Jackets need to back up big win

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets pulled off a statement win last week when they knocked off Virginia Tech in thrilling fashion.

It’s the kind of win that sets off a celebration on a college campus. And it certainly did that with Yellow Jackets fans enjoying one of their biggest home wins ever.

It’s also the kind of win that can send a team in one of two directions: soaring to a dynamic season or stumbling downward with a hangover from the tremendous victory.

The Yellow Jackets begin to find out which way their season will go starting today at Virginia. This is a game that looked like a sure win when the schedule came out, and it probably still looked that way once the season began because the Cavaliers were just awful the first few games.

But things have changed the past few weeks for the Cavaliers as they have won their first two conference games, albeit against some questionable teams in North Carolina and Maryland. Still, those two wins have placed the Cavaliers atop the ACC’s Coastal Division standings, while Georgia Tech has just one conference loss, and that puts quite a bit of importance on the contest.

That said, Georgia Tech should win this game, and the Yellow Jackets are favored to do so. No matter what Virginia has done in recent weeks, Georgia Tech is the better team, and how the Yellow Jackets’ season turns out will depend largely if they show they indeed are the better team today.

If Georgia Tech can win, it would move into pretty solid position to earn a spot in the ACC championship game in December. Sure, the Yellow Jackets would need some help and have Miami lose another conference game, but there’s a good chance the Hurricanes will lose another ACC contest. Miami is certainly having a bounceback season, but it’s still not the Miami of old that just rolled into games and expected to win.

The Hurricanes are going to have to play well to win out, and it’s easy to see them slipping up somewhere down the stretch.

Georgia Tech needs to be right there to take advantage of that and take control of the Coastal Division’s race to the ACC championship game. If the past few weeks are any indication, the Yellow Jackets will do just that. Georgia Tech won a thrilling contest at Florida State two weeks ago and backed that up with another exciting game against Virginia Tech.

In those two games, the Yellow Jackets have proven they can step up and succeed in big moments, and they will get another chance to do that against the Cavaliers. If they can do that once again today, they’ll have many more big moments ahead of them this season.

Contact Daniel Shirley at 744-4227 or dshirley@macon.com