Jackets ready to test their growth against Green Wave

ATLANTA -- A lot has happened since Georgia Tech played Tulane a year ago.

In those days, there was still a lot of uncertainty around the program. The Yellow Jackets were coming off a closer-than-expected win over Wofford, had plenty of questions on defense and were playing with a talented quarterback who had yet to establish himself.

Fast forward to 2015, and Georgia Tech has grown into a nationally recognized program, now ranked No. 15, with an opportunistic defense and a highly skilled quarterback who fits the offensive system like none before.

"I think we are a lot better team than the last time we played them," head coach Paul Johnson said. "It will be a good way to measure."

Tulane (0-1) is expected to provide another warmup for the meat of the schedule, which starts next week when the Yellow Jackets travel to Notre Dame. The Green Wave lost their opener 37-7 to Duke last week and had trouble on both sides of the ball.

"The Duke game got out of hand (for Tulane)," Johnson said. "It was a lot closer than the score might indicate. They hurt themselves on special teams, and third downs were awful for them. Their defense kind of wore down there in the third and fourth quarters."

Tulane put 271 yards of offense on the board, but 99 of those came on one drive. Quarterback Tanner Lee completed 24-of-42 passes for 246 yards, with 92 of those yards covered by Davon Breaux.

The Green Wave had little running game, rushing 23 times for 25 yards and only three rushing first downs.

"We just have to focus on the little details and the consistency and making sure everyone is doing the right thing all the time," Lee said. "If we can do that, we can put some points up."

Lee threw for 173 yards against Georgia Tech last year but threw three interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown.

Georgia Tech linebacker Adam Gotsis said the Yellow Jackets can't afford to see Tulane's offensive struggles and look past the Green Wave, so they can take a sneak peek at Notre Dame.

"They're probably disappointed in the way they played," Gotsis said. "They're going to come out and be ready to get a win, like we went and got one from them last year. They've got nothing to lose. We've got to be on our 'A' game."

Safety Jamal Golden said, "We've got to get better this weekend."

But can Tulane at least slow down Georgia Tech's ground munching offense? The Green Wave had little luck against Duke, which was breaking in a new quarterback. The Blue Devils had 550 yards in offense and head coach Curtis Johnson blamed poor tackling for a lot of trouble. Linebacker Nico Marley, grandson of reggae legend Bob Marley, led Tulane with a career-high 15 tackles.

Marley had 11 tackles against Georgia Tech last year.

"That guy is a good player," Johnson said. "He is like a little Tasmanian devil out there. He is all over the place."

Tulane frustrated the Georgia Tech offense last year, when the Yellow Jackets lost two fumbles and threw an interception. The Green Wave led 21-14 until late in the first half, when the Yellow Jackets scored a touchdown and a field goal in the final three minutes to take a 24-21 lead en route to a 38-21 win.

"Tulane's a more talented team, as you might expect," Johnson said. "We didn't play particularly well (last year), especially offensively. We turned it over three or four times."

This year's offense at Georgia Tech doesn't seem as likely to have the same issues of getting started as it did a year ago. The Yellow Jackets totaled 553 yards last week, including 476 on the ground.

"We had some missed assignments offensively. We made a couple poor decisions at quarterback, actually," Johnson said.

"But other than that I thought the first group played pretty well."

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 11:46 PM with the headline "Jackets ready to test their growth against Green Wave ."