Despite 3-0 start, No. 18 Georgia Tech still striving for improvement
No. 18 Georgia Tech took down then-No. 12 Clemson in Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday, a memorable victory for the program — maybe the most memorable in its recent history — that has brought forth a heaping amount of praise and notoriety for coach Brent Key’s third Tech team.
But as the debris and dust have settled from that triumph, there are plenty of moments beneath the rubble that could have spelled demise for the Yellow Jackets along the way in what became a 24-21 win. Tech, no doubt, should be lauded for its resiliency and character for standing pat when things didn’t go its way, but it’s also worth revisiting some of the game’s tough moments to understand the Jackets (3-0) still are at the base of a mountain they’re striving to climb.
“We’ve gotta continue to stay the course and continue to improve every day, individually, collectively as a team, offense, defense, special teams, fundamentally, technique-wise, the way you play the game — we got a lot of improvements we need to make,” Key said Tuesday. “There’s a lot of things we gotta work on correcting from the first three weeks and continue to improve on. We got a long way to go.
“We’re happy to get a win last week, but at the same time, every week becomes more and more important.”
Tech went 0-for-2 on fourth-down conversions against Clemson, failures that didn’t hurt the Jackets in the end but certainly could have been detrimental.
The Jackets began the game on offense and put together a crisp, clean drive to the Clemson 4. It was there on fourth down and needing two yards that Tech lined up with two tight ends, a wide receiver and running back Jamal Haynes bunched in a diamond formation on the far sideline. Quarterback Haynes King threw a quick pass to Haynes, who immediately was cut down by Clemson safety Ricardo Jones for a 4-yard loss.
“We got beat on a block on the fourth-and-2. We had the numbers,” Key said. “It was an option for the quarterback. They had three over four; we had the numbers, didn’t execute the block. They beat us on that play. They’re a good football team. They’re a very talented, good football team.
“We all chase perfection in the game of football. At the end of the game, if we’ve won more battles than they have, if we’ve won more of the 1-on-1s, if we’ve won more of the mano-a-mano things, you usually come out in a good place. But we got beat on that one.”
Clemson didn’t capitalize on the change of momentum. Tech safety Omar Daniels stripped quarterback Cade Klubnik on the ensuing possession, and cornerback Zachary Tobe recovered.
In the third quarter, with Tech trailing 14-13, the Jackets decided to go for it on fourth down again, this time at the Clemson 40. Needing 1 yard, tight end J.T. Byrne came in motion from right to left, then raced up behind center to take the snap for a would-be quarterback sneak.
But Byrne fumbled the exchange and fell on the ball for a loss of a yard.
“It was something we’ve worked that since the beginning of springtime, we weren’t able to execute it,” Key said.
Tech’s defense stood tall again on the following series and forced a three-and-out.
Those two fourth-down plays, along with Tech’s defense giving up a third-and-22 run for 30 yards in the second quarter that shifted the momentum toward the visitor sideline in the first half, are among many things that Key and his team will be looking at as reasons not to be complacent. Especially against a Temple team (2-1) that has Key’s full attention.
“You can tell that they’re a well-coached team,” he said of the Owls. “Offensively, these guys shift and motion. Seventy-seven percent of the plays their motioning and eye candy. I think they’re second in the country in most times that they motion. Then defensively, they pose a lot of problems for you. They play a three-down front, they kick it to four-down, they play bear (front), a lot of different things in the back end that are a little bit unorthodox from what we’ve seen the last three or four weeks.
“They play hard. They got length on their defense. You can tell they are coached the right way. They’re sound on special teams. They’re doing things to beat themselves. I think the future is really, really bright for this football team and this coaching staff. I’ve been very impressed watching the way they play the game.”
Tech will be playing its first game as a top-20 team since 2015, when it rose to No. 14 in The Associated Press Top 25. There’s a strong likelihood the Jackets could climb even higher next week, but they have to take care of business Saturday and avoid repeating some of the mistakes that transpired in the win over Clemson.
“These guys have the opportunity to now have this challenge,” Key said. “They’ve earned that by the way they’ve played and competed and earned the outcomes that we all wanted, but every challenge gets bigger. You have to be just as prepared every single week, and there is no crescendo or top.”
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