A Chip on Their Collective Shoulders

It has now been over a week since the debacle in Miami. I call it a debacle because that loss was a combination of two things: one team played great and the other team played terrible. I am taking nothing away from Miami and the nation has responded to their drubbing of the Yellow Jackets by putting them #9 in the polls. Do they deserve that ranking? Probably not but who am I to judge?

The Miami loss may be the best thing to happen to the 2009 Yellow Jackets. With that loss came the realization that they are NOT as good as they hoped. They were not a thundering stampede of non-stop first downs and a defense of iron bars. No team would look at them and collectively wet themselves in sheer horror. In other words, 9-4 didn't do a darn thing as 33-17 spoke a lot louder.

Maybe the team got just as caught up as fans did when looking at Paul Johnson's history of improvement between Year 1 and Year 2.

I don't want to focus on that loss but more on what that loss can generate. In some cases, one loss can turn into another, causing a tailspin that leads to an awful season amid hopes of a successful year. The team's minds are filled with regret, frustration and then acceptance of the overall outcome. Think 2008 – 2009 Detroit Lions. The thoughts of “not being any good”, “ deserving to lose” or “screw it” can come into the mind of the athlete just as easily as it can in the regular fan sitting in the bleachers.

However, there are times when the opposite occurs.

Regret turns into focus, frustration turns into anger and acceptance is rejected. You have all heard of the sports cliches of “looking in the mirror” and “finding out who were are” and it is at this time that those apply here. The Yellow Jackets must decide who they are and what they want to achieve. Forget the early expectations, the victory over UGA, Paul Johnson's history, forget it all.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets must do the one thing to be successful for the remainder of the year: play with a chip on their shoulder. They have been relegated to the back burner, removed from the polls and a now afterthought. They must believe that it is truly them against the world. They have to prove they were worthy of that ranking. When the team walks into Bobby Dodd stadium, there should be no jumping, no dancing, no playing to the crowd. They should walk onto the field like soldiers: determined, focused and relentless.