ATLANTA (October 17) – Georgia Tech, winner of its last two games, will look to extend its winning streak to three games this weekend when the Yellow Jackets host Duke on Saturday at 12 noon at Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field.
The game will be regionally televised on the ACC-Jefferson Pilot television network (airing on Fox Sports Net South in the Atlanta area), while live radio coverage will be available on the Georgia Tech/ISP Sports Network (WGST 640 AM in Atlanta).
Tech enters the game with a 4-2 overall record and a 2-2 mark in ACC play after picking up a 52-20 win over Wake Forest on homecoming last weekend. Duke is 0-6, 0-3 after falling to Florida State, 63-14, last Saturday night in Tallahassee.
“When you look at Duke’s schedule, the teams they have played are 28-12 while the teams that they are about to play are 14-16,” said Tech head coach George O’Leary. “Their schedule was top-heavy and those are things that you have to look at. Our team needs to understand that on any given Saturday you need to go out and play, and all you have to do is look at the Sunday paper to see the teams that don’t play. You see upsets throughout the country because I think everybody has skilled athletes. What separates teams is the turnovers, penalties, special teams and field position.”
O’Leary was pleased with his team’s effort last weekend against Wake Forest, as the Yellow Jackets piled up a season-high 578 yards of total offense. Quarterback George Godsey (Tampa, Fla.) passed for a career-best 333 yards and four touchdowns while the Tech running attack totaled a season-best 245 yards on the ground.
“I think offensively we are improving each week and we are establishing more of the line of scrimmage,” said O’Leary, who is 40-27 in his sixth year on the Flats. “In the running game we utilized more people with the ball in their hands to keep people fresh. As your running game improves, your play-action game improves. That’s pretty much what has helped us the last couple of weeks. Our tight ends are getting the ball more mainly because our running game has improved.”
Tech’s running game, which features a three-pronged attack in the backfield with tailbacks Joe Burns (Thomasville, Ga.), Sean Gregory (Homewood, Ill.) and Sidney Ford (Lindale, Ga.), has been impressive over the last three games. The Yellow Jackets are averaging 173 yards per game on the ground over that stretch, and the Tech backfield has featured a 100-yard rusher in each game. Burns recorded back-to-back 100-yard efforts against NC State and North Carolina, while Ford rushed for a career-best 111 yards last weekend against Wake Forest. Together the trio is accounting for 131 yards on an average of 30 carries per game on the ground.
Defensively, however, Tech allowed 451 yards to the Demon Deacons, a point that O’Leary intends to improve upon this week against Duke.
“Defensively, I think we had a bad day,” said O’Leary. “I looked at film and thought that we were standing around flat-footed and not attacking people like we were at the beginning of the season. I was disappointed in the defense from that standpoint, and that has been addressed.”
“I wanted to get the defenses attention this week, because you can’t win major games without playing good defense,” O’Leary continued. “We have the ability to do that, and we need to go out each and every day and practice that. When I look at the calls that are made, they are right on the money. But we have guys not fulfilling the responsibility of the call.”
Despite the number of yards that the Tech defense has allowed this season, O’Leary is quick to point out that unit is contributing in a positive manner as far as creating turnovers and setting up scoring opportunities. Through six games the Tech defense and special teams has created 73 points because of forced turnovers, including interceptions, recovered fumbles and blocked kicks. The defense and special teams has directly set up 37 percent (73 of 199 points) of Tech’s scoring.
“You have to look at what they have accomplished this year versus last year,” said O’Leary. “We have points that have come off defensive turnovers and our sack ratio has really improved, too. We still have a lot of young players on defense.”
On the injury front, O’Leary reported that Tech should be back to a near-full lineup on Saturday. Freshman linebacker Keyaron Fox (Atlanta, Ga.), who is out for four to six weeks with a broken arm, is the only player that will not be available against Duke.
