Yellow Jackets await bowl fate after long, rewarding regular season

There was a moment Saturday night inside Bobby Dodd Stadium that was likely long forgotten some three hours later. A moment lost in the static, perhaps not entirely significant in a 31-23 loss by Georgia Tech to bitter rival Georgia.

It was also a moment that somewhat signified what Tech football has grown into over the past three months in terms of fight, effort and passion.

In the first quarter, immediately after the Yellow Jackets had recovered a Georgia fumble on the 37-yard line going in, Tech quarterback Haynes King took a snap and found tight end Brett Seither, a former Bulldog nonetheless, open 12 yards down the field.

Seither caught the pass, turned and and set his sights on the end zone before being met by a pack of Bulldogs. It looked like the 6-foot-5, 233-pound junior would be stopped there after a nice first down pickup, but Seither had other plans. He put his head down and churned his legs and dragged a pile of people with him down to the 9 right in front of Tech’s raucous student section, igniting those in the crowd supporting the white and gold.

Two plays later, King scored on a 9-yard run to give Tech an early lead.

But it was Seither’s small yet symbolic play that signified the Jackets would put up a fight on this night, as they have done for much of the season.

“I’m gonna stay true to my words, I love this program, love the people in it, love the way their trying to do things – and they’re doing it the right way. And it’s showing,” King said about Tech football after the loss. “It’s only up from here. As long as everybody sticks together, trusts the process in getting better and competing against each other each and every day, we have no choice but to get better.”

King’s performances all season were a big reason why the Jackets finished 6-6. Plays like the one Seither showcased are more indicative that Tech has turned a corner in competitiveness.

After four straight losing seasons, first-year coach Brent Key has his program in position to finish with a winning mark should it triumph in its bowl game (the Jackets will learn their postseason fate Dec. 3). Tech had to fight tooth and nail to get there having only won two games against FBS competition by more than 10 points.

Tech was 3-4 on Oct. 21 with four games left against teams with winning records and two left against nationally-ranked opponents.

“You talk about growing as a football team, you see where these guys have gone from, really early in the season and some of the ebbs and flows within games and week to week,” Key said. “If you take the scoreboard out of it and you look at how the team plays for the entirety of a football game, that’s what you coach off of, that’s what you use to correct and to build on. I think we’ve made a lot of progress in that area.”

This Tech team won’t go down as one of the best in program history. It was dominated at home by Bowling Green one week after winning its ACC opener and laid an egg at Bobby Dodd Stadium against Boston College following a bye that had followed a victory in Miami over a ranked Hurricanes team.

That win in south Florida, however, will be remembered for a long time as the Jackets pulled off a miracle after trailing 20-17 with 26 seconds left, needing to go 74 yards for a game-winning touchdown and not having any timeouts left. Three weeks later, Tech needed another comeback to beat North Carolina, ranked No. 17 at the time, to keep its postseason hopes alive.

Not all the losses in 2023 were ones to be ashamed of, either.

Tech lost by five to Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sept. 1 – Louisville ended up 10-2 and will play for an ACC championship Saturday. Tech lost at Ole Miss by 25 after trailing the Rebels by seven early in the fourth quarter – Ole Miss wound up 10-2 and will likely play in a marquee bowl game at the start of the new year.

Tech was handled quite easily on the road by Clemson in early November – the Tigers, the defending ACC champions, are now 8-4 and on a four-game winning streak.

Then, of course, was Saturday’s eight-point loss to No. 1 Georgia. But only Auburn this season had played the two-time defending champs closer (27-20) and the 23 points scored by the Jackets were the most against the Bulldogs in a regular season game since Mississippi State scored 24 on Nov. 21, 2020.

It would be hard to argue Tech is not heading in the right direction when putting its 6-6 record in context.

“I’m just gotta start off with the word family. Even inside the locker room, on the field, off the field, this team moves as a family,” Tech running back Jamal Haynes said of the program. “The growth just from the summer workouts, taking it on to fall camp, coming into the season, it’s been a full-on growth. Not just one side of the ball. It’s been a growth throughout the season.

“Just from this game, pretty sure ya’ll can tell the way we fought, we have an identity. We have an identity and we’re definitely gonna keep coming.”

The Jackets now have unfinished business in the coming weeks. Key said his squad will have some down time before going full-speed ahead next week with bowl preparations.

Tech will also undoubtedly want to end 2023 on a good note, a note that would give the program its first bowl victory since 2016 and first winning season since 2018. It would also be a final note that would further prove Key’s program has made tremendous strides – not that he has time to dwell on that quite yet.