Bowl Season Causes Reflection for Georgia Tech Football Faithful

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets finished the 2017 season with a mark of 5-6 (4-4 ACC). Yes, the numbers tell the story, but not the full story.

As this is being written, Wake Forest leads SEC team Texas A&M by three early in the 2nd Half. Yes, that Wake Forest. The team Georgia Tech beat by two TDs. That right there tells most of the story for the Yellow Jackets this year. No Bowl game. But an “oh, so close” and “what might’ve been?” kind of season.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket football team lost 3 of their 6 losses by a combined 6 points. Two of those losses were 1 point losses. In the sport where they say “it is a game of inches”, Tech proved that true.

Without dissecting why this happened, or explicating whether a Paul Johnson led Offense can sustain a winning culture, it still baffles the mind that so much could have been so close, yet so wrong, for one team in one season.

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GT had no business losing to Tennessee. Granted, that Tennessee in Week 1 was way better prepared than the (4-8) Tennessee that finished the season. Meaning, it was before their own fans started relentlessly booing their own team at every given chance when they fell to (3-1) after the Florida game (Don’t get me started on those fans).

The “Miraculous Monsoon” in Miami was one of the craziest things that happened in 2017 that no one talks about. In short, Tech had Miami on the ropes, and was moving the ball at will on Offense. Usually, a bad sign for the opposing team. Then, out of nowhere, a torrential rain settled in on the stadium, and it was clear the South Florida kids were much better at playing in that stuff than were the Georgia Tech crew.

That was after a game against UCF was canceled due to an actual hurricane that hit. Now, UCF is a good team, and there is no guarantee that Georgia Tech would’ve won. But, if they had, think about how perception of this team would’ve morphed into something of substance.

There is nothing to say about the losses to Virginia and Duke. Both of those teams are decent. But, really? And to both of them?

All of those aforementioned teams are “Bowling” right now. Well, except Tennessee. Those fans made sure of that by crippling that program in the first third of the season. But the rest are playing post-season football.

Apparently, word dropped this week that GT will have a new Defensive Coordinator next year. We’ll see how that looks.

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But for now, Ramblin’ Wreck fans look back to this year and think: “dang, we were close”. Maybe next year things will break their way.