Georgia Tech takes a knee to beat #4 Miami 28-23

The goalposts are at the President’s Mansion!

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Tech took a knee to beat #4 Miami 28-23 in front of one of the best Bobby Dodd Stadium crowds in recent memory at 47,358 strong for homecoming weekend. Tech becomes bowl eligible at 6-4 (4-3 ACC) while Miami suffers their first loss all season to become 9-1 (5-1 ACC).

I think I speak for all Yellow Jacket fans when I say this is of the best days, possibly the best day, we’ve had in the Brent Key era. Even with cathartic wins and crazy weird upsets every season it seems against UNC and Miami, this was a game that we all knew was possible. We’ve seen Miami nearly lose multiple times this season. They were due. If our offense was up for it, they were going to keep us in this game and they damn well did.

Of the eight players to attempt a rush for Tech, Haynes King led all with 93 yards, needing to shoulder a bigger load after Jamal Haynes left the game early, but not before Haynes himself had put down a 65 yard run on Tech’s first drive. Miami outgained Tech in overall yardarge, but Tech did a fantastic job controlling clock and shrinking the game for Cam Ward, winning the possession battle 34:49 to 25:11.

Third downs were going Tech’s way on both sides of the ball, Tech converting 9-14 and holding Miami to 3-10, including three turnovers on downs.

Ultimately, Tech had to play scrappy football to stay afloat in this game. By no means was the defense perfect as Cam Ward was able to do some Cam Ward things, but between using two quarterbacks interchangebly and four running backs, this was the teamiest team win Tech has won all season.

Not enough can be said about Haynes King gritting this game out. We’ve all seen with our own eyes that he’s not 100% healthy, but this dude took what he had, played, and made himself useful in whatever way made sense and complemented Aaron Philo’s strengths as they shared quarterback duties. In Tech’s case, having two quarterbacks might mean you actually have two quarterbacks.

How it happened

Tech had an ideal start getting a 65 yard run by Jamal Haynes to set up his won 16 yard rushing TD for an early 7-0 lead. MIami wasted no time countering, scoring on a 75 yard pass to Elijah Arroyo on their second play to tie it at 7-7.

After a Tech punt (before which Jamal Haynes got tackled hard in the head, targeting was not called, and he did not return to the game), Miami again got to driving with a couple chunk yardage catches to get into Tech territory before Ward overthrew a receiver in the endzone and threw an incompletion on third down. Their 41 yard field goal put the Canes ahead 10-7 with 7:47 left in the 1st.

What ensued was one of the longest drives by Tech all season, a 17 play, 75 yard drive taking up 10:45 of clock ending with a 3rd & goal TD by Malik Rutherford to take a 14-10 lead early in the second quarter. It was full of weirdness, as both Haynes King and Aaron Philo took plays at QB throughout the drive (and the rest of the half), including a play where Philo lined up at RB and King faked a handoff to him. Philo saved the drive two plays later on a 12 yard scramble on 3rd & 9.

Both squads went scoreless on their next two possessions, which included Tech forcing a turnover on downs within field goal range for Miami. Tech wen thtree and out directly after that as Rutherford dropped what would’ve been a first down catch on the left sideline from Philo. Tech’s defense did a great job forcing another Miami punt when they were in prime position to create a double possession opportunity. Tech went into the half up 14-10.

Miami came out looking slightly better to start the second half, but got stopped on a 4th & 1 rollout pass for their second turnover on downs. Tech’s drive included three first down runs by Haynes King and the return of Trey Cooley with Chad Alexander and Jamal Haynes both injured. On 3rd & 9 from our 15, Philo landed a perfect touch pass to Chase Lane running a seam route and kept the ball through the ground to put Tech up 21-10.

Miami’s next drive was one of their classic air raid drives with multiple catches for first downs leading to an Isaiah Horton 8-yard touchdown catch. Miami went for two points to try and make it a field goal game, but Ward was sacked, keeping it at 21-16 Tech late in the 3rd quarter.

Tech’s next drive damn near almost broke multiple times after Cooley got rocked on a targeting tackle, then a fumbled snap that King recovered, and then Philo hitting Bailey Stockton on 3rd & 17 to keep the drive alive. That set up Cooley returning to make a 1st down catch inside the 10 before Haynes King ran it in for a 5-yard score, putting Tech up 28-16 with 13 minutes left in the game.

Again Miami had their foot on the throttle to get into Tech territory with multiple chunk completions, and again ran into trouble with incompletions and short passes, drawing a 4th & 6 situation in a 4-down situation. Their next play was caught in the endzone but had multiple offensive penalties called against them, creating a 4th & 16 that they did not convert, causing their third turnover on downs for the game.

Tech went three and out on their next drive, Philo barely missing Singleton on a crossing route that would’ve been for a first down to start milking clock in a dangerous way for Miami.

The Hurricanes did what they needed to do on their next drive, possibly scoring too fast within a score with a 38 yard touchdown by Restrepo to make it 28-23 with 6 minutes left.

Tech got one first down on a 3rd & 8 catch by Malik Rutherford to get the clock under 4 minutes, but a 3rd & 1 Haynes King keeper went backwards two yards, forcing Tech to punt at the two minute warning. Somehow, Miami needed to call timeout after the two minute warning, so they were left with two timeouts going into what had to be a scoring drive for them.

Instead on their second play, Cam Ward danced around too long, allowing Romello Height to strip sack Ward, Jordan van den Berg recovering the fumble inside Miami’s 20. Eric Singleton on 3rd & 8 after two short rushes had a lane to score on a jet sweep, but wisely slid shy of the goal line, allowing Tech to take a knee right in front of Mario Cristobal and seal the victory.

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Taylor Gray

In the postgame presser, Brent Key nearly shed tears when asked about Haynes King’s toughness and what it means for the program, casting aside any doubts that King wasn’t going to play. King said himself he was always planning to play regardless of the role and regardless how his shoulder was doing.

Immediately as the game ended, both goalposts were brought down by staff to make sure no one climbed on them, but students did get one post outside Bobby Dodd Stadium. The post was taken up Techwood Drive, then down Fowler to turn on Ferst Dr past Russ Chandler, then through the BioQuad and into the President’s Mansion property, where it was thrown into the pool at the Mansion:

Notes from Georgia Tech:

• Georgia Tech moved to 6-1 against nationally ranked ACC opponents under head coach Brent Key
• The win was Georgia Tech’s first over a top-five opponent since a 28-23 win over No. 4 Virginia Tech on Oct. 17, 2009, snapping a 13-game losing streak against top-five teams.
• Georgia Tech’s 271 rushing yards were the most that Miami, which had the nation’s No. 8-ranked rushing defense coming in (95.2 ypg), has allowed this season (prev.: 206 vs. Virginia Tech – Sept. 27).
• Georgia Tech’s 17-play, 75-yard, 10-minute-and-45-second touchdown drive spanning the first and second quarters was the second-longest scoring drive in terms of time elapsed in program history (record: 10:47 TD drive at Virginia – Oct. 24, 2009).
• r-Jr. DB Omar Daniels had a career-high eight tackles, and r-So. LB J. Lightsey had a career-high six tackles

Additional Charts from Game on Paper

Binion Box via Game on Paper

UPDATE: With uga’s loss to Ole Miss, today marks the first day since November 11th, 2017 that Georgia Tech has won and uga has lost on the same day.