2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl
LSU (7-5) vs. Georgia Tech (9-3)
Dec. 30, 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
Payout:
$5.83 million Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta GA
2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More
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National
Rankings |
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Georgia Tech |
LSU |
|
Total Offense |
|
46th 377.33 ypg |
55th 371.75 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
22nd 312.67 ypg |
33rd 326.5 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
56th 26.17 ppg |
34th 30.33 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
22nd 18.83 ppg |
64th 25.92 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
3rd 282.33 ypg |
43rd 167.25 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
20th 116.92 ypg |
16th 105.67 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
116th 95 ypg |
67th 204.5 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
45th 195.75 ypg |
80th 220.83 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
34th 0.42 |
79th -0.33 |
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Georgia
Tech
Jacks St W 41-14
at Bos Coll W 19-16
at Va Tech L 20-17
Miss St W 38-7
Duke W 27-0
Gard-Webb W 10-7
at Clemson W 21-17
Virginia L 24-17
Florida St W 31-28
at N Carolina L 28-7
Miami W 41-23
at Georgia W 45-42 |
LSU
App St W 41-13
North Texas W 41-3
at Auburn W 26-21
Miss St W 34-24
at Florida L 51-21
at S Car W 24-17
Georgia L 52-38
Tulane W 35-10
Alabama L 27-21 OT
Troy W 41-30
Ole Miss L 31-13
at Arkansas L 31-30 |
|
Position Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
GT |
5 highest
1 lowest |
LSU |
|
3.5 |
Quarterbacks |
2 |
|
5 |
RBs |
4 |
|
2.5 |
Receivers |
4 |
|
4 |
O Line |
4.5 |
|
5 |
D Line |
4 |
|
3 |
Linebackers |
4 |
|
4 |
Secondary |
3 |
|
3 |
Spec Teams |
2.5 |
|
5 |
Coaching |
4 |
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Is this going to be a case of
being out with the old and in
with the new, or will the status
quo be maintained, at least for
one more game?
LSU’s 2007 national title
campaign seems like 15 years ago
after a mediocre 2008, while
Georgia Tech closed the season
red hot with its running game
ripping up Miami and Georgia.
The SEC is still considered the
top dog overall of the
conferences, but the ACC had a
better year overall (and both
were behind the Big 12) with a
better non-conference season and
with more exciting young teams.
From North Carolina to Miami,
Florida State to Georgia Tech,
the ACC appears to be on the
verge of being something
special, even if it doesn’t
reach the heights of the SEC in
terms of the superpower teams at
the top.
Even with the ACC’s resurgence
and the SEC’s down year, there’s
still a chance for the status
quo in the southeast part of the
country to be maintained this
bowl season as long as the
midrange SEC teams like LSU can
come through and shine with the
time off. And that’s the key to
this game … time.
It’s nearly impossible for
anyone to properly simulate and
prepare for the Georgia Tech
running attack, with the
defensive discipline hard to put
in place in just a few
practices, but LSU will have had
more than a month to learn most
of the ins and outs of the
beautifully precise Paul Johnson
attack. Of course, Georgia Tech
will have had more than a month
to add a few wrinkles of its
own.
After winning three of its final
four games, highlighted by the
45-42 stunner at Georgia,
Georgia Tech has become one of
the teams to watch this
bowl season. If the Yellow
Jackets can rumble for 300
rushing yards or more and if
they can beat LSU relatively
impressively, then all of a
sudden there might be a mild
shift from the spread, which is
a modified version of the option
but without a fullback and with
more passing involved, to the
Johnson rushing style. But if
the offense is shut down, it’ll
take at least another year of
proving it can work in the big
games before anyone will be too
interested in making any
changes.
Winning impressively has been
relative for Georgia Tech as the
offense has been wonderful at
times, but the defense, despite
being full of top NFL prospects
up front, has been
underwhelming. Six games were
decided by four points or fewer
this year, with the Yellow
Jackets winning four of them,
and the dominant double digit
wins over teams like Miami and
Mississippi State were sprinkled
in with a 10-7 win over
Gardner-Webb and a blowout loss
to North Carolina.
While Georgia Tech seemed to
play close game after close
game, LSU had a mix of
heartstoppers and complete
clunkers. The Tigers pushed
Alabama better than anyone had
before the SEC title game in a
27-21 overtime loss, and then
the next week they needed a
30-point fourth quarter to beat
Troy. While Tech was hot to
close the season, LSU lost three
of their final four games
including a 31-13 home loss to
Ole Miss and a loss to Arkansas.
But all the sins of the
five-loss season can start to be
washed away with a win to keep
the SEC hot in this showdown
showcase after winning the last
three. A win would mean this
might have simply been a
rebuilding season, while a
Georgia Tech win, considering
Johnson has gotten it done with
Chan Gailey’s players, might be
the launching pad for something
truly special.
Players to watch:
One of the biggest question
marks coming into the season was
the LSU quarterback situation.
The hope was for Andrew Hatch
and Jarrett Lee to
combine to replace the steady
but unspectacular Matt Flynn,
and now it’ll be up to Jordan
Jefferson to lead the way.
Hatch got hurt, Lee couldn’t
stop throwing soul-crushing
interceptions, and Jefferson
turned out to be the only option
after the LSU coaching staff had
to revolve the gameplans around
hiding Lee. Jefferson is very
raw and very talented, and he
could use a big game and a big
win to make the team his going
into the off-season. His
accuracy has been the main issue
completing just 20 of his 48
passes, but he has three
touchdown passes and one
interception. Mobile, he hasn’t
been able to show off enough his
running skills enough, but most
importantly, he hasn’t been
leading the way to wins.
Georgia Tech’s offense revolves
around sophomore Jonathan
Dwyer, who has blown up in
the new offense with 1,328 yards
and 12 touchdowns on the year.
He’s been strong all season long
with nine 100-yard games, but
everything really started to
click over the second half of
the season as the running game
has gotten him in space on a
regular basis with wondrous
results. Since the near miss
against Gardner-Webb, Dwyer has
torn off 753 yards and eight
touchdowns in six games.
Defensively for Georgia Tech,
everything works around a great
line led by end Michael
Johnson, a big, athletic end
who’s being projected as a top
15 pick in the 2009 Draft. While
he wasn’t quite as dominant as
expected, he was still a First
Team All-ACC selection after
making 43 tackles, seven sacks
and 15 tackles for loss. The
last thing LSU needs is for
Jefferson to be under steady
pressure, which means OT
Ciron Black, a projected top
20 pick, will be on display. The
winner of the battle between the
two will make a ton of extra
dough in a few short months.
The LSU defensive back seven
will need to come up with its
best game of the year. The
linebacking corps and the
safeties will need to show they
learned from the mistakes made
by Georgia and Miami, and that
means junior safety Harry
Coleman will have to make
all the right reads. There isn’t
much of a threat from the
Georgia Tech passing game, so
it’ll be up to Coleman, mostly,
to be the last line of defense.
The team’s leading tackler with
69 stops on the year, if his
name gets called early and
often, that’ll mean Tech is
rolling for big yards.
Georgia Tech will win if...
the mistakes are kept to a
minimum. Expected for an offense
that runs like the Yellow
Jackets do, there are plenty of
fumbles with 18 given away this
year. While that’s expected,
even if Johnson’s Navy teams
were great at not giving the
ball away, there can’t be
interceptions to go along with
the fumbles. Georgia Tech only
threw the ball 140 times, but
there were six interceptions
with one in each of the three
losses. Of the 24 turnovers,
nine came in the three losses,
and against an LSU offense that
doesn’t exactly hum on all
cylinders on a regular basis,
Tech can’t give away any easy
chances or short fields.
LSU will win if...
Jefferson, or any of the LSU
quarterbacks, can complete a
pass. The last month of the
season was a disaster for the
LSU running game because
everyone figured out that there
wasn’t any passing game to worry
about. Everyone dared Lee and
Jefferson to throw, they
couldn’t do it, and that all but
ended the effectiveness of
1,109-yard, 15 touchdown rusher,
Charles Scott. LSU has to
get bombing early on against a
solid pass defense that allowed
under 200 yards per game. Even
if Jefferson doesn’t connect on
any of the big early plays, he
needs to do something to keep
the Tech back seven from loading
up against the run. If Scott’s
not effective on the ground, the
Tigers will have a tough time
coming up with the win.
What will happen:
LSU still has athletes. The
Georgia Tech option doesn’t
always work against very fast,
very disciplined defenses, and
while LSU doesn’t always play
sharp up front, with an NFL
caliber defensive front and
speed to burn in the back seven,
it’ll be hard for Tech to
consistently get wide and get
into space to make the big
plays. This is where the time
factor kicks in. If this game
was played on December 6th,
Georgia Tech wins in a walk.
With the weeks to rest up and
prepare, the LSU defense will do
just enough get by.
Line: Georgia Tech -3.5
... CFN Prediction:
LSU 27 … Georgia Tech 24
2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More
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