Nightmare at NC State

RALEIGH, N.C. — The first of November became Georgia Tech’s first nightmare of the 2025 season.

The eighth-ranked Yellow Jackets were a sieve defensively and lost 48-36 at North Carolina State on Saturday. The Wolfpack (5-4, 2-3 ACC) put an end to Tech’s undefeated season with an onslaught of offensive plays that the Jackets (8-1, 5-1 ACC) could do nothing to stop in front of a sold-out crowd of 51,913 at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“They lined up and physically kicked our ass in a lot of ways. It is what it is. That’s on me. I take responsibility for it,” said Georgia Tech coach Brent Key.

State put up 583 yards of total offense and scored on 8 of 10 possessions. The Wolfpack averaged 8.7 yards per play. Quarterback CJ Bailey threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns and running back Jayden Scott, a Stockbridge High School graduate, ran for 196 yards.

The 583 yards allowed was the most Tech has surrendered since Florida State totaled 642 on Oct. 29, 2022. The 48 points scored were the most N.C. State had ever scored in a game against Tech.

“At the end of the day, we got a lot of work to do, gotta get corrected. We gotta be able to take something away,” Key said. “We weren’t taking the run away, the noticeable thing. There was a lot of hidden yardage in there – two yards, five yards, four yards that were missed tackles, getting knocked back. We’ve gotta improve and we will.”

The Jackets got another monster game from quarterback Haynes King, who threw for 408 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 103 yards and two scores. Receiver Jordan Allen had five grabs for 110 yards.

But in a back-and-forth game, Tech settled for two field goals inside the 20, another inside the 30 and missed another.

“You gotta score touchdowns in the red zone, you can’t kick field goals,” King said. “Whether it’s converting on third down, whether it’s making the throw, making a play, bowing your neck, trying to find a way, it doesn’t matter. It’s inexcusable and we gotta do a better job of helping the defense out as well. They played their ass off and just, sometimes, teams have your number and that’s what happened.”

Tech is off until traveling to Boston College (1-8, 0-5 ACC) on Nov. 15.

State took the opening kickoff Saturday and marched down the field on a 10-played drive that covered 75 yards and chewed more than six minutes off the clock. The Wolfpack converted two third downs on the possession, the second one being Bailey’s 5-yard touchdown lob into the right side of the end zone for tight end Cody Hardy.

Tech wasted little time with its answer, getting a 50-yard completion from King to Jordan Allen and then runs of 15 and 12, respectively, by King, the latter of which tied the game 8:11 into the first quarter.

Bailey’s 11-yard touchdown run a little more than four minutes later put State back in front, 14-7. Tech got a 43-yard field goal from Aidan Birr early in the second quarter, making it a 14-10 game.

Tech’s defense finally got a stop on the ensuing drive and gave the ball back to its offense. The Jackets took over on their own 40 and scored 10 plays later when King, on third down, dumped a 2-yard touchdown pass over the line of scrimmage to an open JT Byrne. The tight end’s first career score gave Tech its first lead at 17-14.

Bailey’s 51-yard completion on the ensuing drive put the Wolfpack at the Tech 16 and then, one play later, backup quarterback Will Wilson took a keeper around left end and scored to put N.C. State back up 21-17.

Birr’s 54-yard field goal miss gave State the ball back with 56 seconds left in the half, and the Wolfpack took advantage by driving to the Tech 17 and getting a 34-yard field goal from Kanoah Vinesett, making it 24-17 at the break.

The Wolfpack racked up 296 yards of offense in the first half, gained 8 yards per play, went 4 of 6 on third down and scored on all four red zone trips.

“On the defensive side, they pushed us in the end zone. That’s why I said we got our butts kicked, and that’s what you look at,” Key said. “When they’re able to run it in like that down there tight, from second-and-7 to third-and third-and-four to first down for first down, those types of plays, we gotta do a lot better job. I gotta do a lot better job.”

Birr started the scoring in the third quarter with a 23-yard field goal, a play that came after Tech had lined up to go for in fourth down from the 1 but was called for a false start. But the Wolfpack got a 69-yard run from Scott on its first offensive play and Wilson scored moments later on a 1-yard dive, making it 31-20.

The Jackets were officially in trouble at that point.

Birr’s 29-yard field goal got Tech within 31-23 with 4:52 to go, but trading field goals for touchdowns was not working. And right on cue, Bailey found a wide-open Teddy Hoffman on a 55-yard touchdown pass, putting the Wolfpack ahead 38-23.

King found the end zone one more time just before the end of the third quarter, a 3-yard scamper that got Tech within 38-30 and capped a 75-yard drive that lasted 2:41.

The fourth quarter began with Tech trailing by that eight-point margin, a margin too much to overcome. Vinesett made a 37-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to pad the lead and then Scott scored on a 31-yard spring with 4:07 left to seal the victory.

“It takes all of us. Takes 11 guys to bring down the ball carrier,” Tech safety Clayton Powell-Lee said. “Some plays we didn’t do so, some plays effort wasn’t there. We just gotta look at ourselves in the mirror and just know that we gotta do more. It takes more than just one person to bring down a guy. Takes all 11 of us to stop the run.”

King completed a 16-yard touchdown to Zion Taylor with 2:22 left for the night’s final score.

The win was N.C. State’s first over a top-10 ranked team since 2021.

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