The best era of football for every current ACC school

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: Bobby Dodd Era(1945-1966)

The public university located in Atlanta doesn't have many options to choose from. While the Yellow Jackets had some amazing years in modern times, such as the 1990 split National Championship, 1998, 2009, and 2014. However, those years were followed up by awful or mediocre years. We're talking about consistent runs here. In order to find some options, we have to go way back.

The first choice is the John Heisman years from 1904 to 1919. When you have arguably the most famous individual award in sports named after this guy, then he had to be somewhat successful. He certainly was, as Heisman racked up 102 wins in 138 games as coach of Georgia Tech through 16 years. Heisman also has the 1916 National Championship However, those years are so far gone and that was during the infancy of the sport.

Then we have the years coached by William Alexander from 1920 to 1944. He was fine as well as he won a Rose Bowl and National Championship in 1928. Alexander also took home an Orange Bowl victory in 1939 and a Sugar Bowl win in 1943. However, his tenure was somewhat inconsistent as he has nine losing seasons on his resume. So, the best possible era that I think is reasonable is the Bobby Dodd years from 1945 to 1966.

The same man who has the current school's stadium named after him led the Yellow Jackets through their most consistent and glorious area. Also, this was during a time when Georgia Tech was playing in the SEC, which shows how far gone we are from these times. During Dodd's 22-year run, he only went through two losing seasons. Georgia Tech took three trips to the Orange Bowl, two trips to the Sugar Bowl, and one trip to the Cotton Bowl under his stewardship. Quarterback Billy Lothridge even became the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1963.

Despite only claiming two SEC Conference championships, "Ramblin' Wreck" won a total of nine bowl games in 13 postseason appearances. Georgia Tech also enjoyed back-to-back undefeated seasons in 1951 and 1952. Dodd won the SEC Coach of the Year Award in 1952 and the Jackets strung together seven finishes in the top 10. Dodd coached six Consensus All-Americans during his tenure. Since Dodd left after 1966, the school has had only three more finishes in the top 10. In 237 games, Dodd's squads went 165-64-8, good enough for a .713 winning percentage.