Atlanta, GA – Despite creating three turnovers, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lose to the fourth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs 52-7 in head coach Geoff Collins’ debut in Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.
It was a rough game for the Jackets, who totaled just 139-yards of total offense on the game, the offense couldn’t get anything going against one of the best defenses in the country in rival Georgia.
Quarterback James Graham completed just five of 19 passing attempts for 40 yards. The redshirt freshman quarterback struggled to throw the ball down the field, leaving several throws short and low of his intended targets, almost rushing throws he didn’t necessarily need to.
Graham did provide the lone score on the day for the Yellow Jackets, finding tight end Tyler Davis in the front corner of the end zone for a short score following a muffed punt by the Bulldogs in the first half.
Jordan Mason led Georgia Tech rushing 16 times for just 37. The Jackets averaged just 2.7 yards (it was 1.9 before a garbage-time drive at the end of the game added to it) per carry on the game against a very talented defensive front and failing to get anything going on the ground made things difficult for the rest of the offense.
Defensively, the final stat line won’t show just how impressive the Jackets played the first half to keep themselves in the game before fading late. Allowing 500 total yards, the defense wore down as the game went on, and in the second half, the Dawgs were able to open things up and finally get their passing game rolling with some big plays.
The first half, however, was a different story.
Jumping out to a 17-0 advantage, things looked to be all Georgia in the early going. The momentum would change in the second quarter with a muffed punt, setting up Georgia Tech’s lone score to pull within ten. On the following play, coach Collins gambled on an onside kick, and the Jackets would recover after a big hit forced the ball loose and Tech would have an opportunity to pull within one score.
The Rambling Wreck couldn’t capitalize on that opportunity, but later in the quarter would recover a fumble from UGA running back Deandre Swift to get themselves in field goal range.
Unfortunately for the Jackets, they would miss the field goal to remain behind by ten points, and the momentum would swing back into Georgia’s favor for the rest of the game.
The loss brings an end to the first year of the Geoff Collins era at Georgia Tech. Falling to 3-9 on the season, it’s been rough going for the early stages of the rebuild that coach Collins hopes to see through in Atlanta. There were positives to take away on the year, especially on the defensive side, and fans must remain patient in what could be a multi-year process of turning things around.
Coach Collins on what he has taken away from his team following his first season at the helm, “It’s everything. Time to reflect will be tomorrow, but this has been one of the most historic undertakings of the transformation of a college football program that has happened in 40 years. The people that get it and the people that understand what we’re going through, what we inherited, the situation, completely get it. [They] see the progress that we’ve made every single week all season. The ones that don’t want to get it, they’re not going to get it no matter how many times there are things written and things said about what we’ve gone through. But I know the future is bright and all the things that we’ve learned together cumulatively in the first year are going to set us up for unbelievable success.”
UGA wins the Governor’s cup to move their win streak to three in a row. With the current standings of each program, things look to remain in Georgia’s favor for the foreseeable future, but if coach Collins can find a way to use this loss as motivation for the Yellow Jackets, we could be in for much more competitive editions of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate for many years to come.
Written by Brian Pohl
