Central Florida Knights head coach George O’Leary led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets against the Georgia Bulldogs eight times from 1994 to 2001, with seven of those coming in seasons in which he was Tech’s full-time head coach. He managed a 3-5 record, though he was 3-4 in non-interim seasons and gave Tech its longest winning streak against Georgia since the ’60s. You take what you can get.
1994: Bill Lewis’ last team, which managed nary a win over a Division I opponent, isn’t really O’Leary’s fault, so leave an asterisk by that 48-10 on O’Leary’s resume <—— Haw haw haw, “O’Leary resume.”
1995: A much better effort in O’Leary’s first year as head coach, falling in a 18-17 squeaker. I’d love to tell you something more about this game, as soon as you slide me a box score or video or something.
1996: 19-10 Dawgs, clinching Tech’s last losing season before 2010 and its fifth-straight bowl-free season. Not much on this game either. Who was in charge of record-keeping during mid-90’s college football?
1997: Georgia was one of five ranked teams the Jackets faced. Tech only beat one of them (Clemson), losing to Georgia 27-24 before beating West Virginia in the Carquest Bowl. Mike Bobo led the famous game-winning drive:
1998: Tech kicker Brad Chambers booted the 21-19 game-winner after an icing attempt, sending trap ham:
1999: Tech won 51-48 in a game completely free of controversy of any sort.
2000: Tech quarterback George Godsey led the Jackets to their biggest win over Georgia since [I really don’t want to look that up], then did a little celebrating in Athens:
2001: New Georgia coach Mark Richt continued at least one of the traditions he helped develop at Florida State: pounding Georgia Tech at football. The Dawgs won 31-17, and O’Leary attempted to take the Notre Dame head coaching job before some paperwork discrepancies led him to sign on with the Minnesota Vikings.