Georgia Tech will be looking to spring another upset this season when it faces No. 12 Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Yellow Jackets (5-2) already have a win over then-No. 10 Florida State, Aug. 24 in Dublin, Ireland. Now they face their first ranked nonconference opponent more than halfway through the season and need a win to further prove their program is continuing to rise, and to get to bowl eligibility for the second year in a row.
Notre Dame (5-1) has won four consecutive coming in. The Fighting Irish, who beat Tech 55-0 in 2021, lost to Northern Illinois in September at home, but haven’t lost since.
Tech also will be trying to spring the upset without starting quarterback Haynes King who will miss the contest because of injury.
Things to know about Saturday’s Georgia Tech-Notre Dame game
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (71,000)
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN app
Weather: 72 degrees at kickoff, 3% chance of rain
Tickets: Tickets available throughout Mercedes-Benz Stadium via Tech’s official ticket site starting at $32. Tickets on the secondary market could be found for less than $25.
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Storylines ahead of Georgia Tech-Notre Dame game
Haynes King is out: Georgia Tech starting quarterback Haynes King will not play Saturday against No. 12 Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
King, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound junior, has started all 20 games he has been available for the Jackets (5-2) since joining the program as a transfer from Texas A&M in January 2023. King played Saturday in Tech’s 41-34 win at North Carolina, but left the contest early in the fourth quarter with an apparent shoulder injury and did not return.
Zach Pyron takes over at QB: It won’t be the first game in which Zach Pyron has been a starting quarterback, but undoubtedly it will be the biggest.
Tech will turn to its sophomore QB on Saturday after it was announced that Haynes King, who was injured in the Jackets’ win over North Carolina, will be out against No. 12 Notre Dame on Saturday.
Pyron has played in 16 career games for the Jackets but hasn’t started one in nearly two years. He led Tech into Blacksburg, Virginia, on Nov. 5, 2022, and scored the game-winning touchdown — on a 9-yard run with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter — in a 28-27 victory.
Much has happened for Pyron and the Tech program since.
Saturday’s game the fourth of six games for Tech at Mercedes-Benz: For the first time in the modern era of the rivalry, next year’s game of Clean Old-Fashioned Hate will not be played at Bobby Dodd Stadium or Sanford Stadium.
Tech announced Tuesday that its annual, end-of-the-season football game with Georgia has been scheduled for Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025. The contest is part of a six-year contract Tech signed in 2021 with AMB Sports and Entertainment and Mercedes-Benz Stadium that requires the Jackets to play at least one game per season at the downtown Atlanta venue.
Brent Key’s first game was against the Irish: On Sept. 6, 1997, Brent Key trotted onto the field at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. It was the redshirt freshman’s first snap as a college football player.
He remembers the play that was called for that snap. Remembers who was on the Notre Dame defense. Remembers that Tech lost 17-13 to the 11th-ranked Fighting Irish that day.
Key knows that loss was one of 30 the Jackets have suffered at the hands of Notre Dame. Knows the six times Tech has won, including the two Tech has won at Bobby Dodd Stadium and the one previous neutral-site matchup (the 1999 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, that Key and Tech won 35-28), and he knows that in 25 times of the 37 matchups the Irish have been nationally ranked.
Notre Dame’s defense one of nation’s best: Tech has faced some solid defenses this season. But Notre Dame’s defense appears to be the toughest by far to this point.
The Fighting Irish (5-1), ranked 12th overall in The Associated Press poll, rank among the best in the country in a litany of defensive statistical categories. The Jackets (5-2), who haven’t scored less than 19 points in any game since the start of the 2023 season (an average of 31.7 points per game over that stretch), have their work cut out for them starting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Pair of Jackets honored by ACC: Jamal Haynes, who scored Tech’s game-winning touchdown against North Carolina, and Keylan Rutledge, who played a role in that score, were named Atlantic Coast Conference Running Back and Offensive Lineman of the Week, according to a release Monday.
On Monday, Haynes King was termed day-to-day: Key, speaking with 680 The Fan on Monday, updated the injury status of quarterback Haynes King.
“He’s a tough kid,” Key said. “Day-to-day with it right now. He’s going to be out there (at practice Tuesday). We’ll see how it goes; we’ll see how the week progresses. It’s that time of year. Everybody’s banged-up — our team, other teams. So survival of the fittest at this point.”
Getting to six wins an important goal for Tech: It has been 10 long years since Tech has been to bowl games in consecutive seasons. The Jackets can take one long step toward changing that with an upset of No. 12 Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We got a big game this weekend on Saturday. I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s not a big game,” Tech coach Brent Key said Tuesday. “I’m not gonna give you coach speak and say that it’s just the next game on the schedule and all games are big games. This is a really big game, this is a really big opportunity for this program. But with all opportunities come challenges, and the opportunity is Saturday, but the challenge is right now.”
Notre Dame the first of three major opponents over next five games: As Georgia Tech continues the back half of its 2024 schedule, the road will become increasingly treacherous.
Tech has five games remaining this season, four of which are against teams with winning records, three of which are against teams currently ranked in the upper half of the the AP Top 25, with two ranked opponents at away venues. The Jackets’ next five games are against teams who currently are a combined 22-9.
The Yellow Jackets are off to their best start since 2014: Tech is off to its best start in a decade. It now has a chance to pull off one of its best wins off this decade.
The Jackets (5-2) face No. 12 Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It’s a matchup of two teams playing solid football, one looking to keep hopes alive of playing in the College Football Playoff and one looking to build off two consecutive conference wins with an upset on one of the nation’s blueblood programs.
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