Florida State and Georgia Tech both stagger into Saturday’s ACC Championship in Charlotte after suffering losses to their in-state rivals from the SEC.
The Seminoles lost 37-26 to Florida at home while the Yellow Jackets were handily beaten by Georgia, 42-10, in Athens. Georgia Tech last played in the ACC title game in 2009 after coming off a loss to Georgia, and the opponent, Clemson, had just lost to South Carolina.
Georgia Tech was able to rebound then. The Yellow Jackets beat the Tigers, 39-34, to win the conference title, which has since been vacated due to NCAA sanctions. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson hopes his team will bounce back in a similar fashion this year.
“Well, you hope, you never know,” Johnson said. “We've got another great opportunity. I'm sure that Florida State is fighting a little bit of the same thing today with their game with Florida. It's unfortunate that it happened like that, but you've got to put it behind you and move on.”
Florida State last played for the conference championship in 2010, a week after it snapped a six-game losing skid to Florida. This time, the Seminoles are coming off a disappointing performance where they turned the ball over five times, and, like Georgia Tech, will have to put the loss behind them.
“Yeah, it's something we've just got to snap out of it,” Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. “You understand your goals and your vision, and one of them is a conference championship with a BCS berth on the line. And you have to do that ... hopefully, the maturity of our team will be able to push us through that.”
Injury updates: Florida State will be without DE Cornellius (Tank) Carradine, who suffered a torn ACL against Florida and will miss the rest of the season. Carradine leads the Seminoles with 80 tackles and is second on the team with 11 sacks and 13 tackles for loss.
Redshirt freshman Giorgio Newberry and true freshman Mario Edwards Jr. will try to fill the void left by Carradine. Newberry has 13 tackles this season, and Edwards has registered seven tackles and 1.5 sacks.
Georgia Tech A-back Orwin Smith said Monday he expects to play this weekend. Smith missed last week’s game with Georgia due to a right ankle injury.
“It’s still to be determined,” Smith said. “I think I will play. We’ll have to see how it goes.”
Smith leads Georgia Tech with 673 rushing yards and averages 9.0 yards per carry.
For more up-to-the-minute news and analysis from ACC bloggers Shawn Krest and Sean Bielawski, follow @CBSSportsACC.