Georgia Tech has chance to get healthy, get right before final stretch

No. 16 Georgia Tech begins its second bye week in an unfamiliar spot, relative to this team anyway. The Yellow Jackets must deal with the harsh reality of bouncing back from a loss, a loss that ruined the team’s undefeated season and unblemished mark in conference play.

And they also have to let that loss fester for an extra week.

“I don’t know if we have a day off or not, but if we do, definitely separate, step away, regroup and then when we come back in it’s just get better,” Tech quarterback Haynes King said Saturday. “Find ways to get better. It’s the small things, it’s execution, it’s the details.

“Through this last stretch of three games of the regular season, it’s gonna come down to details and discipline and how you’re executing. We gotta find small things to get better at.”

With all due respect to King’s assessment, Tech actually has big things to improve moving forward, things that North Carolina State exposed in a 48-36 beating of Tech on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina.

State’s 48 points were the most Tech had allowed since Mississippi scored 48 on Sept. 16, 2023, and State’s 583 yards of offense were the most Tech had allowed since Florida State totaled 642 on Oct. 29, 2022. The Wolfpack offense gashed Tech’s defense all night to the tune of 8.7 yards per play.

Tech now ranks at or near the bottom of the ACC in fourth-down conversions, fourth-down defense, first downs allowed, interceptions, rushing defense, pass-efficiency defense, sacks, tackles for loss and takeaways.

“We’re always looking at what we’re not doing well, where we can be better, looking to be a better version of ourselves the next week,” coach Brent Key said. “We didn’t do that this week. We got a bye week to do that, to improve in every area of the program. That’s every Sunday. That’s no different than what we’d normally do, what I would normally do.”

The other side of the coin for Tech is that the off-weekend will provide the Jackets a chance to rest, recover and refocus, a respite after a tough four-game stretch of conference games.

Defensive backs Ahmari Harvey and Jy Gilmore didn’t play against N.C. State, nor did defensive tackle Matthew Alexander. Offensive lineman Harrison Moore and wide receiver Bailey Stockton didn’t see the field either, and wide receiver Malik Rutherford was limited to 10 plays.

All those players could be close to full strength by the time Tech takes the field at Boston College at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 15.

Another note to consider: The Jackets are 11-3 following a loss under Key.

“The response that we have as this team, it’s gonna be everything,” King added. “And we gotta come closer and pull together and not make one loss into two.”

CFP rankings

The first College Football Playoff rankings are scheduled to be announced at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN. Tech will see itself among those rankings for the first time since the end of the 2014 season.

The 12-team CFP begins the weekend of Dec. 19 with four games, followed by the quarterfinals Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, the semifinals Jan. 8-9 and the championship game Jan. 19. The five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee, plus the next seven highest-ranked schools, make the field of 12.

Tech is not projected to be inside the top 12 ahead of Tuesday’s initial rankings. The Jackets will have work to do to leap however many teams are in front of them with only three regular-season games left — but one of those is against a 7-2 Pittsburgh team and another is against Georgia (7-1), which is No. 5 in the AP Top 25.

Tech, according to ESPN, has a strength of record of 16 and a strength of schedule of 84. The Jackets are ranked 30th in the Jeff Sagarin ratings.

ACC title race

Can the Jackets still make the ACC title game? More importantly, how can they get there?

The simplest answer is Tech needs to win its final two league games, at Boston College (1-8, 0-5 ACC) on Nov. 15 and against Pittsburgh (7-2, 4-1 ACC) at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Nov. 22, and then get some help along the way.

No. 14 Louisville, SMU and Duke all have one conference loss. Tech would need Louisville and SMU to lose one more, and it already has the tiebreaker over Duke by virtue of a 27-18 win Oct. 18.

No. 12 Virginia (8-1, 5-0 ACC) is the conference’s only unbeaten team and hosts Wake Forest on Saturday, travels to Duke on Nov. 15 and hosts archrival Virginia Tech on Nov. 29.

There is, however, potential for chaos if multiple teams finish with one, or even two, conference losses. A three or more team tiebreaker scenario would be determined, according to the ACC, by: