Bigger One Looms for Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Plus Other Shenanigans

(Methinks those two aren't be looking at anything but Virginia.)

We've been together, you, the reader, and I, the writer, for a good while now, in this space. So I think it's time to introduce you to a reporter's best friend: the notebook.

No, not the one I write in.

A notebook is a story or column that essentially allows a reporter to dump a ton of information in a few brief paragraphs and quotes, thus bringing you lots of nuggets—so you'll come back for more later—without the hassle of actually trying to turn pigskin into prose (forgive the alliteration).

Plus, we get subheadlines, which are pretty sweet. So here goes.

Hey, look who's in first place in the ACC Coastal

Yes, that's right. The team that lost to William & Mary but still put a 47-spot on my alma mater, Indiana, Virginia, is 2-0 and numero uno in the most topsy-turvy division in college football.

Conveniently enough for our purposes, Georgia Tech will hop a plane to Charlottesville this weekend to take on the suddenly-resurgent Wahoos (don't ask ), in what is surprisingly a pretty big game. 

Why? The Jackets haven't won at Virginia since 1990, when they knocked off the No. 1 Cavaliers on their way to a tie for the national championship (and a win in the real national championship, since Colorado got five downs to preserve their half).

Tech has just one win in its last six tries against the Cavaliers, including last year's 24-17 debacle that saw the Jackets score twice in their first two possessions then never touch the end zone grass again.

That loss eventually became the difference between a trip to Tampa and the Peach—Chick-fil-A, sorry, corporate sponsors—Bowl for the Jackets, something they would do well not to forget in all the hooptie-doo (yes, hooptie-doo) surrounding the Virginia Tech win.

Let's make jokes about Kam Chancellor being demoted to vice provost of something

Chancellor somewhat-famously (i.e., if you pay attention to conference media days over the summer) announced at ACC media day that he had seen some things on tape that essentially put him inside the mind of the option.

I'm paraphrasing, but he said he saw certain keys that would tip him off as to where the play might go.

Now, the option is a read-based offense, so unless Kam Chancellor can read minds, I was sort of doubting this proclamation to begin with.

But Chancellor and the Virginia Tech defense gave up 309 rushing yards. So whatever he might have seen, it appears Chancellor did not do an adequate job of relaying news of his discovery to his defensive comrades.

Asked after the win about those comments, and whether Georgia Tech remembered them, Josh Nesbitt replied "How 'bout them Jackets?" with a smile, according to the AJC's Doug Roberson . So yes, they remembered.

Chancellor himself had six tackles, but was also victimized on a few big plays -- ESPN even highlighted blocks laid on Chancellor in its postgame highlights.

Tiebreakers, tiebreakers, break me some ties

It's still a tad early to start talking about too many tie-breaking scenarios right now, seeing as the Coastal Division leader has played a grand total of two conference games.

So let's do it anyway.

Conference tiebreakers are among the most mystifying and logic-defying sets of rules ever codified. Decrypting them is like trying to get a simple assessment out of a baseball scout, or a four-year old to spell the word "encyclopedia."

It also requires the actual Rosetta Stone. No, really.

Essentially, the grand predicament is this: Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Miami are all tied, because each beat one other.

Let's assume for a second that Virginia loses two conference games (which Georgia Tech would like to partially guarantee this weekend). In that scenario, there are a long list of comparisons that would be counted, including:

• Records of tied teams within the division.
• Head-to-head competition vs. the team within the division with the best overall (divisional or conference) record, and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken first to last
• Overall record for non-divisional teams.
  
• Tarot readings.
  

I made one of those up, but I'm not sure which, because I began hallucinating before I could finish reading all the tiebreakers. You can go cross-eyed trying to understand them by clicking here .

Essentially, what it boils down to, best I can tell, is that the three-plus team tiebreaker is intended to narrow the field to two teams, then restart the process from there.

Like, if Virginia Tech ended up short straw first on one of those tiebreakers, then they would get knocked out, and Georgia Tech and Miami would enter the two-team scenario. I think?

It all matters none at all, because each of these four teams still has at least three ACC games to play, which is plenty of time to screw everything up. As if it wasn't already.

Georgia Tech is that team with three left, which might help, considering that it keeps the goal squarely in focus while at the same time making it easy to bear down on each individual game.

Or they could lose at Virginia this weekend and call it a day. It's entirely up to them.

My head is physically smoking now, after having read those tiebreakers, so I need a nap. I shan't leave you empty-handed, however.

Below, you'll see a video that proves something I've believed for a long time: Georgia Tech fans are some of the most creative in all of college football.

Don't just tear down your goalposts, do something with them. That something? Go show them to the school president, by taking them to his front lawn. The prez says something unintelligible, but he sounds like a good sport.