College football starts tonight in Atlanta
As of this morning, there were still plenty of tickets available for Georgia Tech’s game tonight against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at Bobby Dodd stadium, which isn’t on TV. I’ll save you Georgia fans the trouble and say “big shock there.” Still, I’m tempted to go just to get a look at the new Paul Johnson offense, which he explains in this video:
The other intriguing storyline is that of Jacksonville State QB Ryan Perriloux, the SEC championship game MVP who was dismissed by LSU during the offseason. Does he add enough on offense to make it a game against Tech?
He’s an incredible talent, but probably not. While Tech has a new defensive coordinator taking over for the widely-respected Jon Tenuta and lacks experience at linebacker and in the secondary, its front four is probably the best in the ACC. They’ll get to know Perriloux very well in the Gamecock backfield.
My expectation is there will be a lot of Tech mistakes on offense and that Perriloux will torch the young secondary a few times and/or blow up broken plays on the run to keep it a little closer than it should be. I’m putting the over/under on both Tech fumbles and blown assignments that lead to long touchdowns for the Gamecocks at 3. I also expect Tech to string a drive or two together that will give Tech fans a little false hope about the Yellow Jackets’ prospects for the season.
There’s not a line on this game, so I’ll call Tech a two-touchdown favorite and predict an ugly Tech win at 38-24. Speaking of lines, you’ve submitted your NCAA Picks, right?
Update 11:58 p.m. – Wow, that wasn’t off base or anything. It’s a good thing no one listens to me, or this might have been embarrassing.
