Pair of upsets turn ACC into day's big loser

ATLANTA --- The Atlantic Coast Conference has had better days. It's hard to imagine worse.

The two best teams who will meet for the conference championship next week in Tampa, Fla., got smacked down Saturday by two middling teams from the Southeastern Conference East in state rivalry showdowns.

As bad as Clemson's loss was at South Carolina, it was much tougher for Georgia Tech fans to stomach what happened to them at home late Saturday night. The Yellow Jackets endured a taste of their own medicine to a struggling Georgia team in a 30-24 defeat.

The Bulldogs -- who have wrestled all season to find a consistent rushing game -- ran up and down Grant Field all night, exposing the Yellow Jackets' weakest link. It was a fitting response to the 409-yard rushing beatdown the Jackets dealt them between the hedges a year ago.

Ironically, the run-oriented Jackets ultimately did themselves in this night with four consecutive incomplete passes after converting a fourth-and-2 across midfield with two minutes left. Why Paul Johnson suddenly opted to attempt three consecutive home-run passes deep is a mystery. Was he in a hurry to give Georgia the ball back?

He should not have been. Georgia's offense resembled nothing like the one that played the previous 11 weeks, rolling up more than 340 rushing yards on the night. Washaun Ealey went over 100 yards early in the second quarter. Caleb King joined him with a one-play, 75-yard response to a quick Georgia Tech touchdown in the third quarter. It was the first time the Bulldogs have had two rushers top 100 yards since 2004.

Georgia's backs were slashing through massive holes in the Yellow Jackets defense. Bulldogs fans had to be wondering where this offensive line has been all year. Georgia gained 204 of its 239 yards at halftime on the ground.

It was a brilliant counter strategy to Georgia Tech's typical game plan, which is to keep the ball away from its opponents.

It worked pretty nicely for Georgia, too. The Bulldogs never trailed after the opening drive, led by 14 at the half and 13 early in the fourth quarter. In a game when neither team punted, it was a good hand to hold.

Georgia's consistent rushing success magnified every mistake Georgia Tech made. A missed field goal and an interception in the first half compounded by a lost fumble in the third quarter created the gap. These broken serves -- two of which occurred when Jackets quarterback Josh Nesbitt was temporarily knocked out of the game and replaced by Jaybo Shaw -- proved fatal in a back-and-forth campaign.

While the result might seem familiar to fans of this rivalry that had grown increasingly one-sided in recent years, this was anything but status quo. There is no denying that the competitiveness of this rivalry is back.

Georgia Tech awakened a complacent Georgia with last year's streak-busting 45-42 victory at Sanford Stadium. The memory of the Yellow Jackets players celebrating by tearing off pieces of the famous hedges lingered in the minds of Bulldogs players and fans. Georgia coach Mark Richt heard about it from every booster club on his off-season tour of the state.

"I can't say that was the first question out of every Bulldog Club, but it probably was asked somewhere throughout the night," Richt said. "That's why they call it a rivalry."

While Johnson delivered a message last year in his opening series salvo, the Georgia Tech coach tried to downplay the significance of Saturday night's renewal.

"I don't know if it defined our season last year," Johnson said earlier this week. "I know it did to some of our fans. I think you're putting (Georgia) on a pretty high pedestal. Do you think beating Georgia Tech defines Georgia's season? I bet if you ask them, they'd probably tell you no. It's an important game and you don't want to diminish that, but let's not get carried away."

With an ACC title game looming and an Orange Bowl berth at stake, perhaps Georgia Tech and Clemson each got caught a little off-guard in games where emotion plays such a key role. For all the right cords Johnson typically strikes, he hit a few wrong notes with his pregame message and with his late-game calls.

"I don't know if they're going to have a celebration in the streets if we win Saturday night," he said. "We still have other fish to fry."

The only people celebrating in Atlanta on Saturday were wearing red and black. Just like in 2006, Georgia sends the Jackets into a conference title game on a downer note against a Clemson team coming off a similar low. That fish-fry down in Florida lost a little bit of luster when the conference's two top-15 teams likely got downgraded to one top-20.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.