Josh would eventually flourish under the new spread option system.   But it wasn’t without plenty of “on the job” learning.  Remember that he was recruited as traditional Pro-Set quarterback under previous Head Coach Chan Gailey.

Heading into the hot August practice schedule, Paul Johnson was still implementing large portions of his spread option attack.  Much of which fell on the shoulders of one Josh Nesbitt.

Opening the 2008 campaign with a blowout win at home over 1-AA Jacksonville State on the Thursday night game before Labor Day weekend, the Jackets ran wild in Johnson’s coaching debut.  Tech gained 349 yards on the ground (484 yards of total offense) in the season opener.  Nesbitt had 73 yards of rushing, 87 yards of passing, and 2 rushing touchdowns in his debut as a starting quarterback.

Here is Josh’s first ever rushing touchdown from that game:

Jacksonville State Coach Jack Crowe noted the difficulty in defending the Triple Option after the loss in Atlanta. “There’s just too many issues with this offense for people to deal with it. We had two and a half weeks to deal with it. The rest of these folks will get two days. Good luck ACC.”

And the ACC wouldn’t wait long to see the new offense. Up next for Georgia Tech was back to back road games against the ACC’s top two programs at the time – Boston College and Virginia Tech.

BC and VT had played for the ACC championship the year prior in Jacksonville and featured two of the top defenses in the country.  The Eagles were Number 5 in total defense and the Hokies were Number 7 among Division 1-A teams during the 2008 season.

Nesbitt lead the Jackets to victory in Chestnut Hill 19-16 on a late touchdown run by RB Jon Dwyer via option pitch from our favorite quarterback. Nesbitt rushed for 50 yards, passed for 87 yards and a score plus had two key runs late in the game for first downs to kill the clock and preserve the victory.

Coach Paul Johnson had this to say about his sophomore quarterback. “Our quarterback [Josh Nesbitt] made some great plays for us scrambling. He just made some great plays. A lot of our best run plays were him scrambling, or him just doing something on his own. We turned some guys loose in pass protection and he got away from them and broke contain and made some huge first downs and some big plays for us. Josh Nesbitt, first time starting on the road, I thought he did pretty well.”

With their first conference win under the belts, the Yellow Jackets would return to the road for the 2nd week in a row. This time the venue was noisy Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia against the defending ACC champions.

Virginia Tech handed the Jackets their first loss of the season by a final score of 20-17. Down by 8 points, Georgia Tech rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter on a 81-yard touchdown drive led by Nesbitt. Nesbitt also completed a pass for the 2-point conversion.

The Hokies would rally with a long drive of their own for what would ultimately be the game winning field goal. The final Hokie drive was aided by two 15-yard penalties against the Jackets including one questionable crucial late hit penalty on Safety Cooper Taylor.

Nesbitt posted a game high 151 yards of rushing against the stout Hokie defense.  Here is his touchdown run in the fourth quarter:

After two consecutive road games, the Yellow Jackets would post 3 wins in a row back in Atlanta at the friendly confines of Bobby Dodd Stadium versus Mississippi State (38-7), Duke (27-0), and Gardner Webb (10-7). Nesbitt sat out all three games with a pulled hamstring, but was back in uniform to as the 5-1 Yellow Jackets traveled up I-85 to take on the Clemson Tigers in a key ACC contest.

Clemson Head Coach Tommy Bowden had resigned the previous weekend following a tough loss at Wake Forest. Tiger Town was in a frenzy as new Coach Dabo Sweeney made his coaching debut at Death Valley.

The Jackets would ultimately spoil Sweeney’s coaching debut by a final score of 21-17.  Down by three late in the fourth quarter, Nesbitt found WR Demaryius Thomas on a 24-yard touchdown pass. Nesbitt added a rushing touchdown in the first half and finished with 78 net rushing yards and 91 passing yards.

We will take a look at the 2nd part of the 2008 season in our next blog.  Please spread the word about JoshForHeisman.com!

Coming out of high school, Josh Nesbitt was a two-time All-State selection out of Greene County (GA).  A four star quarterback, he was rated as the No. 4 overall prospect in the state of Georgia by Scout.com and the No. 9 dual-threat QB in the country by Rivals.com.  Josh obviously had plenty of running ability, but threw for over 4,000 yards in high school.

He had offers from many top schools in the South including Auburn, Florida State, and Georgia, but decided to stay close to home and committed to Georgia Tech in September of 2006.  Nesbitt would help comprise one of the mostly highly decorated recruiting classes in Georgia Tech football history, alongside running backs Jon Dwyer and Roddy Jones.

Take a look at Nesbitt in high school:

Originally recruited as a Pro-Style quarterback by former Coach Chan Gailey, the enormously talented Nesbitt would serve as a backup to Taylor Bennett during his freshmen season (2007).   Josh would see action in 11 out of 13 games that year, including the season opening blowout win at Notre Dame.  Nesbitt would end the year as the third leading rusher for the Jackets.

Early on, you could see what a special talent Nesbitt was.  Reference these back to back plays in a win over North Carolina on November 17, 2007:

Following a tough 31-17 end of season loss to arch-rival Georgia, Gailey was let go by Georgia Tech after six seasons.  Coach Paul Johnson (45-29 at Navy) was hired to replace Gailey that December and brought his unique Spread Option attack to Atlanta from Annapolis.

The incumbent starter Taylor Bennett transferred to Louisiana Tech for his final season of eligibility, opening the door for Josh Nesbitt in spring practice.

But Nesbitt had much to learn from the “Jedi Master” Paul Johnson.  As did the rest of the Yellow Jackets.

We will look at Josh’s sophomore (2008) season in our next blog.  Please spread the word about JoshForHeisman.com.

Josh Nesbitt led the Yellow Jackets to their first outright ACC championship since 1990 and their first Orange Bowl bid since 1967. Under his direction, the Tech offense averaged over 35 points a game and gained an impressive 307 yards per game on the ground.

Josh helped lead the 11-2 Jackets to 2nd half comeback wins versus Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State, and Clemson again in the 2009 ACC Championship game. He was the heart and soul of the squad, gaining yards in the fourth quarter of games when the Jackets were behind and the defenses were all keying on him.

As Georgia Tech gets ready to conclude the 2009 season at the Orange Bowl versus Iowa, lets take a moment look back at Josh’s numbers, year to date:

Year To Date RUSHING Stats for Georgia Tech Quarterback Josh Nesbitt
13 games played
259 Rushing Attempts
1141 Rushing Yards Gained
150 Yards Lost
991 Net Rushing Yards Gained
3.8 Avg Yards Per Rush
18 Rushing Touchdowns
39 yards Longest Rush
76.2 Avg Rushing Yards Per Game

Year To Date PASSING Stats for Georgia Tech Quarterback Josh Nesbitt
13 games played
156.8 Efficiency
73-153-4 Completions-Attempts-Interceptions
47.7 Completion Percentage
1689 Passing Yards
10 Passing Touchdowns
87 yards Longest Passing Play
129.9 Average Passing yards per game

Thanks for visiting JoshForHeisman.com! GO JACKETS!