A Look Back
Georgia Tech posted its ninth-straight season with seven wins or more, finishing 7-5 overall and third in the Coastal Division with a 5-3 mark in league play … Tech’s 2005 schedule was ranked as the nation’s 16th-toughest by the Sagarin Computer … the Yellow Jackets are one of just six schools - Florida State, Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia, Michigan - to have played in a bowl game each of the past nine seasons … WR Calvin Johnson was a first team All-American selection by the AFCA … the Yellow Jacket defense ranked 13th nationally against the run (103.9) and in the Top 25 in total defense (317.5) and scoring defense (20.1) … Tech led the ACC and was sixth nationally with 21 interceptions.
Who’s Gone
The Yellow Jackets lose three starters from an offensive unit that averaged 18.5 points and 349.0 yards per game … gone are TB P.J. Daniels and T Brad Honeycutt … Daniels finished his career as the fourth-leading rusher in school history with 3,346 yards while Honeycutt was a three-year starter ... defensively, Tech loses five starters who totaled 305 tackles last fall, including 31.5 tackles for losses and 11.5 quarterback sacks … DE Eric Henderson, LB Gerris Wilkinson and DB Dawan Landry all earned second team All-ACC honors last fall.
Who’s Back
Junior Wide Receiver
Calvin Johnson
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Fifth-year head coach Chan Gailey welcomes back 15 starters, including a league-high eight on the offensive unit … headlining the returning starters are All-American WR Calvin Johnson, three-year starting QB Reggie Ball and four starters - C Kevin Tuminello, T Andrew Gardner, G Matt Rhodes and G Nate McManus - along the offensive line … Johnson has caught 102 passes for 1,725 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first two seasons while Ball is the third-leading passer in school history with 6,308 yards and 37 touchdown passes … defensively, linebackers KaMichael Hall and Philip Wheeler return as does CB Kenny Scott … Hall and Wheeler had 64 tackles and four QB sacks each in 2005 with Hall leading the team in tackles for loss (14) … Scott was sixth on the team with 56 tackles and had two interceptions.
Numbers
11 - Georgia Tech’s 5-3 league mark in 2005 marked the school’s 11th-straight year with an ACC record of .500 or better.
12 - Games started at LT by Fresh-man All-American Andrew Gardner.
21 - The Yellow Jackets led the ACC and were sixth nationally with 21 interceptions, the most by a Tech defense since 1990, when the Jackets had 24 picks.
36 - QB Reggie Ball has started every game (36) in which he has played in the past three years.
48 - AFCA All-American WR Calvin Johnson, a two-time All-ACC selection, was the 48th Yellow Jacket, and the first wide receiver since Billy Martin in 1963, to earn first-team All-America honors.
307.7 - Average yards per game allowed defensively by Georgia Tech for the 2004 and 2005 seasons combined.
1,725 - Calvin Johnson leads all returning ACC receivers with 1,725 yards receiving on 102 receptions ... has six games with 100 or more yards receiving.
7,406 - One of only 11 quarter-backs in ACC history to rush for over 1,000 yards, senior QB Reggie Ball is 16th on the ACC career total offense list with 7,406 yards.
Chan Gailey, a seasoned football coaching veteran, has spent 16 seasons in the college ranks and 16 years in professional football. He was named the 11th head coach in Georgia Tech football history on December 29, 2001. Gailey has guided the Yellow Jackets to bowl games in each of his four seasons on the Flats, becoming the first Georgia Tech head coach to do so. With Tech’s invitation to the 2005 Emarald Bowl, the Jackets achieved a feat unprecedented in school history, recording their ninth consecutive bowl berth. In 2005, Georgia Tech finished third in the Coastal Division with a 5-3 league mark and a 7-5 overall record, besting its predicted finish for the third consecutive year. The Yellow Jackets posted a 7-5 record in 2004, including a win over No. 18 Clemson and a 51-14 victory over Syracuse in the Champs Sports Bowl. In 2001, in his first season at the helm of the Tech program, Gailey steered the Ramblin’ Wreck through adversity, including season-ending injuries to the team’s top offensive and defensive players, to a sixth consecutive bowl berth in the 2002 Silicon Valley Classic. In his four seasons at Georgia Tech, Gailey has posted a record of 28-22. Gailey brought a history of success at every stop in his coaching career, including three seasons as a college head coach at Troy State University and Samford University, as well as two years as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and two at the helm of the Birmingham Fire of the World League of American Football. He made a name for himself as an innovative offensive mind during NFL stops in Pittsburgh, Dallas and Miami, among others. Entering his eighth season as a college head coach, Gailey has compiled a record of 52-33, including a 19-5 mark in two years at Troy State where he led the Trojans to the Division II national championship in 1985 and a 5-6 slate at Samford.
