Georgia Tech fans hoping for an upset loss by rival Georgia in Monday’s College Football Playoff Championship game were quickly disappointed, as the Bulldogs started fast and grew only stronger in their 65-7 dismantling of TCU in Inglewood, Calif.
However faint the consolation, the loss for the Horned Frogs kept intact one claim that the Yellow Jackets and their fans can still make. Tech remains the last team to win a national championship after beginning the season unranked, having won its shared title in 1990 after having started the season out of the Top 25. TCU, which did not receive a single vote in the preseason poll, was seeking to follow the Jackets’ path Monday night. (The Horned Frogs were 5-7 in 2021, including 3-6 in the Big 12, and were picked to finish seventh in the conference.)
Before the 1990 season, Tech was not ranked after finishing the 1989 season with a 7-4 record but went on to finish No. 1 in the coaches poll with an 11-0-1 record.
Perhaps more germane, the Jackets fared better in their matchup this season against Georgia (a 37-14 loss in Athens on Nov. 26) than did TCU and several Bulldogs opponents. Tech held Georgia to 407 yards of offense, the Bulldogs’ third-lowest output of the season and 94 yards below their season average.
In putting up 14 points, Tech scored more on the national champions than eight other teams, including No. 3 TCU, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 15 Oregon and No. 23 South Carolina.
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