Eight games into the season, Georgia Tech’s identity remains elusive.
One school of thought: After a three-game losing streak, the Yellow Jackets have righted themselves with two consecutive wins and are building momentum into the final four games of the season, starting with Saturday’s matchup at Bobby Dodd Stadium against Pittsburgh.
A second perspective: The Jackets have lost to better teams, beaten worse teams and, at 5-3, are headed for 7-5, with wins over Pittsburgh and Alabama A&M and losses to Clemson and Georgia.
The outcome of Saturday’s game against the Panthers, Tech’s first against the ACC newbie since 1976, may or may not further fill out the portrait of the 2013 Jackets, which is not exactly an invitation to watch. Here’s an enticement: Tech can secure its 17th consecutive bowl trip with a win.
Perhaps, though, it will shed some light on what happened a week ago when the Jackets wrested a 35-25 win over Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., despite five turnovers and nine penalties. Was Tech a team, capable of big plays but irrevocably sloppy, that had the fortune of playing a clumpy Virginia team, or was it a team that has figured out how to win, even in spite of itself?
“I thought we might have been ready to put a really good game together against Virginia, and I don’t think we did,” quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook said. “What I told the guys is maybe it’s a good thing that we’re maybe a little on edge and a little uncomfortable right now heading into this one, because this one’s critical for us, and so maybe that’s a good thing that we still have yet to play our best football game.”
That’s three uses of ‘maybe’ and one of ‘might’ from a coach who is with the team every day. It might be expected of someone coaching a quarterback (Vad Lee) who is evolving in his first season as a starter and demonstrates his potential every weekend, but is also fighting a nasty turnover bug. Lee echoed his coach’s sentiments regarding the win over the Cavaliers.
“It’s kind of good that we’ve had that, so we won’t be too complacent going into this Pittsburgh game,” he said. “We know we’ve got a lot to get better at.”
The game is entirely winnable for the Jackets, who are favored by 10 1/2 points. A performance reminiscent of Tech’s 56-0 thrashing of Syracuse two Saturdays ago — urgent defense, precision offense, capable special teams — would indicate a promising trend as the team heads into its second bye week in advance of the Clemson game Nov. 14 in Death Valley.
A less-convincing outcome may not say much about Tech, whose four FBS wins are against teams with a combined 13-17 record with Sagarin ratings between 50 and 86 and whose three losses were to teams with a combined 19-4 record and Sagarin ratings between 24 and 36.
Tech is No. 33, and Pittsburgh is No. 58.
But the Panthers could offer stout resistance. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald, a possible All-American, threatens to collapse the interior running game. Wide receivers Devin Street and Tyler Boyd, who have a combined 69 catches for 1,171 yards and nine touchdowns this season, pose a conundrum for a Tech defense that has been average against the pass.
Perhaps, though, Tech’s ability to win despite handicapping itself as much as it did against Virginia revealed something beyond subpar ball-security habits. We enlist the digital aid of Sports-Reference.com for insight.
In tracking all regular-season games in 2000-12 and all bowl games dating to 2002, the website turned up 213 games in which teams matched or outdid Tech’s clumsiness (five turnovers, nine penalties). Those teams were 30-183, a winning percentage of .141. Of those 29 teams — the 2003 Washington State Cougars won two games under those parameters — 17 finished the season ranked in the Top 25.
Another three finished unranked with eight or more wins. More teams finished in the top 10 (8) than finished under .500 (6).
Did the Jackets reveal something about their ability to win despite their best efforts to sabotage their chances against Virginia, perhaps sharing a trait with previous big winners? Could it mean that fans celebrating homecoming Saturday night will witness a team with mettle and firepower worth nine wins?
Only the next four games can reveal that.
“What we need to do is go out and (play our best game) Saturday night,” Cook said. “That’d be a good time for that to happen, I know that much.”
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