No. 16 Yellow Jackets thankful for bye week after 5-0 start
Georgia Tech coach Brent Key threw himself back in his chair and let go an audible sigh of relief before the question was even done being asked.
Yes, he said, the bye week comes at a great time for him and his 16th-ranked football team.
“We gotta recharge. We gotta mentally get ourselves back ready to go. The physical part, yes, everyone thinks about the physical part, but the mental grind of it, it starts to mount as the season starts to mount,” the third-year Tech coach said.
“It couldn’t come at a better time. Very, very fortunate we are as a team, but also really happy and excited that we were able to come out of this with a win and finish off the first part of the season.”
Key’s comments came in the aftermath of a 30-29 overtime win over Wake Forest at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets (5-0, 2-0 ACC) survived by the skin of their teeth and now don’t play again until Virginia Tech (2-3, 1-0 ACC) comes to Bobby Dodd Stadium on Oct. 11.
The Jackets go into the off weekend fortunate in a lot of ways to be undefeated, but that fact that their record remains unblemished is perhaps the biggest indicator of a special season brewing on The Flats.
Tech trailed at Wake 20-3 on Saturday, then fell behind 23-20 with 5:08 left on the clock. A fumble by running back Jamal Haynes had given the Demon Deacons (2-2, 0-1 ACC) an opportunity to take the late lead.
Tech was also forced to punt the ball back to Wake with 3:55 on the clock, and the Deacons nearly salted the game away before stalling at their own 32 with 1:46 left.
A Wake Forest punt came after the Deacons thought they had coerced Tech defensive back Daiquan White to jump offsides on third-and-5, but officials ruled White escaped the neutral zone just in time.
Quarterback Haynes King led the Tech offense onto the field after that punt with 1:41 on the clock and the ball resting at the Tech 30. A 22-yard pass completion to Isiah Canion and 15-yard pass interference call were plays that helped get the Jackets to the Wake 16, where Aidan Birr kicked a game-tying field goal to send the game into overtime.
“I think the biggest thing for us is just the complementary football,” Birr said about the late defensive stop, offensive drive and clutch special teams play. “Maybe when the offense isn’t doing well, the defense picks it up or the special teams picks it up, or vice versa. I think that’s what makes us special.”
Tech’s ability to prevail has become a theme through five games.
The Jackets overcame three turnovers in their first three possessions at Colorado but got a game-winning touchdown run by King in the fourth quarter. They gave up leads of 13-0 and 21-14 to Clemson on Sept. 13 before Birr’s game-winning field goal at the buzzer that day.
They trailed Wake 20-3 early in the third quarter Saturday before coming out of a slumber to mount a second-half rally that kept a dream season alive.
“I knew that this year was gonna be a big year for us, so coming into it, I always expected big things for this team because I believe in the guys in the locker room and the guys around me,” Tech wide receiver Eric Rivers said.
“I know we got a lot of playmakers on offense and defense so I believe in all the guys in the locker room. It’s a total, complete team, so I definitely knew that we had a chance.”
Tech is 5-0 for the first time since 2014 and 2-0 in ACC play for the first time since 2017. Three of Tech’s five wins came by a total of 11 points, and its two conference victories are by a total of four points.
The last time the Jackets were 6-0 was at the start the 2011 season. That was also the last time they had a 3-0 ACC record. The 2025 team has a couple weeks before they have to worry about trying to reach those marks.
“We’re in the endurance phase now of the season. Everybody comes out of the gate sprinting, the last third of the season you see the finish line, but this middle part, that’s the endurance phase,” Key said.
“Endurance doesn’t mean taking it easy, it doesn’t mean coasting through it. Endurance is you’re out in the middle of the ocean, you swim all the way out there and now you turn around and it’s just as far back and you can’t see either side. That’s endurance now. We gotta have that for the next four or five weeks and then we get into that final sprint to the end.”
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