ESPN will be there, and a prime-time audience will be watching.
That isn’t what will make Georgia Tech’s Saturday matchup with Miami possibly the most important game of the Yellow Jackets’ season, however. It’s the league standings.
The Jackets are 1-0 in the ACC with a win and the tiebreaker over Coastal Division-foe Virginia Tech in its satchel. Miami is 1-1 in the conference. A win Saturday for the Jackets would give Tech a considerable leg up in what appears to be a wide-open race in the Coastal.
“It’s a huge game,” A-back Charles Perkins said.
A Tech win would advance the Jackets to 2-0 in the ACC with tiebreakers over the Hokies and Hurricanes, their two biggest ACC tormentors in recent years and the teams picked to finish first (Miami) and third (Virginia Tech) in the preseason media poll. In falling to 1-2, Miami likely would need to run the table (including a win over Florida State) and have Tech finish 3-3 over its final six ACC games in order to win the Coastal. It might not be a knockout punch, but it would be close to it.
“It’s kind of do-or-die for Miami right now,” said former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, now a panelist on “ACC Gridiron Live” on Fox Sports South. “They’ve got to get it done on Saturday.”
A win also would give Tech victories over Miami and Virginia Tech in the same season for the first time since 2006 and draw the Jackets considerably closer to their third ACC title-game appearance in coach Paul Johnson’s tenure.
“I think Georgia Tech’s kind of in the driver’s seat right now,” Grobe said. “They’ve got Virginia Tech taken care of, and if they can get it done against Miami, you feel like they’ve got a great chance to win it.”
However, if Tech loses to the Hurricanes, the Jackets would lose control and keep the division favorite in the game. Miami would be 2-1 with wins over Tech and Duke, have the tiebreaker over Tech and would be in control of its divisional fate.
That’s what the gambling public expects to happen. The opening line favored Tech by three points, but by Tuesday, most sports books had shifted the line to Miami’s favor by one to two points. It is not a great surprise — the Hurricanes have won the past five games against Tech and looked dominant in their win over Duke on Saturday, limiting the Blue Devils to 264 yards of offense and a 2-for-16 effort on third downs.
“Clearly, from a talent standpoint, they’re going to be as good or better than anybody in the league,” Johnson said Tuesday.
It is not the position that most expected Tech to be in. The Jackets began the season without a single vote in either poll and were picked fifth in the Coastal. After earning a prized win over the Hokies two Saturdays ago, Tech has plenty in its favor — a hobbled opponent, an extra week of rest and preparation and a home crowd that figures to be feverish by Saturday evening.
“Hopefully, they understand the magnitude, and that it’s a conference game and a division game, and we certainly have talked about it for two weeks,” Johnson said. “And they understand the ramifications. When you play a division game and when you play a home conference game, it’s imperative that you win these games.”
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