I've been doing my research on Georgia Tech (watching games on ESPN360 and reading what I can) since the Orange Bowl pairing was announced on Sunday. Georgia Tech is a crazy, crazy team. There are not many facets of the game in which they mediocre or average. They are either really good or really terrible and as a result put up some crazy numbers.

I already mentioned the fact that they have had 3 games this year in which neither team punted and that GT has only punted 30 times all year (lowest number in the country). Tying to that, is the fact that Georgia Tech has gone for it on 4th down 26 times this year (Iowa has just 10 times). There are only 4 teams with more 4th down tries. GT is also 2nd in the country in 3rd down conversions with a 53.5% success rate.

Some more extreme stats:
  • Georgia Tech has fumbled the ball 34 times (Iowa only has fumbled it 9 times), but lost only 12.
  • GT is 8th in passing efficiency despite completing only 47.8% of its passes and having only 11 passing TDs this year. However, GT leads the nation in yards per pass attempt at 11.08 (Iowa's yards per pass is a whopping 4.68).
  • No shocker here, considering the fact that GT rarely passes, but GT is 3rd in the nation for least sacks allowed.
  • The defense gives up almost 5 yards per carry, 105th in the nation, and 6.09 yards per play, 100th in the nation.
  • Also not surprising, but GT has more carries than any other team with 751.