2011 Virginia Tech Hokies Football: Va. Tech @ Georgia Tech

The history of sports is full of memorable punches: Muhammad Ali’s punch against Sonny Liston in 1964. Kermit Washington’s punch against Rudy Tomjanovich in the NBA’s worst fight in 1978. Nolan Ryan’s punch – and his several follow-up punches – against Robin Ventura in that unforgettable basebrawl between the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox in 1993. In boxing and in other sports, punches have a way of being frozen into the public memory.

Now, the Georgia Tech football team will never forget a punch thrown by one of its own players, a punch that – in many ways – determined the result of one very consequential contest on Thursday night in Atlanta.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Virginia Tech Hokies have won all six of the Coastal Division championships in the Atlantic Coast Conference since the league adopted a two-division, 12-team format in 2005. When the Jackets and Hokies reunited at Bobby Dodd Stadium last week, they knew that the Virginia Cavaliers were still in the mix for the Coastal title, but they also knew that with UVA finishing against Florida State and Virginia Tech, this contest was likely to decide the Coastal once again and provide the opponent for Atlantic Division champion Clemson in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 3 in Charlotte. The all-Tech tilt is annually the confrontation for the Coastal crown, so when these two engineering schools dueled on the gridiron, they knew how high the stakes really were. There was no margin for error, no room for mental gaffes or ill-timed brain cramps.

Unfortunately for Georgia Tech, an unpardonable and baffling mistake entered the equation at the worst possible moment. A punch thrown in a brief but destructive fit of madness put Virginia Tech in position to win its fifth Coastal title in the past seven years.

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Everything was set up for Georgia Tech to win this game. The Yellow Jackets, down 21-10 late in the second quarter, reeled off 16 straight points to take a 26-21 lead as the third quarter wore on. Moreover, Georgia Tech had just stonewalled the Hokies, producing a three-and-out to consolidate momentum and get the ball back. A cluster of Jacket defenders was hauling down Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas well short of the marker on a third-down play. On third-and-19 from his own 17, Thomas was flushed out of the pocket and grabbed by several Georgia Tech defenders. The burly and muscular Thomas didn’t fall to the ground immediately, however, and in reaction to the play, Georgia Tech linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu threw a punch into the side of the quarterback's helmet, drawing a personal foul which revived the Hokies’ drive. From that point onward, Virginia Tech didn’t strike another false note in this contest.

The Hokies rode the right arm of Thomas and the legs of running back David Wilson – who galloped for 175 yards on 23 carries – to two touchdowns and a field goal in the final 16 minutes of play. That one lapse in judgment from Attaochu, that one wayward act, turned this game on a dime and enabled Virginia Tech to find fresh momentum for the fourth quarter. Georgia Tech dominated Clemson in the second half of that particular ACC encounter on Oct. 29, but after the Attaochu punch, the Jackets – mentally hijacked and shellshocked at what was unfolding before them – lacked the focus needed to withstand Virginia Tech’s final and most decisive onslaught.

As a result, Virginia Tech is on the verge of punching a ticket for the ACC title game… it’s a ritual which is delightfully commonplace for the boys from Blacksburg, Virginia.

Virginia Tech Hokies @ Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football Recap