College Football Rewind: 5 most important games from 2009 season

5. (19) Georgia Tech 28, (4) Virginia Tech 23

This may seem like an odd game to be on the list, but much of 2009 was dominated by Florida, Alabama and Texas and there was not much drama in the national championship race. I decided to point out this game that I felt was significant.

Virginia Tech opened the season with a close loss to eventual national champion Alabama and was playing well heading into this game. Georgia Tech was one of the most intriguing teams heading into the 2009 season because this would be Paul Johnson’s second season in Atlanta and there were a lot of skeptics as to whether the triple-option would be successful at a Power Five program.

This was one of Frank Beamer’s best teams at Virginia Tech and the Hokies came into this game ranked No. 4 in the country. Yellow Jackets quarterback Josh Nesbitt had a big night with 22 carries for 133 yards and led the Yellow Jackets to a very statistically unlikely win.

This game was significant because this showed that Georgia Tech could win a big time game running the triple-option and this was a huge win because Virginia Tech had dominated the Coastal division and was looking to make another ACC championship appearance. Johnson proved that he was a big time coach with a win here and the Jackets moved on to win the ACC and play in the Orange bowl, which was the biggest bowl game in a very long time for Georgia Tech football.