Despite their home stadiums only being about 3 miles apart, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Georgia State Panthers will play each other for the first time this weekend.
Tech is coming off its first win against a top-10 team in nearly a decade, while Georgia State — and first-year coach Dell McGee, who previously coached running backs at Georgia — is looking to settle its depth chart coming into their first game of 2024.
“We’ve got a colossal task at hand at eight o’clock on Saturday night,” Tech coach Brent 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.”
Below is everything you need to know about the Georgia Tech-Georgia State football game.
Kickoff: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta
TV: ACC Network
Weather: The high on Saturday is 92 degrees, however, by kickoff at 8 p.m. temperatures should be slowly dropping to the overnight low of 70 degrees. There is a chance of pop-up thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Tickets: Plenty of tickets were still available as of Friday mid-day, with the cheapest option being $30.
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Top storylines ahead of Georgia Tech-Georgia State
Georgia Tech momentum: 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.
Georgia Tech defense improvement: After Tech showing its defensive weakness in 2023, much was made about Tech’s offseason hiring of Tyler Santucci as new defensive coordinator, which looked to be the right move after the FSU win.
Tech’s defense held FSU to 291 yards of total offense, its fewest in a regular-season ACC game since Nov. 6, 2021. The Seminoles had 58 yards rushing on their first offensive series, then just 40 rushing yards the rest of the way. The Jackets forced a turnover on downs, recorded seven tackles for loss, held FSU to 5 of 12 on third downs and forced two punts out of two third quarter FSU drives.
“I would say the biggest difference of our defense has nothing to do with football. It’s all just a connection,” linebacker Kyle Efford said. “We know what we’re playing for now. We play for each other.”
The “MARTA Bowl”: Social media has adopted the nickname “The MARTA Bowl” for the game, with both teams being from the heart of Atlanta.
Georgia-Clemson just down the road: If you’re planning to go to the Tech-GSU game in person, beware that traffic will likely be impacted by another football game happening at noon Saturday. The Georgia-Clemson game will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. With eight hours between kickoffs, there will be some relief, but plan accordingly for heavy traffic all day.
Notable crossover: Key hired two former Georgia State assistants during the offseason, bringing in Trent McKnight to coach Tech wide receivers and Cory Peoples to coach defensive backs. McKnight had been with the Panthers since 2017, Peoples with State since 2020. Also, defensive lineman Thomas Gore played at Georgia State for four seasons (2019-22) before transferring to Miami for the 2023 season.
On the flip side, GSU’s roster now includes quarterback Zach Gibson and safety Kenyatta Watson, both of whom wore white and gold in 2023. Defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer was Key’s defensive coordinator for the final three months of the ‘23 Tech season.
State’s offensive coordinator Jim Chaney was on Tech’s coaching staff in 2022, and former Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall is a graduate assistant for GSU.
