This is the fourth installment in a new series about Syracuse's impending move to the ACC. Previous rival profiles: Boston College, Clemson, Duke.
Syracuse's well-documented move to the ACC (at this point, sadly a few seasons away) of course comes with a host of new friends to play with. While several are neither "new" nor "friends," still consider these posts your primer on which teams, schools, players and coaches you'll be hating from 2014 until the next time college football decides to realign.
In our latest profile, we travel south to a territory vastly different from our frozen, northern city. You may be lukewarm on the now, but you'll despise them soon enough: the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
School: Georgia Institute of Technology
Nickname: Yellow Jackets
Location: Atlanta, Ga.
Stadium: Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field (capacity: 55,000) | Alexander Memorial Coliseum (capacity: 9,191)
Football & Basketball Titles: 4 (all football: 1917, 1928, 1952, 1990)
Notable Football Alums: Calvin Johnson, Ken Whisenhunt, Tashard Choice, Clay Matthews Sr.
Notable Basketball Alums:Chris Bosh, Jon Barry, Kenny Anderson, John Salley, Stephon Marbury
Georgia Tech's football program is one of the ACC's most storied and tradition-filled since it joined the conference in 1978. And if you're confused about their true colors or team nickname, there's good news... so are they! Tech is regularly referred to as the "Ramblin Wreck," a term tracing directly back to the old Model-A that's consistently led them onto the field for the past 50 years. While their stated colors are old gold and white, you'll likely see them sporting blue and black as well. Coached by John Heisman (yes, that John Heisman) in 1922, they historically pummeled Cumberland College 222-0 in the most lopsided game in college football history. Chances are we would've befallen a similar fate had they come across Greg Robinson's Syracuse teams, especially given what happened the last time we played them (a 51-14 loss in '04, Coach P's last as head coach). We've never beaten them in our two tries.
On the basketball court, SU's traditions put Tech to shame. Unless we're counting how many talking heads Yellow Jackets basketball has produced (Barry, Anderson, Salley), a number which rivals the recent accomplishments of the Newhouse school. In their history, they made their first NCAA tournament trip in 1960 and have been to the Big Dance 16 times overall (that's precious). Their main barrier to success, and perhaps the reason they've only won 53 percent of the games they've ever played, could be their arena's max capacity of 9,191 (sad). Maybe we can lend them some overflow from our Midnight Madness events. Surprisingly, however, we've split the all-time series with Georgia Tech, 2-2, with SU winning the most recent contests (in 2010 and 2002, respectively).
Respect their football team for the bombast of entering the field trailing a gold jalopy. Fear them for winning a game by over 200 points. As one of the southern "football" schools, it's likely that Georgia Tech will remain one of the ACC's upper-crust teams until we move to the "Big USA" 64-team super conference in 2047. For basketball though, feel free to chuckle at their expense. When our preseason games outdraw your conference home games and your best players have gone on to be better announcers than shooters, internet crazy people (Marbury) and a sidekick's sidekick in the NBA (Bosh), it's difficult not to win that fight.
John Cassillo authors Atlantic Coast Convos, which chronicles ACC (Plus Syracuse & Pittsburgh) football. Check out the blog, and follow him on Twitter: @JohnCassillo