The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets finished the 2012 season 7–7 overall and 5–3 in ACC play to share the Coastal Division Championship with Miami and North Carolina. They lost to Florida State in the ACC Title game, but the Jackets look improved over last year and are ready to make another run. Vegas Odds have them listed as 150-1 to win the 2014 BCS Title.
2012 was a year the Tech community all went into with fairly high expectations. The team’s performance brushed the floor of what everyone was thinking, but didn’t quite hit the mark. The bowl win was a nice way to round out the year and kept the wheels from falling off the more…ostentatious sector of the fan base, but all in all it was a season that left most everyone wanting more.
As always, the biggest strength has to be the offense. Joshua Nesbitt and Tevin Washington had their strengths as option quarterbacks, but Vad Lee should offer a new dynamic to the Yellow Jackets’ spread-option scheme. Lee is a much better passer than his predecessors but also has the speed to outrun defenses. Lee will play behind an offensive line that brings back 94 career starts among six players. Georgia Tech is remarkably green at wide receiver — Darren Waller is the leading returning wideout with eight catches — which may hinder the development of the passing game. But the running game should again be stout with B-back (fullback) David Sims and A-back (slotback) Robert Godhigh both returning.
With the past few Georgia Tech teams, the one of the bigger issues has been the defense. I cite again the Miami game in which a 17-point fourth quarter lead was squandered or the game where Tech gave up 42 points to Middle Tennessee State. However, the biggest issue by far is inconsistency. The same defense that gave up 42 points to MTSU (the #66 offense in the country) also gave up seven points in the last six quarters of the season against FSU and USC (the #19 and #41 offenses in the country respectively). Tech needs to figure out a way to play heads-up all the time, and I think new DC Ted Roof should help with that a lot.
With 16 returning starters and a team loaded with seniors, the 2013 Yellow Jackets could be Johnson’s best team since the 2009 Orange Bowl squad. Much depends on how consistent Lee can be, and if Georgia Tech can handle a tough schedule in which it will play four Coastal Division opponents in a row, including Virginia Tech on five days’ rest. Georgia Tech is hardly a favorite, but it has the ingredients to win the division and play for the ACC title.
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