Tech runs to victory

ATLANTA – This is the way they draw up the triple option.

Ruining Miami’s return to national prominence, Georgia Tech ran for a staggering 472 yards – the second most allowed by the Hurricanes – and romped to a 41-23 victory Thursday night that gives the Yellow Jackets a chance to pull out an Atlantic Coast Conference divisional title that no one seems eager to win.

Jonathan Dwyer ran for 128 yards despite playing only one half, two other players came up just short of 100 yards and the Yellow Jackets left No. 23 Miami dazed and confused on a chilly night in Atlanta.

“We executed at a high level,” said Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, architect of the scheme that harkens back to an era when offenses such as the wishbone were all the rage.

By the end, the Hurricanes (7-4, 4-3) could do little more than huddle around heaters, outclassed in their first game as a ranked team in more than two years.

“That’s option football,” coach Randy Shannon said. “It’s assignment football, and when you don’t play assignment football, bad things can happen.”

The five-time national champs, who had a losing record in 2007 but came into the game with five straight wins, could have clinched at least a tie for first in the Coastal Division with a win.

Georgia Tech (8-3, 5-3) takes over first in the convoluted Coastal, but the Yellow Jackets will need some help because three other contenders would win on a tiebreaker. Still, it was an impressive display by the triple-option offense, which piled up the most rushing yards on the Hurricanes other than a 536-yard effort by Auburn in 1944.