Defense saves the day for now bowl-eligible Georgia Tech

Not long after Georgia Tech’s 28-23, upset win of No. 4 Miami on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Tech defensive linemen Romello Height and Jordan van den Berg met with the media to discuss the win. They brought with them to that discussion a small bronze statue of a grizzly bear.

“That’s ‘Grizz.’ Defensive mascot,” van den Berg proclaimed.

Van den Berg, a transfer from Penn State, had the game-sealing fumble recovery in the waning moments of Saturday’s triumph. Miami quarterback Cam Ward was sacked and stripped by Height and lost the ball, a ball that rolled toward the line of scrimmage where van den Berg (appropriately) bear crawled to cover it up.

That play sent the Tech student section into a frenzy and put an exclamation point on a defensive performance by the Yellow Jackets few (especially outside of the locker room) could have expected.

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Miami hadn’t scored less than 36 points all season. It had only been held to less than 500 yards of offense one other time this season. And the Hurricanes, still the current national leader in third down conversions, converted just three out of 10 opportunities on third down.

Tech also stopped UM three times on fourth down.

The Hurricanes managed only 88 rushing yards, by far a season low. Quarterback Cam Ward, a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy, had a solid day with 348 yards passing and three scores, but he was sacked three times and hurried on three other plays.

“(Tech defensive line) coach (Jess) Simpson, he just told us go out there and play grizz,” van den Berg simply explained Tech’s defensive success. “We all know what that means. So we just played grizz.”

Now the Jackets (6-4, 4-3 ACC) can not only hold their heads up high after Saturday’s defensive performance, they can also make plans to practice a few more weeks in December in preparation for a bowl game. The victory over Miami gave Tech a sixth win making it bowl eligible for the second season in a row.

Coach Brent Key’s team won’t officially know its bowl destination and opponent until Dec. 8. It can, however, position itself for a more appealing postseason game by winning one – or both – of its final two games this month.

The Jackets also have the benefit of extra time to prepare for the first of those two games, not playing again until Nov. 21 when North Carolina State (5-5, 2-4 ACC) comes to Bobby Dodd Stadium. Tech then travels to archrival Georgia (7-2) on Nov. 29.

It will need performances akin to Saturday’s to win either of those matchups, but beating the No. 4-ranked team in the nation has restored some much-needed confidence to a squad who scrapped and clawed for 60 minutes en route to victory.

“That’s all coach Key talked about all week was finishing the game,” said Tech defensive back Omar Daniels, who had a career-high eight tackles against the Hurricanes. “So we know we had to have each other’s back – offense, defense, special teams. So we just played all the way through. You always gotta put the team first.”