The cleanup isn’t on aisle 6, but rather at 150 Bobby Dodd Way.
The list may change week to week, but Georgia Tech’s challenge remains — stop making mistakes.
“Playing the deep ball would be one. Our kicking game would be two,” coach Paul Johnson said Tuesday as he enumerated the to-do list for practice. “Catching a kick would be three. Cutting off pursuit on the inside would be four. Blocking the perimeter would be five. Running the right routes would be six. That’s probably about all we’d have time for.”
Hardly a surprise that in a season that has missed the mark, the Yellow Jackets will play their 11th game of the season Saturday against FCS-foe Alabama A&M at Bobby Dodd Stadium, trying to clean up the unnecessary, and often unforced, errors that have prevented them from achieving their potential.
Tech does plenty well. The Jackets rank first in the ACC and 11th in the country in red-zone defense, allowing scores on 73.3 percent of opponents’ red-zone possessions. They lead the ACC and rank No. 3 in the country in third-down conversions at 53.2 percent. Tech ranks second in the conference at punt net at 38.7 yards per punt.
But many of the basics have often eluded Tech this season. Against Clemson, for example, Tech punter Sean Poole forced a fair catch on the Tigers’ 32-yard line at the end of the first quarter. However, the Jackets lined up improperly before the snap, forcing a second punt. On the replay, the Tigers gained 16 yards. The high-powered Tigers may have scored anyway, but they were in the end zone in five plays to take a 13-0 lead that began the Jackets’ demise in the 55-31 loss.
“Just things like that,” Johnson said. “It’s concentration level and working to make sure that we’re dialed in on those types of issues.”
The false starts that sabotaged the offense earlier in the season have apparently been taken care of, but ball security hardly is clean. Tech has 24 fumbles this season, losing 10. The Jackets’ 20 giveaways rank tied for fourth most in the ACC.
The Jackets have similarly had trouble taking the ball away. Tech’s 15 takeaways are fewest in the ACC.
“That’s an area we talk about a lot, and coach (Ted) Roof and the defensive staff work on every day,” Johnson said, “but we just haven’t gotten many turnovers. That’s key.”
Alabama A&M does not represent much of a threat. The Bulldogs rank 239th in the Sagarin rankings, of 252 Division I teams. But they do provide a chance for the Jackets to nudge toward the best version of themselves.
The game with Alabama A&M was made out of necessity last November. In February 2012, the ACC committed itself to a nine-game league schedule, leaving only three non-conference games. However, it reverted back to eight conference games in October 2012 after the conference contracted with Notre Dame to play five ACC opponents a season as part of its joining the conference for all sports except football and hockey.
With only three non-conference games scheduled, Tech and the then-11 other conference members had to scramble to pick up a fourth. Tech sought to arrange a home-and-home with other FBS teams, but was unsuccessful, which left the Jackets with Alabama A&M. The HBCU school, founded by a former slave in 1875, is located in Huntsville and has about 5,000 students.
Alabama A&M will receive $300,000 for the game, Tech’s first against a team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Since Tech joined the ACC for football in 1983, the Jackets have played a non-conference opponent immediately before the Georgia game once before, in 1996 against Navy. Johnson was in his final season as the Midshipmen’s offensive coordinator and helped Navy beat Tech 36-26 in coach George O’Leary’s second season.
Tech would hope for better results Saturday.
“Let’s play up to our level and see what happens,” Johnson said.
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