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Georgia Tech Football Top 50 Best Moments, #48: The Fake Field Goal

By Reeves Guyton

ATLANTA - SEPTEMBER 10: Demaryius Thomas #8 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets scores a touchdown on a fake field goal against Chris Chancellor #38 of the Clemson Tigers at Bobby Dodd Stadium on September 10, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA - SEPTEMBER 10: Demaryius Thomas #8 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets scores a touchdown on a fake field goal against Chris Chancellor #38 of the Clemson Tigers at Bobby Dodd Stadium on September 10, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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48. Fake Field Goal

September 10, 2009: Georgia Tech 30, Clemson 27

Coming into the 2009 season, Georgia Tech was ranked 15th and had high expectations for the season. Joshua Nesbitt, Morgan Burnett, Derrick Morgan, Anthony Allen Jonathan Dwyer, and Demaryius Thomas were all coming into their junior years and it looked to be a golden generation of Tech Football. Their first test would come in only the second week of the 2009 season when Nesbitt and co. welcomed C.J. Spiller and the Clemson Tigers to Atlanta.

Georgia Tech quickly got out to a 14 point lead and although they would later give it up, the best moment came near the end of the 4th quarter.

Paul Johnson is known for his willingness to take risks on the field and this night was no different. Georgia Tech was up 14-0 vs. the 1-0 Clemson Tigers with 4th & 13 at about the 35-yard line. Scott Blair’s career long is 45 so when the kicking team came on in a mad scramble, Tech fans didn’t know what to think. I was 8 at the time and when Blair and the kicking team came on, I remember leaning over to my grandfather saying “What the hell is Paul thinking?”. What I didn’t know is that Demaryius “Bay-Bay” Thomas would hang out on the sideline.

Because there are no camera angles to show Thomas on the sideline, what Manziel did in the play above was essentially what Thomas did but instead, Thomas faced the field as if he was just off the field. I’ve run this play numerous times with my middle school and high school team but I never thought it would work in the NCAA let alone against the Atlantic Division winners that year. Scott Blair received the snap, threw a very high pass and let Bay-Bay do the rest. Bay-Bay catches the ball and then stiff arms Chancellor and waltzes into the end zone to make the lead 21-0.

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I rate this as a top 50 moment for two reasons. The first is because of how ballsy the call was. The second reason is that of the magnitude of the call in the view of the season. Georgia Tech went on to win this game but only by 3 points. Had Paul Johnson not called this gutsy fake field goal, Tech might’ve lost the game and that leads you to wonder how the 2009 season would’ve played out had Tech not had this monumental win at the beginning of the season.

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