Georgia Tech entered the biggest ACC conference game of the early-season slate as the defending ACC champions. The Yellow Jackets brought their credentials and their crown into Chapel Hill against Coastal Division rival North Carolina.  North Carolina entered the game as the trendy pick to win the conference this year.  Of course, the lofty preseason expectations were predicated on the Tar Heels playing a defense full of future NFL stars.  An early ESPN 2011 mock draft had four defensive Tar Heels as first round draft picks, and several others were thought to be NFL material.  Robert Quinn was tabbed as a top defensive end in college football this year.  Ditto for Marvin Austin at defensive tackle, Bruce Carter at outside linebacker, and Deunta Williams at safety.

In one fell swoop, the so-called “agent-gate” scandal laid waste to North Carolina’s enormous expectations.  Thirteen players were lost for the LSU game on Sept. 4, which the Tar Heels lost in devastating fashion, with a potential game-winning drive stalling inside the LSU 5-yard line as time expired.  Needless to say, North Carolina’s bench warmers were not being contacted by agents.  The Tar Heels lost some of their most talented players.  Twelve of those players, which include Austin, Quinn, and Williams, also did not play against Georgia Tech, which was coming off a high-profile loss itself.

The Yellow Jackets fully expected to have a difficult time defending their ACC championship.  Though star option quarterback Josh Nesbitt returned, the Yellow Jackets lost a considerable amount of talent on both sides of the ball.  That, and a much tougher Coastal division, made a repeat unlikely.  The outlook in Atlanta did not improve after the Yellow Jackets lost in Lawrence to a Kansas team that itself was coming off an ugly 6-3 loss to North Dakota State.  However, agent-gate may have made Georgia Tech’s chance of repeating that much easier.

The Yellow Jackets held on for the victory on Saturday afternoon despite giving the Tar Heels many opportunities to steal the win in Chapel Hill.  The Kenan Stadium crowd left disappointed by another six-point loss that could have been a win.  With the star-studded defense the Tar Heel faithful expected to see, North Carolina might be 2-0 instead of 0-2, in part because the Tar Heels’ offense has been a pleasant surprise.  The offense was assumed to be the team’s Achilles heel.  Instead, with essentially a second-team defense starting for the Tar Heels, the offense has been a team strength.

North Carolina opened the game with a 15 play, 73 yard drive that ate almost 8 minutes of clock.  However, despite driving to the Yellow Jackets’ 3-yard line, the Heels had to settle for a chip shot field goal.  Georgia Tech, which can also play ball control, quickly took the lead on a big play on the next possession.  Orwin  Smith, on his only rush of the game, did his best Jonathan Dwyer imitation by breaking off a 73-yard touchdown run, as the former Tech stud running back was apt to do.

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North Carolina responded with a big play of its own, with quarterback T.J. Yates tossing a 52-yard TD pass to Erik Highsmith.  Not to be outdone, the Yellow Jackets scored a touchdown on a 5-play drive where three of the plays were over 14 yards, including a Joshua Nesbitt 23-yard TD pass to Roddy Jones to put the Jackets on top 14-10, still in the first quarter.

The following drive was another long one, as North Carolina drove 80 yards in 13 plays, culminating in a Yates TD run on a QB sneak.  Georgia Tech got the ball back down 17-14 with over 10 minutes to play in the half.  North Carolina never touched the ball again in the first half.  Georgia Tech snapped the ball 20 times on the drive, taking the ball down inside the North Carolina 5-yard line before settling for a game-tying field goal with no time on the clock.  Neither team punted or turned the ball over in the first half, as every possession ended with points on the board.  Even the two field goal drives saw the ball advance to inside the defensive 5-yard line.

North Carolina took an early lead in the second half after a Nesbitt fumble set the Tar Heels up with a short field.  Two Johnny White rushes for 24 and 19 yards set him up for a 4-yard TD run, and just like that, North Carolina went up by seven.  A couple possessions later, Georgia Tech answered with a short-field drive of its own following a Yates fumble.  A 41-yard Nesbitt-to-Smith pass highlighted the drive, as Nesbitt took in the TD on a 1-yard run.

Georgia Tech controlled the ball in the fourth quarter with a couple of field goal drives, and North Carolina only managed one drive in the quarter, as its other possession was short-lived due to a fumble on the second play.  The game ended as the Tar Heels used up over six minutes of clock with a drive that only took them to the Georgia Tech 45, where Yates failed to convert a 4th and 10.  Tech was then able to run out the clock and steal a road win against one of its primary division contenders.

Paul Johnson’s squad bounced back nicely from an ugly out of conference loss to gain a division win on the road.  His option offense can still hit big plays and can still control the ball at times, but it seems to be missing something.  Nesbitt played a great game at QB, outside of the fumble that led to a North Carolina touchdown.  The passing stats were typical of an option offense: 3 of 4 for 76 yards and a TD.  Nesbitt doesn’t throw much, but when he does, he often produces a big play.  Tech also gained a healthy 372 yards on the ground, with both Anthony Allen and Nesbitt rushing for over 100 yards.  Teams often have trouble with the option offense, and there’s no telling if North Carolina would have stopped Johnson’s attack even with a half-dozen NFL-caliber players in the game.  But you have to think the Tar Heels would have liked their chances, considering how close the game ended up being. 

For its part, the North Carolina offense was impressively balanced between the rush and pass.  The Heels had 143 yards on the ground, most of them being by White, who ended the game with 113 yards rushing.  Yates passed the ball 24 times and managed 18 completions for 209 yards and a TD.  Ultimately, Carolina's two fumbles wound up hurting the Tar Heels, who otherwise had an efficient offensive effort, with the notable exception of the stalled drive in the waning moments of the game.

North Carolina will attempt to earn its first win of the season next week at Rutgers, while Georgia Tech will take on North Carolina State at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.