Both their head coaches are named Johnson. Both of them sport gold as one of their colors.

The similarities pretty much end there for the soaring Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the reeling Vanderbilt Commodores, who meet Saturday night at Vanderbilt Stadium for the first time in over six years.

Eleventh-ranked Georgia Tech and second-year head coach Paul Johnson have won five straight games and control their destiny in reaching a BCS bowl thanks to a superb triple option offense that has kept opposing defenses on the field and out of breath.

With the second-best running game in the nation at 292 yards rushing per game, it’s no small wonder that the Yellow Jackets (7-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) lead the nation with an average time of possession of nearly 35 minutes a game.

“They’re playing extremely well right now,” said Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson. “I don’t think I’ve seen as many big plays by an offense in a year than I have by them, so it’s been very impressive.”

Georgia Tech A-back Anthony Allen averages nearly 11 yards per carry, while b-back Jonathan Dwyer, the reigning ACC Player of the Year, leads the team with 718 rushing yards. Quarterback Josh Nesbitt isn’t exactly a passing threat (the Yellow Jackets only one receiver with more than four receptions), but he has scored 11 touchdowns in an offense that can either strike fast or wear teams down.

“Obviously they run the option and hold on to the ball for a long time,” said redshirt senior offensive tackle Thomas Welch. “I think they had an 18-play drive against Virginia, something crazy like that.”

The drive he was referencing was indeed 18 plays, a nearly 11-minute touchdown drive in the second half that sunk the Cavaliers. That’s hardly music to the ears of Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-5 Southeastern Conference), sitting in last place in the SEC East due to an offense that has been the complete antithesis of Georgia Tech’s in the last month.

The Commodores have scored just two offensive touchdowns and averaged 10 points per game during a four-game losing streak, matching their longest dry spell of last season.

Only this time there isn’t a 5-0 start to rest on, and the Vanderbilt defense hasn’t had any time to rest either. The Commodore offense has a paltry 33.3 percent conversion rate on third downs and the fourth-worst time of possession average in the country at 26:42 per contest.

“We’ve got to score early and hold onto the ball as much we can just to help our defense out,” Welch said. “It puts a little added pressure but we’re up for the challenge.”

Has Vanderbilt's consistent inconsistency on that side of the ball been mentally wearying for the defense? Sophomore cornerback Casey Hayward was diplomatic.

“We don’t get frustrated,” Hayward said. “It comes with the game. We just go out there and try to help the offense by getting field position. We’ve just got to stop them on third down and get off the field ourselves.”