Georgia Tech is 12-8 when Haynes King starts a game at quarterback. It’s 0-2 when he doesn’t.
That may be oversimplifying things, but the truth is something has been off the past two outings for the Yellow Jackets in losses to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, respectively. The short losing streak, in which King hasn’t played a snap, virtually eliminated the Jackets from ACC title game contention (they were a long shot to play the first weekend of December anyway) and put their pursuit of being bowl eligible for a second season in a row in grave danger.
With a 5-4 record, Tech has to find a way to win at least one of its final three games, but two of those are against teams ranked inside the Associated Press Top 25 top six.
The Jackets have been outscored 52-19 in the last two defeats, games in which it could do little offensively with backup quarterback Zach Pyron doing his best to give his team a chance to win. But Tech did little to help him in the 31-13 loss to Notre Dame with special teams blunders and poor tackling on defense. On Saturday at Lane Stadium, Tech’s defense rebounded and did its part, but Pyron’s play (and that of the entire offense) eroded as the game progressed and he was lifted for freshman Aaron Philo in the third quarter.
Over the last two weeks Tech’s normally potent offense has averaged just 344.5 total yards, only 80 yards per game on the ground, has four interceptions (three by Pyron and one by Philo), is a combined 9-for-33 on third down, 4-for-10 on fourth and, most importantly, has only scored 19 points total.
Some of that is due to the absence of King, some of it is due to running back Jamal Haynes dealing with a litany of minor injuries (Haynes left Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech in the second quarter with an injury before returning for the second half) and the junior not having a true, consistent backup to relieve him when needed. Tech’s offensive line has been outstanding in pass protection, but unable to move the line of scrimmage week-in and week-out when it comes to the ground game.
Tech finished the 2023 season as the ACC’s top rushing team and returned center Weston Franklin, guard Joe Fusile and tackle Jordan Williams on the offensive line. But Tech’s front five has been inconsistent, to put it mildly, in trying to rediscover that ‘23 rushing attack.
Defensively, Tech has been without leading tackler Kyle Efford for two straight games as well. Tech coach Brent Key said the linebacker’s absence in the loss to Notre Dame had major effects, but the Jackets on defense seemed to recover nicely in the follow-up at Virginia Tech where they gave up only 223 yards of offense, stopped 13 of 15 third down plays, only gave up 11 first downs and recorded 11 tackles for loss.
Key called it one of the defense’s best performances of the year, but it was all for naught after 60 minutes.
“It’s a team sport. We talked about it during the week, complementary football,” Tech defensive end Sylvain Yondjouen said. “We got special teams, we got offense and defense. All those parts play a big role. We try to play our game, make sure we do our job and it’ll work out in the end.”
As was the case at the end of September, a bye week is a sight for sore eyes for everyone at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Jackets are 3/4 of the way through a season that began with preseason practice at the end of July. Now they have to rev back up for the final, pivotal stretch which begins with a home game against No. 6 Miami on Nov. 9, continues with a Thursday night game against North Carolina State on Nov. 21 and concludes with the regular-season finale against No. 1 Georgia on Nov. 29 in Athens.
Whether or not the Jackets will be at full strength for any of those games remains to be seen. But there’s no question they need names like King and Efford back on the field way more than they need to see them on the sideline.
“We’ll see where we’re at through the injury report (Sunday), through the week this week and make those decisions when we get back out on the field,” Key said about the availability of his top players. “We gotta get healthy on this bye week. We gotta get these guys back. It’s two weeks before we play. It would really help if those guys are able to make it back.”
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