Typically optimistic and confident, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson did not like where his team stood after six games. The Yellow Jackets were 3-3, having lost consecutive games to Clemson, Miami and Pittsburgh.
Johnson said it “felt like the season was kind of just mediocre, kind of just sitting there.”
The Jackets turned the season around, winning five of their final six regular-season games. They beat Virginia Tech and Georgia on the road in the process, becoming just the second Georgia Tech team to beat both the Hokies and Bulldogs in the same year (the 2014 team was the first) since Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004. The 8-4 season earned the Jackets a spot in the TaxSlayer Bowl opposite Kentucky on Dec. 31 in Jacksonville, Fla.
In an interview with the AJC, Johnson shared the good and the bad on his ninth season at Tech, one that turned out a bit better than mediocre.
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