GEORGIA TECH QUICK LANE BOWL CENTRAL (includes tickets and travel info)
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech football has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2018 Quick Lane Bowl, where it will face Minnesota on Wednesday, Dec. 26, at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. Kickoff is set for 5:15 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
“We’re looking forward to traveling to Detroit and playing in the Quick Lane Bowl, where we’ll have the opportunity to play in one of the country’s best stadiums against a Big Ten opponent,” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson said. “Minnesota will present a great challenge. I have a lot of respect for Coach [P.J.] Fleck and I’m sure he’ll have his team ready to play. I’m excited to have the opportunity to coach this team one last time – it should be a great game.”
The Quick Lane Bowl will be Johnson’s final game as head coach of the Yellow Jackets. He announced last week that he is stepping down after 11 seasons at Georgia Tech and 22 seasons as a head coach. Johnson is the fourth-winningest coach in Georgia Tech history with 82 victories at the helm of the Yellow Jackets. His 189 career victories rank fourth among NCAA Division I FBS head coaches that were active in 2018 (behind only Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly – 252 wins, Alabama’s Nick Saban – 231 and Kansas State’s Bill Snyder – 215).
Georgia Tech (7-5) won six of its final eight games of the regular season and finished in second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division with a 5-3 ACC record. It marked the seventh time in Johnson’s 11 seasons at Georgia Tech that the Yellow Jackets finished either first or second in the Coastal Division. Since 2008, the only other teams that have placed first or second in ACC divisional play as many time as Georgia Tech (7) are Clemson (9), Florida State (7) and Virginia Tech (7).
The Quick Lane Bowl will be Paul Johnson’s last game as head coach at Georgia Tech.
TICKETS AND TRAVEL PACKAGES
- Tickets and travel packages are on sale now at ramblinwreck.com/bowl.
- Georgia Tech urges fans to purchase tickets from the GT athletics ticket office, rather than directly from the bowl or on the secondary market, for several reasons:
1) Georgia Tech is financially responsible for the tickets that it is allotted. Unsold tickets from the Georgia Tech allotment must be paid for from GTAA funds that would otherwise be directed to our sports programs.
2) Tickets purchased through the Georgia Tech ticket office is the only way to officially “count” the number of fans that travel to support the Yellow Jackets at a bowl game. That documented support is a leading factor when bowls are making their selections. Therefore, future bowl locations will be influenced by the number of tickets that are purchased directly from Georgia Tech this year.
3) Purchasing tickets through Georgia Tech is the only way to guarantee being seated in a block with other Yellow Jackets fans.
NOTING GEORGIA TECH’S BOWL HISTORY
- The bowl appearance is Georgia Tech’s 45th all-time, which includes berths in 20 of the last 22 seasons and 9-of-11 seasons under head coach Paul Johnson.
- The Yellow Jackets’ 45 bowl appearances are the 13th-most in college football history.
- The Jackets are 25-19 all-time in bowl games, including wins in two-straight and three of its last four bowl appearances (21-7 over USC in the 2012 Sun Bowl, 49-34 over No. 8 Mississippi State in the 2014 Orange Bowl and 33-18 over Kentucky in the 2016 TaxSlayer Bowl).
NOTING GEORGIA TECH AND THE QUICK LANE BOWL
- This will be Georgia Tech’s first-ever appearance in the Quick Lane Bowl, which was established in 2014.
- Atlantic Coast Conference teams have played in three of the previous four Quick Lane Bowls. ACC teams are 2-1 in the game (Duke d. Northern Illinois, 36-14, in 2017; Boston College d. Maryland, 36-30, in 2016; Rutgers d. North Carolina, 40-21, in 2014).
- Georgia Tech will make its third-ever appearance in the state of Michigan and its first since 1972. The Yellow Jackets are 1-1 in games played in Michigan – the Jackets beat No. 18 Michigan State, 21-16, on Sept. 20, 1972 in East Lansing and lost to Michigan, 9-2, on Oct. 20, 1934 in Ann Arbor.
NOTING THE GEORGIA TECH-MINNESOTA MATCHUP
- Georgia Tech and Minnesota have never met on the gridiron.
- Georgia Tech is 23-13 all-time versus current members of the Big Ten Conference but only six of those matchups came against teams that were Big Ten members at the time of the game (3-0 vs. Michigan State, 0-1 vs. Iowa, 0-1 vs. Michigan and 0-1 vs. Purdue).
- Georgia Tech has not played a Big Ten opponent since it faced Iowa in the 2009 FedEx Orange Bowl (24-14 loss on Jan. 5, 2010).
