3 things to watch when Georgia Tech starts practice Tuesday

Preparation for the 2025 season starts in earnest for Georgia Tech on Tuesday, when the Yellow Jackets take part in their first practice of the preseason.

Tech is scheduled to travel to Colorado on Aug. 27 before facing the Buffaloes two days later in the season opener for both teams.

That gives the Jackets about a month to formulate a plan for not only that game, but for the next three months.

Before coach Brent Key and his squad get to work this week, here are three things to watch before kickoff Aug. 29:

A mindset

Tech is on the radar, no doubt.

Despite winning only seven games in each of the past two seasons, the Jackets are a trendy team when it comes to making a run at an ACC title or even being on the fringe of contending for a College Football Playoff bid.

Key has met that chatter head on from the start of the offseason. But now that the season is on the horizon, distractions from the outside world will abound.

“We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us. We really do,” Key said at ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s not about other people’s expectations that matter. Only expectations that matter are ours. Nothing externally should ever trump what our internal expectations are for ourselves.”

During the next month the Jackets will have to prove they can adequately block out the noise — which in reality shouldn’t prove too difficult for a program with so much more to accomplish.

A new(ish) offensive line

The play of Tech’s offensive line has become a calling card the last couple of years. That’s not expected to change in 2025, but the players of the troupe are a different mix than in year’s past.

Guards Keylan Rutledge (6-foot-4, 320 pounds) and Joe Fusile (6-6, 320) anchor a group that includes tackle Ethan Mackenny (6-4, 305), who redshirted in 2024 as a sophomore, and Harrison Moore (6-5, 300), who lined in multiple positions as a freshman. Outside of that quartet waits a handful of young prospects along with experienced transfers looking to climb the depth chart to complete Tech’s starting lineup up front.

“I really like the depth that we have and the talent. We got really talented guys; some of them are a little wet behind the ears,” Key said. “But we’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football for us that are returning on the line. Hopefully they’ll jell quick and play together and be able to get done what we got to get done.”

The formation and cohesiveness of Tech’s front five will be key to Tech’s offensive development this preseason.

Gideon’s group

Key hired Blake Gideon in February to take over the Tech defense. That unit will make its debut against a Colorado team that scored 32.9 points per game and had the nation’s sixth-best passing offense (although quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, a wide receiver, from that team are both now in the NFL).

Still, Tech’s defense needs to firing close to all cylinders from the get-go.

“Coach Gideon has been great so far. He’s going to have us playing real fast out there, real instinctual football,” Tech linebacker Kyle Efford said. “He’s speeding that defense up for us, and we’re really excited to get out there and play instinctual football again.

“I mean, really all three levels, it’s going to be something serious. I definitely think just getting out of such a defined defense and letting us play instinctual football, the game we were playing since we were kids, it’s definitely going to work out for the better.”