ATLANTA- Georgia Tech (5-2, 3-2 ACC) ventures into Death Valley as the Yellow Jackets take on fourth-ranked and undefeated Clemson (8-0, 6-0) in a regionally televised contest (ABC-TV) Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium.
While much of the focus has been on Clemson’s high-powered offense, head coach George O’Leary has high praise for the Tigers’ defense, led by all-America linebacker Keith Adams.
“I’ve said all along that I thought the defense is the heart of their team, and I still believe that,” said O’Leary, whose squad has won three in a row over the Tigers. “The defense sets up a lot of short-field situations. They set the tempo and the team feeds that.
“Our offense has a heckuva challenge, and we’re looking forward to getting up there against a ranked football team that is playing very well.”
Junior quarterback George Godsey (Tampa, Fla.), who ranks 11th in the nation in passing efficiency, directs a Tech offense that has shown improvement each week. Godsey has completed 61 percent of his passes and has passed for 1,553 yards and 15 touchdowns with just four interceptions in his first year as a starter.
The Yellow Jackets practiced Wednesday and Thursday with simulated crowd noise.
“I think it makes the kids a little more focused, and we were able to keep the errors to a minimum,” said O’Leary.
O’Leary said that perhaps the most difficult aspect of preparing for Clemson is simulating the tempo of their offense.
“It’s hard, because it’s such a fast tempo, to get your scout team to duplicate it,” said O’Leary. “If they could do it, they’d be on the varsity field.”
O’Leary named freshman Jimmy Dixon (Arlington, Texas), who had the task of playing Clemson tailback Travis Zachery, as one of the scout team players of the week, along with cornerback Kelley Rhino (Smyrna, Ga.).
“Jimmy did a heckuva job imitating Zachery, who’s tough to imitate because he’s a very good back,” said O’Leary. “Kelley Rhino got [scout team player of the week] on the other side of the ball. He just always gives great effort, and he makes everyone around play harder.”
Seniors Chris Brown (Augusta, Ga.) and Tony Robinson (Soperton, Ga.) were named game captains for this week.
