LSU dismantles Tech in Chick-fil-A Bowl

Georgia Tech hoped to show how far it had come.

Instead, in the final game of a memorable season, the Jackets learned how far they have yet to go.

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Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com

Tech’s Andrew Smith fumbles a second-quarter kickoff as LSU’s Ron Brooks moves in to recover the loose ball.

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In the Chick-fil-A Bowl Wednesday night, LSU administered a 38-3 beatdown, the Jackets’ worst loss in three years.

“They beat us,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said. “They beat us good.”

A disastrous second quarter was the catalyst. The Tigers, making one last stand in their disappointing season as defending national champions, hammered the Jackets for 28 points in the period.

Tech helped, fumbling a punt return, failing to recover a surprise onside kick and failing to convert on a risky fake punt deep in its own end.

Johnson said it was the “worst special teams game I can remember having.”

But there was little question who the aggressor and better team was in the Georgia Dome.

“No ‘if we did this, if we did that,’” Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt said. “They just came out ready to play and they made a statement.”

Tech finishes at 9-4 with a litany of accomplishments in Johnson’s first season. The Jackets beat Florida State for the first time in ACC play, won a share of the Coastal Division title and defeated Georgia for the first time in eight years.

But the Chick-fil-A Bowl, which Tech hoped would bring a 10th win, the first bowl win in four seasons and a national platform for its powerful offense, only provided a stinging lesson.

“I don’t know if our guys understand what it takes to be a Division I team week in and week out,” co-offensive line coach Mike Sewak said. “We’re still a young team. Maybe we had too many guys patting us on the back and it went to our heads.”

Tech never lost two games in a row — the hallmark of a good team, as Johnson said many times this season. However, the Jackets also lost following all off the biggest wins of the season — Boston College (loss to Virginia Tech), Clemson (Virginia), Florida State (North Carolina) and Georgia (LSU).

Defensive coordinator Dave Wommack said that LSU playing with a mental edge.

Said Sewak, “Maybe we celebrated that Georgia win too long.”

Tech’s option-based spread offense, which produced the nation’s No. 3 running attack with 282.3 yards per game, only gained 314 yards of total offense, 164 on the ground.

The Tigers’ senior-dominated defensive line crashed through the middle of Tech’s young line and collapsed the ends.

“I don’t think it’s oversimplifying” to say that Tech’s line was overpowered, Sewak said. “That’s what happens when you’ve got some freshmen playing against seniors. They had four years in the weight room. That’s three years more than us.”

Said Johnson, “Clearly, we need to get bigger, faster and stronger.”

Tech showed rust with three turnovers and poor play. Quarterback Josh Nesbitt completed eight passes in 24 attempts.

“They were causing problems,” Nesbitt said. “We caused ourselves even bigger problems.”

It was a redeeming game for LSU (8-5), which had lost its last four SEC games of the season a year after finishing the season No. 1. The Tigers, whom many expected to play flat given their finish, won their fourth bowl game in a row.

Said Wommack of the Tigers, “They’re not a 7-5 team. They’re a top-25 team, without question.”

Most likely, few will remember that Tech held LSU to a field goal in the second half, or the Jackets’ goal line stand in the third quarter.

Perhaps with good reason.

“In practice, I felt like we were ready to play, but we didn’t show it,” Nesbitt said. “No one.”