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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > September > 06
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Georgia Tech wills way to victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chestnut Hill, Mass. — Paul Johnson the offensive schemer was in a foul mood. His signature option-based spread had managed only 235 yards and had functioned, Johnson said, almost laughing at the question, at “not a very high level.”
Paul Johnson the head coach was, however, ecstatic. Georgia Tech came to the home of the reigning ACC Atlantic Division champion and was leaving with a precious victory. This was a game the young and transitional Jackets weren’t supposed to win, and they won it almost in spite of themselves. How good might they be when they figure things out?
“I’m not real excited about the 235 yards,” Johnson said. “The thing I’m excited about is that 19 [points] is more than 16.”
Tech didn’t move the ball much and didn’t kick it any better, but such was its resolve — and such was its mighty front four — that the game was still afoot with 11 minutes left. Whereupon Vance Walker beat his blocker for a safety and a sack and Josh Nesbitt scrambled for a vital first down and Jonathan Dwyer was left uncovered on a pitch and went the distance. Slam, whoosh, whoosh.
From six points behind to three points ahead in five snaps. From frustration to bliss in 118 seconds. From a season of modest expectations to an autumn suddenly alive with promise … that’s how quickly it turned for Tech, and that, conveniently enough, is what Johnson coaches.
“The neat thing about our offense,” Johnson said, “is that it doesn’t take but one [big play].”
Take away Dwyer’s 43-yard touchdown and Tech netted 192 yards, which is pitiful. But that’s the thing: You can’t take away those 43. On the contrary, that’s the way the OBS works. An opponent can stop it all day, and then it misses one assignment and the scoreboard changes and maybe the game, too.
“It looked bleak at times,” said Brian Bohannon, who coaches quarterbacks and B-backs. “But we kept fighting.”
Three times in the third quarter Tech took possession off turnovers inside the Boston College 35. The Jackets, alas, banked only three points A lesser team might have shrugged its shoulders and written off the day. Instead Tech dug in deeper.
“If the offense isn’t getting it done,” Walker said, “you have to keep giving them opportunities.”
Walker’s safety begat the scramble that begat the game-winning option play, and now Tech is 1-0 in the ACC headed to Blacksburg and this nascent season has taken on a different look. If the Jackets can win at BC while the offense is still finding its feet, what damage might this team do a month from now? In a conference without a colossus, might the new-look Tech break upward the way Wake Forest did in 2006?
Said Dwyer: “The coach was saying to us all week, ‘You can’t get respect — you have to take it.’ “
And now? “Who knows what other people will say, but I think we took our respect,” Dwyer said. “We might have changed some people’s mindsets. I think we’re a very talented team, and we can make a lot of things happen and shock the world.”
On this winning day, believing seemed utterly appropriate. But Paul Johnson the pragmatist wasn’t willing to go into shock-the-world mode just yet. “We’ve got to get a lot better [offensively],” he said. “We can’t survive if we get whipped that badly up front.”
For Tech folks, that’s the best news of all. This coach will see to it that his team gets better, and what we learned Saturday is that there’s enough talent and grit already in the cupboard for coaching to matter. What promised to be an intriguing season just turned tantalizing.
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