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 Just say Joe Hamilton shreds Maryland defense in Jackets' 49-31 win
Posted: Friday October 01, 1999 02:18 AM
ATLANTA (AP) -- Maryland allowed only 10 points in its first three games. No. 9 Georgia Tech was hardly impressed. The Yellow Jackets scored two touchdowns against the nation's top-rated scoring defense before the game was seven minutes old. When it was over, the combination of Joe Hamilton and Dez White had powered Tech to a 49-31 victory Thursday night. "We knew we could score," said White, who caught five passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. 'There's no element of fear in our offense. We believe we can make plays against any defense." With the stage all to himself in a nationally televised game, Hamilton bolstered his Heisman chances by throwing for 387 yards - equaling his career high - and three touchdowns. He also had a 41-yard scoring run for Tech (3-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). "I can't imagine a better college football player than Joe Hamilton,' Maryland coach Ron Vanderlinden said. 'I can't imagine a more complete player." Hamilton, the nation's top-rated passer, threw his first two interceptions of the season, but more than compensated with touchdown passes of 80 and 29 yards to White and a 30-yarder to Kerry Watkins. "We have a mentality that every time we touch the ball, we're going to get it into the end zone," said Hamilton, who has completed 71 percent of his passes for 1,074 yards and 10 TDs. "Whatever approach I can take ... I'm going to do it." Against Maryland (3-1, 0-1), the senior quarterback completed 19 of 31 and also rushed 13 times for 87 yards, finishing with 474 yards. That shattered the school total offense mark of 412 yards set by Darrell Gast in 1987. His passing yardage matched his 387-yard performance against top-ranked Florida State this season, another nationally televised game. White, a junior, had the second 200-yard receiving game of his career, highlighted by his dazzling 80-yard play in the first quarter. He grabbed a pass over the middle, spun completely around to get away from cornerback Renard Cox and took off toward the end zone. After Cox took a futile swipe at White's legs, the receiver put on one more move to avoid Lewis Sanders, stopping short of the goal line to allow Sanders to fly out of bounds. "He's special," Hamilton said, referring to White. "He can stretch the defense on any given play and is a threat to score any time he touches the ball." Although unable to stop Tech's explosive offense, Maryland matched the Yellow Jackets virtually score for score until Hamilton broke loose on his long scoring run. Carrying around end, Hamilton got a good block from receiver Kelly Campbell and sidestepped another defender to reach the end zone with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter, stretching Tech's lead to 35-24. "It was sort of a track meet for a while," Tech coach George O'Leary said, "but we made some big plays. Dez White and Joe Hamilton made some nice combinations out there." Phillip Rogers added a couple of 1-yard scoring runs to seal the victory. LaMont Jordan, questionable because of a sore knee, carried a career-high 27 times for 79 yards, scoring twice, and also threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Arrington. Maryland's Calvin McCall completed 15 of 28 passes for 221 yards, but was intercepted twice. Sean Gregory gave the Yellow Jackets a quick lead, breaking free for a 48-yard touchdown just 41/2 minutes into the game. Maryland evened the score on Jordan's first TD, a 1-yard run that was set up by Guilian Gary's 84-yard kickoff return. Maryland was resilient, taking advantage of three Tech turnovers to lead 17-14 with less than two minutes remaining in the first half. Unfortunately for the Terps, that was enough time for Hamilton to throw two TD passes. The first was the 29-yarder to White, who made a great over-the-shoulder, fingertip catch in the corner of the end zone with 1:21 remaining. After Maryland went three-and-out and Tech preserved the clock by calling its last two timeouts, Shawn Starner shanked an 8-yard punt to give the ball back to Hamilton at the Terps 30. After one incompletion, Hamilton hooked up with Watkins on a backbreaking TD with just 18 seconds remaining. Instead of leading, the Terps went to the locker room down 28-17. Georgia Tech finished with 587 yards against a defense that was allowing only 241 per game. "That's a lot of yards," Sanders said, "but we knew they were a good football team." Maryland piled up 399 yards against the leaky Yellow Jackets defense, prompting O'Leary to visibly chastise his players on the field during a timeout.
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