The Yellow Jackets, one would have to believe, woke up Sunday on top of the world.
The day before, their quarterback, Haynes King, was already sounding the alarm that he and his teammates would need to return to reality sooner rather than later.
“With being an older team, we’ve been there, we’ve done that. We’ve had things like this happen before. We’ve learned from it because it’s happened in the past,” King said after Georgia Tech beat No. 12 Clemson at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
“How we approach (Sunday) is everything. We can’t just come in still on the high of beating Clemson. Like, we got another game next week. Like, how we respond, how we come in (Sunday), will tell a lot about this team.”
For all the good vibes after breaking a nine-game losing streak to the Tigers, being 3-0 for the first time since 2016, having won seven straight games at home and now in the Top 25 at No. 18, there is a long way to go for this Jackets team.
Tech (3-0, 1-0 ACC) must turn around and prepare for Temple this coming week. That’s the first of nine remaining regular-season games, including seven conference games.
So as fun as it was for Tech to top Clemson and be swarmed by its fans on the field after Aidan Birr kicked a 55-yard game-winning field goal at the buzzer, it won’t mean much if Tech can’t continue to handle its business.
“Of course this was a big game. All of ‘em are big games,” Tech linebacker E.J. Lightsey said. “This was not our goal before the season started, to beat Clemson, to be 3-0. We’re trying to go all the way. We still gotta come out next week and put our foot on the gas and go 1-0 next week.”
Tech has not been 4-0 since it started the 2014 season with a five-game winning streak. That season the Jackets finished 10-2, won the ACC’s Coastal Division, lost to Florida State in the ACC title game and won the Orange Bowl to finish 11-3. A similarly successful season could be in the works considering Tech currently has no other ranked teams left on its slate outside of the season finale against rival No. 6 Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Beating Clemson to get to 3-0 was the first major hurdle for the Jackets, who gave up leads of 13-0 and 21-14 during the course of 60 minutes. But coach Brent Key’s squad showed resiliency once again, as it had in a 27-20 win at Colorado to start the year, by standing tall in the final quarter to prevail.
“When you start building a program, and you build your foundation in toughness, that’s not an easy thing to do. It’s one thing to say it, it’s another thing to live it every single day,” Key said. “Toughness isn’t about fighting people. Toughness is a mental aspect to the way you approach every day. Our kids do that. They believe in it.
“I told you I’ve had more fun coaching the last eight months, nine months now, than I’ve had in 25 years coaching. This group, they’re special. And it’s because of that, it’s the toughness, it’s the way they rebound, it’s the play-the-next-play (mentality).”
Tech next faces a Temple team that began the season with a 42-10 win at Massachusetts, handled Howard 55-7 at home and then took a 42-3 loss on the chin against No. 13 Oklahoma in Philadelphia. The Jackets faced Temple five years ago and lost, 24-2.
If the Jackets get past the Owls, they would sport a 4-0 mark before resuming ACC play at Wake Forest (2-1, 0-1 ACC) at the end of the month.
“Georgia Tech is for real, but now, it’s next-game mentality,” Tech safety Omar Daniels said. “We have fun, celebrate this win, but it’s the next game. We’re 3-0, we gotta keep it rolling. It don’t stop here.”
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