Georgia Tech football is no stranger to playing on Thursday nights. Since 1991, the Yellow Jackets have taken the field on a Thursday almost 40 times.
They haven’t won a Thursday game since 2019, however, when they squeaked by visiting North Carolina State 28-26 in front of less than 40,000 fans at Bobby Dodd Stadium. As fate would have it, the Wolfpack of N.C. State come to Atlanta at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for Tech’s first Thursday game since a 16-9 loss to Virginia on Oct. 20, 2022.
The matchup presents an opportunity for Tech (6-4, 4-3 ACC) to notch a seventh regular-season win, something it hasn’t done since 2018. A victory would also give coach Brent Key’s team back-to-back 5-3 marks in the ACC and clinch a winning record for a second straight season — that hasn’t happened since 2013-14.
Key’s squad returned to practice Sunday after taking Saturday off, its second off Saturday so far this month. Those off days have been a necessity for a team trying to have its best players on the field for its ACC finale.
“This point of the season it’s about player availability. We’ve gotta get our reps in, we gotta get our work in,” Key said Tuesday. “Football’s not played in underwear, it’s played in shoulder pads and helmets. To think you can go out there and just walk through things, you’re not really simulating the game. But we do have to be smart in how we get our players back and get ‘em ready to play.”
Tech last played Nov. 9 when it knocked off previously unbeaten and No. 4-ranked Miami 28-23 inside Bobby Dodd Stadium. It needed everything it got from quarterback Haynes King and linebacker Kyle Efford, two of its stars who had missed the previous two games with injuries. The Jackets also got the defensive performance of the season against one of the nation’s top offenses.
N.C. State last played that same Saturday, but was not as fortunate in its outcome, losing 29-19 at home to Duke. A head-scratching box score told the story of the Wolfpack holding Duke to 31 rushing yards and 0-for-9 on third down tries while NCSU itself went 5 of 6 in the red zone — yet still lost by 10.
Coach Dave Doeren’s team (5-5) was picked in the preseason to finish fourth in the 17-team ACC yet sits at 2-4 in the conference and needs to beat Tech or archrival North Carolina to make a bowl game.
“We have two games left,” Doeren said after the loss to Duke. “We have two opportunities to finish and that’s what they’re going to remember is how they finish. We need to do a great job one at a time. Obviously, it starts with the corrections from this game, getting the guys back in the right frame of mind and getting back to work.”
Tech and NCSU will be meeting for the 32nd time in a series that dates to 1918 (when the Jackets won 128-0). The Jackets have won 13 of 17 matchups since 1995 and are 6-2 at Bobby Dodd Stadium during that same stretch.
Hawes headed to Senior Bowl
Tech tight end Jackson Hawes recently accepted an invitation to participate in the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
In his first season at Tech, Hawes (6-5, 260) ranks second among Tech tight ends with 10 receptions for 122 yards in nine games. Hawes is the team’s best-graded run blocker, according to Pro Football Focus, and is also the team’s fifth-best graded pass blocker.
Before his arrival to Tech, Hawes caught 35 passes for 371 yards over four seasons at Yale. He was a second-team all-Ivy League selection in 2022.
Hawes is the second Jacket to accept a postseason all-star game invitation this season. Defensive lineman Zeek Biggers is headed to the East-West Shrine Bowl on Jan. 30 in Arlington, Texas.
