Georgia Tech at Kansas
Written by Jack Jones - Google +
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (1-0) visit the Kansas Jayhawks (0-1) Saturday with the kickoff set for 12:00 EST. According to the latest odds, they have listed Georgia Tech -14 over Kansas. This line is mainly based off of how these teams played in Week 1, which saw the Yellow Jackets dominate their opposition and the Jayhawks fall to an FCS opponent.
The Yellow Jackets trounced South Carolina State 41-10 last week to get their season off to a solid start. Despite completing just 2 passes, No. 15 Georgia Tech still managed to roll in this game behind 372 rushing yards and 6.6 yards per carry. Paul Johnson’s triple-option attack featured 12 different players running the football. Though QB Josh Nesbitt only completed 1 of 6 passes, he still ran for 130 yards and 3 touchdowns.
No longer around is WR Demaryius Thomas, who accounted for 65 percent of Georgia Tech’s receiving yards a year ago and also eight of their 11 receiving touchdowns. He is now with the NFL’s Denver Broncos, and there’s no question Nesbitt will miss him this season. Johnson was not happy with his team’s defense, as the Yellow Jackets allowed 178 rushing yards to Championship Subdivision foe SC State.
But Johnson didn’t really care that his team wasn’t efficient through the air. “The bottom line is you try to score more points than the other team,” Johnson said. “We scored 41 points and they had 10. That will leave everybody else to talk about how we can’t throw it. Maybe they’re right and maybe they’re not. We might throw it next week at Kansas. We might throw it better.”
It was not a good start for new head coach Turner Gill and the Kansas Jayhawks. They lost 6-3 to North Dakota last Saturday, representing the first time they didn’t score at least 7 points in a game since October 15, 2005 against Oklahoma. Their lone score came off of the right foot of Jacob Branstetter in the first quarter. The loss represented their 8th straight defeat since starting last season 5-0.
A poor finish last year resulted in the firing of head coach Mark Mangino, who had seemed to turn this program around before a 5-7 campaign last season. But when the offense has to replace QB Todd Reesing and his 10,990 passing yards and 87 touchdowns for his career, it was pretty easy to see that it would not be a smooth transition. Not to mention the Jayhawks lost their two best receivers in Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier. It’s unclear who will start at quarterback this Saturday. Sophomore Kale Pick went 13 of 22 with an interception before getting pulled, and freshman Jordan Webb finished the game.
Jack’s Free Prediction: Georgia Tech -14 – I know you can’t judge a team off of one game, but the Jayhawks losing 6-3 to North Dakota is a clear indication that there’s no much talent in Kansas. They are in rebuilding mode, while the Yellow Jackets are primed to compete for another ACC title this year. I can’t see Kansas being able to score enough points to keep up with Georgia Tech in this one.
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