Permanently Grounded

My Boston College Eagles are obviously out of contention in the ACC this year, so I'm not vigilantly scoreboard watching to see the results of all our conference rivals. But I did manage to flip on tonight's Georgia Tech vs. Virginia Tech game, and I'm pretty taken aback by one particular aspect on the Yellow Jackets side.

Two completions. Two. How do you nearly win an ACC primetime Thursday night game against a highly-ranked Hokies squad without completing more than two passes all game? It seems pretty absurd, but the Jackets have been doing it all season. Coming into tonight, they had only passed for 678 yards this season, a miniscule number compared to their 2,539 rushing yards. They had completed just 40 passes in 8 games (average of 5 completions per game) compared to 447 rushing attempts. Needless to say, it isn't difficult to figure out whether they're trying to advance the ball via the ground or via the air on each play. So my main question -- how do they do it?
With that many rushing yards, you would assume Georgia Tech has some Heisman-favorite stud in the backfield racking up record-breaking totals. In reality, though, their 2,539 rushing yards are divided amongst an astonishing 14 different players. Their leading rusher -- senior Anthony Allen -- has just 692 of those 2,539 yards. 6 different players have 20+ carries on the season. Talk about a unique style for the Yellow Jackets. Is it requirement that you have to be a running back to play there?

Still, though, what does any of this matter if you can't do it effectively? That's what I'm impressed by. I'm not sitting here raving about the Yellow Jackets, and I'm not even really saying they're that good. Because they aren't. They got spanked by Clemson, who BC beat last week. They've defeated some solid teams, but they're nothing special. Average ACC team. I'm just impressed by the way they get it done. I've never seen anything like it from a team that still finds a way to win the games. Defenses can literally stack the box with all 11 guys if they wanted to, because the offense passes about as often as a pee-wee football team. To get 5.7 yards per carry when you run the ball every time -- that's something to be said for both the running backs and the offensive line.

They may have lost this game against VT on a kick return TD in the final minutes. They may only be mediocre as a whole. But hats off to Georgia Tech. They do it differently and they stick to it. They're proud of it. I guess it's better than having a coach like Brad Childress who doesn't know what the gameplan is and can't stick to anything nor gain the support of a single player on his team. Just saying.