Following a historic performance in Georgia Tech’s 48-13 win over South Carolina State on Saturday, junior Kyle Kennard has been named the ACC defensive lineman of the week, the league office announced Monday.
Kennard had an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in the win over SC State becoming only the second Georgia Tech player since 2000 to pull off the rare trifecta in a single game joining Bruce Jordan-Swilling, who had all three at Virginia in 2017.
Kennard’s first-quarter interception and his recovery of his own forced fumble in the third period both set up Georgia Tech touchdowns and led to the Yellow Jackets outscoring State 14-0 in points off turnovers for the game.
“It was actually a play we prepared for all week,” Kennard said of his interception. “We had a play we designed for that all week. It was a screen, and sure enough it opened up, and I saw the quarterback lift his hand off the ball and was like, ‘Is he really about to throw this?’ He threw it.”
In addition to the takeaways, Kennard had five tackles, including a half-tackle for loss, in the win. He received a 93.9 overall defensive grade from Pro Football Focus.
The ACC Player of the Week award is the first of Kennard’s career.
Kennard and the Yellow Jackets (1-1) return to action when they travel to No. 17 Ole Miss (2-0) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
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