ATLANTA -- Mac McWhorter, who took over as Georgia Tech's interim coach after the George O'Leary fiasco, has become a legitimate candidate to keep the job.

McWhorter impressed Tech's athletics director Dave Braine during practices for the Yellow Jackets' upcoming game against Stanford in the Seattle Bowl on Dec. 27. Braine said Monday that McWhorter will be granted an interview.

"It would be totally unfair not to look at him," Braine said. "It's not going to stop us from going outside (for other candidates)."

Other candidates are New York Giants receivers coach Jimmy Robinson and Maryland offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe. Boston College coach Tom O'Brien met with Braine about the job last week, but decided to stay in Boston.

Other than McWhorter, Braine would not name any candidates, nor give a timetable for when a decision on a coach would be made.

"There's no urgency," he said.

O'Leary resigned Dec. 9 after seven seasons at Georgia Tech to take the Notre Dame job. He backed out of the Irish job Friday after it was learned he lied about his athletic and academic credentials on his resume.

If O'Leary had still been at Georgia Tech when the news broke about the false resume, Braine said he would not have fired O'Leary.

"We could have squared it," Braine said. "It could have been rectified."

Braine said he had not spoken to O'Leary, but phoned him and left a message via voice mail.

"We're still friends and will always be friends," he said.

O'Leary's misfortune might have opened the door for McWhorter to run his own major program for the first time.

"I've always wanted to be a head coach," said the 51-year-old McWhorter, who has been an assistant at six schools, including his alma mater, Georgia, and in two different stints at Tech -- 1980-86 and the last two seasons.

He was a head coach at Division II West Georgia in 1989 and went 4-7.

"They couldn't have picked a better guy to handle it," senior quarterback George Godsey said of McWhorter as interim coach. "I'm happy to be with coach McWhorter for my last game."

"A change of pace is maybe something we needed," Godsey said, referring to Tech's disappointing 7-5 season. "I'm not speaking badly of coach O'Leary, but it might be a way to find a second wind."

McWhorter has told his team to stay focused on the Seattle Bowl and to ignore the distractions created by O'Leary's departure.

"We had high expectations coming into the season that didn't come about," McWhorter said. "Now, we've got an opportunity to finish up and meet those expectations. I enjoy the challenge."

Tech announced Monday that quarterback A.J. Suggs, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound redshirt sophomore from the Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs, will be eligible for the bowl game. Suggs, who transferred to Tech after two seasons at Tennessee, played in seven games and started four for the Vols in 2000 after being redshirted in 1999.

Suggs sat out the 2001 regular season, but is eligible to play because he has been at Tech for the required two semesters. He enrolled in January and has two more seasons of eligibility.

"Obviously, he's talented, but he hasn't been that involved in our offense that much this season, so he's a little rusty," McWhorter said of the youngster who was the Georgia player of the year as a high school senior at McEachern.

"I don't know if he'll play. George Godsey is our starting quarterback," McWhorter said. "Right now Andy Hall is No. 2, but we'll work all three and see how it goes."