Win at BC puts No. 16 Georgia Tech in position to make ACC title game
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — No. 16 Georgia Tech has afforded itself a chance to clinch a berth in the ACC championship game.
The Yellow Jackets (9-1, 6-1 ACC), thanks to a Houdini act at Boston College on Saturday, host Pittsburgh next Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. A Tech win gives it a spot in the ACC title game Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I did do one thing differently in the locker room just now,” Tech coach Brent Key said after Saturday’s win. “I told the team, ‘I’m not waiting ‘til tomorrow. I’m not waiting until tomorrow. One week from now we’re in a play-in game. Bottom line.’ From this moment forward, everything is geared toward us playing the best football we can possibly play as a football team next Saturday. We’re not waiting. There is no sitting around, 24-hour rule. It was a 24-second rule.”
Key habitually allows his team to celebrate a win or ruminate on a loss for 24 hours after the final whistle. But after a cold night at Alumni Stadium, and after a 36-34 last-minute win, there was no time to delay thinking about the looming showdown between the Jackets and Panthers (7-3, 5-1 ACC).
It will be a game the Jackets have been building toward for a long time.
“We’ve worked hard in these last three years, and these last three years hadn’t been easy, but I wouldn’t want it any other way with the guys that we have, the coaches that we have and the support staff and all the fan base,” Tech quarterback Haynes King said. “We put ourselves in a great opportunity to go out and what our goal was, it’s in our hands to go accomplish these things.
“Every game is a championship game. Because we treated it like that, it got us into this position so far. We’re gonna keep riding what got us here, being ourselves.”
King threw for 371 yards and a touchdown Saturday, missing just eight of his 34 throws. He also ran for 53 yards. The senior orchestrated the game-winning drive as well, taking the Jackets from their own 25 to the BC 6 to set up Aidan Birr’s 23-yard field goal that won the game.
King completed passes of 8 and 17 yards during the drive and also ran for gains of 9, 9, 3, 5 and 1, respectively.
Those efforts put the Jackets in position to win for the ninth time in 10 games. And to create one of the biggest home games in recent Tech history.
“Next Saturday means the whole season,” Tech senior defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg said. “We gotta come out and treat it like the national championship game. We gotta take it very seriously. This whole week is gonna be the best prep we can get. This determines the season.”
Tech goes into next weekend in a four-way tie for first place in the ACC standings. Virginia is the only other team with six wins at 6-1, and is off until hosting archrival Virginia Tech on Nov. 29. Southern Methodist (5-1) hosts Louisville next week and then travels to California.
Pittsburgh (5-1), after getting beat 37-15 by Notre Dame on Saturday, hosts Miami after its trip to Atlanta, making the matchup with a Tech a must-win for the Panthers, too.
The Jackets, of course, also have Georgia left on the schedule (Nov. 28). But they can clinch their first appearance in the ACC title game since 2014 by beating the Panthers.
“We’re a team that’s fighting for one common goal, and just to have that is pretty special and it’s a special moment that we’re going through right now,” King said. “But the job’s not done yet.”
NOTES
- Key is now 27-17 as Tech’s coach, 20-10 in ACC games, 11-9 in road games, 10-5 when afforded more than seven days between games and 12-3 following a loss.
- Under Key, Tech is now 7-6 in November games, 21-3 when outrushing the opponent, 18-6 when having more total offense than the opponent, 7-2 with 500 yards of total offense, 3-0 with 600 yards of total offense, 5-10 when committing more turnovers (and 5-1 this season), 18-10 when scoring first, 16-7 when leading after the first quarter, 7-14 when trailing after the third quarter, 26-10 when scoring at least 21 points and 3-25 when the opponent scores at least 31 points.
- Tech is now 8-5 all-time against Boston College and 4-1 in games played at BC. Saturday’s win also snapped a three-game losing streak to the Eagles.
- The Jackets have scored 24 points in 14 straight games.
- The six ACC wins for Tech mark the first time since 2014 it has won six league games and seventh time it has accomplished that in 43 seasons in the league.
- Tech’s nine wins are its most since the 2016 season.
- BC receiver Lewis Bond had eight receptions Saturday to give him 206 for his career, the most in Boston College history.
- King’s 300-yard passing game was his eighth as a Yellow Jacket, breaking the school record of seven previously held by Joe Hamilton.
- The 300-yard passing game was King’s third straight.
- King’s 9,346 yards of total offense are the third-most in a Tech career.
- King now has 51 career touchdown passes, tied for the third-most in a Tech career.
- King’s 2,131 career rushing yards are tied for the fourth-most by a quarterback in a Tech career.
- Tech had two 100-yard receivers (Malik Rutherford and Eric Rivers) in a game for the first time since Sept. 10, 2005, when Damarius Bilbo (131) and Calvin Johnson (114) both surpassed the 100-yard mark vs. North Carolina.
- Birr’s 282 points are the fifth-most in a Tech career and his 120 extra points are the fourth-most.
- Birr now has 54 career field goals, tied for the third-most in a Tech career.
- Attendance on Saturday was announced as 37,879.
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