This game in front of a Bobby Dodd Stadium crowd that was about 70% red and black could have had quite a different outcome if several plays had gone another way.

  A fumble on the Dawgs’ first play by Daijun Edwards was recovered by Kenan Johnson at UGA37. Four plays later, QB Haynes King was in the end zone. And, once again, Georgia was down 7-0.

  Georgia was fortunate early on that it didn’t start off worse. A 31 yard pass to Eric Singleton, Jr. was reversed on an offensive interference call. Instead of being at the UGA43, the ball was moved back to the Tech 29 and GT had to punt.

   Later in the first quarter, a Carson Beck pass deflected off 3 defenders before being intercepted by LaMiles Brooks at the GT 17 and returned 19 yards to the 33. The play was reversed ruling that the ball hit the ground first.

  On the next play, Beck hit Dominick Lovett in the end zone for a 29 yard TD to tie the game at seven.

  Another bit of good fortune for UGA happened later in the second quarter. On a 3rd and 2 at the UGA20, Malik Rutherford got an apparent first down run that was brought back on a holding call on Abdul Janneh. The Yellow Jackets settled for a field goal to make it 14-13.

  Still more calls that went Georgia’s way. Tech went for it on 4th and 7 at the UGA45. Another big penalty on a pass interference call on Smael Mondon put it at the UGA30. But, it was ruled the ball was tipped, negating the call. The result was a turnover on downs at UGA45.

  The Bulldogs were off to another slow start, due in part to the offense not seeing the field much. Partly because of the fumble in their first drive, Georgia basically only had time for one drive in the first quarter. Time of possession was GT 10:05, UGA 4:55.

  Things finally stabilized for the nation’s #1 team with a 75 yard scoring drive at the start of the 2nd quarter to go ahead for the first time 14-10.

  An 11 play 64 yard drive capped with an Edwards three yard score helped the Dawgs pull away just before the half.

  A Peyton Woodring field goal was followed by a Kendall Milton 4 yard touchdown extending the lead to 31-13 as the third quarter came to an end.

  Georgia Tech added 10 more to make it look closer at 31-23.

  The Bulldogs would be concerned that they gave up 363 yards of offense, 205 on the ground 81 by King. That will be put to the test next week against Alabama, who also has a good running quarterback.

  But, that was offset by 437 yards of their own including 157 rushing yards in a great game by Milton. 

   It was the 12th straight win in the rivalry. With it, UGA set an SEC record with an amazing 29th straight victory.

   I was surprised to see that the last time Georgia Tech had beaten Georgia in Bobby Dodd Stadium was 1999. I remember that game and watched it go into overtime from the press box.

   As an aside, that was probably my own personal best month of watching football. From there, I went to Tampa to watch Georgia in the Outback Bowl go down to Purdue 25-0 only to mount the biggest comeback in college football history at the time to beat Drew Brees in his last NCAA game 28-25.
  A few weeks later, I was at the Georgia Dome to watch my hometown team, the St. Louis Rams, hold on to beat Tennessee in the final play of the Super Bowl.

  But, I digress. Back in the press box, we were watching the amazing finish of the Alabama-Auburn game just before our game started. It set up what should be a great SEC Championship Game next Saturday as Georgia (12-0, 8-0 SEC) takes on Alabama (11-1, 8-0 SEC).

  I’ll be there again at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It’s a 4:00 p.m. start on CBS…part of a great weekend of games with #6 Oregon and #4 Washington in the Pac-12 Championship Game, #9 Louisville and #5 FSU in the ACC Championship Game and #2 Michigan and Iowa in the Big Ten Championship.

   Georgia probably needs a win to advance to the College Football Playoffs. #8 Bama definitely does. The way it looks now, if UGA wins, they would likely face Florida State with Washington and Michigan facing off. But, anything can change. It will be a great weekend to see how it all plays out.

  Georgia Tech, meanwhile, awaits their matchup for the team’s first bowl game since 2018. All of that will be announced on Sunday,

  Both teams came into this game with a lot on the line. For Georgia Tech (5-5, 4-3 ACC), they could clinch a bowl berth with the required six wins along with a winning conference record for the first time in five years.

  Syracuse (5-5, 1-5 ACC) tried to become bowl eligible for the second staight year…the first time they would have accomplished back to back bowls since 2012 and 2013.

  For the Yellow Jackets, the task would be a bit more difficult with the #1 ranked 11-0 Georgia Bulldogs looming ahead for the final regular season game, the chances of a win there very slim. Their biggest hope would be if the Bulldogs would be looking ahead to the following week with a matchup with Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. But, that hasn’t worked the two previous years.

  The Orange at least had a backup plan with their last game at home against Wake Forest.

  Almost from the beginning, it was obvious who the best team on the field at Bobby Dodd Stadium was.

  Tech jumped out to an early 7-0 lead when Jamal Haynes (photo) caught the ball at the Cuse 21 and wound his way through several defenders into the end zone.

  Syracuse managed their only points of the first half when Brady Denaburg hit on a 44 yard field goal to make it 7-3.

  A brief setback when Haynes King tossed up an ill advised pass that found its way in the arms of Isaiah Johnson at the GT45.

  But, the interception yielded no points as the Jackets defense held them to a harmless three and out when a second field goal attempt failed from 50.

  On the next drive, Tech needed just 1:44 to drive 68 yards thanks to an open Dominick Blaylock, who made a clutch 50 yard catch downfield to put his team up 14-3.

  Aiden Birr connected on a 22 yard field goal to extend the lead to 17-3 at the half.

Then, something changed…either because the Jackets took their foot off the gas, unaccustomed to a 21 point lead…or because the Orange came out of the locker room thinking they could win it.

 At any rate, the next 19 points belonged to the visitors. Tech seemed to have no answer to the alternating running attack of LeQuint Allen and Dan Villari. 

 The shocked and nervous Jacket fans in attendance saw the three touchdown lead dwindle down to a slim two point margin. The only reason it wasn’t tied was the failure of a pair of two point conversions.

 But, after the second failed attempt, Tech seemed a bit inspired and rediscovered their sleeping offense.

  Starting at their 25, Brent Key’s team drove the ball to the Cuse 19 aided by a pair of defensive penalties and Kings legs before the Orange had to take their first time out stopping the clock at 2:27.

  Tech had it first and 10 in the red zone at the 19. Three points would force the Orange to score a touchdown to win. But, a TD of their own would maybe put it out of reach.

 They got what they needed on the next play with King scampering the remaining 19, finding the end zone untouched…his seventh rushing touchdown of the season.

  The nine play 75 yard drive had extended the lead to 9 while eating up a valuable 5:19 on the clock. They left Syracuse just 2:22.

  If there was any doubt, Kyle Efford jumped in front of a first play Luke MacPhail pass at the 31, assuring his team a victory.

  All the Orange could do was eat up the rest of their timeouts as they committed a pair of frustrated penalties.

  Tech took a knee and the win. Final score, Tech 31, Syracuse 22. And with that, the Jackets got their bowl eligibility.

 They wait for the annual rivalry with UGA knowing that a bowl won’t be on the line. Gametime is Saturday, Nov. 25 at 7:30pm.  

  Georgia Tech continues to be an enigma this season.

  On the road in the ACC, they play tough with big wins at Wake Forest and Miami. At home, excluding a throwaway game vs South Carolina State, they have struggled to gain consistency.

  The Jackets played a good Louisville team close at Mercedes-Benz Statium but lost 39-34. They inexplicably lost 38-27 to an inferior Bowling Green.

  And, now, they jumped out to an impressive 23-17 lead over Boston College, only to have the Eagles flip a switch and completely dominate in the fourth quarter with 21 unanswered points.

  To the Yellow Jackets’ credit, they went into the locker room at halftime down 17-10 and came out swinging when Ahmari Harvey got an interception in the end zone to end a BC drive. Then QB Haynes King sprinted for a 71 yard touchdown score to tie it at 17.

  After a missed Boston College field goal, Tech went right back down field and got their first lead with an Avery Boyd 19 yard TD catch. Unfortunately, they missed the extra point leaving the lead at 23-17.

  From there, it was all BC with running back Kye Robichaux punching it in to get the lead back 24-23.

  Quarterback Thomas Castellanos broke free for a 43 yard TD on a fourth and one and it was quickly 31-23.

  No coming back after that as King was picked off at the BC40 by Elijah Jones, who seemed to know where King was throwing it before King did. Robichaux burst free for a 57 yard run, then scored again from 3 yards out to make the lead 15 at 38-23.

  Jones was at it again with another interception at BC’s 20. The three INT’s were triple what their team had coming into the game.

  Eight players had at least one catch as the defense gave up 563 yards of offense. Robichaux was also a wrecking ball with 165 on the ground himself.

  One concern has to be why they didn’t seem to be focusing on Castellanos, who time and again, broke free and ran up and down the field. They knew coming in that he was a threat to run as he led all FBS QBs with 83.3 rushing yards. He added 128 more with two TDs on the ground on 13 carries. He also completed 17 of 29 passes for 255 yards.

  For those who were optimistic that Tech could become bowl eligible with six wins for the first time in years, this loss appears to end those thoughts.

  At 3-4, its hard to find three more wins on a schedule with #10 North Carolina, at Virginia, who just beat the Tar Heels, at Clemson, who always beats the Jackets, Syracuse and UGA.

  Next up, UNC comes to town licking their wounds after the Cavs loss that will surely drop them out of the top 10.

  They finally announced that it will be an 8:00 prime time game on Saturday shown on the ACC Network.
 
  Night games are always fun at Bobby Dodd. This one is also Homecoming and will feature a Paul Johnson On-Campus Salute.

   This one surprised me and, I’m sure, a lot of other people.

   Georgia Tech was coming into the game off an impressive win at 30-16 win at Wake Forest, who were previously undefeated. In that game, the defense had eight sacks, the tenth most in Tech history. Four of them were by Kyle Kennard, third most in team history.

   Bowling Green looked like an easy target. They came into the game with only one win in four tries. And that was against Eastern Illinois. They were a three touchdown underdog. The Falcons had struggled big time with turnovers. But, Tech never took advantage of that here.

    It started off seeming like the Yellow Jackets would be able to do anything they wanted. Christian Leery took the opening kick 33 yards to the 47. On the first play, Haynes King hit Eric Singleton, Jr. in stride downfield for a 53 yard touchdown. The drive took one play, 53 yards in 8 seconds.

   A sack of Connor Bazelak for a ten yard loss by Eddie Kelly and Zeek Biggers forced the Falcons to punt.

   The Jackets’ offense picked up where they left off as King completed a 19 yard pass to Malik Rutherford at the GT49. Jamal Haynes rushed up the middle for another 19 to BG32. Singleton added with a 6 yard catch at the 26. A 15 yard Dylan Leonard TD pass capped off the 70 yard five play scoring drive putting Tech up 14-0 just eleven minutes into the game.

   But, after the dynamic pair of opening drives, the offense mysteriously went silent giving Bowling Green 17 unanswered points to take a three point lead into the locker room at the half.

   It still seemed like the Yellow Jackets would have no problem righting the ship. But, coming out in the second half, nothing was different.

   The Falcons continued to pour it on with 21 more consecutive points to make it 38 points in a row before King was finally able to find the end zone again on a 20 yard Rutherford touchdown catch near the end of the third quarter.

   But, all that did was to pull the Jackets to within 18, 38-20.

   The defense did hold Bowling Green scoreless in the final quarter before King hit a 16 yard TD pass to Abdul Janneh in the closing minutes of the game. That made the score look deceptively closer than it actually was at 38-27. Even the final stats made it look close with the Falcons leading in total yards 438 to 417.

   A continuing problem that stood out was the amount of missed tackles by the Tech defense that allowed Bowling Green to get a lot of yards after catch. That kept drives alive and gave them more scoring opportunities throughout the game.

   Head Coach Brent Key seemed undeterred by what had happened.
   “I have the same confidence in them that I do the rest of the staff. We will watch the tape, evaluate the tape, and meet with everyone tomorrow. There is no lack of confidence in the staff or people.”

   They will need that optimism on Saturday when they head south to take on one of the best offensive lines in the ACC. Miami also has one of the top running games in the country. Kickoff is 8:00 p.m. and will be televised on the ACC Network.

  The beginning of Georgia Tech’s home opener with South Carolina State was electric…on and off the field.

   Lightning in the area caused a two hours and twenty one minute delay before it was finally cleared to start at 3:23 p.m.

  The Yellow Jackets got on the board quickly 21-0 thanks to Domiick Blaylock (3 yards) and Eric Singleton (40 yards) pulling down their first touchdown catches at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

   Like last week, Tech put up 28 first half points only giving up a Casey Fields TD to the Bulldogs with a blocked extra point.

     Impressively, GT responded with an explosive 66 yard Haynes sprint with just a few seconds left in the half followed by a Brett Seither TD catch. Halftime score was Georgia Tech 28, South Carolina State 6.

     Unlike last week, the Rambling Wreck continued to pour it on with 17 points out of the gate in the third quarter while keeping their opponent out of the end zone only allowing them to cross the goal line once more en route to an impressive 48-13 victory.

     Redshirt sophomore Jamal Haynes put up 114 yards rushing including a touchdown. Tray Cooley also had 93 on the ground. Quarterback Haynes King was 21 of 29 with 290 yards passing and four touchdowns. He distributed the ball to twelve different receivers in the 750th win in school history.

     The defense held South Carolina State to just 206 yards rushing and 95 yards through the air.

     Georgia Tech Jr. DE Kyle Kennard had an interception, forced fumble and fumble recovery.

     The 35-point margin of victory was Georgia Tech’s largest in five seasons.

     The Jackets head out on the road for the first time this season with a touch SEC opponent at No. 20 Ole Miss. The 2-0 Rebels are coming off a 37-20 victory at #22 Tulane. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. and can be seen on the SEC Network.

   The day began with the announcement that the ACC will be adding three new teams next season. SMU, Sanford and Cal will bring membership to 18 schools. The news comes after eight schools announced their departure from the Pac-12 for next summer.

  Mercedes-Benz Stadium was half filled at 36,000 with no one in the upper deck and heavily partisan Georgia Tech. But the crowd couldn’t help their team pull the season opener out.

   This was a tale of three quarters vs one. Georgia Tech looked great scoring 28 of their 34 points in the second quarter. But, prior to that and after, they were mostly shutout except for a late game score that only served to make the score closer than it seemed. A missed two point attempt left it at 39-34.

  “We made adjustments, and we used different calls, changed the front, stemmed the front, played more zone, and we did a much better job,” said Louisville Head Coach Jeff Brohm, talking about changes he made after the second quarter.

 The Jackets ran out one huge chunk play after another during that prolific second quarter. But, then could barely mount a drive in the others.

   And when they got close, they missed both of their field goal attempts while the Cardinals made all four.

    Louisville, on the other hand, played pretty consistently in each quarter scoring six, seven, ten and sixteen throughout.

    What stood out the most to me was sloppy tackling that must have cost Tech about 60 yards in additional yardage that resulted in a lot of resulting points.
  “Anytime you get guys in space, that’s what college football is now. It’s the battle of explosives,” said Tech Head Coach Brent Key about the tackling issue.
   “Either somebody gets beat on one-on-one on a route, some sort of a route or somebody gets broken down one-on-one in a tackling situation. And they were able to execute in those situations.
    “It’s one of these things that we’ll learn from and we’ll continue to address and work on and get better this week.”

    A promising drive as time was running out with Tech down by just a point was ruined on a fumble sack of new quarterback Haynes King giving the Cardinals the ball back with just 3:51 to go. They ended all doubts with a 74 yard Jawhar Jordan touchdown dash that gave them a 36-28 lead. An additional field goal gave them a 39-28 lead and 26 unanswered points after being down after that second quarter 28-13.

    Georgia Tech showed that they may be a much improved team in 2023 allowing them to stay in more games than the last several seasons. And that could result in more wins. Hopefully.

    We’ll find out more next Saturday as the Jackets move down the street to Bobby Dodd Stadium to host South Carolina State. Kickoff is 1:00 p.m. No free TV but it will be available to watch on ACC Network Extra & ESPN+.

    During the Geoff Collins era, the head coach only won 10 games total in 38 games. Twenty percent of those were over Duke.

   The Yellow Jackets were coming off their first win over an FBS opponent since the middle of 2021 after knocking off reigning ACC Champ Pitt.

   Coming into the game Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Tech was just a half game behind Duke for the lead in the ACC Coastal Division.

   In a thrilling overtime game, The Yellow Jackets got off to a 17-3 second half lead before letting the Blue Devils back in to tie it with just 2:41 left in regulation.

   Tech got the ball first in OT and could only get a field goal. A Duke touchdown would win it. But, the defense held aided by a critical 15 yard pass interference call that forced a long 52 yard field goal attempt to tie it again.

   As the kick sailed wide of the mark, the raucous crowd erupted. They haven’t had a lot to cheer about in recent years. Amazingly, this was the team’s first two game winning streak in four seasons.

   But, Brent Key had won both of his first two as interim head coach.

   The Jackets get some needed time off this weekend before hosting Virginia for a nationally televised Thursday night ESPN game on October 20th.

     For those thinking this game was going to be a mismatch, they were immediately vindicated. The game was essentially over in the first minute as Ole Miss quickly took their opening drive downfield 75 yards on four plays in just 1:21 to jump up 7-0 and give them all the points they would need on the afternoon at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
   The rest of the first half saw equally explosive scoring drives of 1:49 and 1:58 to provide a 21-0 halftime lead.

  The Rebels matched that output in the second half as well with three more drives that took a bit longer (3:18, 2:12 and 4:00) to shut out the Yellow Jackets 42-0. And a good bit of the second half was played with second and third teamers on the field for the visitors.

  “The defense, a shutout on the road, first time in 8 or 9 years or something like that,” said Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.
  “With playing a lot of people. I think we played every person we brought.” 

   The domination was evident in the stats with Ole Miss compiling 547 yards of offense to Tech’s 214 (316 rushing to 53). The deceptive time of possession was virtually even.

  “That was hard,” Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins said. “Not up to the standard of Georgia Tech football. That completely falls on me as the head football coach. I thought we were prepared. I thought we had a good plan. I thought we were ready to handle any adversity that showed. But I don’t know if there’s any positives to take out of that, offensively, defensively or special teams.”

  The 1-2 Yellow Jackets head south to Orlando for another tough game at Central Florida on Saturday. The Knights are coming off a convincing win of their own defeating Florida Atlantic 40-14.
   Game time has been announced as 4:00 p.m. It will be televised on ESPNU.

      The season opener for Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium ended up pretty much the way most thought it would. It was a 41-10 loss to the #4 ranked Clemson Tigers.

   Coming in, the Yellow Jackets had a combined nine wins over the last three seasons. So, an upset was highly unlikely.

    But, it was competitive for a long longer than many expected. It was scoreless after one quarter with the Rambling Wreck only trailing 14-10 halfway through the third quarter. Then the Tigers began wearing down their opponent closing out the game with 27 unanswered points.

   Tech shot themselves in the foot over and over again, something you can’t do with a superior team like Clemson. Carson Donelly blocked a Tech punt and returned it to the 5-yard line setting up a four-play touchdown by Will Shipley for the game’s first points.

   Other miscues included an interception on the first play of the game and a missed field goal attempt.

   The defense was weakened considerably in the second half when star defender Charlie Thomas was ejected on a targeting call. A penalty that will carry over to the first half of the next game.

   A strange decision by head coach Geoff Collins came when he chose to take a 10-second runoff putting 33 seconds of the clock at the end of the first half. The Tigers were lined up to punt. He also used up all three timeouts early in the second half with 11 minutes still to play in the game.

   Tech’s only TD came with Jeff Sims found E.J. Jenkins on a 13-yard third quarter TD to cut the lead to 14-10. The QB finished 23 of 36 passing for 164 yards along with 41 rushing yards.

  Things should be a lot easier for the Jackets’ home opener this Saturday as they welcome Western Carolina at 7:00p.m.