When he filled out his preseason ACC ballot in July, Roddy Jones straddled the line between loyal Georgia Tech alumnus and media member. At the Pinehurst Resort, he probably was not far from where, as a senior A-back, he likely told interviewers at the 2011 ACC Kickoff about the irrelevance of preseason polls. Yet, while he picked the Yellow Jackets to win the Coastal, he declined to predict an ACC title. Better to hang the mantle of ACC favorite upon Clemson.
It was Jones’ attempt to serve his alma mater, mindful of the school of thought that the Jackets have often struggled when cast in the role of favorite or placed on a platform, but often thrived when counted out.
“It’s a frustrating thing trying to put your finger on why it happens,” Jones said.
Tech fans can cite evidence — Tech’s 2-6 record on ESPN’s Thursday or Monday night games under coach Paul Johnson. The Jackets’ 0-4 record when ESPN’s “College GameDay” has broadcast from one of their games. The disappointing 2010 season, when the Jackets followed their ACC championship in 2009 by going 6-7. Multiple instances when Tech has played its way into the Top 25 only to drop out upon making it.
Likewise, the Jackets didn’t receive a single preseason Top 25 vote before last year’s 11-win season and were picked to finish fifth in the Coastal Division, weren’t in the preseason Top 25 when they won the national championship in 1990 and have a history of upsets when cast as heavy underdogs.
The Jackets’ back-to-back losses to Notre Dame and Duke knocked them out of the Top 25 and gave new life to the notion.
“Never, ever wish for Tech to be ranked until after we have played our last regular-season game,” wrote one fan this week on The Hive message board.
In his 18 years as the voice of the Jackets, Wes Durham heard it. Speaking Friday on his way to broadcast the Pitt-Virginia Tech game for Fox Sports South, Durham said he never paid much attention to it.
“A little more abstract than maybe valid,” Durham said. “I don’t think they’re any different than a lot of teams in the country in that way.”
Indeed, Tech fans don’t need to look far to find other neuroses. When Georgia faces Alabama on Saturday, undoubtedly a segment of Bulldog Nation will nurse its own trepidations about its team coming up short in big games. Clemson has made such a habit of inexplicable losses that the act has a name, Clemsoning.
North Carolina fans, whose team plays Tech on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, have two aggravations that will join force at Grant Field — the Tar Heels have lost eight games in a row to Tech in Atlanta, and they’re 1-13 in their past 14 ACC openers.
Perhaps the Jackets have lost when ranked for this reason: As a team that has rarely been stocked with future draft picks, to make the Top 25 they have to play at or near their peak over several weeks. When Tech cools off, a loss becomes more likely.
Since Bobby Dodd’s retirement after the 1966 season, Tech has been ranked in the preseason poll eight times, including this season. The Jackets finished the season unranked four times, finishing at .500 or worse three of those times. In the other three seasons, only once (2009) did they better their preseason projection.
Bill Curry, who played for Dodd and coached the Jackets from 1980-86, can explain it. To him, it is a matter of Tech’s historic challenges in building depth. The Jackets have won big when they’ve had a convergence of top players maturing as upperclassmen.
“And then they leave, so now you’ve got a whole bunch of young people playing, and the fans want to know, ‘Why don’t we play like we did last year?’” Curry said.
The general lack of trustworthiness of preseason polls aside, Curry’s explanation fairly describes the 2010 team and, while the season is far from complete, the 2015 team’s group of offensive skill players.
As for Tech’s 2-6 record under Johnson in ESPN’s Thursday (and Labor Day) series, the Jackets followed form: They were 2-1 when favored and 0-5 as the underdog.
And there are many examples to counter the narrative, starting with the second half of the 2014 season.
Still, Jones has his pet theory. He offers the possibility that, as Tech often brings in players with chips on their shoulder after being overlooked as recruits, they’re used to playing with chips on their shoulder and have difficulty manufacturing that drive when they’re getting pats on the back.
Still, Jones picks against Tech on the blog he keeps as a sideline reporter for the ACC Network. And when he goes to the ACC Kickoff next summer, he’s picking Virginia Tech to win the Coastal.
Said Jones, “I’m just doing my part.”
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