After weekend off, No. 13 Georgia Tech turns focus to Virginia Tech

The Yellow Jackets didn’t win or lose Saturday, yet they still continued to become a more prominent player on the national scene by moving up four spots in Sunday’s Associated Press Top 25.

Now ranked No. 13, Georgia Tech is one of only 15 remaining undefeated squads in the FBS. It goes into Saturday’s matchup with Virginia Tech with its highest ranking in the poll since finishing eighth in the final poll for the 2014 season (Tech was ranked 12th ahead of the 2014 ACC title game and was 10th ahead of an Orange Bowl win over Mississippi State on Dec. 31, 2014).

The Jackets have no ranked ACC teams left on their schedule, which equates to coach Brent Key’s team having to be on upset alert for the next several weeks if they keep taking care of business each Saturday.

“It’s an exciting time, and I want the guys to be excited but also understand that this part of the season now is to protect what we’ve already done,” Key said Tuesday after practice. “We put a lot into that. And we have to protect that. And it’s not easy. It doesn’t just come with having talent, doesn’t just come with believing you’re gonna win. None of that stuff — that’s like saying momentum’s gonna carry you over to the next season or the next week. We don’t believe that, we don’t work on that, we don’t talk about that.”

Key’s team, looking to be the first Georgia Tech team since 2011 to begin a season 6-0 and 3-0 in ACC play, needed a bye week badly.

A mentally draining five-game stretch to start the season saw a trip to Colorado end with a game-winning touchdown run by Haynes King, a dramatic triumph over Clemson with a field goal by Aidan Birr at Bobby Dodd Stadium, and a 30-29 overtime victory at Wake Forest. Key acknowledged last week during an interview with radio station 680 The Fan that his team had hit a mental and physical wall leading to that overtime matchup Sept. 27 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“I was proud of the way the guys fought through a lot of those (games) in the first part of the season. That’s going to happen again. There’s gonna be more games like that,” Key said Tuesday. “And we have to be prepared for that. And we have to expect that. Now, do we want ‘em to be nice and easy? Yeah, I think everybody would want that. But that’s not necessarily ever gonna happen, so we prepare for it to be four quarters and then some every week.”

Virginia Tech’s season, one filled with cautious optimism and immense hope throughout the preseason, quickly went sideways three games into the schedule. After battling South Carolina tough in a 24-11 loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 31, the Hokies returned home and were handled by Vanderbilt in a 44-20 loss. The bottom fell out a week later in a 45-26 defeat to Old Dominion.

On Sept. 14, Virginia Tech relieved coach Brent Pry of his duties after the 0-3 start and a 16-24 overall mark in three-plus seasons. The Hokies, under the direction of interim coach Philip Montgomery, bounced back by beating Wofford at home, then shocking North Carolina State in Raleigh, North Carolina.

But on Saturday, Virginia Tech (2-4, 1-1 ACC) came back down to Earth a bit in a 30-23 loss at home to Wake Forest.

“They’ve got talent on their roster. The teams that they’ve lost to, they’re a combined (15-6). Good football teams. And some of them were very close games, especially going into the fourth quarter,” Key said. “(Pry’s) put together a good roster. He’s got discipline instilled in the team.”

After all the Hokies have been through already, however, there should be plenty of reason for concern for the Jackets.