Sept. 28, 2003
Recap?|? Box Score?|? Photo Gallery
– The last time Georgia Tech defeated two Southeastern Conference teams in the same season was 1984, when the Yellow Jackets defeated Alabama (16-6) and Georgia (35-18).
Tech has won four straight games and 10 of the last 11 in the series vs. Vanderbilt, the lone blemish being a 10-10 tie in 1965. Tech’s last loss to the Commodores came in 1941 by a score of 14-7.
Georgia Tech is now 3-3 in overtime games, having snapped a three-game losing streak in such games. Tech’s last OT game before tonight was a 20-17 loss to Maryland on Oct. 11, 2001, in Atlanta. Tech’s only prior OT game on the road was a 23-20 loss at NC State in 1999.
Georgia Tech’s 89-yard drive for a TD to tie the game with 32 seconds left in regulation was the Yellow Jackets’ longest drive of the season by 29 yards. The previous long was a 60-yard drive against Auburn. Reggie Ball accounted for 86 of the 89 yards on the march, passing for 32 and running for 54.
Tech’s 331 yards of offense was a season high, as was its 223 yards rushing.
P.J. Daniels carried the football a career-high 25 times for 105 yards tonight, recording his second 100-yard game of the season and his career. His previous career high was 21 attempts (vs. Virginia last season). His career high for yardage 113 yards (vs. Florida State this season). Daniels’ first-half TD gave him three this season (and for his career).
Reggie Ball carried the ball three times for 79 yards on Tech’s final two possessions of the game, including his 25-yard TD run in the first OT. He carried twice for 54 yards on Tech’s last regulation drive, and finished the game with 103 yards on 10 carries, his first 100-yard game rushing. His TD was the first of his career rushing.
Daniels and Ball became the first pair of Tech runners to each gain 100 or more yards in the same game since Sean Gregory (150) and Joe Hamilton (100) did the trick against Central Florida in 1999.
Ball also became just the third Tech QB to rush and pass for 100 yards each in the same game, joining Donnie Davis (1995 vs. Duke) and Joe Hamilton (1999 vs. Central Florida).
Eric Henderson batted down Vanderbilt’s last-second field goal try as regulation ended, Tech’s second blocked kick of the season.
Junior defensive back Nathan Burton made his second big play on special teams this season when he recovered a Vanderbilt fumble on the opening kickoff. Burton scored a TD at Brigham Young when he recovered a blocked punt in the first half of that game.
Former QB Damarius Bilbo caught his first collegiate pass on Georgia Tech’s third possession of the game, a 49-yard toss from Reggie Ball that helped set up a 35-yard field goal from Dan Burnett. It was Tech’s third-longest play from scrimmage this season. Bilbo was thrown to four times in the game; one catch was nullified by a penalty.
Dan Burnett is now 7-of-9 on field goals this season, making 35-yarder in the first quarter and missing a 42-yard attempt early in the fourth quarter.
Vanderbilt’s 17 points tonight is the most for the Commodores against Tech in the last 18 games of the series, dating back to a 27-12 Vandy win in 1934 in Atlanta.
Jonathan Smith caught a career-high nine passes at Brigham Young, then followed that with no catches against Auburn. The senior receiver, who ranks fifth on Tech’s all-time receptions list, matched that career high last week against Clemson, then went without a reception tonight for almost three full quarters. He caught his first pass with 23 seconds remaining in the third period and finished the night with two to bring his career total to 120.
