The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
JACKETS ACHIEVE NINE-WIN GOAL
DEFENSE STYMIES UK
In a matchup with more extracurricular feistiness than any Georgia Tech has had in recent memory, the Yellow Jackets met their objective of a nine-win season. Under overcast skies, Tech leveraged one of its best defensive efforts of the season to take care of Kentucky 33-18 in the TaxSlayer Bowl on Saturday afternoon.
Tech held Kentucky to 324 yards and produced three threeand-outs, impressive work considering that the Wildcats had averaged 512 yards in the final six games of the regular season. Tech’s defense made the first big play of the game, a sack and forced fumble of quarterback Stephen Johnson by defensive tackle Patrick Gamble that linebacker P.J. Davis scooped up and returned 38 yards for a touchdown on the game’s fourth play from scrimmage.
It gave Tech a 7-0 lead that the Wildcats, making their first bowl appearance since the 2010 season, were never able to overcome.
The Jackets defense made another game-changing play in the second quarter, stopping the Wildcats on a fourth-and-1 from the Tech 5-yard line when defensive ends KeShun Freeman and Antonio Simmons brought down running back Jojo Kemp in the backfield.
Tech then drove 94 yards for a touchdown and a 17-3 lead, a drive that included a fourth-and-1 conversion on Tech’s 15.
In his final game, kicker Harrison Butker drilled a careerhigh four field goals, including a 52-yarder to end the first half. Butker’s first score of the game, the extra point after Davis’ touchdown, made him the school’s all-time leading scorer with 323 points, breaking his tie with Tech great Luke Manget.
B-back Dedrick Mills ran 31 times for 169 yards, both career highs. His final carry was a 3-yard touchdown run with 2:18 remaining that put the game out of reach after the Wildcats had scored 15 fourth-quarter points to close the score to 26-18 with 3:57 left. He was named game MVP.
The contest was interrupted by a couple of incidents of pushing and shoving after plays, one of which earned Tech a bench penalty in the second quarter after Terrell Lewis blocked a Kentucky punt. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops also appeared to be yelling at coach Paul Johnson across the field after an injury to a Wildcats defensive lineman.
Tech finished the season 9-4, the 11th time of nine wins since Bobby Dodd’s retirement after the 1966 season. Johnson owns four of them. Johnson challenged his team to win nine games and earn its spot as one of the better teams in that time span after the Jackets had fallen out of the ACC Coastal race. Tech finished the season with wins over five bowl teams, including the Wildcats. Tech has also won three of its past four bowl games after the Jackets had lost seven straight. — KEN SUGIURA
MILLS VOTED MVP
Mills finished his freshman season about the best way possible: leaving everyone looking forward to his sophomore season.
Mills earned game MVP honors Saturday, punishing Kentucky with 31 carries for 169 yards. Both were career-high numbers for Mills. He carried the load — his carries accounted for 48 percent of Tech’s offensive plays — without sharing snaps with B-back Marcus Marshall, who left the team after the regular season and has transferred to James Madison.
“It wasn’t that tough,” Mills said with a laugh about running against Kentucky. “Behind the offensive line, just running off their blocks made it easier for me to find holes and get through them.”
Tech looked to Mills to gain four of the most critical yards of the game. He converted a fourthand-1 at Tech’s 15-yard line in the second quarter, a high-risk play that he turned into a 3-yard gain by running behind left guard Parker Braun and center Freddie Burden. He put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter by running the ball in on a third-and-goal from the 3 with less than 2:30 to play to stretch Tech’s lead to 15 points.
Mills gained tough yards between the tackles, breaking tackles and taking on contact. Tech leaned heavily on him on a fourth-quarter drive that started to finish off the Wildcats. Ahead 23-10 after a Kentucky touchdown, the Jackets drove 68 yards in 11 plays, eight of them carries by Mills, to score on a Butker field goal and box in the Wildcats.
Mills finished the season with 771 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns, the most rushing yards for a Tech freshman since Jimy Lincoln’s 913 in 1991. It ends an eventful season, one in which Mills was suspended twice for a total of three games and missed another with a concussion.
“I think he can be a very special player,” Johnson said. “He’s a very talented young man. We’ve got to try to help him grow up. Sometimes, you know, at that age, when you’re 18, we all didn’t make great decisions. It’s our job to help him make the right decisions because he’s got a bright future if he’ll continue to work hard.” — KEN SUGIURA
DECISIVE PLAYS ON FOURTH DOWN
In the second quarter, when the game was far from decided, two fourth-down plays swung the balance toward Tech.
“They converted a fourth down. We didn’t,” Stoops said. “Those are critical plays.”
Trailing 10-3, Kentucky had driven from its 28 to Tech’s 5-yard line, where it faced a fourth-and-1. The Wildcats are not a risk-loving team — their 12 fourth-down attempts going into the game were tied for 116th in FBS — but they had made 10 of them, the third highest rate in the country (83.3 percent). Stoops made the decision to go, feeling that the Wildcats would need the points to keep up with the Jackets in a low-possession game.
On the play, Freeman and Simmons were unblocked on the edges and pinned down Kemp in the backfield, stopping him for a 1-yard loss. Kentucky ran the play out of a wildcat formation, with Kemp taking the shotgun snap.
Taking possession, Tech ran into its own fourth-and-1 on its fourth play of the drive, at its 15-yard line. Johnson has little problem going for it on fourth down, but doing so inside the Jackets’ own red zone is unusual even for him. Johnson joked that he went “brain dead” by going for it.
Tech sent an A-back in motion in hopes of drawing Kentucky offside, and when that didn’t happen, quarterback Justin Thomas said he was waiting for Johnson to call timeout. When he didn’t, Thomas called for the snap and gave the ball to Mills, who ran behind Braun and Burden for a relatively easy 3-yard gain for the first down. Tech finished the drive in the end zone on Thomas’ 21-yard scoring run. Rather than a possible 10-all tie had the Wildcats made their fourth down, the Jackets were up 17-3.
“I was surprised, especially that early in the game, being that far on your side of the field,” Thomas said.
Johnson said that he had an official beside him and that he was considering a timeout, but that Thomas snapped the ball too quickly before he could act. What made Johnson consider the play at all was that Kentucky didn’t have a player lined up over Braun.
“When they didn’t cover the guard, it was kind of a gimme,” he said. — KEN SUGIURA
BUTKER GETS RECORD
Manget had what seemed an idle wish for Butker this month.
“I hope he does well,” Manget said. “I hope he kicks several field goals.”
Manget got his wish. Butker, who entered the TaxSlayer Bowl on Saturday tied with Tech hall of famer Manget for the Yellow Jackets’ career scoring record with 322 points, finished his memorable career with one of his best games, going 4 for 4 on field goals and putting all seven of his kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks.
It was the first four-field goal game of Butker’s career with a team that typically eschews 3-pointers.
Butker passed Manget with his first point-after try just 1:50 into the game after P.J. Davis returned a fumble 38 yards for a touchdown.
“I was happy to get it over with,” Butker said. “A lot of emotions came over me. I was a Tech fan growing up, and then to think that I now hold the record for Georgia Tech history, that’s pretty crazy.” — KEN SUGIURA