As Georgia Tech readies to open ACC play against Pittsburgh on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, here’s one question that looms over the Yellow Jackets:
How will Georgia Tech respond to its unplanned week off?
The obvious benefit for having its game against Central Florida canceled because of the effects from Hurricane Irma was needed rest. Georgia Tech had played two games in six days and was dragging in the second game, a 37-10 win over Jacksonville State. The Yellow Jackets were down 7-3 and facing the prospect of going into halftime down two scores when cornerback Lawrence Austin turned the game around with an interception.
A less obvious disadvantage was the lost opportunity to get playing experience for younger players such as quarterback TaQuon Marshall and B-back KirVonte Benson. Neither player was as effective against Jacksonville State as they were against Tennessee, and a third non-conference game would have given both the opportunity to address shortcomings in a setting less critical than the ACC opener.
Marshall and Benson aren’t the only ones. No fewer than nine of the starting 22 against Jacksonville State were not starters a year ago. Coach Paul Johnson could also have tried to get playing time for freshman backups such as B-back Jerry Howard, defensive lineman Antwan Owens, linebackers Bruce Jordan-Swilling and T.D. Roof and given A-back Clinton Lynch, who missed all of spring practice and much of the preseason with injuries, more time to knock off rust.
Johnson can try to replicate the snaps in full-pads practices, “but it’s not the same,” he said.
A young Pitt team, meanwhile, has taken its lumps the past two weeks, getting drilled by No. 4 Penn State and No. 9 Oklahoma State. There might be similar wonder if getting drilled 59-21 by the Cowboys was a useful lesson for the Panthers.
This has been an odd season thus far for Tech, starting with a Monday night game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to start the season, the short week for Jacksonville State and then the cancellation of the UCF game. This is the first week of the season with the standard week of preparation.
It would be stretching it to say that younger Tech players will be at a great loss without having played the UCF game. And it is difficult, if unknowable, to ascertain how much the development of Marshall, Benson and others was delayed by not having a third non-conference game.
But at least the Jackets’ legs will be fresh.
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