Paul Johnson is one of the most underrated head coaches in America. He did a phenomenal job for all those years at Navy, and now, he has brought the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to a few ACC Championship Games and even a New Year's Six bowl win over Mississippi State last year. But can the Ramblin' Wreck ever legitimately become a National Championship contender?
2015 SCHEDULE
9/3: vs. Alcorn State
9/12: vs. Tulane
9/19: at Notre Dame
9/26: at Duke
10/3: vs. North Carolina
10/10: at Clemson
10/17: vs. Pittsburgh
10/24: vs. Florida State
10/31: at Virginia
11/12: vs. Virginia Tech
11/21: at Miami
11/28: vs. Georgia
After those opening two games of the season, this schedule gets really difficult, really quickly for the Jackets. They play five games on the road, including that non-conference game in South Bend against Notre Dame which is more or less just an extension of the ACC schedule.
Unfortunately for G-Tech, it drew the short end of the scheduling stick this year, getting both Clemson (road) and Florida State (home). Still, the ACC Coastal Division could be there for the taking even if those games are lost.
SEASON WIN TOTAL
A total of 7.5 feels low for a Paul Johnson coached team. Then again, when you look at the schedule, you'll see three games on the docket against Clemson, FSU and Georgia in which the team will surely be a dog, and that doesn't even include the unpredictable ACC Coastal Division games which tend to all be very close.
You could make the case for this being an 11-1 team, just as you could make a case for it going 4-8.
OFFENSIVE OUTLOOK
Justin Thomas had his ups and downs last season, but he is certainly more up than down, and that's why Georgia Tech has been so dangerous. He rushed for 1,086 yards and threw for 1,719 more, and unlike so many other triple option quarterbacks before him, Thomas can actually throw the pigskin.
It's going to be tough to move on from Synjyn Days, Zach Laskey, Charles Perkins and Tony Zenon, the team's top four rushers outside of Thomas last year, but if there's a man who can coach up a few guys to run in the triple option, it's Paul Johnson.
Georgia Tech averaged 342.1 rushing yards per game last season, and though there were surely a few really easy games on the slate in which the team rumbled for over 500 yards, there were a lot of big games against the likes of Georgia and Mississippi State, too.
DEFENSIVE OUTLOOK
The Yellow Jackets flat out weren't good defensively last year. They did their best job outscoring foes, but there were too many games where that just didn't work, particularly against the speedy clubs who were able to contain Thomas and force him to work inside instead of outside.
This year probably isn't going to be much better for this defense. Adam Gotsis is back, and he is one of the best NFL prospects along the defensive line in this conference. However, there are still a lot of holes, namely in the secondary, and some of the good, young quarterbacks in the ACC could torch this unit.
SEASON PREDICTION
We're going to give Georgia Tech around eight wins this season, which should be good enough to at least think about competing for the ACC Coastal title. There will be a game somewhere down the line which the Ramblin' Wreck lose that they have no business losing, but there will be a game that they win in which they have no business winning as well.
In the end, Thomas will at least keep this team competitive, though we can't see Johnson taking that next major leap from ACC contender to national contender. Leave those 120 to 1 odds on Georgia Tech to win the National Championship alone.
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