Georgia Tech Sets Sights Too Low

ATLANTA -- No wonder Georgia Tech's previously streaking football team was embarrassed Saturday night before an adoring home crowd at Bobby Dodd Stadium and those watching on national television. Just by listening to the Yellow Jackets after their 30-24 loss to what has been a mediocre Georgia team, they had the wrong attitude -- not only for this game but for the season.

Let's put it this way: Early and often, Texas coach Mack Brown admitted to anybody who would listen that his Longhorns wished to win every game along the way to a national championship. They are 12-0 right now.

As for Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech's otherwise brilliant coach, he shrugged in his postgame press conference and said, "You can't let one game define a season. Our No. 1 goal is to try to win the ACC. We have an opportunity to play for that (next week against Clemson). Like I said, we're all disappointed. We all understand this is a big game. We all wanted to win the game. It just didn't happen, so you move on."

Not exactly the stuff of Mack Brown. This was more the stuff of Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. They were so obsessed with whipping each other during the Ohio State-Michigan game that national championships became their secondary goal -- if it was a goal at all, and the same went for winning the Rose Bowl.

That's why Johnson has to be careful. The beginning of his statement was fine. So was the ending. But his stated No. 1 goal for Georgia Tech this season of an ACC championship sent the wrong message. For verification, Johnson's star running back, Jonathan Dwyer, said later, "We've got a bigger game to worry about."

A bigger game? If the Jackets say so. With that ACC championship game ahead on Saturday in Tampa, they finished the regular season at a pretty good 10-2 instead of an excellent 11-1 after lacking the mindset (I mean, every game is big for those who truly wish to win a national championship) and the run defense (339 yards rushing to an opponent that was averaging 140 yards rushing per game) against Georgia. As a result, the Jackets aren't poised anymore to challenge Texas and those other five teams that were ahead of them in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

Yes, it is Georgia Tech's rival, and it's a funny thing about these types of games in college football. Occasionally, you have things that shouldn't happen.

That said, this was a particularly wacky stretch for rivalry games even before Georgia Tech and Georgia met for the 104th time -- you know, according to Georgia Tech. The folks said this was the 102nd gathering. In other words, these rivals despise each other so much that they can't even agree on how many times they've played. It all goes back to the folks refusing to include two games during World War II, because they claim Georgia Tech used ineligible players.

Anyway, earlier during the weekend, you had upsets everywhere.

West Virginia beating Pitt.

South Carolina beating Clemson.

Mississippi State beating Ole Miss.

North Carolina State beating North Carolina.

It's just that none of those surprise losers had as much at stake in their game as Georgia Tech against Georgia. Not only were the Jackets ranked No. 7 in those BCS standings, but they had thoughts of moving higher with possible losses involving others ahead of them in conference title games and No. 4 Cincinnati at Pitt next week. Well, they should have had such thoughts. Plus, since they already had knowledge of those other upsets, you would think they would have been prepared for a heightened rush of adrenaline and everything else from their designated Great Satan.

Instead, the Jackets became lousy exorcists. They showed emphatically and dramatically that they aren't there yet. They aren't even close to being there, and "there" means joining the national championship discussion with Florida, Alabama and Texas at best, or with TCU, Cincinnati and Boise State at worst.

Now Georgia Tech will have to be content with trying to become the best football team in a basketball conference.

Whoopee. If the Jackets take the ACC championship game, they'll earn that Orange Bowl trip that they've pointed toward forever (see above). This isn't to say they didn't want to extend their winning streak against Georgia to an impressive two by their standards. They dropped seven straight in the series before Johnson arrived last season with his spread offense and impressive organizational skills.

"I know I wanted to win the game, but they came out hungry and ready to play, and we just didn't respond," said Dwyer, telling the truth.

Among other horrors for the Jackets, Georgia's running game that has reeked most of the season was able to produce not one Herschel Walker look-alike but two of them. While Washaun Ealey rushed for 183 yards, Caleb King rushed for 166 more. They both averaged 9.2 yards per carry.

In contrast, Georgia Tech looked nothing like the nation's No. 2 team in rushing against what has been a sorry defense. The Jackets finished more than 100 yards shy of their usual average of 314 yards rushing per game. And with a decent chance of constructing a winning drive near the end, the Jackets failed to connect on four consecutive long passes inside the final two minutes after reaching the 46-yard line.

The Bulldogs ran out the clock from there -- on the game, and on Georgia Tech's chances of becoming more than just kings of the shaky ACC.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.