Sept. 1, 2008
Complete Version | Johnson’s Weekly Press Conference Quotes
Yellow Jackets Begin ACC Play On The Road At Boston College
Nine days after Georgia Tech began the Paul Johnson era with a 41-14 win over Jacksonville State, the Yellow Jackets open ACC play on the road against defending Atlantic Division champion Boston College. Saturday’s kickoff will be just after noon in Chestnut Hill, Mass. (Raycom TV).
Georgia Tech (1-0) and Boston College (1-0) enter the ACC opener for both teams coming off non-conference wins to open the season.
Tech’s 24-point win over Jacksonville State included 484 yards of total offense by the Yellow Jackets, who received a pair of rushing touchdowns by both sophomore B-back Jonathan Dwyer and sophomore quarterback Josh Nesbitt. Dwyer led all rushers with 112 yards and Georgia Tech punted just one time.
Boston College earned a 21-0 victory over Kent State in Cleveland on Saturday. Fifth-year senior quarterback Chris Crane, who took over for Matt Ryan, ran for two touchdowns and the Eagle defense pitched a shutout over the Mid-American Conference opponent.
Georgia Tech leads the all-time series, 4-2, including a 2-0 record in Chestnut Hill. Boston College, however, has won the last two meetings including a 24-10 win in Atlanta last season.
Today’s Tip-Off
– The ACC schedule-makers did Paul Johnson no favors. Tech’s first two ACC games come in the next two weeks, on the road, against the two teams that played in the 2007 ACC Championship Game — Boston College and Virginia Tech (Sept. 13).
– The Yellow Jacket offense may be ground-oriented (although Tech did pass 15 times in the opener), but it is potentially explosive. In the opener, all six Tech touchdowns came on drives of six plays or less and each drive was less than three minutes in duration.
– Of Georgia Tech’s 22 starters in the season opener, 14 were either freshmen or sophomores.
– Georgia Tech is attempting to begin the season 2-0 for the fourth time in five years.
Five True Freshmen Play In Season Opener
Five true freshmen played in the season opener and each had their moments:
Tyler Melton, WR — the only true freshman to start, Melton caught one pass for five yards.
Jaybo Shaw, QB — had a 43-yard run, rushed for a touchdown and was 3-for-3 passing.
Embry Peeples, AB — carried twice for 18 yards including a long of 15 yards.
Cooper Taylor, S — forced a fumble and made three tackles.
Rashaad Reid, CB — recorded a tackle-for-loss.
There are 26 true freshmen, including 21 scholarship players, on the Yellow Jacket roster.
Yellow Jackets The Youngest Squad In The ACC
Of the 110 players on the Georgia Tech roster, 75 are either freshmen or sophomores. That gives the Yellow Jackets more freshmen and sophomores than any team in the ACC. Virginia and Virginia Tech, with 72 each, are tied for second, followed by North Carolina (68), Duke (66), Boston College (64) and Maryland (64). The fewest number of freshmen and sophomores is 52 at Florida State.
– Out of the 22 players who started in the season opener, 14 are either freshmen or sophomores.
– All six touchdowns scored by Tech in the season opener were by freshmen or sophomores. Sophomores Jonathan Dwyer (2 touchdowns) and Josh Nesbitt (2), redshirt freshman Roddy Jones and true freshman Jaybo Shaw all found the end zone last Thursday. As a side note, all four of those players are in-state products.
– Tech had 46 rushing attempts in the opener, including 42 by freshmen or sophomores.
– On defense, both Tech interceptions were by a sophomore (Morgan Burnett) and its leader in sacks was a sophomore (Derrick Morgan, 1.5 sacks).
– Out of the 44 Yellow Jackets on the two-deep depth chart, 26 are freshmen or sophomores — 15 sophomores, eight redshirt freshmen and three true freshmen.
A Quick Look At Boston College
Boston College (1-0) used the arm and legs of quarterback Chris Crane and a suffocating defense to beat Kent State, 21-0, Saturday in Cleveland, Ohio. Crane, a fifth-year senior quarterback who waited four years for his chance to run the Eagle offense, ran for two touchdowns and completed 12-of-18 passes against the Golden Flashes. Junior running back Jeff Smith ran for 74 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries.
A veteran Boston College defense did not allow Kent State inside its 45 until the fourth quarter and posted its first shutout since 2006. The Eagles, who ranked second nationally in rushing defense in 2007, held Kent’s Eugene Jarvis, the nation’s leading returning rusher, to just 51 yards on 11 carries. Jeff Jagodzinski is in his second year as Boston College’s head coach.
Georgia Tech-Boston College Series History
– Georgia Tech leads the all-time series, 4-2.
– Boston College won last year’s meeting, 24-10, in Atlanta on Sept. 15, 2007. Although that game marked the sixth all-time meeting between the two schools, it was the first ACC meeting between the Yellow Jackets and Eagles.
– Last year’s game marked the first meeting in which both teams were nationally ranked.
– Georgia Tech won the first four meetings with BC, but the Eagles have won the last two (2007 and 1998).
– The Yellow Jackets are 2-0 all-time vs. Boston College in Chestnut Hill, including a 30-14 win in 1991 and a 42-14 victory in 1997 (Tech’s most recent win in the series). This is Tech’s first visit to Boston in 11 years.
– The first meeting between the two schools came in 1972 — a 42-10 Tech win in Atlanta.
– Only one of the six previous meetings — a 13-12 Tech win in 1989 — was decided by less than 10 points.
– First-year Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson is 0-2 all-time versus Boston College. His 2006 Navy team fell by one point to the Eagles, 25-24, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. Johnson’s first Navy team, in 2002, lost 46-21 to the Eagles in Chestnut Hill.
– Boston College second-year head coach Jeff Jagodzinski is 1-0 all-time vs. Georgia Tech. That win came last year in Atlanta.
See the complete version for more notes.
