A week after its miracle win over Florida State, Georgia Tech had its defensive line depth drained, couldn’t run the ball effectively and made too many mistakes in a 27-21 loss to Virginia on Saturday at Scott Stadium.
Tech fell to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets’ streak of 20 seasons with a league record of .500 or better, which was the longest active run in FBS, has come to an end. Coach Paul Johnson warned that Virginia (3-5, 2-2) was better than its record. He was entirely correct.
Said Johnson, “It was just disappointing the way we played.”
1. Jabari Hunt has been suspended
The senior defensive tackle missed Saturday’s game and will sit out the Virginia Tech game Nov. 12 for what Johnson said after the game was a violation of team rules. Hunt has played in a rotation at defensive tackle with Patrick Gamble and Adam Gotsis. He was missed Saturday, particularly after Gotsis left the game on the first play with a knee injury.
Gamble played a heavy majority of the snaps while Kyle Cerge-Henderson and Francis Kallon played far more than their usual amount.
2. Ball security isn’t improving
Tech fumbled three times, two of which resulted in turnovers and 10 points for the Cavaliers. B-back Marcus Marshall fumbled on the opening series of the game on what Johnson called “a love bump.” The next was a fumbled center-quarterback exchange on the second drive. Quarterback Justin Thomas lost the ball on an option keeper on the second drive of the third quarter, not long after Johnson said he stressed holding onto the ball during halftime.
From 2008 through 2013, Johnson’s first six years, Tech had 197 fumbles, the most in FBS and 2.5 per game. The Jackets fumbled only 20 times last season (1.4 per game), a significant factor in the team’s 11-win season. Tech is now at 20 (2.2 per game), a handicap for a team that has lost four of its games by eight points or fewer.
Said Johnson, “Just too soft with it.”
3. The run game may be weakest in Johnson’s tenure
On the second possession of the game, A-back Clinton Lynch ran 49 yards for a touchdown off an option play for a 7-3 lead. Besides that, Tech’s longest run was nine yards, a remarkable production shortage for an offense that feeds off big plays. By effectively defending the Jackets, who were without starting right guard Shamire Devine and lost left tackle Bryan Chamberlain in the third quarter, Virginia put Tech in the position of having to grind out long possessions, but it lacked the consistency to do so.
Tech finished with 144 rushing yards on 33 attempts, an unacceptable number for a team that has averaged no less than 273 yards per game in each of Johnson’s first seven seasons. The Jackets have had 21 games in Johnson’s 103-game tenure in which they’ve rushed for 225 yards or less; four of them have been in the past seven games.
Over the course of the season, the offensive line has missed assignments, the backs and receivers have not cleared out alleys and Thomas has made poor reads on the option.
4. Tech feels the weight of its freshmen.
Lynch, a redshirt freshman, had a career game with three touchdowns (one rushing, two receiving), accounting for 26 percent of the team’s total offense yards on three plays. Freshman linebacker Brant Mitchell again was noticeable, tying for the team high with nine tackles. Other freshmen, such as linebacker Victor Alexander, right tackle Will Bryan and the defensive tackle Cerge-Henderson also contributed. Tech clearly is depending heavily on the class.
Johnson, though, made an interesting comment about the group.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids, and I’ve done a very poor job of teaching them what it takes to win,” he said. “In the locker room, we’ve got guys who are still talking and giggling about a play that happened in the second quarter or ‘Did you see this?’ or ‘I’m doing this.’ It’s like high school. We’ve got to be a little more intense.”
5. Tech is out of mulligans.
The Florida State win gave the Jackets a little wiggle room to make a bowl game. The loss to Virginia sucked it all away. Tech will have to beat Virginia Tech, Miami and Georgia to get to 6-6 and extend its bowl streak to 19 years.
“We’re just disappointed,” safety Jamal Golden said. “We know that now that we lost (Saturday), we’re only going to finish even throughout the regular season. We’ve just got to go out and work because we don’t want to be the first team in 19 years not to make a bowl game.”
