Georgia Tech looking to avoid letdown

ATLANTA -- The obvious question facing Georgia Tech this week involves motivation. Can the Yellow Jackets avoid an emotional letdown this week against Virginia after scoring such a dramatic victory over Florida State?

Head coach Paul Johnson said the team's practices had been good.

"I thought their attention span and energy was good," Johnson said after Tuesday's workout.

The natural inclination might be to expect an emotional letdown since the Yellow Jackets ended a five-game losing streak with a dramatic play that has been shown hundreds of times on ESPN, while they are playing a Virginia team that has only won two games.

"You've just got to go play," Johnson said. "You correct the mistakes we made, and there were a lot of them, and we've got to play. Their backs are against the wall, just like ours. They're trying to get to three (wins); we're trying to get to four."

Georgia Tech still needs at least three wins to become bowl eligible. The Yellow Jackets have games remaining against Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami and Georgia. Each would be considered winnable, but each would be considered another chance to lose.

"We've still got a big, big hole to dig out of," Johnson said. "We've got to get ready to play. This is our next game, and then we've got a bye week. So if we can pull ourselves back up to one game, the goal of the team right now is to try to get to a bowl game. So we've got to win four. We've got to get the number four here before the bye week and just keep pushing."

Should Georgia Tech become bowl eligible, the Yellow Jackets likely would be viewed as popular targets since they would have won at least four of their final five games. Considering the ACC's number of bowl affiliations, that could mean an invitation from the likes of the New Era Bowl in New York City, the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, or the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit.

"I sure hope there's a sense of urgency," Johnson said. "I hope we never lost it. But you've got to take it game by game. You can't get too far ahead of yourself."

Georgia connections: There are four players from Georgia on the Virginia roster -- tailback Jordan Ellis, a redshirt freshman from Peachtree Ridge, cornerback Darious Latimore, a redshirt freshman from Central Gwinnett, offensive tackle Eric Smith, a junior from Columbia in Decatur and defensive end Steven Wright, a freshman from Ware County.

Smith has started seven games on the offensive line. Ellis has played in five games and rushed for 73 yards and two touchdowns. Latimore has played five games and has four tackles. Wright is being redshirted.

Etc.: Virginia tight end Charlie Hopkins and Georgia Tech's Patrick Skov were roommates the past three years at Stanford. Both graduated in the summer, with Skov transferring to Georgia Tech and Hopkins headed to Virginia. Hopkins has started all seven games and has seven catches, two of them for touchdowns.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Georgia Tech looking to avoid letdown ."