The more I look at the stat sheet, the more anxious I am to get a look at this Georgia Tech team. This is a very unusual football team.

I’ve heard a little about the Yellow Jackets over the course of the season, but I didn’t really start studying them until they were matched with Iowa in the Jan. 5 Fed Ex Orange Bowl.

Some observations:

– None of Tech’s starting offensive linemen is over 300 pounds and the right tackle is a 254-pound former running back.

– The three backs who have combined for nearly 3,000 yards this season – Jonathan Dwyer, Josh Nesbitt and Anthony Allen — all weigh 214 or more pounds. Allen, who has averaged 9.8 yards on his 61 carries, checks in at 228.

– The Yellow Jackets have completed only 76 passes this season with 46 of them going to one player: 229-pound wideout Demaryius Thomas, who averages 25.1 yards per catch.

– As a team, they average more than 23 yards per reception.

– Their quarterbacks have completed 47.8 percent of their passes, which has to be among the worst in the country, but they’re eighth in the country in passing efficiency.

– Punt returner Jerrard Tarrant averages 14.3 yards per return and has two runbacks for touchdowns this season.

– More than half their quarterback sacks are by one player, Derrick Morgan.

Some of those numbers would seem to be red flags. On paper, it looks as though they only have one receiver who needs to be covered and one defensive lineman who needs to be blocked. I’m sure it’s not that simple. You don’t get to be 11-2 and a 3 ½ -point favorite in your bowl game by being that unbalanced.

Like I said, it’s a very unusual team.

On the eve of learning where everyone is headed for the bowl season, everything seems to have turned around. It now appears as though Iowa may be headed for a Jan. 5 date with Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

Several media outlets are now reporting that the Fiesta Bowl is contemplating a matchup between the two unbeaten non-BCS teams – TCU and Boise State. For several weeks the experts have been forecasting an Iowa-Boise matchup.

If the Fiesta uses its first at-large selection on TCU, the Orange Bowl likely would then scoop up Iowa.

There has been speculation that one of the BCS bowls might opt for Penn State over Iowa even though the Hawkeyes defeated the Nittany Lions in a head-to-head battle.

However, an Orange Bowl official told Iowa reporters two weeks ago that his bowl is very interested in “unique matchups,’’ pairing schools that never have played one another before. Penn State and Georgia Tech have played seven times through the years although the most recent meeting was in 1991.

Georgia Tech might be a tough matchup for the Hawkeyes. There have been times in the second half of the season that they looked vulnerable to strong ground game. The Yellow Jackets are the best triple option team in the country. Running back Jonathan Dwyer and quarterback Josh Nesbitt have combined for 2,337 yards rushing and 32 touchdowns this season.