Ramblin’ Wrecked: Why Georgia Tech has three wins heading to Notre Dame
Georgia Tech’s season was derailed before it ever got on track.
The Yellow Jackets lost to 18.5-point underdog Northern Illinois 21-20 at home in Atlanta in their season opener Sept. 4. Outside of a somewhat shocking 45-22 victory over then-No. 21 North Carolina Sept. 25, it’s been all downhill for head coach Geoff Collins’ team from there.
Georgia Tech stumbled and bumbled to a 3-7 record through Week 11. They’ve lost in excruciatingly close fashion, such as a 14-8 defeat to then-No. 6 Clemson Sept. 18. They’ve lost in blowout fashion, such as a 52-21 mauling from the Pitt Panthers Oct. 2.
The season stabilized briefly before a bye week with a 31-27 victory at Duke Oct. 9, but they have not won since. They lost 48-40 in a shootout at Virginia Oct. 23, the offense took a step back in a 26-17 loss at home to Virginia Tech Oct. 30 and a scoreless fourth quarter on offense doomed them in a 33-30 loss at Miami Nov. 6. Then last week, the defense struggled in a 41-30 defeat to Boston College at home.
That’s been the tale of the tape for Collins in his Georgia Tech tenure, one that could quickly come to an end if a vast turnaround isn’t enacted in a hurry.
Collins went 3-9 in his first season in 2019, went 3-7 in 2020, and started this year 3-7 with games against No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 1 Georgia remaining. Being a heavy underdog in those matchups, Collins is in danger of producing his third straight three-win season to start — or, perhaps, finish — his Georgia Tech career.
It hasn’t always been this way for the Yellow Jackets, either. Former head coach Paul Johnson had seven winning seasons from 2008-18, including a pair of 11-win campaigns in 2009 and 2014. Prior to Johnson, George O’Leary and Chan Gailey produced 11 straight winning seasons from 1997-2007.
These are the dog days of Georgia Tech football, and Collins needs to pull the team out of them somehow, someway. It won’t be easy facing two programs that have been perennial College Football Playoff participants and contenders over the last half decade in the final two games of the regular season. That starts with a road trip to South Bend this week.
If there’s one thing that might not necessarily bode well for Collins against the Irish but could pay off in the future if he’s still around it’s that Georgia Tech has 96 players on the roster who are freshmen or sophomores eligibility-wise. Georgia Tech also only has 13 seniors, which is the fourth fewest among all Power Five programs. This is a Yellow Jackets team learning on the fly. That clearly hasn’t always been easy.
“I’m going to look on the bright side and the positive side,” Collins said. “There are a ton of young guys having to play, but they’re getting to play and getting experience and playing highly competitive football against good teams.”
Getting stronger
Second-year quarterback Jeff Sims is one of those young players. He already ranks ninth on Georgia Tech’s all-time passing list with 3,349 yards. Through 10 games, he threw for 1,468 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran for 372 yards and four touchdowns. Sims did not play against Boston College because of an arm injury.
Fellow second-year player Jahmyr Gibbs has had a successful season despite the lackluster overall record, too. The running back has rushed for 687 yards and four touchdowns on 129 carries, and caught 35 passes for 474 yards and two touchdowns.
Those two budding stars have played behind an offensive line that has struggled to find chemistry and consistency due to injuries and a lack of continuity and cohesion. Sound familiar? But like with the improvement along Notre Dame’s offensive line, senior Devin Cochran believes the Georgia Tech front has started to round the corner.
“I think adversity has gotten us a lot stronger,” Cochran said. “I think week to week, no matter who is out there, we continue to learn how to play with each other better. From what I’ve seen, I feel like our rapport gets stronger.”
It’s going to need to be incredibly strong to hang with a Notre Dame defensive line that has gotten better as the season has gone along, too.
Junior defensive end Isaiah Foskey is chasing Notre Dame’s single-season sack record. He has nine through 10 games, and he needs 14 to break the record. Graduate student Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa and senior Jayson Ademilola have been persistent in their pass rushing and run stopping as well. Graduate student Kurt Hinish recently played the best game of his career in totaling 10 tackles against Navy Nov. 6.
Sims and Gibbs will find it hard to put up numbers if the Yellow Jackets’ offensive line doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. Georgia Tech’s wide receivers will need to make plays against an Irish secondary that could be missing All-American Kyle Hamilton at safety for the fourth consecutive game.
The players haven’t lost any motivation to have a big game despite the piling up of losses.
“It’s kind of crazy that I come here every day and players still have smiles on their faces, we’re still bumping music in the locker room and we’re hyped like we’re undefeated,” junior wide receiver Malachi Carter said. “It’s honestly impressive to see by this team, especially a young team, just to see everybody bought in and everybody still believing. We still have these opportunities in front of us.”
Attacking every week
Not many teams in the Power Five allow more yards per game than Georgia Tech. Just six, in fact. The Yellow Jackets gave up 448.5 yards per game.
That plays into the theme for Notre Dame this season. It played plenty of stout defenses in the first half of the season — including Wisconsin’s No. 1 total defense in the country — but has faced some rather suspect units on that side of the ball in the second half.
Georgia Tech has been susceptible to getting beat through the air as the season has moved forward. It held its first three opponents, including Clemson, to less than 140 passing yards. It allowed 306 in the win over North Carolina, though, and the floodgates have remained open ever since. The Yellow Jackets have surrendered 335.1 passing yards per game in the last seven games after allowing just 124.3 in their first three games.
And yet, Georgia Tech still boasts one of the top tacklers in the country. Linebacker Quez Jackson ranks tied for 14th nationally in total tackles with 97. He also ranks second on the Yellow Jackets’ roster with 7.0 tackles for loss.
One of Georgia Tech’s main defensive weaknesses has been getting to the quarterback. The Ramblin’ Wreck rank tied for 104th in the country with 16 sacks.
But like with the Georgia Tech offense, it hasn’t been about what the defense hasn’t been able to do this season. It’s been about hope and optimism for the future. There may not be much hope for the Ramblin’ Wreck this week at Notre Dame Stadium, but you wouldn’t be able to tell as much if you spent a day with them.
“We’ve obviously been losing games, but our attitude, our focus and our excitement hasn’t changed at all,” defensive back Juanyeh Thomas said. “If you came to our practices and our locker room, you’d never know we lost because our attitudes and spirits are still high even though we haven’t been winning. I’m really proud of this team and the way we still attack every week.”
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @MikeTSinger, @PatrickEngel_, @tbhorka, @GregLadky, and @ToddBurlage.
• Like us on Facebook.