was that early loss to the Hokies that eventually determined Georgia Tech’s fate. Both programs finished with 5-3 records in the Coastal Division, but Virginia Tech won the head-to-head tiebreaker. As the Yellow Jackets prepare to host an undefeated North Carolina team on Saturday, they do so knowing the Coastal Division race is at stake, having experienced the same scenario a year ago.
“We’re in exactly the same position we were in a year ago,” Johnson said. “Verbatim. … We didn’t lose the division because of anybody else. We had it right in our own hands. Who knows what’s going to happen. There’s eight conference games. You’ve got to play them and see how it unfolds. You’ve just got to play the game at hand. You can’t win the conference in September, I don’t think. Certainly you want to have as few losses as you can, but being 1-1 in the league, I hope we’re not out of it.”
No, they’re not out of it, but the Jackets will come a lot closer to becoming an afterthought in the race if they start off 0-2 against their Coastal Division opponents. While UNC’s offense seemed to have turned the corner in Saturday’s win over ECU, ACC defenses have put in extra time and summer practices into slowing down Georgia Tech’s spread-option offense. UNC leads the ACC in rushing defense, holding opponents to just 52.3 yards per game. Georgia Tech leads the ACC with 243.7 rushing yards per game.
UNC has matured enough under coach Butch Davis to start winning games on the road (the Heels were 0-6 in his first season), but North Carolina hasn’t won in Atlanta since 1997. UNC’s defense proved capable of defending the Jackets last year in a convincing 28-7 win.
Still, the Tar Heels aren’t where Davis would like them to be -- or where he needs them to be.
“We are still a work in progress,” Davis said. “Although we had success against East Carolina, the real test for any particular group of players or a phase of your team is the consistency, the ability to do it week in and week out. Obviously last week was a very positive step forward, but by no stretch of the imagination are we even at or near close to being where we need to for the remainder of the schedule. This is a murderer’s row schedule for the remainder of the season for us, and we do have to get better every week.”
They’re not the only ones. The difference is, this is North Carolina’s first ACC game. The Tar Heels have a little more margin for error right now than Georgia Tech does.
“It’s definitely huge for us, especially after losing last week to Miami, a Coastal Division team,” said A-back
Roddy Jones. “We’ve got another one coming in. It’s huge. You just have to realize what this means for our hopes of playing for the ACC championship. We know we put ourselves behind the eight ball by losing to Miami. We’ve got to come out and play well this week.”
