DUBLIN — There’s something about this team, something Brent Key believes could make for a special season.
But that season is very, very long. And no matter how glorious Saturday’s win over No. 10 Florida State was on the Emerald Isle, it will mean little if Georgia Tech can’t capitalize on what was a game for the ages at Aviva Stadium, thanks to a 24-21 win over the Seminoles in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
“It’s definitely a special moment, definitely want to enjoy this one tonight, but like the guys said, it means nothing if we can’t go out next week and handle business,” Tech running back Jamal Haynes said. “We gotta get back (Sunday) got to practice, clean up the details, clean up anything that we made mistakes on and get to work.”
Tech won its 2024 opener the way it won many of its 2023 games, with a dominant run game, pounding physicality and a will to make one more play in the end. It ran for 190 yards of 336 total offense, was 5-of-9 passing on third downs and scored on four of its seven drives.
One of those drives was the last one, a series that started on Tech’s own 25 and would begin with an innocent 4-yard pass from Haynes King to Malik Rutherford. Of the next 10 plays, seven were runs, and one almost spelled disaster. On second down at the FSU 28, a band snap turned into a 10-yard loss and resulted in a third-and-17.
But King found the speedy Eric Singleton Jr. on the left sideline for a 12-yard completion. That set up Birr’s kick, a kick which could change the trajectory of Tech football for the near future.
“I was ready for it,” Birr said. “My big thing is you never wanna miss two in a row. I was gonna make that next one no matter where it was.”
Tech’s resiliency and resolve was on full display from the outset. The Jackets fell into an 8-0 hole after the Seminoles (0-1) sliced their way down the field to the tune of a 75-yard drive over seven plays. Lawrance Toafili scored a 28-yard run a little more than four minutes into the game after what was an easy offensive series for FSU.
The Jackets’ defense, under the direction of first-year defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci, bounced back. Florida State was held to 98 yards rushing for the game, 58 of which came on the opening drive. Tech also had seven tackles for loss, a sack, a turnover on downs and got big nights from linebacker Kyle Efford, cornerback Ahmari Harvey and safety LaMiles Brooks.
“We talk about putting the extra emphasis on response, how to respond to adversity,” Efford said. “We knew after that first drive we had to respond. We can respond negatively or positively. We got on the sidelines and was talking about it, ‘Hey we gotta step up. It’s gonna be on us.’ It was really just that response.”
Tech’s offense easily scored to start the night, too, going 79 yards on six plays in less than 3-1/2 minutes, finding the end zone on backup quarterback Zach Pyron’s 1-yard run. But that unit was a little inconsistent from there, with drives ending in a punt, a touchdown, a missed field-goal attempt, a punt, a touchdown and the final kick from Birr.
Birr’s kick was the result of a drive that started with 6:33 on the clock and included a third-and-7 conversion, third-and-1 conversion and 12-yard gain on third down to get the field-goal unit in position to win the game.
“With the veteran guys that we have and who we have on offense, I ain’t gotta say too much,” King said about leading the team out for the final series. “I pretty much just gotta look at ‘em, give that nod like, ‘Let’s go.’ But everybody was saying, ‘Why not us? Let’s go put it in that end zone, finish this game off.’ Found a way, got it done.”
The Jackets (1-0) will spend one more night in Dublin before flying to Atlanta on Sunday. But first they have a team meeting at 7:30 a.m. local time at the team hotel.
Tech will then practice Sunday afternoon as soon as it returns to campus and will start turning its attention toward 8 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Georgia State, and when it tries to be go 2-0 for the first time since 2016.
“As a coach you always have concerns. Anybody that knows me, I have 10,000 things in my head spinning right now that we have to get to — the mindset and how we’re gonna talk to ‘em and what we’re gonna do,” Key said. “As soon as this is over I’m heading back and I’m gonna start watching the film and grading it, and we’ll close out the game as quick as we can and then be able to move on.
“The next step in this journey is learning how to win consistently. The team that I believe we have, we’ll go back to work. We’ll go back to work. And the good thing is, now we got a six- or seven-hour plane ride to be able to make sure we get that message across.”
