ATLANTA – Among the more concerning realities that came from North Carolina’s punishing 45-22 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was that the Tar Heels didn’t really prepare for Yellow Jackets quarterback Jeff Sims.
Sims didn’t start, but he did play, taking over on Tech’s sixth possession and leading the Jackets to 39 points and 328 total yards over the next seven offensive series. Prior to his entry, Jordan Yates’ five possessions led to just six points and 66 total yards.
Without Sims in the game, UNC might have found a way to steal a victory on a night its had a whole heap of issues. Instead, the Tar Heels are licking their wounds, which are actually large gashes.
“Give credit to Sims,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “I think they had 81-82 yards in the first half, and Sims came in, and did tremendous job that second half. We couldn’t stop him. I think he rushed (128) something yards…
“Sims came in, and then he just ran them down the field.”
The sophomore started every game last season for Georgia Tech, leading it in rushing, touchdowns scored, and obviously all passing categories.
Sims started the season-opening loss to Northern Illinois running six times for 34 yards. But he re-injured his shoulder and was unavailable the following week versus Kennesaw State. But Sims was cleared to play at Clemson, and media reports indicated he was at full strength leading up to the UNC game.
Carolina, however, put most of its attention on Yates, not Sims.
“His ability coming in changed up our game plan a little bit,” UNC senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said about Sims. “We thought Yates was going to be the guy throughout the game, so we really didn't game plan too much for both quarterbacks. We had some stuff for (Sims), but we didn't think he was gonna play in the second half of the ball game.”
Georgia Tech Coach Geoff Collins started making Sims the face of the program last season. Look at the Associated Press preview of Tech’s season in August, it’s all about Sims. Go back to the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, though just a sophomore, Sims was one of the program’s representatives. Collins heaped all kinds of praise on Sims that day about his work ethic, potential, and how vital he was to Georgia Tech turning the corner.
Yates had done some nice things the last few weeks, and Carolina was rightfully concerned about him. But was Sims really an afterthought?
“We talked about it,” Brown said. “We didn’t know if he was healthy or not, because he hadn’t played in a while… but he’s so good. It’s hard to show his speed in practice, he looks like Vince Young. When I saw him as a true freshman I said ‘oh my gosh, this guy’s gonna be really good, he’s gonna give Georgia Tech a chance each week,’ and I thought he looked great tonight.
“He turned it over some in his past, and that’d been a problem for him. Well, he didn’t do that tonight, he looked great. I looked for him after the game, but couldn’t find him, because I thought he was the difference in the ballgame.”
Of Tech’s 263 rushing yards, 162 came on 15 combined attempts around left or right end, including Sims’ 50-yard scoring run. And even when passing, which included a 27-yard scoring pass, Sims faced three Carolina blitzes completing passes each time for 49 yards.
How much Carolina game-planned for Sims isn’t entirely certain, but based on how the Tar Heels defended him and what both Brown and Gemmel said late Saturday night, whatever they did with respect to Sims during the week didn’t work.
