Georgia Tech Football: Looking at Kansas and Opening Weekend's Effect on Jackets

We learned a little more about Georgia Tech this weekend.  But we also learned a little more about our upcoming opponents.  Kansas showed us that a program sliding the way it is can't necessarily turn on a dime to recover.  North Carolina proved that they are a scrappy bunch and will fight to the end, with or without their starters.  And Boise State may have given Al Groh a pretty good jumping off point for defending Virginia Tech's rushing game.

With Kansas' 6-3 loss to their FCS opponent, North Dakota State University, they are now looking more like a molehill than the mountain they were supposed to be when they were added to the schedule.  And while they may not help our strength of schedule, they will help the team settle in a little more before facing a North Carolina team that just proved they haven't given up on this season, yet.

Speaking of North Carolina.  No word yet on how many games they will be without the players who were held out of the opener last weekend, but they have an off week this week to [hopefully] sort it out.  After the way the defense came together in the second half of the game last Saturday, I'm not convinced which would be better for Tech: All the original starters back, or the fresh blood coming off a hard fought game.

I'm sure that Al Groh and the rest of the coaching staff will be looking at Boise State's dominating first quarter against Virginia Tech as a reference guide for our game in November.  I am also sure that Virginia Tech will now be fighting harder for every win to attempt and erase as much of that loss in the eyes of voters, and that should be Georgia Tech's biggest concern, because Virginia Tech's best chance of getting back into title contention starts and ends against Georgia Tech. 

That assumes that Georgia Tech can stay in contention as well. An early loss to North Carolina would derail those hope immediately. But, if Georgia Tech can stay unbeaten into that game, it should be another great matchup between the two top teams in the Coastal Division, and could very well decide the winner of the division.

Ultimately, this weekend was a chance to see some of the improvements of the team on both sides of the ball, and to get an idea of where the coaches want to go from here.  And as long as the team doesn't get caught looking past Kansas, this weekend should be a fairly mundane repeat of last weekend, with backups at many positions getting reps.