NCAA Week Seven: Bad Advice, Bold Prediction and Something Else

(Bold is what Josh Nesbitt needs to be Saturday night)

Oh-me-o, oh-my-o, oh-Cleveland, Ohio. The big day, it has arrived.

Most Yellow Jacket fans had this game circled on their schedule in the preseason as "the one" Tech has to win to get to Tampa. Obviously, no one saw Miami coming. Oops.

Still, Virginia Tech's second visit to Atlanta this season presents each of these teams with an attractive opportunity. If Georgia Tech wins, they insert themselves firmly back into the ACC Coastal—and BCS—picture(s). If Virginia Tech wins, the Hokies all but sew up another trip to the ACC title game, and stay in the national title hunt.

Sounds like a textbook case of bad advice, bold prediction to me...

Bad advice

Make this game about Tyrod Taylor.

Georgia Tech's defense lives next door to god-awful, which is just around the corner from terrible, and at least half a mile from respectability. OK, that was maybe just a little harsh, but you see my point.

Ryan Williams is good. Very good. He'll get his 150 yards and two scores, fine.

But for a defense that's looked pretty bad in every way recently, this game has to be about the little battles, and this is one: Make Tyrod Taylor beat you.

I'll concede, Taylor has improved this year. His completion percentage is down, but his passer rating is way up, and the 300 yards he hung on Duke were impressive. But on the whole, his body of work still does not impress.

This game is everything for both of these teams, and there's going to be plenty of pressure, and plenty of talk about focus. Taylor's got experience, so I'll give that his focus is going to be much better.

But I'm still not sold on him being a big-game quarterback—Georgia Tech needs to make him prove that he is.

Bold prediction

Georgia Tech's defense actually plays alright on Saturday.

Seriously, this might be the boldest prediction I've ever made, but I just see more talent and resiliency in this Jacket defense than their performance last week would suggest.

Dave Wommack's troops weren't slouching last year when they finished 25th in the country in total defense. And while that unit was decimated by graduation and injury into what you see today, there's still more talent present in this bunch than has been on display recently.

Now, don't expect Derrick Morgan and Co. to turn into the '85 Bears out there Saturday night—you will be disappointed.

But realistically, this unit, as a whole, should play better Saturday. I would venture to say maybe 300-350 yards with two-three turnovers. Fans of the bee, that suddenly doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Something else

Somebody's going to prove something Saturday night.

I'm not entirely sure who it's gonna be, but someone (or someones, is that a word?) will walk out of Bobby Dodd Stadium at about 10:30 p.m. feeling like they've made a serious point.

If you're Virginia Tech, maybe it's Tyrod Taylor, proving that he's not just a makeweight at quarterback. Or maybe it's your defense, proving to the world that they are better than their No. 35 overall ranking.

If you're Georgia Tech, a win proves you're one of the top two or three teams in your conference, and definitely worthy of BCS consideration. Individually, perhaps it's Josh Nesbitt, coming up large on the biggest stage possible to say to the conference that you are in fact its best offensive player.

I don't know for sure who it will be, but somebody's gonna have a little bit of swagger when they walk off historic Grant Field at the end of this one. And it's going to be well-deserved.

Finally, a prediction

This is a turning point in the development of Georgia Tech football under Paul Johnson.

This is Mark Richt against Auburn, this is Bob Stoops against Texas. This is Johnson's opportunity to lift his team into a higher level of college football prominence, among the perennial conference contenders.

Frank Beamer might well be the ACC's finest coach, and his defensive coordinator, Bud Foster, is unarguably one of the country's premiere assistants.

But lost in the giddiness and babble about that cooky, old-fashioned offense Georgia Tech runs is that Paul Johnson is a darn fine coach himself. He was a fine coach at Georgia Southern, he was a fine coach at Navy and he's a fine coach now.

Ask Bobby Bowden down at Florida State—Johnson almost single-handedly outmaneuvered the 'Noles respected staff last weekend at Doak Campbell.

That was a turning point for this team, I think.

In a tough road environment, facing a team on fire with emotion, and enduring one momentum-stealing drive after another, the Jackets stood firm, and in the process learned some important things about themselves.

Most of all was this: Josh Nesbitt is now the consistent, driving force behind this offense, as well as its unquestioned leader.

He's developed the intangibles a Paul Johnson quarterback needs—toughness, focus, an endless motor—and last week at Florida State was his coming-out party.

There are about 46 different matchups we could break down in this game in hopes that we might get to the truth, only to find we're still far from it. But I do know this: In college football, quarterbacks are the alpha and the omega, the beginning, middle, and end.

Big-play receivers are important, and all the great teams are going to have a standout tailback. But your quarterback is the buoy by which you sink or swim.

And until I'm proven wrong, I'll take Josh Nesbitt over Tyrod Taylor, and I'll take Georgia Tech over Virginia Tech in what I think is destined to be one of the truly great games of this college football season.

Final score: Georgia Tech 31, Virginia Tech 27.