A 6-6 season isn’t going to grab many headlines, but for Georgia Tech it was an important step forward.
The Yellow Jackets had been in the college football wilderness for four seasons after Paul Johnson retired and put the Ramblin’ Wreck at a crossroads.
Under Johnson, the Yellow Jackets were known as a team that could punch above its weight thanks to a commitment to a triple-option offense that wrong-footed opponents.
The strategy and identity worked wonders as Johnson’s teams won an ACC Championship, four division titles and prevailed in the Orange Bowl in 2014.
Georgia Tech also beat Georgia on the road three times in that span, something that seems a bit incredulous these days.
Any time a coach departs a program there is inevitable change, but the transition from Johnson — a former head coach at Navy who runs a unique offensive scheme — was always going to be exaggerated.
Five years and one coaching change later, Georgia Tech finally seems to be on its way back to relevancy.
And what’s more impressive is that the Yellow Jackets have found a new, exciting identity along the way.
Georgia Tech will bring that new identity into Friday’s Gasparilla Bowl against UCF. The Knights (6-6) are 4.5-point favorites with a total of 66.5.
The first thing to acknowledge when handicapping this contest is that it has variance written all over it.
These are two explosive offenses facing off against two struggling defenses that will be missing key players.
UCF’s offense runs through senior QB John Rhys Plumlee.
One of college football’s most prolific dual-threat signal-callers, Plumlee threw for 2,073 yards and 13 touchdowns in just about eight games and added nearly 500 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.
Georgia Tech’s defense struggled in all departments, but the Yellow Jackets were especially poor against the run and that should open doors for Plumlee and running back RJ Harvey to have big games.
The absence of Kyle Kennard, Georgia Tech’s best pass-rusher, should also make things a bit smoother for Plumlee in the backfield.
The good news for the Yellow Jackets is that they have an offense that can keep pace with the Knights.
Like UCF, Georgia Tech’s offense has been taken to a new level thanks to a sparkling performance from a dual-threat quarterback.
Sophomore Haynes King threw for 2,755 yards and 26 touchdowns and tacked on 648 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground.
Tech scored 31.2 ppg and ranked 39th in the country in EPA per play.
The Ramblin’ Wreck should be able to impose their will on a defense that struggled to stop the run all season and will be missing its best cornerback, Corey Thornton.
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Hardcore college football bettors love this time of year.
Each contest is its own story with its own, unique plotlines.
Sometimes things get fussy with motivation angles, coaching departures and player absences, while others seem pretty straightforward.
The 2023 Gasparilla Bowl is one of the latter as we’ll have two programs looking to put on a show to cap off their season.
With two explosive offenses taking on a couple of leaky defenses, this showdown has all the ingredients for a play on the Over and is a good game to target either side on the live moneyline should they fall behind by a couple of scores early.