It finally is time for toe to meet leather, and Georgia Tech fans will be awfully thankful that kickoff comes one day earlier this season.
An offseason filled with as much intrigue as excitement ends at 7:30 p.m. Friday when the Yellow Jackets get together with Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The matchup marks the official start of the Brent Key Era, the debut of transfer quarterback Haynes King and, perhaps, the dawning of a new age of Tech football.
The Jackets are 7.5-point underdogs against Louisville, a program which also features an alum (Jeff Brohm) making his first appearance as the team’s full-time coach. The Cardinals, 0-2 in two tries against Tech, have a proven quarterback in Jack Plummer and a boatload of transfers on the roster looking to make Louisville an ACC title contender.
Here are five things to know before Friday’s game:
All eyes on the King
King left Texas A&M in December after an up-and-down career with the Aggies. Tech is hopeful it can reharness some of the successes King had during his three seasons in College Station, Texas, and in the years before that as a prep star in Longview, Texas.
Key said King, unequivocally, is the team’s starting quarterback. He won a true QB competition that started when King arrived on campus in January and ended Aug. 22 when he was declared QB1. King has three seasons of eligibility left.
An interesting side note to King’s debut with Tech? He was recruited by Brohm when the now-Louisville coach was at Purdue.
Catching on
If King is to have a memorable debut, he’ll need someone to step up and consistently catch the balls he throws. And who that someone is remains a major question until the lights go on Friday.
Tech has one proven returning wideout in Malik Rutherford, a sophomore who had a modest 225 receiving yards in 2022. There are a lot of new faces and unproven players taking the field with him.
Dominick Blaylock transferred from Georgia. Chase Lane came from Texas A&M. Christian Leary arrived from Alabama. Abdul Janneh is a former Duquesne standout. Tech also added freshmen Eric Singleton and Zion Taylor, who are expected to make an impact.
The tight end position with Dylan Leonard, Luke Benson and, possibly, Avery Boyd could be an option for King as well.
“Our wide receiver corps, we have a lot of experience there as well,” King said. “They can get after it, they can run, they can catch. They’re smart, too. Their football IQ is pretty good, and that will also help them.”
Back at the Benz
Tech’s appearance Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be its third of six contracted games the Jackets are to play as part of the Aflac Kickoff game, formerly known as the Chick-fil-A Kickoff.
Tech signed a deal with AMB Sports and Entertainment (the parent company of the Falcons, Atlanta United and Mercedes-Benz Stadium) to play one game at the venue annually from 2021-26. Tech faced North Carolina there in 2021 and Clemson last season.
Scheduled to face Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz in October 2024, Tech has yet to schedule the 2025 and 2026 games.
Tech has the priority in ticket sales for Friday’s matchup and the contest is part of Tech’s season-ticket package. Attendance for the 2022 game was north of 47,000.
Rivalry (?) refresher
Louisville joined the ACC in 2014, yet Friday’s showdown with Tech will be only the third meeting between the two programs. The Cardinals have not fared well against the Jackets thus far, losing in 2018 and 2020 by a combined score of 112-58. Both of those games also were on a Friday night.
The Jackets walloped Louisville in the first meeting in 2018, part of coach Paul Johnson’s final season with Tech. The Cardinals couldn’t dig out of a 21-0 hole in the first quarter and gave up 542 rushing yards in a 66-31 loss. TaQuon Marshall and Tobias Oliver combined for 283 yards on the ground and four rushing scores much to the chagrin of more than 51,000 fans in Louisville.
Two years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tech hosted Louisville at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Jeff Sims threw for 249 yards and rushed for 64 more as the Jackets cruised to a 46-27 victory. The Jackets trailed 21-7 in that one before ending the game on a 39-6 run.
Brohm’s debut, too
Brohm has been a head coach a bit longer than Tech’s Key. After technically landing his first head gig in charge of the Louisville Fire, an arena football team, Brohm got his first opportunity to lead a college team in 2014 at Western Kentucky.
Since then Brohm has won 66 games at both Western Kentucky and then Purdue, won a pair of Conference USA titles, two bowl games and a Big Ten division title. Brohm has had only two losing seasons in his career, and one of those years came in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when Purdue played only six games.
Brohm, who played quarterback at Louisville, is 5-4 in season openers as a coach.
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