Georgia Tech: 24
Clemson: 21

After bouncing back from a tough loss to Florida State with a 31-14 victory over Maryland, Georgia Tech would face the Clemson Tigers in a Thursday night contest at Death Valley in mid-November. Florida State had defeated Virginia 45-14 five days earlier to break a three way tie between themselves, the Cavaliers, and the Yellow Jackets. A victory over the Tigers would keep Tech’s BCS chances alive in hopes that Florida State would drop one more conference game to give the Ramblin’ Wreck sole possession of first place in the conference.

Clemson scored the game’s first points midway through the opening period on a nine yard touchdown run by Travis Zachery. The freshman running back reached the end zone at the 6:41 mark in the first quarter to give the Tigers at 7-0 lead.

Joe Hamilton entered to quickly lead the Jackets into scoring position, and on third down from the Tiger 23 he launched a pass to Dez White in the end zone. But Tech’s star receiver couldn’t hold on to the ball and Brad Chambers entered to connect on a 40 yard field goal that made it 7-3 with just over a minute remaining in the opening period.

Midway through the second quarter, Hamilton found the end zone on a nine yard touchdown run to give Tech its first lead of the game at 10-7. The game would remain scoreless for the remainder of the first half and the teams would head to the locker rooms with Tech ahead by three.

Each squad notched a touchdown in the third quarter as the lead changed hands on two occasions. Rod Gardner caught a 3 yard pass from Brandon Streeter at the 8:52 mark to put Clemson on top 14-10, but Phillip Rogers scored on a 1 yard run late in the period to regain the lead for the Jackets at 17-14.

Streeter took back the lead just two minutes into the fourth quarter with a 48 yard touchdown strike to Brian Wofford and Tech would trail 21-17 for the majority of the final period.

But the Jackets took over at their own 40 with two and a half minutes to play in search of a game winning drive. The Ramblin’ Wreck quickly moved into Tiger territory before Joe Hamilton hit Charlie Rogers on a 28 yard pass to the Clemson 20 yard line. The junior quarterback then hit Dez White on a pass to the 4 with 1:44 remaining and dove just short on the end zone on the next play, leaving Tech just one yard from victory. Freshman running back Joe Burns then scored with one minute left to give Tech the lead at 24-21 and ensure a Ramblin’ Wreck victory.

Tech had handed Clemson its fourth loss in a row, dropping its rival to 2-8 on the season. The Tigers would go on to defeat in-state rival South Carolina 28-19 to finish the season at 3-8 overall.

Statistics:

First Downs:
GT – 23
CLEM – 18

Rushing Yards:
GT – 150
CLEM – 146

Passing (Comp-Att-Yards):
GT – 17-33-190
CLEM – 12-24-154

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
GT – 1-0
CLEM – 0-0

Interceptions thrown:
GT – 0
CLEM – 0

Penalties (Total-Yards):
GT – 10-100
CLEM – 5-37

References:
USA Today Recap: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores98/98316/98316323.htm