Most of the four-team college football playoff era was pretty forgettable for Georgia Tech. They were 3-9 in 2015, bounced back for a 9-4 season in 2016, 5-6 in 2017, 7-6 in 2018, the miserable Geoff Collins years, and then a 7-6 in Brent Key's first season in 2023.
But they did have one unforgettable season and that was in 2014.
Georgia Tech started that season 5-0, slipped with losses to Duke and North Carolina, but then finished on a five-game winning streak heading into an ACC Championship with undefeated Florida State. The Yellow Jackets nearly pulled off the upset, losing 37-35, but it earned them an Orange Bowl bid, which they won 49-34. It was the double-digit win season for the Yellow Jackets in the four-team playoff era and the only time they were ever ranked in the college football playoff rankings, getting as high as No. 11.
This week, ESPN analyst Davis Hale (who covers the ACC), graded every single team that was ever ranked in the CFP rankings and ranked them accordingly.
Here is his thought process behind his rankings:
"For this ranking, we looked at all the hard numbers -- wins, playoff appearances, SP+ (colleague Bill Connelly's tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of efficiency), top-25 finishes and plenty of others -- but ultimately had to compare the results with reasonable expectations and weigh the teams with dizzying highs and troubling lows against the ones with consistent-but-inconsequential success.
The result is the definitive ranking of all 86 teams that have spent at least one week in the committee's top 25 (plus the other Power 5 schools that never caught the committee's eye)."
Georgia Tech would come in ranked 75th and given a D+ grade, ahead of Virginia, Purdue, Temple, Syracuse, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado, Tulsa, Kansas, San Jose State, and East Carolina.
Here is what Hale said about Georgia Tech's tenure during the four-team CFP era:
"Thirty teams have won a playoff or New Year's Six game. Twenty-nine of them have a better record during the past decade than Georgia Tech. But, thanks to the Yellow Jackets' 11-3 campaign and Orange Bowl win in 2014, they've got something Auburn, Miami, Utah, Iowa, Kansas State and Mississippi State (who lost that Orange Bowl to Georgia Tech) don't."
This is a pretty fair ranking. Outside of the 2014 season, Georgia Tech only made a bowl game in three other seasons (2016, 2018, 2023) during this era. The Collins era drags them down a pretty good bit, but I have a feeling that Key could have this team battling for a ranking spot at some point this season.
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