UVa Heads to Atlanta Saturday for Key ACC Matchup with Georgia Tech

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Oct. 27, 2014

Virginia Heads to Atlanta for Road ACC Match with Georgia Tech
• Virginia heads to Atlanta Saturday to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the first of two consecutive road ACC games for the Cavaliers. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
• After playing in Atlanta three times over three seasons (2010, 2011, 2012), UVa is playing its first game in the Big Peach since Sept. 15, 2012, a span of 777 days.

Virginia vs. Georgia Tech
• The Yellow Jackets narrowly lead the all-time series, 18-17-1, which dates back to 1965.
• The Yellow Jackets are outscoring UVa in the series by only 38 points, 919-881, over the 36 meetings. Georgia Tech gained the scoring edge with a 36-point win in 2012, followed by a 10-point win last season.
• The series has favored the home team historically. UVa is 10-4-1 all-time at Scott Stadium against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are 14-7 at Bobby Dodd Stadium against UVa.

Turnovers May Tell the Story
• Since 1982, Virginia is 9-3 vs. Georgia Tech when committing fewer turnovers. The losses were in 1991, 2010 and 2013.
• Georgia Tech is 7-4-1 during that span when committing fewer turnovers.
• There have been seven games since 1982 (`82, `87, `98, `02, `05, `08, `09) where the teams had equal turnovers; UVa won in 1987, 2005 and 2008.
• In the last nine meetings, Virginia has recorded 23 takeaways and turned them into 64 points.
• The Yellow Jackets have turned the ball over at least once in every game in the series since 2001 (24 total).
• Last season UVa forced Georgia Tech into five turnovers, two interceptions and three fumbles. UVa did not score any points off those Yellow Jacket turnovers. UVa punted three times, lost the ball on downs and the first half ended while UVa still was driving.

Last Meeting: 2013 (GT 35, @UVa 25)
• Zach Laskey and David Sims each ran for two touchdowns as Georgia Tech overcame five turnovers to hold off Virginia, 35-25.
• Sims scored on the Yellow Jackets’ third play of the game and sealed it with a 29-yard TD run with 1:55 left after Virginia had cut the lead to 28-25 on David Watford’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Darius Jennings and 2-point conversion pass to Khalek Shepherd.
• Georgia Tech got lots of big plays from its triple-option offense, rolling up 507 yards as three backs rushed for over 100 – Laskey with 133, Robert Godhigh with 111 and Sims with 107.
• Virginia got no points off Georgia Tech’s turnovers – three fumbles and two Anthony Harris interceptions – but moved the ball well against the nation’s then-12th-rated defense. Watford was 43-of-61 for 376 yards for the Cavaliers, whose 444 total yards were over a 100 more than Georgia Tech had allowed on average.
• Jennings had a career day for the Cavaliers with 13 catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns.

UVa Connections with Georgia Tech
• Six Cavaliers hail from the state of Georgia – Jordan Ellis (Suwanee), WR Miles Gooch (Decatur), OLB D.J. Hill (Covington), QB Greyson Lambert (Jesup), Darious Latimore (Lawrenceville) and OT Eric Smith (Decatur).
• UVa head coach Mike London and Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson are two of three active FBS head coaches who have won a NCAA title at the FCS level. London won with Richmond in 2008 and Johnson won with Georgia Southern in 1999 and 2000. The third current FBS head coach to win an FCS NCAA title as a head coach is Wyoming’s Craig Bohl who won the 2011, 2012 and 2013 titles with North Dakota State.
• UVa’s associate head coach for defense and defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta was the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech from 2002-07.
• Georgia Tech offensive line coach Mike Sewak was a three-year letterwinner (1978-79-80) as an offensive lineman at Virginia for former head coach Dick Bestwick.
• Tenuta and Sewak were teammates from 1978-80 at UVa.
• UVa’s special teams coordinator and running backs coach Larry Lewis coached together with Georgia Tech’s wide receivers coach Al “Buzz” Preston at Washington State for four seasons (1994-97).
• Georgia Tech linebacker coach and recruiting coordinator Andy McCollum spent three seasons on the staff of UVa’s current associate head coach for offense Tom O’Brien’s staff at NC State (2007-09).
• Georgia Tech defensive backs coach Joe Speed (’96) and O’Brien (’71) are both graduates of the Naval Academy. Both O’Brien and Speed started their collegiate coaching careers as assistant coaches at Navy.

UVa Defense Limiting Total Yards to Opponents
• UVa’s defense is limiting opponents to 336.6 total yards per game, which ranks No. 21 in the nation.
• However, FBS opponents are only averaging 324.4 yards per game against UVa. The Cavaliers gave up 422 yards to FCS opponent Richmond, the only UVa opponent to surpass 374 total yards this year.
• The 324.4 yards per game average UVa is yielding to FBS opponents would rank No. 18 nationally this week if you took out the Richmond result.

UVa Ranks No. 23 in Defensive Three-and-Outs
• Virginia ranks No. 23 nationally and No. 3 in the ACC in averaging 4.75 three-and-outs on defense.
• UVa has forced 38 three-and-outs over eight games and 34.2 percent of its defensive drives end in a three-and-out.
• Louisville leads the nation with 7.75 three-and-outs per game. Clemson is No. 3 nationally and No. 2 in the ACC with 6.50 three-and-outs per game.
• UVa ranked No. 3 nationally (6.00) in 2013 and No. 15 nationally (4.58) in 2012 in three-and-outs as defense.