Bad Advice, Bold Prediction and Something Else: Championship Edition

(Will Josh Nesbitt be called "champion" by Sunday?.)

Well, bee fans, the decisive hour is nigh.

At 8 p.m. Saturday night, a berth in the Orange Bowl gets tossed on the table between the Tigers and Yellow Jackets— may the best team win.

Or something.

Anyway, this match-up lost some luster after both schools lost to their respective SEC rivals last weekend, but it's still the one ACC officials wanted. Now if it were somewhere more central than Tampa ... I digress.

In all seriousness, it should still be a great game. So, no time to waste.

Bad advice

South Carolina really put the clamps on C.J. Spiller last weekend in their 34-17 smacking of Clemson, holding the Tigers' prolific back to just 37 yards on 12 combined touches (nine run, three pass).

No doubt, Georgia Tech's defensive coaches studied that game footage to see what the Gamecocks did to neutralize Spiller offensively.

Bad advice: Analyze, but do not completely imitate. South Carolina's defensive personnel differs greatly from Georgia Tech's, and it shows—the Gamecocks are 15th in the nation in total defense, Georgia Tech is 52nd.

South Carolina also has star end/backer Eric Norwood, who would be an ideal foil for Spiller on the edge.

Obviously, there will be things South Carolina did that Georgia Tech can emulate schematically. But understanding what Georgia Tech is capable of defensively, not what South Carolina did well, should dictate Dave Wommack's gameplan against Spiller.

Bold prediction

When you run an offense that requires the kind of movement and precision as that of Georgia Tech's, execution along the offensive line is crucial on every play.

When that execution is absent, as it was last Saturday night in the loss to Georgia, everything falls apart.

Paul Johnson is fond of the idea that great teams do not lose two games in a row—his offensive line appears to take that to heart.

In the four games that immediately followed a Tech loss under Johnson, (he's lost six, but one was LSU and therefore can't really be counted in this argument, and the other was last week) the Jackets have put up 438, 288, 472 and 317 rushing yards.

That's called responding, and it starts on the offensive line. Look for Tech to do it again Saturday.

Something else

Has it really been only three years?

That's how long ago Chan Gailey took a 9-3 Georgia Tech team that ran a normal-looking offense to the ACC Championship game in Jacksonville, for a contest they surely could not lose against Wake Forest— a team that surely could not stop them. Oops.

That most dreadful of games—final score: 9-6—played in the nastiest, rainiest, least appealing conditions you could hope for in Florida, is actually so forgettable that I failed to find YouTube highlights of it. (When a kicker is the game's MVP, it's time to find something else to do.)

Seriously, go try. Searching the words "2006 ACC Championship Game" will yield some basketball footage, (of course) a couple of short fan-made videos, and some picture slideshows of Wake Forest's season. If you can find highlights, then you are a more capable breed of humanity than I.

Don't expect this game to look like that one. In fact, pray it doesn't.

Finally, a score

I won't lie: This whole deal looked a lot sexier when it was going to be something akin to No. 7 vs. No. 12-15, as opposed to No. 12 vs Also Receiving Votes.

That said, the stands should be good and full Saturday night in Tampa Bay, even if the weather is terrible, which for some reason it always is for ACC title games.

It's going to be a good one, no doubt about that. The last time these two teams played, it took a fourth-quarter Scott Blair field goal to separate them, and overall, 11 of the past 14 dances between the Tigers and Jackets have ended with margins of five or less points.

So Tech and Clemson at least know how to have a good time.

As referenced above, Paul Johnson loves to say great teams don't lose two games in a row.

A lot more people were convinced of Georgia Tech's greatness before last weekend, and now the program can go one of two ways: further up, or laterally, just as they did under Gailey.

Clemson is a good team, a very good team, at times a great team. They have great pieces on both sides of the ball and use them well, and if the game in Atlanta way back in September is any indication, they'll play the option well.

I still believe this Tech team capable of greatness. They have an array of talent equal to Clemson's, if not greater. They are committed and hungry to prove their ascendancy justified.

The Jackets take their cues from their head coach. When focused, they play with intensity and execution that is nearly flawless. They play to win, and they play to prove people wrong.

But frankly, in my mind, it comes down to this:

Paul Johnson is a great coach, probably one of the best in the country. At present, he has a great team made up of great players. This was the way Georgia Tech was viewed last Friday, and it should be the way they are viewed now.

Championships are born of the kind of opportunity Georgia Tech has created for itself Saturday night in Tampa Bay, and I just don't see a Paul Johnson-coached team spoiling that opportunity.

Jackets take it, 35-28.