An Old Rivalry Renewed: No. 16 Football Hosts Tulane

Sept. 7, 2015

THE FLATS – No. 16 Georgia Tech looks to build off a big, season-opening win by hosting Tulane on Saturday afternoon at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Kickoff for Saturday’s Heroes Day game is set for 3:30 p.m. ET

The game is live on the ACC’s regional sports networks (PXP: Wes Durham, Analyst: James Bates, Sideline: Jenn Hildreth), including FOX Sports South in Atlanta, and can heard on the Georgia Tech IMG Sports Network (PXP: Brandon Gaudin, Analyst: Sean Bedford, Sideline: Randy Waters), locally on 1230 The Fan 2 and 98.9 FM.

QUICK SLANTS
• The Yellow Jackets return 13 starters and 62 letterwinners from last year’s team that recorded the second 11-win campaign in the seven seasons under head coach Paul Johnson.
• Tech and Tulane are meeting for the second straight season and for the 50th time in series history. Tulane is Tech’s seventh-most common foe.
• The Yellow Jackets improved to 86-33-4 all-time in season openers with a 69-6 rout of Alcorn State last Thursday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The 69 points were the second-most in Tech’s modern era, while the 34 points in the first quarter set a modern-day school record.
• With three new starters in the offensive backfi eld, Tech rolled up 476 yards rushing (553 total yards) in the Alcorn State win — the eighth-most rushing yards in a game in school history and the fourth-most under head coach Paul Johnson. The Jackets averaged 9.7 yards per play in the game.
• Tech was led on the ground by a pair of B-back making their debuts — graduate Patrick Skov (72 yards, 3 TDs) and true freshman Marcus Marshall (184 yards, 2 TDs). The performance by Marshall was the best rushing game by a Jacket since 2009, and he became the first true freshman running back at Tech to score a touchdown since 2008.
• Of the Jackets’ school-record 14 All-ACC selections from last season, eight return including second-team QB Justin Thomas and second-team DL Adam Gotsis. Both Gotsis and Thomas are preseason All-ACC in 2015. Also back is reigning Freshman All-American DL KeShun Freeman, who racked up team highs in sacks (4.5) and tackles for loss (9.5) last year.
• For the second time in five seasons, Tech led the FBS in rushing offense in 2014. The Jackets averaged a school-record 342.1 yards per game. Tech has ranked in the top six nationally in rushing offense in each of Paul Johnson’s seven seasons.
• The Jackets set a single-season school record for rushing yards (4,789), rushing yards per game (342.1) and rushing yards per attempt (6.06). Tech led the nation in rushing yards per game.
• The 2015 season marks the 25th anniversary of Georgia Tech’s 1990 National Championship campaign. A full season of events are planned and a special 25th Anniversary coin will be used by the game offi cials for every coin toss at home.

SERIES NOTES
• Georgia Tech and Tulane will meet on the gridiron for the second consecutive season and 50th time overall.
• The Yellow Jackets lead the all-time series 36-13, including a 20-4 advantage in Atlanta.
• Last season, in the first-ever game at Tulane’s Yulman Stadium, Tech scored the game’s final 24 points and won 38-21.

#SWARMSTATS: BY THE NUMBERS
15 – Georgia Tech surpassed 200 yards rushing in every game last season, and its current streak of 15
consecutive games of 200+ yards rushing is the nation’s longest streak.

226 – Tech has not been shutout in 226 consecutive games — the nation’s seventh-longest active
streak. The Jackets were last blanked Oct. 18, 1997, a 38-0 loss at No. 3 Florida State.

29,518 – The total number of yards the Yellow Jackets have rushed for in 7+ seasons
under Paul Johnson. No team in college football has more in that time.

MORE ON THE TULANE SERIES
• Georgia Tech and Tulane were founding members of the Southeastern Conference, and also shared conference affiliations in the SIAA and the Southern Conference.
• Their meeting last year in the inaugural game at Tulane’s Yulman Stadium was the first time they had played since 1982.
• Saturday’s game marks Tulane’s first at Georgia Tech since Oct. 25, 1980 when the Green Wave won 31-14.
• Head coach Paul Johnson is 3-2 all-time vs. Tulane and 1-0 against the Green Wave at Georgia Tech. The previous four meetings came when Johnson was at Navy.
• Tulane is the seventh-most frequent opponent for Georgia Tech (49 meetings).
• Georgia Tech is 70-26-1 against the current members of the American Athletic Conference.
• Tech is 48-20 against schools from Louisiana. The only other team from Louisiana that Tech has faced is LSU and the Jackets hold a 12-7 advantage against the Tigers.
• This is the second of a four-game series between Tech and Tulane. The next two scheduled games of the series will be 2018 (Atlanta) and 2019 (New Orleans).

DID YOU KNOW?
• Tulane was the opponent at Bobby Dodd Stadium for the Jackets’ first-ever televised football game — a 13-7 win over the Green Wave on WSB-TV on Oct. 2, 1948.
• Tech has been on TV 335 times since.

NOTING THE ALCORN WIN
• Tech’s 69 points were second in the program’s modern era (since 1950) for points scored behind the 70 in wins against Navy in 2001 (70-7) and Elon in 2013 (70-0).
• For the second time in Coach Johnson’s tenure, the Jackets did not commit a single penalty. The other game was against Syracuse on Oct. 19, 2013.
• Dating back to last season, Tech has scored a TD on its first possession in seven of the last eight games.
• Tech’s 34 first-quarter points were a modern day school record for most points in a quarter — the previous record was 32 (4th qtr.) vs. Chattanooga on Nov. 9, 1985.
• The 48 first-half points were the second-most in modern school history — the record being 52 in the first half versus Alabama A&M on Nov. 23, 2013 in a 66-7 win.
• Tech’s 10 touchdowns and nine rushing TDs each tied modern school records.
• Tech played 76 players in the game, including 29 of which that were making their Georgia Tech debut. Although the Jackets had no true freshmen in the starting lineup, eight played — LB Victor Alexander, LB A.J. Gray, AB TaQuon Marshall, BB Marcus Marshall, LB Brant Mitchell, OL Will Bryan, WR Brad Stewart, DL Anree Saint-Amour.

NEW FACES, SAME RESULTS
• The 184 yards rushing (on just eight carries) by true freshman Marcus Marshall versus Alcorn were the most by a Jacket since Jonathan Dwyer’s 189 versus Wake Forest in 2009. Marshall scored two touchdowns, including a 49-yard TD run on his first career carry. He became the fi rst true freshman running back at Tech to score a TD since Embry Peeples in 2008.
• Graduate BB Patrick Skov, who transferred to Tech this year after a three-year career at Stanford, more than doubled his career rushing output in one game. Skov entered Tech with 14 career carries for 25 yards and four touchdowns in 39 games. His stat line last Thursday: 12 carries for 72 yards and three TDs.
• Tech’s third, fourth, fifth and 10th touchdowns of the night were first career TDs for junior AB Isiah Willis, junior WR Micheal Summers, Marshall and sophomore QB Brady Swilling.
• Four players made their first career starts — all on offense: junior Willis, sophomore WR Ricky Jeune, sophomore RG Shamire Devine, Skov.

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