Georgia Tech vs. Clemson 2004

First off, what an amazing game. I had to miss the entire 4th quarter due to having to be at work at 1030pm, and the game's 800pm kickoff time. Since last week's win against Samford (W, 28-7) wasn't televised, this was my first look at the 2004 GT football team, not counting the 50-odd games I've seen them play on EA Sports NCAA Football 2005 on my Xbox. Now, I think that there were a lot of good things and quite a few bad things about this game. I was initially worried with both Nate Curry, Tech's stud senior WR and Eric Henderson, Tech's stud DE being out of the game but other boys picked up the slack.


Tech's WRs had a huge day. Great job, Damarius Bilbo (8), Calvin Johnson (21), and Levon Thomas (7)!

The bad things mainly involved Tech's inexperience. Now, this team looked better than they did in just about every single game last year, but Tech's pass rush and pass rush defense both struggled mightily. The O-Line let a few huge sacks destroy a couple drives, and Reggie got hurried countless times. The defensive line just couldn't pressure Charlie Whitehurst into making hurried throws and bad decisions, and the safeties and linebackers got burned by two huge runs in the 4th quarter. But since GT won, it's hard to say the bads outweighed the goods.


Tuck and run, Reggie! Ball (1) completed 20 of 36 for 251 yards with 4 TD and 1 INT. He also rushed for 73 yards.

Now, the good. First off, Tech showed a lot of heart to never pack it up and mail it in. When Clemson's Merriweather broke free for the 63-yard rushing TD to make it 17-7, I just about lost hope. But Tech rallied back, never giving up. The WRs were absolutely incredible, with Calvin Johnson, GT's true Freshman all-state all-country badass recruit, ringing up 3 incredible TD catches and 121 yards. Not to be overlooked was Levon Thomas' 100 yard, 1 TD recieving performance. Of course, the other two huge keys were Reggie Ball's patience on the field and P.J. Daniels' great runs. The adjustment of loading the backfield to buy Reggie more time from Clemson's ferocious pass rush was a brilliant one, and Chan Gailey's game management showed he really has what it takes.


P.J. Daniels (45) does what he does best - powers up the middle. Daniels rushed for 105 yards on 24 carries.

Oh, and a lucky bad snap doesn't hurt either, does it?

Next up for the Jackets: at North Carolina (who got slaughtered by UVA this week).

And look at this beautiful catch:

Calvin Johnson's TD catch with 1:50 left to keep Tech in the game and set up GT's 28-24 win over Clemson. Whatafreakingcatch!