In the Georgia Tech locker room, a message on a white board spelled out the Yellow Jackets’ challenge over the next four weeks.
“This month is the most important month of our season,” Tech defensive tackle Euclid Cummings said, quoting the board.
As was the case a year ago, the Yellow Jackets have been issued a daunting start to the season. It just about capsized them last year. Following an open date Saturday, Tech harbors hopes of greatness as it begins a four-week run Sept. 14 in which it will face ACC Coastal Division opponents Duke, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Miami.
By the evening of Oct. 5 — nine weeks before the ACC Championship game — Tech could be in commanding position to earn a second consecutive berth in the game. Or, as was the case last year, they could be trying to salvage a season gone astray after only five games (but, of course, that still included the ACC title-game berth).
“It’s going to go a long way in determining what we do in the league, no question,” coach Paul Johnson said.
A year ago, Tech played division opponents Virginia Tech, Virginia and Miami in the first four weeks. Overtime losses to the Hokies and Hurricanes — games in which the Jackets led inside the final 30 seconds of regulation — led to a 2-4 record in the first half. The Jackets ultimately rallied to make the ACC title game when Miami self-imposed a postseason ban, but the poor start doomed what could have been a far greater season.
Little fanfare accompanies the Jackets this season. They received no preseason votes in the coaches poll for the first time in several years. They were picked fourth in the Coastal in a preseason media poll behind Miami, Virginia Tech and North Carolina. Tech has been handed an invitation to open a lot of eyes.
“Of course,” Cummings said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about all summer, all offseason. That’s what we want to do.”
Were Tech to emerge unscathed, it would be 5-0 and 4-0 in the ACC, in commanding position in the division race and almost certainly ranked for the first time since the final week of the 2011 regular season. The Jackets would own tiebreakers over their three main competitors for the division title and be within reach of the Coastal title. A 4-1 overall record (3-1 ACC) would keep the Jackets in the mix. A 3-2 record (2-2 ACC) wouldn’t necessarily dissolve Tech’s hopes, but it wouldn’t exactly be a confirming result to a team that believes it can accomplish something special this season.
Pitfalls abound. Duke is improving and will be at home. North Carolina will be aching for payback after last year’s 68-50 loss in Chapel Hill, N.C., and they will be coming off an open date, a luxury the Tar Heels will enjoy for the fourth time out of the six meetings in Johnson’s tenure. (The Tar Heels are 1-2 so far in those games.)
Virginia Tech has won four of five against the Jackets in Johnson’s tenure, as have the Hurricanes. The game with the Hokies will be a Thursday night contest, five days after North Carolina’s up-tempo offense could run the Jackets’ defense ragged.
Johnson wasn’t without reason when he made clear his frustrations with the schedule when it was released in February.
“I don’t think they set about to do anything deliberate,” Johnson said then. “I just don’t think they tried to make it fair.”
Johnson toned down his rhetoric this week.
“It kind of is what it is,” he said. “You deal with it.”
Tech is one of three ACC teams to play division games in four consecutive weeks. Clemson actually plays six, and Miami has four. It is in part a function of the number of division games increasing from five to six, as the league has expanded to 14 teams.
Fair or not, Tech will enter the fray rested and confident.
“Some people might see it as somewhat of a disadvantage to have a bye week (so early in the season),” defensive end Jeremiah Attaochu said. “But we’re taking advantage of really focusing for this month and how crucial it is for the season for the next three or four games.”
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