WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Georgia Tech isn’t making things easy on itself late in football games, but with the regular season’s midpoint rapidly approaching, the 16th-ranked Yellow Jackets are still unbeaten.
They intercepted Wake Forest’s 2-point conversion attempt for the win in overtime to edge the Demon Deacons 30-29 on Saturday, capping a wild afternoon in which they came back from 17 points down in the third quarter to get to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference competition.
The road rally came two weeks after the Yellow Jackets needed a fire-drill 55-yard field goal from Aidan Birr to beat preseason ACC favorite Clemson, ranked 12th at the time, on the final play in Atlanta. This time, Georgia Tech trailed 20-3 early in the third quarter, came back to force overtime, went ahead, then had to hold off Wake Forest’s bid for what would have been a huge victory under first-year coach Jake Dickert.
Instead, the Yellow Jackets are 5-0 for the first time since 2014.
“The one thing I’ll say about this team: For 60 minutes and then some, there still was not one person on that sideline who didn’t believe we were going to win the football game,” Georgia Tech fourth-year head coach Brent Key said.
Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King ran for two touchdowns, including a tough 2-yard keeper to start the overtime period that was followed by Birr’s extra-point kick. On the ensuing possession, the Demon Deacons (2-2, 0-2) responded with Demond Claiborne’s 25-yard run to the left pylon for a touchdown on their first play.
However, with Claiborne shaken up on the play and quarterback Robby Ashford hobbled, first-year coach Jake Dickert elected to avoid prolonging the proceedings and went for the win. Ashford rolled to his right looking for a target while under pressure, but ultimately he had to force the ball back toward the middle — where Clayton Powell-Lee picked it off at the goal line to end it.
“Even though it may not count on the stat sheet, it counts in my heart, honestly,” Powell-Lee said of his interception.
That sent the Yellow Jackets on the field to celebrate. Ashford and multiple teammates, meanwhile, were left squatting in disbelief.
The Demon Deacons blew a 14-0 lead in their loss to North Carolina State on Sept. 11, when they had just 44 second-half yards. They squandered another lead, but this time they finished much stronger while coming painfully close to a huge win.
“Had an opportunity to go win the game, and we took it,” Dickert said of going for two points rather than attempting the kick for one to tie. “I would make the same decision.”
Claiborne rushed for 119 yards and two scores, and Ashford had one touchdown run for the Demon Deacons, who led 17-3 at halftime.
Georgia Tech forced overtime on Birr’s 33-yard field goal with two seconds left in regulation, another play with the junior kicker running out onto the field to line up with the clock still rolling.
“Really the whole thing was, coming in at halftime, we had to hit a hard reset,” said Key, whose team has an open date next weekend before hosting Virginia Tech on Oct. 11. “There was no yelling and screaming. There was no getting after people. I simply said to them: ‘We have to take a deep breath, blow the first half out, and all that matters is us going out there to win the third quarter.'”
Birr’s kick to force the extra frame came moments after a critical sequence in which game officials missed an apparent offside call on Georgia Tech with the Yellow Jackets holding no timeouts and the Demon Deacons working on the clock.
That led Ashford to throw a free-play deep ball on third down only to learn there was no flag, sparking an irate reaction from the home team’s sideline as boos cascaded from the stands. The Yellow Jackets got the ball back with 1:41 left for the drive to force overtime.
“I’m not putting that on Robby,” Dickert said. “There’s no way he can see the flag. … I put them in that situation. Just go call the play, don’t risk that situation, and go find a way to get a first down to win the game.”