Georgia Tech routs hapless Boston College 37-17

Tevin Washington ran for two touchdowns and backup quarterback Vad Lee also accounted for two scores, leading the Yellow Jackets to a 37-17 victory over Boston College on Saturday.

Georgia Tech (3-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak in its first contest since firing defensive coordinator Al Groh.

"We're 1-0 right now," linebacker Quayshawn Neely said. "We're not even thinking about the losses."

Losing is about all Boston College (1-6, 0-4) can think about. The Eagles dropped their fifth in a row and have yet to beat a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent, keeping the heat on embattled coach Frank Spaziani.

"As the sand goes out of the hourglass, there are some games left," Spaziani said. "We're not that far away, but we're miles away."

Georgia Tech built a 31-3 lead by early in the third quarter. Chase Rettig threw two touchdown passes to give the Eagles a glimmer of hope, but this was essentially total domination by the home team.

The Yellow Jackets finished with 563 yards — 407 in the first half — and played keep-away from Boston College, running a season-high 91 plays and holding the ball for a staggering 43 minutes, 45 seconds. School officials said it was the most time of possession by the Yellow Jackets since at least 1975.

"It's nice to be back on the right side of the scoreboard again," coach Paul Johnson said.

The staggering advantage in time of possession sure helped out the defense, which had surrendered more than 40 points in each of the last three losses — the first such stretch in school history. Johnson finally got fed up, firing Groh heading into an off week and promoting Charles Kelly to interim coordinator, with explicit orders to simplify the scheme.

The Yellow Jackets surrendered 296 yards, their lowest total against an FBS opponent this season, and held Boston College to 1 of 9 on third-down conversions, one of the major weaknesses under Groh.

"We didn't have to think about a lot of things," Neely said. "We could just go play. There were not a lot of calls. It was pretty basic. It just came down to the players."

With Boston College intent on keeping Georgia Tech's option game from running outside, Zach Laskey kept bulling up the middle and finished with 101 yards, the second 100-yard game of his career. He wasn't able to finish, going out with a shoulder injury after an Eagles defender crashed into him helmet-first.