Tar Heels Walk All Over Tech...Until They Don't

Surging UNC Has Their Way With Struggling Yellow Jackets Early On….And Then Things Changed In A Stunning 21-17 Tech Win

Offense: puny. Defense: leaky. Special teams: shaky. The first 15 minutes of the game on a cool clear day in Chapel Hill saw Georgia Tech serve up a familiar recipe for ugly football. The early results were familiar too. UNC led 7-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. That score came on their first play from scrimmage, with RB Elijah Green taking the handoff and traveling 80 yards untouched. Four minutes into the 2nd quarter, the Heels stretched the lead to 10 on a 31 yard field goal by Burnette.

Some curious play-calling by UNC ( 6-0, 9-1) and a stiffened defense from Tech stopped the ‘Heels minutes later inside the Tech 10. That was a shining moment for the Jackets, but it was just a moment. On their next possession, following a 26 yard punt from Tech’s David Shanahan, the Tar Heels cruised in for another score by Green, this one on a 1 yard plunge. Things were going as expected. 13th ranked UNC, a 21 point favorite, was up 17-0 late in the 2nd quarter.

This time , though Georgia Tech answered the challenge with a scoring drive of their own. Dante Smith carried it in from the 2 to cap a long drive and take the score to 17-7 Heels. Off to halftime the 2 teams went, with Tech having at least joined the battle. Even so, there was a sense that the home team would re-assert themselves starting with receiving the 2nd half kickoff.

Brent Key would later say that nothing dramatic happened at halftime. There were no fiery speeches, no rallying cries, no breakage of locker room items. His players backed up that account. Instead the message was the same as it had been pre-game– stay the course.

“We built the plan during the week. They understood the plan. It may not have made sense to a lot of people. But it made sense to the people who came up here on that plane, ” said the proud Tech Head Coach in his post-game summary.

The “plan” would have been easy to doubt. It called for a fairly regular rotation of their only 2 remaining scholarship quarterbacks, one of whom had not taken a live snap all year. That aspect, plus the idea of pounding the run game and chewing up clock were presumably the areas Key was referring to when he said the plan might not have made sense to anyone else. After all, Tech’s run game has been quite inconsistent all year, often against teams not nearly as skilled as UNC. And the idea of alternating two quarterbacks– as a plan –has long been derided at all levels of football. The old bromide is ” If you have two quarterbacks it’s because you don’t have one quarterback. ” Only rarely has there been much evidence to the contrary. A prominent example from the University of Florida was Chris Leak and Tim Tebow sharing the work under Steve Spurrier with a BCS title to show for it. Far more often, though, the 2 QB system lacks cohesion and sometimes even fosters dissension.

But at home last week Key made sure that didn’t happen. He had Zach Gibson and Taisun Phommachanh both prepare for regular action and he started the game by changing his quarterbacks on possession changes. And in the 2nd half, Key switched that up by inserting Taisun Phommachanh into the game as Tech neared the UNC goal line. The results were Tebow-esque. Phommachanh used 3 carries to cover the final 14 yards of a 9-play, 64 yard scoring drive to narrow Tech’s deficit to 3 at 17-14. The fact that Tech’s offense could execute those runs when everyone knew what was coming was a loud assertion of the Jackets will to push ahead with the plan.

Tech struck again a few minutes later to take the lead. This time, RB Hassan Hall did the honors from 6 yards out to give Tech a lead they would not relinquish. And that willfulness near the game’s end was perhaps as impressive as any other aspect of the contest . Tech held UNC to season lows on offensive production. And once Tech regained possession at about the 4 minute mark, they were able to hold the ball til game’s end.

Key’s Jackets now stand at 4-4 in the ACC, 5-6 overall. That record and especially the conference mark represents a remarkable turnaround from their 1-3 start under Geoff Collins in early 2022. Key’s record as head coach now stands at 4-3 overall, all in the ACC. Tech takes on #1 ranked UGA in Athens next week. Tech hopes to give the Dogs a game, something they were unable to do last year in Atlanta where Kirby and Co left with a comfortable 45-0 win.

Those possibilities rest on more sound planning and precise execution by the Jackets. The Dogs are seeking the completion of a perfect regular season and they remain at #1 in the rankings.

Patrick Conarro

RamblinSports.com