Georgia Tech’s Spot in ACC Preseason Media Poll is not a Shock

By James Fitzgerald | Jul 21, 2014

ACC Media Day is a pretty good sign that College Football season is right around the corner. The press was in full force in Greensboro, NC asking questions of everyone from the head coach to the team mascot. Well that might be an exaggeration, but what is not exaggerated is the preseason predictions and prognostications that the football pundits vote on before the season begins.

The ACC Preseason Media Poll came out today and the media does not view the Yellow Jackets as a power in the ACC this year. According to a post by Ken Sugiura on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website, Georgia Tech was picked to finish 5th in the Coastal Division according to the Preseason Media Poll that came out today.

More from Football

This is how the poll looked after the vote was taken:

ACC Championship Votes
1. Florida State – 104
2. Clemson – 2
3. Virginia Tech – 2
(4 voters made no selection)

Atlantic Division
(First place votes in parenthesis)
1. Florida State (109) – 670
2. Clemson (3) – 660
3. Louisville – 564
4. Syracuse – 368
5. NC State – 326
6. Boston College – 301
7. Wake Forest – 136

Coastal Division
(First place votes in parenthesis)
1. Miami (26) – 614
2. Duke (33) – 597
3. Virginia Tech (23) – 571
4. North Carolina (27) – 570
5. Georgia Tech (1) – 322
6. Pitt (2) -319
7. Virginia -142

The good news, which is the only shocker in this whole deal, is that someone thought highly enough of the Yellow Jackets football squad to give them a first place vote. That voter has the potential to look like a genius at the end of the season. You can guarantee when Georgia Tech is in first place at some point this season that voter will be looking for a camera and a cable network so he can raise his hand and say, “I was the guy that gave Tech the First Place vote and here is why !”.

The reality of the matter, however, is that this poll is not a shock when you look at where some media publications had placed the Yellow Jackets before today’s poll. Lindy’s College Football National Edition Preview magazine on page 74 predicted that Georgia Tech would finish sixth in Coastal Division behind Virginia Tech.

Athlonsports.com used their crystal to predict where the Yellow Jackets would finish not too long after the National Championship Game. Their prediction — that Tech would finish 6th as well. What makes this prediction so cool is that it came out before some Tech players were ruled either ineligible or not medically cleared to play.

Sportingnews.com at least took the time to say that the Yellow Jackets will make it to a bowl game. They predicted that Georgia Tech would face the Pac-12’s Arizona Wildcats in the Hyundai Sun Bowl. That prediction was a pretty nice way of saying that they felt the Jackets were going to finish 6th in the Coastal Division also.

Supposedly, polls are scientific (depending on who you ask) but that has got to be highly debatable. When you think about it Tech went from 6th place predictions to 5th place predictions one of two ways. Either Georgia Tech got better after losing players for medical reasons and suspensions, or the rest of the division got worse in the last couple of months.

Whichever way you choose to look at it, this poll is going to serve as major motivation for Paul Johnson’s crew come August 30th when they kick this season off. The speech he will give his team will be very clear. We can be sure that he is going to tell his football players that it does not matter what anyone else thinks about this team, it only matters what they think, and they know what they are capable of.

The speech alone is going to give value to that one lone First Place vote. Hope we get to find out who that voter is at the end of this season.

For more on all the happenings in Georgia Tech Athletics, be sure to follow YellowJackedUp on Facebook, Twitter, and use our Android/iOS app to get updates directly from Fansided. Or you can receive email updates from Yellowjackedup.com, by completing the following form here