Georgia Tech will see some light at the end of the tunnel this week.
The Yellow Jackets (3-1, 1-1 ACC) play their fifth game of the season at 3:30 p.m. Saturday when their matchup with No. 19 Louisville kicks off. It’s the second true road trip of the campaign for Tech and the third departure from home already. Tech finally will have an open Saturday on Sept. 28 and would like nothing more than to go into that stretch off a win.
“It’s gonna take a really good day, good execution and discipline for us to be able to go up there and have the game close in the fourth quarter and have a chance to come out with the win at the end,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “So that’s what we’re planning to do. That’s what we’re working to do, go out there and play against a good opponent and have a good game on Saturday.”
Tech will be looking to move to 6-0 against ranked ACC teams under Key. A victory also would give the Jackets at least four wins in its first five games for the first time since 2014 (that team started 5-0).
Here’s what you need to know:
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium (60,800)
TV: ESPN2
Streaming: Available via Watch ESPN
Weather: 98 degrees, two percent chance of rain at kickoff
Tickets: Plenty of tickets remain available starting at $25 each.
Georgia Tech football social media: X | Instagram | Facebook
Louisville football social media: X | Instagram | Facebook
Top storylines ahead of Georgia Tech at No. 19 Louisville
Returning home, Jordan van den Berg emerges as star for the Tech defense: On the highlight tape, Jordan van den Berg wears No. 70. And ahead of every clip of the next play showcasing van den Berg’s abilities, an arrow points to that No. 70 before the words “wait for it” flash across the screen.
Over the next 4-1/2 minutes, van den Berg, playing middle linebacker, comes crashing into backfields, times snaps to leap over centers and flatten quarterbacks and runs down running backs and throws them for losses in backfields. One snippet has van den Berg picking up an opposing player and pile driving him to the turf.
It’s impressive stuff, even if many of the players he is going against look half his height and weight.
It was all part of a memorable senior season for van den Berg at Providence Christian in Lilburn. But nobody noticed.
“I had zero scholarship offers,” he said.
Tech’s defense faces tall task: If Tech is to keep its name among ACC title-game contenders, and if it is to prove that its defense has improved from a year ago, or even two weeks ago, it must find a way to stop Louisville’s offense. And that’s a task easier said than done since coach Jeff Brohm took over the Cardinals ahead of the 2023 season.
Louisville (2-0) is scoring 33.8 points per game during the infancy of the Brohm Era, a number bolstered by the team’s 111 points in games so far this season. In 12 of 14 games in 2023, the Cardinals scored at least 21 points and eight times they put up at least 31 — including dropping 39 on the Yellow Jackets in a five-point win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Brent Key on trip to No. 19 Louisville: In the Brent Key Era, the Jackets have been perfect against nationally ranked ACC teams. Five wins in five tries for Tech since Key took over the program on an interim basis early in the 2022 season.
Does that trend continue at Saturday? It would behoove the Jackets to answer yes to that question if their ACC title hopes are to remain alive.
“This is a championship week. Every game moving forward — we talk about having goals in front of you and not behind, and that’s where we’re at,” Key said Tuesday. “We’re not leaving anything at home, I’ll tell you that.”
Another ranked opponent on the road: Tech football is back on the road this weekend for its second ranked conference opponent of the season.
The Jackets play their fifth game and make their third road trip when the team heads to Louisville. By the time Key’s team checks into its team hotel Friday it will have traveled more than 10,000 miles in less than a month.
Tech (3-1, 1-1 ACC) opened the season in Dublin with a 24-21 victory over Florida State, ranked No. 10 at the time but now is 0-3. Two weeks ago, Tech was handed its only loss at Syracuse.
Takeaways from a Tech win over VMI: Tech’s resounding, 59-7 victory over visiting Virginia Military Institute on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium put the Jackets in position to do something they haven’t done in a decade: start a season 4-1 or better.
At 3-1 overall, and 2-1 in ACC play ahead of a league matchup at No. 19 Louisville, Tech is now looking for its best start through five games since the 2014 team started 5-0 before its first loss. The Jackets got to that point with a dominant performance against the overmatched Keydets (0-3) in front of a little more than 31,000 fans on a gray and rainy day in Atlanta.
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