Ga. Tech coach wants best effort

Few teams have entered a conference championship game with as lackluster of a résumé as Georgia Tech.

The 6-6 Yellow Jackets are two-touchdown underdogs to 10-2 Florida State for Saturday’s ACC title game in Charlotte.

But coach Paul Johnson cares little about outsiders’ perceptions. The main thing he’s stressing this week is effort — something he did not see much of in Tech’s 42-10 loss at archrival Georgia last week.

“You’ve got to play hard,” Johnson told reporters. “You’ve got to sell out.”

With the exception of B-back David Sims and a few others, Johnson was displeased with the effort level.

“You get beat in life, you get beat in sports,” Johnson said. “Sometimes that happens. But whatyouwant to do is give it your best effort and you want to compete from start to finish.”

The Jackets likely will get blown out again if they don’t bring an “A” effort. They’re just not talented enough to overcome a lack of energy.

Awin sends Tech to the Orange Bowl. Aloss could send the Jackets back to the Sun Bowl for the second straight year, assuming the NCAA grants a bowl-eligibility waiver for Tech’s 6-7 record.

Tech is 232 rushing yards shy of 20,000 during Johnson’s five-year tenure.

Senior QBTevinWashington’s18 rushing touchdowns are the third most nationally among quarterbacks. His 36 career rushing scores are Tech and ACC records.