Another weather delay at Bobby Dodd Stadium for the second straight week.

   Some may think that this game with Temple was scheduled when former Tech head coach Geoff Collins, who previously coached for the Owls, was roaming the sidelines. But, it actually was set up as a home and away a year before Collins took over from Paul Johnson. The home-and-away series was a product of scheduling by Collins who had previously served as an assistant at Georgia Tech. Collins was the head coach at Temple when the series with Georgia Tech was scheduled in August 2017, and his comments at the time indicate he strongly supported and advocated for scheduling the games, specifically citing recruiting benefits in Georgia and Florida. 

   Temple hosted Georgia Tech at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 28, 2019, and won 24–2.

   Tech’s opponent last week, Clemson, apparently was suffering a hangover from the stunning loss in Atlanta as they got manhandled by Syracuse 34-21, pretty much knocking themselves out of any shot at the postseason as well as the ACC Championship Game.

   The No. 18/19-ranked Yellow Jackets were good and bad in this matchup. They started off hot going up 21-0 in the first quarter on touchdowns by Haynes King, Malik Rutherford and Isiah Cannon.

  Then, Temple found something and shut them down. It was a clear tale of two quarters with Tech outscoring Temple 21-0 and outgaining them 199 to 61. But, in the second quarter, the Owls made some adjustments and outscored Tech 7-0 gaining 89 yards to the Jackets’ paltry 9. Temple won time of possession in both quarters.

   Georgia Tech began the second half really needing to change the trend. But, the opposite happened as King fumbled the ball on the first play recovered by Eric Stuart at the GT31.
Two plays later, the Owls were back in the end zone with JoJo Bermudez on a 28 yard TD catch pulling to within 7. It was 21-14.

   The Jackets got things going in the right direction with a 75 yard TD drive with Malachi Hosley taking it 34 yards into the end zone to extend the lead to 14 at 28-14. “I think we’re the best one-two punch in college football,” said Jamal Haynes after the game.

  Already ahead by two scores, the Jackets were about to restore their 21 point lead. it was Hosley across the goal line again to make it 35-14.

  Mostly backups were accounting for the rest of the scoring. Aaron Philo was in QB for Tech and gave it to Draylon Gordon who took it to the house on the first play. Temple got a meaningless score on some sloppy play by the GT defense in the game’s final moments making the score look closer than it was. Final score, Georgia Tech 45, Temple 24.

  The Jackets proved they could run the ball on a team without relying on Haynes King, who carried it just eight times for 15 yards. But, Jamal Haynes (107), J.P. Powell, Hosley, and Gordon combined for 307 yards on the ground. Their 468 yards of offense was the fifth-highest in school history. 

   “We’ve got things we’ve got to clean up there,” said Brent Key after the win. “We can’t have those stall-outs. We can’t have those ebbs and flows in the game. Anybody can see that and know that… We were able to get a good win and didn’t play that well and really, there were spots in the game wherever, but, that second quarter was poor football on our part, and we got to be better than that. But again, very happy with the win. Happy a lot of guys got to play today and excited to continue to move forward.”

   Tech is 4-0 for the first time in 11 seasons and extends their eight game winning streak at Bobby Dodd Stadium. They head to Wake Forest next Saturday. The Demon Deacons are 2-1 and will be rested coming off a bye week. Kickoff is noon on ESPN.