In front of a capacity crowd, with a berth into the ACC championship game on the line, and maybe even a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff at stake, No. 16 Georgia Tech will take the field at 7 p.m. Saturday to face Pittsburgh. Not perhaps since November 2014, when the Yellow Jackets faced a ranked Clemson team in the home finale of that season has there been as much buildup for a game at Bobby Dodd Stadium like there is for this one.
“We’re playing a very good football team for an opportunity to play for the conference championship. So this is a championship game in its own right. That’s the way we’re viewing it, the way we’re approaching it,” Tech coach Brent Key said Tuesday. “And it’s on everybody to get the job done. That starts with me, then it’s the coordinators, it’s the assistant coaches and it’s the players. It is everyone here able to be at a high, high level of focus this week, a high level of energy, a high level of detail in our coaching, our teaching, detail in the way we practice and doing it full speed.”
Saturday’s game also is the final regular-season home game for the Jackets. They play No. 4 Georgia on Nov. 28 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After that they could be in the ACC title game in Charlotte, North Carolina, or a bowl game, or a CFP game on the road, or even a CFP game at home (unlikely, but not technically impossible).
Before any of those scenarios are sorted out, Key’s team has a singular mission to beat the Panthers (7-3, 5-1), a team still alive to make the ACC title game as well. Quarterback Mason Heintschel, a freshman, has three receivers who have more than 300 yards receiving.
Defensively, Pitt is allowing just 90.3 yards per game, and only four teams have run for more than 100 yards against the Panthers.
Can Tech’s defense slow down Pitt’s offense? Can Tech’s offense run it against Pitt’s defense?
“We did not play good defense the last two weeks. That’s pretty evident,” Key said. “We’ve worked extremely hard, continued this week to work, and we’ve given them the tools, and I expect them to play highly confident and — they know this is a time for them to truly go out and play the way that we’ve built this program, the toughness, the discipline, the commitment, the execution.
“They’ve got to believe in themselves and believe in all that because I believe in them. I believe in the defense. I believe in the guys that are playing on defense. They need to go out and do the same thing on Saturday night.”
Details about Saturday’s Pitt-Georgia Tech game
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bobby Dodd Stadium (51,913)
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN
Weather: 66 degrees at kickoff, 12% chance of rain
Tickets: Tech officially announced Thursday that Saturday’s game is sold out. Tickets are still available via secondary sites and starting at $73.
Pitt football social media: X | Instagram | Facebook
Georgia Tech football social media: X | Instagram | Facebook
Storylines ahead of Pitt at Georgia Tech
Tech still at 16 in CFP rankings: In the third installment of the College Football Playoff rankings, Georgia Tech came in at No. 16. The latest rankings were announced Tuesday night.
Tech (9-1, 6-1 ACC) beat Boston College 36-34 on Saturday. Georgia Tech was off the previous weekend and lost 48-36 at North Carolina State the Saturday before. The Yellow Jackets, No. 16 in last week’s rankings as well, started the season 8-0.
Haynes King has been marvelous at Bobby Dodd Stadium: Bobby Dodd Stadium is not the house that Haynes King built. But man, if he didn’t help give it a face-lift.
Georgia Tech’s star quarterback will play his last game at Tech’s home venue at 7 p.m. Saturday when the Yellow Jackets (9-1, 6-1 ACC) face Pittsburgh (7-3, 5-1 ACC). He’ll do so in a sold-out crowd of fans yearning to witness his finale.
Fusile’s football journey coming to an end: This is not a Rudy Ruettiger story.
Joe Fusile did not take a bus from Richmond Hill to Atlanta, throw a duffel bag over his shoulder and walk to the gates of Bobby Dodd Stadium to look longingly inside, fantasizing about playing for the Yellow Jackets one day.
No, really, the only things Fusile and Ruettiger, the famous Notre Dame defensive end, have in common are they both had their minds made up where they wanted to attend college and they were both once walk-ons.
Win and Tech’s in: The scenario is quite simple for No. 16 Georgia Tech: Beat Pittsburgh and play Dec. 6 in the ACC championship game in Charlotte.
Lose to the visiting Panthers at 7 p.m., and things become way more complicated — and much more unlikely the Yellow Jackets will make it to the Queen City.
Salute to the seniors: This anecdote from Fusile, Georgia Tech’s starting left guard, encapsulates what Tech’s senior class has grown to become, the mark it has left on the current state of the program.
“I remember being here my first year in the scout locker room (in 2021), losing a game badly and no one cared at all,” Fusile told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week. “The fury of that, then to develop into a team that despises losing so much, it’s kind of incredible. It’s a terrific thing we’ve built.”
In Key we trust: Nothing to see here — just the biggest game Georgia Tech has played in 35 years.
That, and the wheels have fallen off the defense.
All eyes on the Tech defense: Is Georgia Tech’s defense, overall, this bad? Is it just going through a slump? Has the opposition simply exposed the Yellow Jackets’ biggest weaknesses?
All of the above?
Not happy after a win: There may have been some weird vibes around Bobby Dodd Stadium on Sunday, when the Yellow Jackets met as a team to look forward to a massive showdown against visiting Pittsburgh.
Fresh off a ninth win — courtesy of an Aidan Birr field goal at Boston College on Saturday — Georgia Tech has a chance to clinch a berth in the ACC championship game by beating the Panthers.
Jackets fall in AP poll: After its ninth win in 10 games, Georgia Tech dropped in the latest Associated Press Top 25, released Sunday.
The Yellow Jackets fell from 14 to 15 after a 36-34 victory at Boston College (1-10, 0-7 ACC).
Tech did not fix defensive, red zone issues in win at BC: Georgia Tech had a chance to bounce back defensively, to prove its poor showing Nov. 1 at North Carolina State was more an anomaly than the norm and to regain some confidence against the ACC’s worst team.
King vs. Stockton in the Heisman race: Comparisons between Gunner Stockton and Haynes King are as common and seemingly inescapable as the popular “6-7” catchphrase, which also happens to be their standing in the Heisman Trophy odds.
King and Stockton, at each turn, have made clutch, highlight-friendly plays in leading Georgia Tech and Georgia, respectively, to 9-1 records with two weeks remaining in the season.
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