ATLANTA -- The Georgia Tech field crew painted everything white on Saturday; the "GT" at midfield, the block letters in the end zone, and the majority of the 52,221 in attendance were similarly dressed as a white out was in effect at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
With a 28-17 win over the Miami Hurricanes that was more dominating than the score showed, white could also signify a feeling that flowed through the Georgia Tech locker room after the game: Calm.
Students from the lower sections rushed the field after the game in celebration. That was after the Yellow Jackets rushed all over the 'Canes defense.
Here are four observations from Saturday's win that pushed the Yellow Jackets to a perfect 5-0.
In the week leading up this ACC Coastal battle, Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson announced his game plan to the entire world. He didn't reveal a big secret; the Yellow Jacket offense rarely is a surprise.
"We're going to run the ball," said Johnson. "If they can stop the run, they're going to win the game."
Miami didn't stop the run. The 'Canes didn't even come close.
Georgia Tech moved the ball down the field using nine different running backs, and scored on the ground with four. As a team, the Yellow Jackets churned 318 rushing yards on 65 attempts. They weren't easy yards, but sometimes it looked that way.
Miami entered the game allowing 138.6 yards per game on average. The 'Canes were ranked 90th in the nation, but in the middle of the ACC pack, in eighth place. It wasn't guaranteed that Georgia Tech was going to succeed on the ground.
"They got too many yards inside, too many yards inside between our tackles, and Mike (middle linebacker)," said Miami head coach Al Golden. "We never got them off-track from that standpoint."
The Yellow Jackets' 318 yards on the ground weren't the most gained on this Miami defense in 2014. Nebraska belted out 343 rushing yards on Sept. 20. But that was the low water mark. In Miami's other four games combined, its opponents rushed for 333 yards.
Is the real Miami defense the unit that has twice now given up more than 300 yards on the ground, or are the other four games more indicative of what can be expected?
That doesn't matter to the Yellow Jackets, who converted 9 of 14 third downs, and were a perfect 2 for 2 on fourth down. What matters is the fact that everyone on the planet knew Georgia Tech was going to try to win by running the football, and Miami didn't have a viable answer.
Take a look at the offensive side of the Georgia Tech stat book, and Laskey's name is just about everywhere. But he's not at the top of too many lists.
Justin Thomas had more carries entering Saturday night's game; he had more yards too. Charles Perkins, Tony Zenon, Deon Hill and Thomas all had more yards per carry, and Tim Byerly had more rushing touchdowns.
Georgia Tech's contest against Miami did little to dispel the notion that Laskey doesn't get enough time in the limelight.
Laskey led the team is rushing with 133 yards, and had more carries than anyone else. Even though Laskey did the most work, he wasn't given the opportunity for glory. Thomas, Zenon, Hill and B.J. Bostic all had rushing touchdowns against the Hurricanes. Laskey did not.
While Laskey was that battering ram of a running back that was so vital to Tech moving the ball down field, his services weren't called upon at the goal line.
Since Laskey plays for Georgia Tech, it's impossible to forego the comparison of Laskey to the school's official mascot, a 1930 Ford Model A Sport coupe.
Laskey is this team's Ramblin' Wreck. He may not be pieced together by spare parts and held together by engineering brilliance, but he is used similarly to how you'd drive a car down the middle of the football field; sloppily with little regard to anything in it's way.
Most of Laskey's work is done deep in the trenches, taking a beating in between the two tackles. More times than not he runs closer to the middle of the line, in between the two guards in what is known as the "A" gaps.
That's perfectly fine for Laskey, and he gets an "A" as a grade for his efforts against Miami. Even without scoring a point. He tied his career mark for rushing yards in a game, and said he couldn't remember there ever being a time in his football career, from prep to college, where he carried the ball 29 times.
He surpassed the 100-yard mark for just the fourth time in his three-year career at Tech, and moved up on the all-time rushing yards list. Laskey now has 1,631 career rushing yards and passed Bobby North, Malcolm King, Cory Collier and Jimy Lincoln to land in 22nd place.
Entering the Miami game, Georgia Tech was a perfect 7 for 7 when it came to scoring directly after a turnover. The Yellow Jackets had turned seven takeaways into 45 points this season.
That trend ceased after safety Isaiah Johnson tipped a Brad Kaaya pass straight up into the air and grabbed it himself for an easy pick. Kaaya overthrew his intended target, and Johnson was in the perfect spot for the gift.
Ten plays later the Tech offense was forced to punt, and that was a few plays after it had successfully converted a fake punt inside its own territory. Just because the scoring streak ended, don't think for a minute that the interception wasn't valuable. In fact, both turnovers by the Yellow Jackets were very well timed.
Johnson's pick came when the game was tied at 14 and Miami was driving. He intercepted the errant pass at Georgia Tech's 10-yard line; Miami was about to score.
Georgia Tech's second interception came with just 1:11 left in the game. Miami was driving and down 28-17. Jamal Golden took this pass away from the Miami offense in the end zone, and kneeled down for the touchback. Even though Miami couldn't have tied the game or taken a lead with the score, momentum could have shifted to make the final minute of the game rather interesting.
Both defensive backs said the turnovers were the result of a lot of off-the-field work.
"That interception came directly from film studies," said Golden. "We saw that almost every time in the red zone they were pretty much running the smash route, or they were running a fake smash route with the receiver going back inside. I knew he was going to do it."
Johnson said he also knew what Kaaya was about to do before he threw the first pick. He cited third-down tendencies, not only with the type of route ran, but with the likely target.
In one of the more jocular moments of Johnson's press conference after the game, the Tech head coach was asked how he neutralized Miami's superior speed on offense.
"How do you neutralize it? You hold the ball for 40 minutes and 45 seconds, and they don't get it and they're not out there," said Johnson. "That's the best way to play a team like that; is to keep them off the field."
Miami only had possession of the football for 19:15. The 'Canes ran just 44 plays, compared to the Yellow Jackets' 72. Sure, there wasn't a huge discrepancy in total yards (371 for Tech and 352 for Miami), but when the Yellow Jackets were able to methodically move the ball down the field, and take gobs of time off the clock doing so, it helped; on both offense and defense.
The Georgia Tech defense was barely on the field on Saturday. At the end of the game, when Miami was driving, that left a lot of gas in the tank.
Coming off a bye week, and getting plenty of rest while the offense worked, the defense had the energy and boost that was needed to hold off Miami. Johnson said the team didn't make many defensive adjustments at halftime; it was just a matter of execution and better play.
Fresh legs certainly helped too.
