Georgia Tech Football: Things I Think I Know – Georgia State

After an exciting Week 0 of college football, the Jackets now look to face an inner-city opponent just 1.7 miles away: the Georgia State Panthers. Despite the proximity, these two teams have never met before, so it promises to be an entertaining and exciting duel.

Georgia Tech is coming off a weekend of overseas travel and the high of a major conference win. After an appearance on College Gameday and plenty of media attention, the team has a lot of momentum to build on. Here’s what I think I know ahead of the first week of the 2024 college football season.

This game has great significance.

After Florida State’s win, two things caught my eye in the college football media:

1. Georgia Tech is a much improved team and will continue to impress and win games.

2. Florida State played a terrible game and Georgia Tech’s win was a fluke. That game was their peak and they’ll be lucky if they make it to a bowl game.

TLDR: Opinions are mixed on Georgia Tech’s performance against the Seminoles.

For me, this game is a measure of where we are mentally as a team. How do we handle the tremendous national attention we’re getting? How do we react when we travel back from another country? How does this coaching staff keep the team from getting too arrogant after a surprise win the weekend before?

If you’ve been a Tech football fan for a while, this game probably has you worried. In the past, this team has been known for winning games we shouldn’t win and losing games we shouldn’t lose. Just last season, we got beat by Bowling Green, then turned around the next weekend and beat 17^th-ranked Miami on the road. This game is a great opportunity for our team to showcase our ability to rebound and put on a solid 60-minute performance, regardless of past patterns. However, it is also a potential trap as we risk a loss in a game we cannot afford to miss. I have confidence in this team, especially after we played a remarkable game in Ireland, but we cannot disregard this matchup. I don’t think this fan base or this team wants our win against FSU to look like a fluke, and we need to make sure we have the right mindset to play 60 minutes of football this weekend. Coach Key said in his press conference this week that Georgia State “is the biggest game of the year. Clearly, make no mistake about it.” On Saturday, we will find out if this team is ready to rise to the challenge and handle the pressure of this matchup.

The improvements in the offensive line that we saw last season were no accident.

Heading into the 2023 season, our offensive line was arguably our biggest weakness. In just one year, offensive line coach Geep Wade and the entire offensive staff have completely turned around this position group as the O-line is now one of our biggest strengths. The Jackets finished 2023 with the most rushing yards in the ACC at 203.8 yards per game, and we picked up right where we left off this season with 190 rushing yards on 36 attempts for a 5.3 yards per game average. The line allowed Jamal Haynes and Haynes King to get creative and disrupt the FSU defense. Even Chad Alexander had some impressive runs and showed potential. Let’s face it, the Tech offensive line completely intimidated this FSU defensive line, paving the way for an exciting and dynamic running game. This was a shock to me and pretty much everyone else who follows college football even a little bit. Many expected the Seminoles to have the best D-line in college football with an immense amount of talent. After a touchdown by Jamal Haynes early in the 4th^th In the quarter, announcer Jesse Palmer expresses his dismay at how our offensive line outplayed the defensive line in the trenches. My favorite reaction to this game was, “I was told this was the best defensive line in the country, and Georgia Tech pushed them around like paper.” That was absolutely true, to say the least. I can safely say I haven’t been this impressed with our offensive line since the 11-win 2014 season. The physicality and consistency of this group is incredibly promising.

As Coach Key says, “Are you kidding me? Run with the BALL!!”

The run defense looks drastically better

Need I say more? Georgia Tech finished the season with 128^th in the country in rush defense last year, allowing 221.3 yards per game, 5.38 yards per carry, and 28 rushing TDs. It was abysmal, to say the least. Tech finished that game by allowing just 98 rushing yards on 31 attempts. 58 of those yards came on the first drive, meaning Tech only allowed 40 more rushing yards the entire game.

So yes, while the offensive line dominated in the trenches, the defensive line deserves just as much credit. Last season, the Jackets allowed a 44.7% success rate on run attempts and were by far the worst run defense in the ACC. We lost our two best defensive linemen, Kyle Kennard and Da-Quan Douse, so expectations weren’t particularly high going into this game or this season. New defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci was practicing like crazy and the line looked like a brick wall that Florida State’s talented running backs couldn’t move.

We’ve only seen this level of production from our line on one game so far, so I don’t want to be too confident yet, but what we’ve seen so far points to real potential.

This encounter is important for both schools in ATL.

This game will feature some very familiar faces both on the sidelines and on the field. Former Tech quarterback Zach Gibson is expected to start against the Jackets, and defensive back Kenyatta Watson is the backup free safety. Kevin Sherrer is the defensive coordinator, former Tech QB Taquon Marshall is a graduate assistant, and Rod Rook Chungong is the director of player development. Former Georgia Tech legend Bill Curry is known as a pioneer of Georgia State football, and it will be a monumental game when his two teams finally face off.

Saturday night will be exciting as Atlanta’s two college teams will finally face off. Georgia State will be hot and ready to play, and the Jackets are coming off one of the program’s biggest wins in nearly a decade. This should be an incredible game with a lot on the line.

Let’s go, jackets!