Clemson has a long-standing history of having trouble coming up with a win in Atlanta when it takes on Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

In the long history of the rivalry, Georgia Tech leads Clemson 50-28-2. Well over half of those 80 matchups have taken place in Atlanta since the two teams first met in 1898.

In fact, the Tigers did not host the Yellow Jackets in Clemson until 1974, a 21-17 win.

In the past 20 years, Clemson has won just two games in Atlanta, but has won six of those matchups in Death Valley, including last season’s, 43-24, victory.

This year, the Tigers will head to Georgia Tech for a Thursday night game in Bobby Dodd stadium on Sept. 22 in hopes of beginning a new era of success in Atlanta. Clemson’s last win there took place in 2003 when Charlie Whitehurst diced up the Yellow Jackets’ secondary in a 39-3 win. The Tigers have lost five straight in Atlanta since.

The Yellow Jackets spent the 2015 season burdened by injuries, while ending the year with a 3-9 record. Although head coach Paul Johnson said the injuries allowed his team to reap the benefits of giving reps to younger and potential 2016 starters, Georgia Tech still has a few areas of concern for the upcoming season.

“I’ve never had a year like last year injury-wise, so it forced a lot of young guys to play, so there are a lot of guys playing with experience,” he said.

One area that doesn’t pose as much concern is the quarterback position. The projected starter will be Justin Thomas, who completed 75 of 180 passes for 1,345 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. He was also the team’s second leading rusher with 488 yards and six touchdowns. Thomas suffered an upper body injury last season that allowed backup Mathew Jordan to gain some experience.

However, Jordan had some major ball-security issues when he took over for Thomas in the 38-21 loss at Miami.

Ball-security was a focus of Georgia Tech’s spring training, and the Yellow Jackets ended the annual spring game with zero fumbles on 79 rushing attempts. However, the first-team offense only put up 13 points over the first team defense, and the second-team offense was only able to put three points on the board against the second-team defense.

That could be due to a lack of chemistry between the quarterbacks and the receivers that will need to be worked on in the off-season to ensure passing efficiency.

The highest priorities for Georgia Tech in 2016 will most likely revolve around rebuilding the offensive line and increasing the production of the running game. The line has to replace three starters in 2016 including left tackle Bryan Chamberlain, left guard Trey Braun, and right tackle Errin Joe. Center Freddie Burden will return to start after missing some playing time due to a personal tragedy.

“We had to mix and match. We moved Will Bryan, who started at left tackle last year as a freshman, he moved into guard, and I think that’s been a good experiment that’s gone well. Both our starting tackles a year ago were freshmen, so they’re back. Our center Freddie Burden hasn’t played this spring, but he’s a two-year, will be a three-year starter. He’ll be back. So we’ve got to piece together a couple of guys inside,” Johnson continued. “I’m always concerned about the depth at guard, but yeah, we’ve got four guys coming in, three scholarship guys and a preferred walk-on guy that we feel like can come in and compete. We’ve got guys here who can play.”

In the backfield, sophomore A backs Marcus Marshall and Clinton Lynch will return after leading Georgia Tech to become the No. 8 team in the country in rushing offense. Marshall led the team with 654 yards and four touchdowns on 86 carries, while Lynch averaged 9.5 yards per carry.

The Yellow Jackets will also return B back Marcus Allen and will gain back C.J. Leggett, who missed the entire 2015 season with an injury.

Georgia Tech will take a big hit defensively with losing most of the starting secondary. Nickel back Lawrence Austin is the only returning athlete with significant starting experience. Johnson believes that has created a good opportunity for competition between younger players.

At safety, Georgia Tech will return redshirt junior Corey Griffon and sophomore A.J. Gray. Both played in a significant amount of games last season.

“The competition has been pretty good back there, especially at corner,” he said. “Lance Austin and Step Durham have both played a little bit. Lamont Simmons is a transfer from Southern Cal, who sat out last year, who I think brings some ability, and then Meiko Dotson and Dorian Walker, two freshmen that we redshirted a year ago, and they’re competing.”

Georgia Tech’s defensive line lost star tackle Adam Gotsis. His productivity and leadership will be hard to replace, but the Yellow Jackets have solid options to fortify the line led by redshirt senior Patrick Gamble, juniors KeShun Freeman and Antonio Simmons. However, Georgia Tech ended last season with only 14 total sacks.

Johnson may need to work on developing his pass rushers going into 2016 with a relatively inexperienced secondary.

Photo Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports