Here comes a tricky little test for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

The Rambling Wreck from Atlanta is a heavy favorite this weekend when it takes on the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. However, the fact that Georgia Tech is playing its first conference road game of the year will challenge the focus and concentration of the Yellow Jackets.

Make no mistake, Georgia Tech is by far the superior team in this matchup. The Jackets, who struggled so regularly last season, have revved up their triple-option offense once again, cranking out an average of 398 yards per game… on the ground. Tech is barreling over and running around the opposition this year, going 4-0 for the first time since 1990, the year when the Jackets shared the national championship with Colorado. This isn’t a national title-caliber team in the Athens of the South, but it has definitely established itself as the main contender to Virginia Tech in the ACC Coastal Division. Tech should run roughshod over North Carolina State’s defense. The Wolfpack were hammered by Cincinnati on Sept. 22, allowing 44 points in a decidedly feeble display. Looking at this game on paper and through the cold prism of numbers, Georgia Tech shouldn’t have much of a problem.

However, games aren’t played on paper, and the difference between pure theory and lived-out reality is what lends a measure of intrigue to this event.

Georgia Tech, for all its excellence in September, has yet to play a challenging game away from home. The Jackets made one road trip to Middle Tennessee in week two, but the Blue Raiders from the Sun Belt Conference simply couldn’t match up in the trenches. Tech posted a 49-21 win but didn’t learn much about itself in the process. This game against N.C. State, however, will begin to give the national college football community a better sense of the Jackets’ interior composition.

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Georgia Tech did defeat North Carolina last weekend in a crucial divisional duel, but even then, the Jackets tempted fate and were almost burned in the process. Quarterback Tevin Washington committed two turnovers in North Carolina territory, one of them a fumble caused by minimal contact in the red zone. Washington is taking the reins at quarterback from former signal caller Josh Nesbitt, who graduated from the program last year. Nesbitt proved his worth by guiding Tech to the 2009 ACC championship. Washington has yet to achieve anything close to that, which is why this rendezvous in Raleigh is so important to his maturation process as a leader for the Jackets.

Washington was pressed into service last season in a big road game at Virginia Tech when Nesbitt suffered an injury. Washington wobbled over the remainder of the 2010 campaign and is still showing signs of the hesitancy that marked his freshman season. However, Washington’s passing game has grown by leaps and bounds, and his ability to execute the triple option has also advanced considerably. Spring ball and August training camp definitely developed Washington into the kind of player who can take Tech to high places in the ACC. The remaining challenge for the young man is to prove himself in daunting road environments. North Carolina State isn’t quite “daunting” on an absolute scale, but it’s a tougher place to play than Middle Tennessee, and it’s also an ACC lair. If Washington can’t solve the Wolfpack this weekend, Georgia Tech’s confidence will take a major hit, with its quarterback being the first and foremost casualty.

This is a game Georgia Tech should dominate, but the Yellow Jackets will be content with a reasonably solid win on the road. The numbers say “blowout,” but as long as the Rambling Wreck doesn’t stub its toe in Raleigh, this game will be viewed as a stepping stone to bigger and better things over the next two months.