Everything you need to know about Gardner-Webb at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech opens its 2025 home schedule by welcoming Gardner-Webb at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets (1-0) will be looking to move to 2-0 for the season straight year, but need to not overlook Gardner-Webb ahead of a showdown with rival Clemson next week.
“I got confidence in this team. I got faith in this team. I trust this football team. I trust the leadership,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “You know every game you play in is a big game. And I still don’t understand how people do not understand that. I don’t understand how people say, ‘What you did last week, it was a big game.’ We get 12 opportunities to go play something that we work 365 days a year for, every single time you step on that field, it is the biggest moment of that time, of that day, of that week, of that month, whether it’s practice, whether it’s a game. There’s only so many opportunities.
“We get to go and play in Bobby Dodd Stadium. You’ve got to be crazy if you think someone’s not gonna give it their all out there on that field. You’ve got to take every opportunity, and that’s why I trust this team, because I feel very confident in that with them. There is no tomorrow. Our focus right now is on one thing, and that’s the team coming in here on Saturday.”
The Runnin’ Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb (1-0) began their season by winning 52-45 at Western Carolina, a game in which they trailed 35-7 in the second quarter. Out of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and the Football Championship Subdivision, Gardner-Webb went 4-8 last season after back-to-back seven-win seasons.
Tech and Gardner-Webb have met once previously, a game won 10-7 by the Jackets in 2008 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Things to know about Saturday’s Georgia Tech-Gardner-Webb game
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bobby Dodd Stadium (51,913)
TV: None
Streaming: WatchESPN app
Weather: 84 degrees at kickoff, 15% chance of rain
Tickets: Tickets are available on Tech’s official ticket site starting at $34 and via secondary sites starting at $18
Storylines ahead of Georgia Tech-Gardner-Webb game
Haynes King’s father diagnosed with cancer: Quarterback Haynes King’s final season of college football started with a bang, but also came with a somber footnote.
King led Tech to a win at Colorado on Friday. He played, and prepared for, that game knowing his father is battling a recent cancer diagnosis.
“He’s a tough SOB. That’s just who he is,” King said about his father on “The Jim Rome Show.” “His main focus is making sure I’m still focused. And I still have a job to do as well. That’s really everything that’s transpired in our conversations in the past two, three weeks of knowing.”
Tech’s defense looking to build: The debut of Blake Gideon’s defense was solid. But by no means perfect.
“I feel like we could have done way better,” Georgia Tech linebacker Cayman Spaulding said Wednesday, adding he gave Tech’s defense a B grade for its performance. “Actually, we didn’t have no takeovers. I feel like we could have done way better on that, because as a defense, you need takeovers to win the game.”
In his first season as defensive coordinator for the Yellow Jackets (1-0), and as a defensive coordinator for the first time in his career, Gideon got the win under his belt after watching his unit hold Colorado to 20 points. And the biggest notch in his defense’s belt was holding the Buffaloes to 7 points as Tech turned the ball over three times in three possessions to start the game.
Still looking for the right front five: The Georgia Tech offensive line deserved a lot of credit in helping the Yellow Jackets knock off Colorado on Friday night. But it also was clear that the unit is not a polished product one game into the young season.
Tech threw seven offensive linemen into the mix in its opener, and while that septet helped the Jackets gain 320 yards on the ground, average 6.8 yards per carry and keep quarterback King from getting sacked on 20 pass attempts, there also were some issues that will need to be rectified sooner rather than later.
Jackets looking to play mistake-free ball: It’s difficult to win a football game when a team commits three turnovers. Harder still when a team has a minus-3 turnover margin. Even harder when those things happen on the road.
“Look, I’m happy we won the football game, but you’re looking at something that’s a 2%-3% chance of happening when you have that string of events. That was not a good start by any means to us,” Key said Tuesday. “You’re happy they overcame the adversity in the game on the road. Shows character of a football team. That shows you have a good team. If you wanna have any opportunity or chance of having a great team, you cannot do those things. So we got a lot of work to do.”
Tech must avoid the dreaded letdown Saturday: Tech, in the thick of the Brent Key era, should be past the point of the dreaded letdown game.
After winning 27-20 at Colorado on Friday, the immediate sentiment from the Yellow Jackets (1-0) was that no one inside the winning locker room should be celebrating or dwelling on the season’s first victory any more than usual.
King makes case for ACC’s player of the year: There’s no realistic way for King to enter the Heisman Trophy race even if he strings together more games like that one. He started too far back in the pack (65-to-1 preseason odds, per Vegas Insider). The Jackets don’t have enough marquee games on the schedule for him to earn wins that make him part of the Heisman narrative.
But King already was a leading candidate for the ACC’s top player. Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik received 146 votes from media in voting for the ACC Player of the Year award. King was second with nine votes. Some of those votes should flip after Week 1.
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