Be There

Guess what everybody?? There’s a cold front coming through. Like actually there’s a cold front coming through town... so it’s probably going to be a little chilly on Thursday night, but that’s what long johns and $8 Miller Lites are for. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been this excited about a Georgia Tech football game since before COVID. And I get it... it’s only Virginia and I know we’ve only won two games in a row and I know we still have a looooooong way to go, but Brent Key’s expletive-filled exit from Bobby Dodd a couple Saturdays ago has been playing on repeat in my brain. To quote some friends from BYU - I’m pretty gosh darn pumped up about this one. You should be, too. I don’t care if it’s 30 degrees outside on Thursday night. I’ll be there. Again - you should be, too.

Tech has a chance to go above .500 in late October, to continue restoring faith in a wavering fan base, and to slightly numb the fact that the Braves got knocked out of the NLDS by the phillies (boooooo). And if the Jackets play like they did for the first 53 minutes of the Duke game, then I’m as confident as any fan should be. Don’t trust me and my highly emotional analytics? Even Vegas is picking the Jackets (GT -4.5 at the time of writing). We’ll have a more in-depth preview later in the week, but Virginia has struggled in the first half of the year. Their two wins include a season opener against FCS Richmond and a 2-point victory against Old Dominion. Duke beat them by three touchdowns, and although the transitive property is about as flimsy as the toilet paper in Hartsfield-Jackson, the Cavaliers haven’t been all-that impressive in any of their games. Yet. They still have Brennan Armstrong, and let me remind you - last season he torched our secondary for 396 yards and 4 TDs. On the ground, he added another 99 yards and 2 TDs. Time for some revenge?? You bet.

Also, in case you forgot, Virginia is now the home of Tony Elliott, the former Clemson OC who loved to run up and down the field on us. They still have some serious weapons on the outside that can create some matchup problems, but that’s what coaches are for. And although we have a lot to clean up, it definitely appears that we’ve improved in that department. Sometimes the best addition is subtraction. The extra time off should also help (McCollum and some others started to get a little banged up at the end of the Duke game), but getting the team fired up, focused, and ready to go after a break is another test that Brent Key will have to pass if he wants to hold on to the HC spot. The recent administrative moves could be a good sign for his future, but it’s still going to boil down to performance.

Speaking of getting fired up... and back to the whole reason that I am writing this... we need to show up on Thursday night. I said it about 3 minutes ago and I’ll say it again. I don’t care if it’s a little cold. That’s football weather, baby. I don’t care if it’s a school night. Take Friday off, call in sick, show up tired. I’m sure some, if not most, of you are working from home anyways... No one is expecting The Flats to be fully packed, but it better be rowdy as hell. Students - you have no excuse - be there. We get another game under the lights at Bobby Dodd. This time, we have a little momentum. See you on The Flats. Go Jackets!