The 2017 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represented the Georgia Institute of Technology during the

2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2017. The regular season began on August 26, 2017, and end ...

. The Yellow Jackets were led by tenth-year head coach Paul Johnson and played their home games at Bobby Dodd Stadium. They competed as a member of the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 5–6, 4–4 in ACC play to finish in third place in the Coastal Division.

Previous season

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

ended the 2016 season with a 9-4 overall record, 4–4 in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets ended the season winning six of their last seven games, defeating arch-rival

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in Athens by a score of 28–27, and finishing the season with a 33–18 win in the

TaxSlayer Bowl The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in Jacksonville, Florida, operated by Gator Bowl Sports. It has been held continuously since 1946, making it the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised nati ...

over

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Schedule

Game summaries

vs Tennessee

Georgia Tech controlled the clock and dominated most of the game yardage wise, but gave up a key score in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. Georgia Tech had 2 missed field goal attempts that sent the game to overtime. During the second overtime, Coach Paul Johnson opted to try for a 2-point conversion to win the game there instead of kicking a point after try to tie the game and continue overtime play. Tennessee's defense came up with the stop and the Volunteers held on to the 1 point victory.

Jacksonville State

Georgia Tech had a poor offensive performance during the first half. Their only score was a touchdown after an interception gave the offense a short field. After some half time adjustments, Tech came storming out and put up 27 unanswered points to win the game.

at UCF

The game was canceled due to the cleanup for

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

Pittsburgh

Coach

Pat Narduzzi Patrick Regan Narduzzi (born April 22, 1966) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. He was formerly the defensive coordinator at Michigan State. He attended Youngstown State Universit ...

of Pittsburgh a few days prior to the game criticized Georgia Tech's use of cut blocks during their offensive possessions calling them "dangerous." After Georgia Tech's win, Coach Paul Johnson criticized the Yellow Jacket offense for causing 4 turnovers and said they would not have won had they played a good team as what was described as a "snide" response to Narduzzi.

North Carolina

Georgia Tech received the opening kickoff and traded a few short drives with the Tar Heels before scoring on an 18-play drive. From then on, the Jackets dominated on both sides of the ball against a severely injured UNC team by using time of possession to their advantage and smothering the UNC offense. The Tar Heels scored late in the 4th quarter, against Tech's backup defenders, to end a 5-quarter shutout streak. Both

TaQuon Marshall TaQuon Cartorius Marshall (born September 20, 1996) is an American football wide receiver for the Blues of The Spring League. He played college football for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 2015 to 2018, serving as the team's starting quar ...

and Kirvonte Benson tallied over 130 yards rushing each on the day. This was Tech's first win against UNC in 4 years.

at Miami (FL)

Tech led most of the game until the 4th quarter when Miami kept its chances alive with a long pass and miraculous catch. Miami would eventually kick the game winning field goal giving the Jackets their 2nd loss of the season.

Wake Forest

at Clemson

at Virginia

Virginia Tech

at Duke

Georgia

Despite coming within a touchdown near the end of the first half, Georgia Tech would go on to lose as Georgia would score 24 unanswered points in their way to a victory. Tech was officially disqualified from bowl eligibility with the loss causing their final record to be one win shy of qualifying.

Rankings

Coaching staff

References

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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football seasons Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football