No. 12 Georgia Tech makes its third road trip of the season and second excursion as a nationally ranked team when it faces Duke at noon Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets, winners of six consecutive, could become the first Tech team since 1966 to sport a 7-0 record. The 1990 national championship team was 6-0-1.
Tech third-year coach Brent Key reiterated Thursday his squad knows it is guaranteed nothing moving forward.
“Nothing in the past does anything for what we’re doing now. Nothing in the future does,” he said. “We prepare for the future, you learn from the past. And we’ve made our fair share of mistakes and had ups and downs. And you’ve got to learn from those things. When you have a challenge or a failure or mistake, I look at that as something we’ve got to turn into a positive, and that’s a chance to learn and grow.”
Duke (4-2, 3-0 ACC) has reeled off three victories in a row since a 1-2 start that included a loss at home to Illinois and road defeat at Tulane. The Blue Devils have also been off since a 45-21 win at California on Oct. 4.
Tech will be trying to start its ACC schedule 4-0 for the first time since 1998.
Details about Saturday’s No. 12 Georgia Tech-Duke game
Kickoff: Noon Saturday
Where: Wallace Wade Stadium (31,500)
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN
Weather: 68 degrees at kickoff, 0% chance of rain
Tickets: Tickets are available on Duke’s official ticket site starting at $32 and via secondary sites starting at $30.
Duke football social media: X | Instagram | Facebook
Georgia Tech football social media: X | Instagram | Facebook
Storylines ahead of No. 12 Georgia Tech at Duke
Tech starting cornerback out Saturday: Tech’s defense received a big blow Thursday with the news that Ahmari Harvey will miss Saturday’s game and is out indefinitely with an injury.
Key confirmed the news Thursday.
SpooKEY season: If there is one thing Key is passionate about, it is Tech football. Something else? Halloween.
Tech’s third-year coach can break down his Halloween setup at his residence just as well as he can break down film. Key has spoken at length the past two Octobers about his love for the annual holiday.
Investment in Key paying off: On a day when Tech honored some of its greatest coaches of the past with a celebration of the 1990 national title team and the 50th anniversary of the Bobby Dodd Award, its current coach basked in the glow of having an undefeated team for at least one more Saturday.
And USA Today thinks that coach isn’t getting paid enough for his efforts.
Jackets learning to live as favorites: Underdog? Favorite?
Tech finds itself in a state of limbo this week when it comes to that narrative. Perhaps ahead of its matchup with Duke, it’s neither?
The Jackets claim they don’t really care all that much either way.
Key puts the steak before the sizzle: Key never chased the attention. But he and his football program, which long has been a secondary player locally and nationally, have it in a volume that is jarring.
Increasing attendance at Bobby Dodd Stadium, solid TV viewership, and the visibility of Key and quarterback Haynes King in national and local media are but three outcomes for the Jackets, who play at Duke in pursuit of the program’s first 7-0 start since 1966.
Rodney Shelley has struck with Tech his entire career: Everything changed for Shelley in the spring of 2021.
As a talented, versatile athlete playing football for Langston Hughes High School, Shelley had received plenty of interest from college programs, mostly from FCS and then-Group of Five schools. But it was Trooper Taylor, now the associate head coach at Texas A&M but then an assistant coach at Duke, who gave Harvey his first scholarship offer.
Taylor also told Shelley he better get his academics in order.
Key says he is ‘so happy’ at Tech: With the success and development of his program, Key has become a popular object of speculation that high-profile teams with coaching openings will make attempts to hire him away.
It isn’t difficult, for instance, to find Key on media-generated lists of potential candidates to fill the opening created by the firing of Penn State coach James Franklin on Sunday.
Jackets have won nine consecutive games at Bobby Dodd Stadium: College football fans certainly have been tuning in to watch Tech play football. Now fans are starting to show up to Bobby Dodd Stadium to watch, too.
Tech beat Virginia Tech 35-20 on Saturday in front of a crowd of 50,878. That marked the highest turnout of the season at Bobby Dodd Stadium and the largest crowd at the venue to see the Jackets play an ACC opponent since Oct. 1, 2016, when 53,047 fans attended Tech’s matchup with No. 14 Miami (in the 2020 season, attendance was limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Honors for Key: Key is one of 25 head coaches on the midseason watch list for the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award, the American Heart Association announced Wednesday.
The Bear Bryant Award is presented annually to the college football coach whose contributions make the sport better for athletes and fans alike by demonstrating grit, integrity and a winning approach to coaching and life — both on and off the field.
Tech back on the road versus tough Duke squad: Tech’s undefeated season rolls right along through the middle of October.
Key on Monday, however, continued to insist no one inside his locker room is satisfied.
Tech rises to No. 12 in AP Poll: Tech moved up another spot Sunday in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The Jackets (6-0, 3-0 ACC) came in at No. 12 after being 13th last week. The ranking is the program’s highest in the regular season since October 2011 when it was ranked 12th before a loss at Virginia. Tech was ranked eighth in the final AP poll of the 2024 season.
Jackets front five honored: Tech’s offensive line has been honored as one of the nation’s best through the first half of the season, as the Jackets’ offensive front is one of 24 included on the midseason honor roll for the Joe Moore Award. The Joe Moore Award annually recognizes college football’s top offensive line.
Tech offensive lineman on Lombardi Award watch list: Tech senior offensive lineman Keylan Rutledge is one of 54 players included on the midseason watch list for the Lombardi Award. The Lombardi Award honors college football’s top lineman or linebacker.
Future Jackets: Each week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution looks at how Tech football commitments are faring during their respective senior seasons.
Key has 18 high school seniors committed to the 2026 signing class, which ranks 47th nationally and 12th in the ACC, according to the 247Sports Composite.
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