If the 2023 Georgia Tech football team is remembered for anything, its ability to remain steadfast amid a season of uncertainty and inconsistency, an inconsistency often created by its own doing, certainly will be toward the top of the list.
Tech’s season included six losses, the seventh consecutive season of Tech football with at least that many defeats. But the Yellow Jackets followed all six defeats with a win and ended the season with a 7-6 mark, its first winning record since 2018.
Cornerback Ahmari Harvey explained that Tech’s ability as a team to bounce back after losing had more to do with an aversion to defeat than a desire to win.
“This season, losing at the beginning, it hurt,” he said. “So I started to hate to lose before the game. Got to hate to lose during practice. You gotta hate to lose during school. You gotta hate to lose before Saturday. You can’t just hate to lose on Saturday. That’s how you lose.”
Harvey’s bowl performance Friday was a bit of a metaphor for Tech’s season as a whole. The sophomore was beaten in coverage early and often during the Gasparilla Bowl against Central Florida – receiver Javon Baker beat Harvey for a 23-yard touchdown reception less than 90 seconds into the game.
But Harvey kept fighting for the duration of the game. His interception with 1:28 remaining sealed a 30-17 win, and Harvey finished with six tackles and two pass breakups.
The Jackets as a whole struggled at the season’s outset much like Harvey struggled early Friday night. They were 2-3 after a demoralizing loss at home Sept. 30 to Bowling Green and then 3-4 after a 38-23 beating by Boston College at Bobby Dodd Stadium two games later.
Tech rallied after the latter setback to upset a ranked North Carolina team at home in come-from-behind fashion, then handled business on the road at Virginia. It needed one win in its final three games to become bowl eligible and got it Nov. 18 at home against Syracuse.
“There’s so many things they learned this year and that we learned together,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “Learning how to compete, learning how to play with discipline, learning how to do things the right way, to play for four quarters, learning how to go into every game and expect to win. To go into every game and expect to win regardless of the circumstances within the game. It didn’t change what our expectation is.
“If they’ll just keep playing and keep fighting and do things the right way then good things will happen. They did that (Friday). Just really proud of these guys. That’s what it’s about. Can’t say enough about ‘em.”
Tech had an exceptional season on offense, and really, a season of two offensive successes. Five games into the season the Jackets had the nation’s 17th-best passing attack. After its bowl triumph, the Jackets now have a top-10 rushing offense.
Quarterback Haynes King, working alongside co-offensive coordinators Buster Faulkner and Chris Weinke, threw for 2,842 yards and 27 touchdown passes. Running back Jamal Haynes ran for 1,059 yards. Wide receiver Eric Singleton, a freshman, caught 48 passes for 714 yards and six touchdowns. Tech’s offensive line, expected to return four of five starters in 2024, came into its own.
The offense as a whole, however, dealt with its own inconsistencies. It managed only 254 yards or less in games against Miami and Clemson and had multiple turnover performances in games against Bowling Green, Boston College and Clemson.
“Adversity is definitely gonna strike. Those loses in the beginning (of the season), you just have to learn from ‘em and eventually that ‘L’ disappears and you start earning,” Haynes said. “At the end of the day, we started to earn our wings and that’s Georgia Tech football.”
Tech’s defense also dealt with its fair share of rocky roads in 2023.
Key made defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker the team’s safeties coach Oct. 1 and moved linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer into that role the same day. When the regular season ended, Thacker and cornerbacks coach Travares Tillman were moved into off-the-field roles (neither were present during Tech’s bowl win in Tampa, Florida).
The Jackets had one of the nation’s worst rush defenses and total defenses, were last among ACC teams in defending third downs and gave up a league high 287 first downs. Yet Tech led the ACC in takeaways with 25, a total that is currently fourth-best in the nation.
“It’s definitely been a process. A lot of ups and downs,” said Tech linebacker Kyle Efford who led the Jackets in tackles this season with 81. “But we’re Tech Men and this is what we do. We respond to adversity, and we love it. It ain’t nothing to us.”
Special teams had hits and misses for Tech, too. Kicker Aidan Birr had a breakout season with 17 made field goals (out of 19 tries) and punter David Shanahan averaged 42.8 yards per kick which ranks among the top 50 in the nation. The Jackets’ kickoff coverage ranked toward the bottom of the country by giving up nearly 29 yards per return.
Yet even with all the inconsistencies in all areas of the game for Tech, it still managed to become the first Tech team since 2009 to go without back-to-back losses. That is one of the many positive facets Key’s team can build on moving into 2024, that and the program’s proof to itself that it can handle most anything that could come its way.
“It’s what this program is about. How are you gonna respond when adversity hits?” King said. “You never forget a failure. You never overlook a failure. The response tells a lot about who you are as a person, who you are a program and who you are as a team.”
About the Author
