Sports Weekly: All in on Georgia Tech

Well hello. Funny seeing you here.

Welcome to your new weekly home for everything Atlanta sports. We’re still working out some kinks (including a new name that remains forthcoming), so please consider this a bit of a soft launch.

But there’s still plenty of goodness to go around — and we’re starting things off in bold, blue and gold fashion.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key, no doubt loving the attention.

The new college football season is real.

And it’s spectacular.

Texas-Ohio State. LSU-Clemson. Miami-Notre Dame. Georgia begins its title push against Marshall. Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosts both Tennessee-Syracuse and Virginia Tech-South Carolina.

Then there’s the opening course: 8 p.m. Friday. ESPN, live from Boulder. Georgia Tech vs. Colorado and Coach Prime.

It’ll mark the first-ever matchup between the two teams that split the 1990 national title, yet another marquee opener for the Jackets and the start of what could be a very fortuitous fall on the Flats.

In fact, I’m calling it now: This is Georgia Tech’s year.

They’ll beat Colorado, manage an upset of Clemson or Georgia then finish the regular season with a 9-3 record … and, perhaps, an appearance in the ACC title game.

“Rat poison!” the Yellow Jacket faithful shout.

“Nonsense!” the haters declare.

And perhaps both will end up being correct. But right now, the Jackets reside in the happy place of acknowledging the hype without reveling in it. Beat writer Chad Bishop hears their mantra — “the external expectations should never be higher than our internal expectations” — in his sleep.

And why not Tech?

Haynes King is a criminally underrated quarterback. Transfer receiver Eric Rivers? An All-American animal. And Jamal Haynes … well, that man can run the damn ball.

• Colorado names starting quarterback
• Cunningham: Seven wins the bar to clear

The defense, lead by first-time coordinator Blake Gideon, could be more of an adventure. Particularly the transfer-laden secondary.

“If that unit doesn’t come together sooner rather than later, or never really comes together at all, that could be a glaring problem for the Jackets,” Chad told me.

As friend and columnist Ken Sugiura reminds us, the Jackets haven’t typically fared well in the face of lofty aspirations — and these are considered lofty, even if they’re of the dark horse variety. He talked to former Techster Roddy Jones, who has questions too.

Then again: Outside of Clemson, the ACC doesn’t necessarily offer a team worthy of full-throated endorsement.

So why can’t the Jackets be better than Miami (are we really doing Carson Beck hype again?)? Or SMU or Louisville?

Why can’t they be the ones flirting with the playoffs?

I choose to believe they will.

🔮 Send me your own predictions for Tech’s season, please. I’ll start a file.

ROAD TRIPPIN’

Have you ever said to yourself, “Self, those college football teams sure do travel a lot. I wonder which one from Georgia will travel the most in 2025?”

Great. Because we did too — and unlike you, beloved but lazy reader, AJC data guru Charles Minshew actually crunched the numbers.

• As you’ll see, Georgia Southern plans on going full Diamond Medallion status this season.
• The number would be even more impressive if the Eagles weren’t staying in Cali between their Week 1 matchup with Fresno State and Week 2 against USC (where coach Clay Helton used to work … juicy!).
• Georgia, meanwhile, won’t venture beyond Starkville, Mississippi — and its cumulative season mileage is less than most teams’ longest single trip.

Not sure which one legendary Southern and UGA coach Erk Russell would’ve preferred. But while trying to figure out if he liked airplanes, I randomly stumbled upon this gem of a quote from his Southern days: “We’d like to cheat. But that costs money and we don’t have it.”

CONGRATS, YOU GUYS

Before we go any further, I’d like to offer my congratulations to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce on their engagement.

As a tribute, let’s take a look at all the happy athlete-entertainer relationships Atlanta has produced:

• Kroy Biermann and Kim Zolciak
• David Justice and Halle Berry
• Andre Rison and Left Eye …

Actually, you know what? This was a bad idea.

ATLANTA’S REAL MVP

Dream guard Allisha Gray during Saturday's win over the Liberty.

The Dream are title-contending good — undeniably Atlanta’s best professional sports team. And Allisha Gray is their goggle-donning, do-a-little-bit-of-everything leader.

As my colleague Lauren Williams recently wrote, Gray’s career-best year has her looking like a WNBA MVP candidate.

So, uh … what makes her so good? What’s been the difference this season?

Let’s ask A’ja Wilson.

Wilson is a three-time MVP herself, and a friend of Gray’s going back to their days winning titles and drinking Chick-fil-A milkshakes at South Carolina (despite the subsequent tummy issues, apparently). Her Las Vegas Aces — winners of 11 straight — are in town tonight for what should be a banger of a ballgame.

• Tipoff arrives at 7:30 p.m. on Peachtree TV. At last check, secondary market tickets are running at least $150.

Through an Aces PR rep, Wilson told me that her “ride or die” bestie can “score on all three levels.”

But it’s more than that.

“Just confidence is something I’ve noticed,” Wilson said. “She’s becoming more outspoken and out of her shell. People love her genuine self and it’s helping her on and off the court.”

To be clear: Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier is the odds-on favorite for MVP. Wilson has a strong case, as does Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas. Gray is unlikely to win.

Powering the Dream to a franchise-best 24 wins (with seven games to go) should put her in the conversation, though.

“Yes, 100%,” Wilson said. “The way she has created a name for herself and has been leading the Dream to a great season this year, absolutely.”

ODDS AND ENDS

🏈 Falcons right tackle Kaleb McGary is officially out for the season. Which is very bad for quarterback Michael Penix Jr.’s blindside. But at least the team … traded a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick for a lineman who started three games for Seattle last season?

🏀 The European Basketball Championship, aka EuroBasket, is upon us. Here’s a guide, if you’re inclined to watch Atlanta Hawks Zaccharie Risacher (France), Vit Krejci (Czech Republic) and Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia) give it a go.

🐟 Not sure fishing counts as sports but … apparently we’ve got two new species of bass floating around Georgia now. Someone alert Bill Dance.

👀 If you missed this Georgia high school football quarter-century team, rectify that now. The Peach State churns out so many quality athletes that Cam Newton didn’t even make the cut.

YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST

Braves legend Bobby Cox (center) waves to fans at Truist Park last week.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Braves winning the 1995 World Series. Bobby Cox made a rare appearance at Truist Park last week to commemorate.

Also last week: I asked the fine readers of the Braves Report to share their memories of that title run. We’re all family here and I got a lot of fun responses, so I figured I’d go ahead and share a sampling — with a focus on folks who had nontraditional viewing experiences.

🥰 From Bennet, a man of culture: “At the exact moment the Braves won the ’95 Series I was a few miles away watching ‘Miss Saigon’ with my wife at the Atlanta Civic Center. At intermission I heard about David Justice’s home run. I’d brought a Walkman into the auditorium and was listening to the play-by-play on the Walkman. When the Braves won around 10:30 p.m. there was a subdued sigh of relief from the audience. At the curtain call the cast members took their bows wearing Braves baseball caps. Memorable.”

🥰 From Josh, who was 10 at the time: “My Boy Scout troop had an overnight campout on the USS Yorktown. An old Navy ship that was sunken and turned into a museum. They set up a big TV inside the ship so we could watch it. Being from N.C. most of the baseball fans were Braves fans. I still remember jumping out of my old cafeteria chair when Grissom made that catch.”

🥰 From Larry, who lived a sitcom episode: “We had season tickets that year but had to go to a bar mitzvah in Boston. I had to watch the final game on a 10-inch black-and-white TV in the ‘coat check’ room in a hotel where the party was. When I see the bar mitzvah boy, who is now 43, I remind him of what he did to my family.”