Georgia Tech: Winning ACC Title More Important than Beating Georgia

Before you staple me to the bell tower and throw sharp things at my face, understand that I am perfectly willing to pass the buck a little bit here—this idea is not originally mine.

Mark Bradley suggested in a piece today that Paul Johnson has his sights set on more than just winning in-state bragging rights, and he's got a dead-eye quote to back it up:

I’m going to get Georgia Tech to the point where our program is bigger than one game.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is determination, and it's part of what makes Johnson so good at his job. And I agree with him.

Last season, (Bradley points this out, too) Johnson needed to be Georgia. It was therapy for a jaded fan base. Beating Georgia was the meat of that season, and anything before or after a win over UGA and bowl eligibility was gravy.

But Johnson is trying to do more than win state bragging rights, and now it's about bigger things.

Beating Georgia is important, of course, but it doesn't carry the same weight as the words "conference champion," and the trophy is bigger and prettier.

Recruits don't care nearly as much about beating your in-state rival as they do the hardware you can flash from winning an ACC title. The words "BCS bowl game" trump almost anything else coaches could whisper into a kid's ear.

And as this weekend proved, rarely is anything beyond pride on the line when Georgia and Georgia Tech meet. It doesn't remove intensity from the rivalry, but at the end of Saturday's action, Georgia Tech was still going to the ACC Championship, and Georgia was still 4-4 in the SEC. Little had changed.

Beating Georgia last year was a welcome—and some would say necessary—signal that Johnson had the program headed in the right direction. And sure, repeating that feat in 2009 would have been a great highlight, but this season's critical moment comes this weekend, not last.

It's the logical next step.