If Georgia Tech is out to prove this 2024 team is different than others in the program’s recent past, Saturday presents about as good as an opportunity as there could be.
The Yellow Jackets (1-0) beat No. 10 Florida State in Dublin on Saturday in front of a TV audience that was reported at five million viewers. Tech was the talk of Atlanta, the ACC and college football for much of the early part of the week. Some pundits went as far as to call coach Brent Key’s team an ACC title contender, a future Top 25 team, a trendy pick to make the College Football Playoff.
But this is where history rears its ugly shadow:
- Just last season, Tech had an impressive road win over Wake Forest only to come home and get dominated by Bowling Green the following week.
- Recall the miraculous win over a ranked Miami team in South Florida? Tech lost at home seven days later to an average Boston College squad.
- Two years ago, the Jackets followed back-to-back wins over a ranked Pittsburgh team and Duke only to lose two straight. They upset top-15 North Carolina in the ACC finale, then lost at Georgia the next week.
- Even during the 3-9 2021 campaign had an upset over No. 21 North Carolina for Tech — that was followed by a blowout loss at home to Pittsburgh a week later.
Key and the Jackets will refuse to cite these examples specifically. It’s only human nature many of the team’s veterans have thought about them.
“We gotta move our eyes forward and continue to look on to the plan, execute the plan, which is what it is to see championships,” Tech running back Jamal Haynes said. “So that’s week-by-week, day-by-day, practice by practice.”
Key used the analogy Tuesday of looking out of the front windshield of a car and not the driver’s rearview mirror when discussing the mentality his team must have this week ahead of an 8 p.m. kickoff (ACC Network) against Georgia State (0-0) at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Jackets are three-touchdown favorites against their cross-city foes.
Making the matchup even trickier is that State has game film on Tech, but not vice versa. The Jackets are having to prepare for a team with a new coach, new coordinators and a whole lot of first-year players on the GSU roster.
“It’s difficult because once again you’re watching old things, but new coordinators, things like that. You’re not guessing, per se, but you don’t know what you’re gonna get,” Tech safety LaMiles Brooks said. “Kind of try to study players who were there last season, more based on personnel. We’ll see what happens when we get out there.”
Saturday’s game, one in which Tech fans are being asked to wear white, is the home opener for the Jackets — but Bobby Dodd Stadium hasn’t exactly been tough place for the opponent to play in as of late. The Jackets are 11-22 in the venue since the start of the 2018 season (with three of those wins coming against FCS programs).
Reversing that trend is all part of the larger equation for Tech to avoid the dreaded letdown. If it can indeed get over that hurdle it will be off to the program’s first 2-0 start since 2016.
“We’ve got a colossal task at hand at eight o’clock on Saturday night,” Key said Thursday. “Everyone is aware of that. Everyone knows that. That task at hand is to go out and be a better version of the Georgia Tech football team this season than we were last week. Bottom line. That is it.
“The thing we can’t do is have the players ease into a game. If we act that way during the week, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen. That’s not what we’re building this program on, that’s not what we wanna be, that’s not who we’re gonna be. We wanna play one play at a time, we wanna play for 60 minutes, and every time we get an opportunity to go out on that field and play, we wanna take full advantage of it.”
