2001 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team

The 2001 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team represented the Georgia Institute of Technology in the 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's coach was George O'Leary, who would leave the school before the bowl game to accept the head coaching job at the University of Notre Dame. It played its home games at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.

2001 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football
Seattle Bowl champion
Seattle Bowl, W 24–14 vs. Stanford
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
AP	No. 24
Record	8–5 (4–4 ACC)
Head coach	George O'Leary (8th season)
Offensive coordinator	Bill O'Brien (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Mixed Shotgun & Ace
Defensive coordinator	Ted Roof (3rd season)
Home stadium	Bobby Dodd Stadium (Capacity: 41,000)

2001 Atlantic Coast Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 11 Maryland $		7	–	1					10	–	2
No. 15 Florida State		6	–	2					8	–	4
North Carolina		5	–	3					8	–	5
Clemson		4	–	4					7	–	5
No. 24 Georgia Tech		4	–	4					8	–	5
NC State		4	–	4					7	–	5
Wake Forest		3	–	5					6	–	5
Virginia		3	–	5					5	–	7
Duke		0	–	8					0	–	11
$ – BCS representative as conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Preseason

Coming off of three strong seasons (including 3 straight New Year's Day bowl appearances and 3 wins over the archrival Georgia Bulldogs), the Jackets were expected to contend for the national championship in 2001. In 2000, quarterback George Godsey had picked up where his predecessor Joe Hamilton had left off, passing for 2,906 yards and 23 touchdowns (against just 6 interceptions). Armed with targets like Kelly Campbell for his senior season, a number of preseason magazines named Godsey to 1st Team All-ACC honors, and pundits predicted that a loaded Georgia Tech team would win the Atlantic Coast Conference title with the departure of many key players from the defending champion Florida State Seminoles.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 26	2:00 pm	vs. Syracuse*	No. 10	Giants Stadium East Rutherford, NJ (Kickoff Classic)	ABC	W 13–7	41,517
September 1	6:00 pm	The Citadel*	No. 11	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta, GA		W 35–7	41,804
September 8	12:00 pm	at Navy*	No. 10	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Annapolis, MD	FSN	W 70–7	30,602
September 29	3:30 pm	Clemson	No. 9	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta, GA (rivalry)	ABC	L 44–47 OT	41,924
October 6	1:00 pm	at Duke	No. 17	Wallace Wade Stadium Durham, NC		W 37–10	10,431
October 11	7:30 pm	No. 22 Maryland	No. 15	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta, GA	ESPN	L 17–20 OT	40,574
October 20	3:30 pm	NC State	No. 23	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta, GA	ABC	W 27–17	41,942
November 1	7:30 pm	No. 22 North Carolina	No. 23	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta, GA	ESPN	W 28–21	41,893
November 10	3:15 pm	at Virginia	No. 20	Scott Stadium Charlottesville, VA		L 38–39	52,494
November 17	12:00 pm	at Wake Forest		Groves Stadium Winston-Salem, NC	JPS	W 38–33	24,263
November 24	7:45 pm	No. 19 Georgia*	No. 21	Bobby Dodd Stadium Atlanta, GA (Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate)	ESPN	L 17–31	41,974
December 1	3:30 pm	at Florida State		Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL	ESPN	L 17–28	82,269
December 27	4:00 pm	vs. No. 11 Stanford*		Safeco Field Seattle, WA (Seattle Bowl)	ESPN	W 24–14	30,144
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Roster

2001 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class TE 85 Salih Besirevic Fr WR 8 Trevor Browman Fr G 63 Tim Brown Jr RB 35 Joe Burns Sr WR 6 Kelly Campbell Sr WR 5 Nate Curry So RB 48 P. J. Daniels Fr OT 70 Nat Dorsey Fr RB 2 Sidney Ford Jr TE 89 John Paul Foschi So QB 11 George Godsey Sr WR 3 Will Glover Jr QB 13 Andy Hall So G 72 Brad Honeycutt Fr TE 84 Will Hunter So TE 88 Brian Lee Jr FB 45 Ross Mitchell Sr C 61 David Schmidgall Sr WR 82 Jonathan Smith So WR 9 Kerry Watkins Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DT 99 Omar Billy Fr FS 22 James Butler Fr CB 23 Joanthan Cox So SS 4 Corey Collins Jr LB 59 Matthew Eiheridge Jr DE 44 Tony Hargrove Fr DT 96 Gary Johnson Jr FS 21 Marty O'Leary Sr DE 38 Nick Rogers Sr LB 51 Daryl Smith So DE 56 Scott Wolf Fr SS 33 Chris Young Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 4 Max DiPace Jr P 30 Dan Dyke Jr	Head coach George O'Leary (regular season) Mac McWhorter (bowl game) Coordinators/assistant coaches Bill O'Brien – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks Glenn Spencer – Running backs David Kelly – Wide receivers Geoff Collins – Tight ends Mac McWhorter – Offensive line/assistant head coach Ted Roof – Defensive coordinator/linebackers Peter McCarty – Defensive tackles Lance Thompson – Defensive ends/recruiting coordinator Danny Crossman – Defensive backs/special teams Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Coaching staff

• George O'Leary, head coach
• Bill O'Brien, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach
• Ted Roof, defensive coordinator