By Carlos Pineda
SouthernPigskin.com

Follow us at Twitter.com/SouthernPigskin.  Become a fan at the SouthernPigskin.com Facebook Page

“Our program took a step forward this year. And we’re planning to keep striving to put Georgia Tech’s on top of the list.” – Georgia Tech QB Justin Thomas

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. x94 The celebration was already in full swing as the public address announcer counted down the final seconds of 2014.

Georgia Tech had just beaten its second straight SEC foe and faced its fourth straight Top 25 opponent to cap off a spectacular season.

The Yellow Jackets (11-3) jumped on seventh-ranked Mississippi State early, and fended off a second quarter Bulldog rally to win 49-34 on Wednesday night in the Orange Bowl. Outside of winning a national championship in the Citrus Bowl in 1990, this was Tech’s first major bowl victory since the 1956 Sugar Bowl.

The Jackets were led by Justin Thomas, who was named the game’s MVP as he ran for 121 yards and three touchdowns x94 tying an Orange Bowl record for scores by a quarterback x94 and threw for 125 yards and a score. Thomas became the second Tech QB to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season, and commanded an offense that set the Orange Bowl record with 452 rushing yards.

Thomas was brilliant. His athleticism and sound execution running the option had the Bulldogs bewildered. None of it demonstrated more than his touchdown runs of 13, 32 and 15 yards as he went untouched on each of those speedy runs. His 32-yard score that gave Georgia Tech a 35-20 lead midway through the third quarter drew a collective pop from the crowd as Thomas juked a Mississippi State defender at the line of scrimmage before heading towards the end zone.

“Our program took a step forward this year,” Thomas said afterward. “And we’re planning to keep striving to put Georgia Tech’s on top of the list.”

Selected to finish fifth in the ACC Coastal, the Yellow Jackets shunned all the naysayers by picking up a decisive win over a team that finished second in arguably college football’s toughest division this season, and doing so with their bread and butter, the triple option.

Georgia Tech rebounded from two mid-October losses (Duke and North Carolina) to close out the regular season with wins over 18th-ranked Clemson and No. 16 Georgia.

“I think we’re a top-10 football team for sure,” coach Paul Johnson said as his team celebrated the 49-34 win to cap an 11-3 season. “I’m proud of these guys, and for at least a week or two, we don’t have to hear about the SEC.”