Legacies can weigh heavily, which is why Jeremiah Attaochu won’t bring his on the field at Sun Life Stadium on Saturday.
Attaochu, Georgia Tech’s dynamic defensive end, will have his final opportunity to defeat Miami for the first time Saturday.
“It matters, but what ultimately matters is trying to get to the ACC Championship (game),” Attaochu said. “This is a team we have to beat this year. I’m not talking about last three. I’m not worried about the last three. I’m worried about this year.”
Indeed, the weight of Saturday’s game between the Yellow Jackets (3-1, 2-1 ACC) and the No. 14 Hurricanes (4-0, 0-0) is heavy enough by itself. Just five games into the season, Tech is playing what most likely is an elimination game. Win, and the Jackets gain an important tiebreaker in the pursuit of their fifth Coastal Division title (Tech shared the 2008 Coastal title with Virginia Tech but did not go to the conference championship game), not to mention earn its first road win over a ranked opponent since the Jackets’ win over Georgia in Athens in 2008.
Lose, and Tech more than likely will be boxed out of the chase. For a team that is loaded with seniors, has one of the more experienced rosters in the country and believes it can win the ACC title that eluded it last season, Oct. 5 would be an uncomfortably early date to start concocting improbable scenarios that would enable the Jackets to stay in the race.
“You don’t try to think about it, but every week is a big week, especially with conference play, because you don’t want to have to count on anybody else to help you out, essentially,” center Jay Finch said.
Miami will take the field as a favorite, with its win over then-No. 12 Florida in its satchel. The Hurricanes have won four in a row over Tech and will try to become the second team in coach Paul Johnson’s career to beat him five in a row. Miami would join Notre Dame, which won five consecutive over Johnson’s Navy teams before losing in his final season with the Midshipmen, in 2007. It was the end of the Irish’s 43-game winning streak over Navy, the longest such streak over a major opponent in an uninterrupted series in NCAA history.
The Jackets, meanwhile, spent the week gathering themselves after their nationally televised tumble against Virginia Tech two Thursdays ago.
“I know I was embarrassed on (Sept. 26), and I think a lot of the guys were,” Johnson said, “that we couldn’t stay onsides, we couldn’t go on (the right snap count), we couldn’t block the right guys, we couldn’t hang onto the ball. There was just so many things that we didn’t do that you should be able to do. It’s not all ability.”
Saturday’s outcome could to a great degree fall on Finch and the offensive line, a group that includes three fifth-year seniors and will bring 117 career starts to the table Saturday. Undoubtedly, keeping Miami’s potent offense on the bench and limiting possessions will be part of the Tech game plan. The Tech offensive line will have much to say as to whether that comes to pass, both by opening running lanes and protecting quarterback Vad Lee.
However, the line, which helped generate 136 points in the first three games, was among the chief culprits against the Hokies. Improving pass protection was a high priority in practice this week.
“You would hope that that would be a strength of your team,” Johnson said. “Some games, they’ve played better than others, like everybody else.”
Despite the four consecutive losses and the seeming might of the Hurricanes, a Tech upset would hardly rate as a shock. The Jackets ought to have won last year against Miami at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Further, the Canes’ signature win of the season, the 21-16 upset of the Gators, doesn’t stand up as convincing.
Miami beat Florida despite going 1-for-11 on third downs and getting outgained by 201 yards. Five Florida turnovers were game-changing. Miami’s game-clinching touchdown drive began at the Florida 4-yard line after a Gators fumble.
If the Tech defense, ranked ninth in the country, seeks an opportunity to legitimize its improvement under defensive coordinator Ted Roof, it can do so against the No. 9 scoring offense in the country.
If the Jackets’ offense wants to demonstrate that its puny 10-point performance against Virginia Tech merely was an aberration, it has 100 yards of Sun Life Stadium turf upon which to make its case.
Rather than a first win over the Hurricanes providing definition to the senior class, Attaochu sees it in slightly different terms.
“I think it’s character defining right now,” he said. “After this loss to Virginia Tech, a lot of people are jumping off the bandwagon, things like that, but it’s a game that’s going to be really competitive. They’re really a good team this year. They have some good players. We have a lot of good players, too.”
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