After 12 games and more than three months of football, Georgia Tech’s regular season came to an end Friday.
A 44-42 loss in eight overtimes to No. 7 Georgia finished a marathon game and a marathon regular season for the Yellow Jackets, who wound up 7-5 overall. They went 5-3 in the ACC, a portion of the schedule that ended Nov. 21 with a 30-29 victory over North Carolina State.
Tech will find out its bowl destination and bowl opponent Dec. 8. That matchup will give the Jackets a chance to win eight games for the first time since 2016.
Before then, here’s a closer look at how Tech performed in ‘24 and where they landed statistically speaking:
Offense
Tech was led offensively, once again, by quarterback Haynes King and running back Jamal Haynes. But that pair dealt with significant injuries that kept King out of two games completely and limited Haynes in a few others.
Haynes was still able to mount 808 yards and score nine times on the ground. King totaled 578 rushing yards, 11 rushing touchdowns, 1,910 passing yards, 11 passing touchdowns and just one interception.
King finished the regular season third nationally (and first in the ACC) in completion percentage (72.5%), third in the ACC in passing efficiency (155) and fourth in league in passing yards per attempt
As a team, Tech finished third nationally, and led the ACC, with just eight turnovers. The Jackets were second nationally with six sacks allowed and just two fumbles lost, 15th with just six interceptions thrown (the fewest in the ACC), 28th with 4.3 tackles for loss allowed, 35th in total offense (427.1), 36th in completion percentage (64.4) and 39th in rushing offense (186.8) and red zone offense (87.8).
According to Pro Football Focus, King was Tech’s highest graded player among Jackets with at least 500 offensive snaps. Wide receivers Eric Singleton Jr. and Malik Rutherford, left tackle Corey Robinson and right tackle Jordan Williams were among Tech’s other highest-graded players.
Defense
Tech finished second in the ACC and 17th in the nation in third down defense at 32.2%. The Jackets’ 120.2 rushing yards allowed per game was sixth best in the ACC and their 218 first downs allowed were the second fewest in the league.
But there were deficiencies: Tech was 118th nationally and last in the league with just 17 sacks, 117th with just 11 takeaways and 95th with a passing efficiency rating of 138.65.
Tech’s highest graded defensive players, who logged at least 300 snaps, were cornerbacks Warren Burrell, Ahmari Harvey and Rodney Shelley, defensive tackles Jordan van den Berg and Thomas Gore, linebacker Kyle Efford and defensive ends Romello Height and Sylvain Yondjouen.
Tech didn’t allow at least 40 points in any one game until the finale when UGA scored 44 — and 17 of those points came in overtime. The Jackets also only gave up 298 points total, the first time the team has allowed fewer than 300 points in the regular season since the 2017 squad allowed 292 in 11 games.
Special teams
Kicker Aidan Birr missed seven of the 20 field goals he attempted, but made all 42 of his extra points. Birr now has 30 career field goals and 79 career extra points. The Jackets ranked toward the bottom of the ACC in punt return defense, punting and kickoff return defense.
Et cetera
Another area of the game where the Jackets excelled was in discipline where they ranked first in the conference with just 463 penalty yards and second in the ACC with just 60 total penalties at five penalties per game.
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