Clemson Tigers vs Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football Recap

Clemson 27, Georgia Tech 13

Last year, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were the ones who frustrated opponents in the ACC. On Saturday, the Clemson Tigers turned the tables on the team that denied them last year’s ACC championship.

Indeed, the same Georgia Tech team that beat Clemson for the 2009 league crown got a taste of its own medicine on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

Under head coach Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech has normally exasperated opponents with its patient yet relentless triple-option offense, the Chinese water torture of college football. A Johnson-coached Tech offense might not bust a big gainer on almost every play, but its ability to squeeze out a few yards on every play and then convert a fourth-and-short has often left defenses gasping for air and wishing that the triple option had never been created. The slow, drip-drip-drip quality of the triple option – when it chews up clock and scores touchdowns – demoralizes opponents like nothing else. This was the case last December, when a banner day from Clemson star C.J. Spiller was not enough to win the ACC. Tech’s triple option executed and existed at a peak level, as the Jackets won a 39-34 decision and punched a ticket to the Orange Bowl.  

This past Saturday, however, the triple option didn’t frustrate a freshly-motivated Clemson defense. One year after topping the Tigers for a BCS bowl, Tech got tripped up and watched as Clemson made the triple option frustrating for the Yellow Jackets themselves.

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Georgia Tech did accumulate 242 rushing yards. That’s nothing to sneeze at – the Jackets certainly moved the ball and were not smothered by any means. Yet, when push came to shove, it was the visiting team from Atlanta, and not the home folks in Death Valley, who wore faces reddened with impatience and agitation.

This was a maddening game for a Tech team whose triple option just hasn’t clicked throughout the season, in large part due to the absence of stud tailback Jonathan Dwyer, now collecting an NFL paycheck. Whatever “it” is, Tech’s triple option lacks “it” in 2010. Everything about this offense – whether it’s Josh Nesbitt’s play at quarterback, Dwyer’s absence in the backfield, or the lack of a big-time wide receiver at a school that’s produced a number of them (Calvin Johnson, anyone?), the Jackets just haven’t found the right mix on a consistent basis. These deficiencies added up on a day when the stat sheet was fairly even, from third-down conversions to rushing yards to time of possession. Clemson finished drives on this day, but the Jackets simply couldn’t.

Three separate marches for Tech ended at the Clemson 40, the Clemson 35, and the Clemson 32. On that last drive, Tech kicker Scott Blair missed a 49-yard field goal. But that was only the half of it for a tormented Tech team. The Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech had to settle for a pair of 26-yard field goals after time-consuming drives that lasted over four minutes and 20 seconds. Moreover, even when Tech did score its one touchdown of the day at the end of the third quarter, the Yellow Jackets took over six minutes to get the ball in the end zone. In an even-steven game, that would have been great, but the problem for Johnson and the rest of the Georgia Tech staff was that Clemson led 24-6 before that touchdown drive started. Tech couldn’t afford to use six minutes on a scoring drive at the time, so even when the Jackets did something well, they failed in a certain sense. When Clemson then held the ball for 7:36 on a subsequent field-goal drive, the Jackets had virtually no time left to make a two-touchdown comeback. The day of mental torture was complete.

Clemson might not win the ACC this year, but at least the Tigers got back at Georgia Tech for last season. Now, the key for Clemson is to continue to torment opponents and reach a reasonably prestigious bowl game.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer