We could have beat the team viewed as the 1st or 2nd best team in the ACC. Down the road Tech will win these games.

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King is 2nd in passing.

Edit: Maybe it was time to mix in a water


To admit we caved to a likeable hire with no ceiling. We have Matt Luke with better pr. He consistently makes bad in game decisions. He doesn’t bring scheme to either side of the ball. He does not recruit at a high level. With key, we have have chosen a dance of will we win 5 or 7 games.

With several commits putting up strong numbers once again.

I turned on this South Alabama-App State game and holy smokes. Jaguars beating up the tar out of them.

I memory-holed a whole lot from the GC5 era, but it would be hard to believe that there was a decision-making disasterclass worse than what we just saw. You can say UofL is a top 20 team to try and justify it but we were handed a golden ticket to win this game. The no-contact safety, the uncalled DPI + dropped ball on 3rd and 22, and more calls against UofL than I think we’ve seen from all of our other opponents combined this season.



There were some big screw-ups by the players, but most of those happened on defense. Santucci catches a lot of criticism in the gameday threads (a lot of it deserved imo) but his defense only allowed 17 of the 31 points. This game was lost by Key and Faulkner. Both of our losses this season had nothing to do with being outmatched on the field and everything to do with our players drowning on gameday in a pool of the decision-making ineptitude by the staff. We thought the decision to decline the holding call at the end of the Syracuse game was bad but there a number of decisions that dwarf that this game.



We ran the ball 37 times for 98 yards…roughly half those came from 2 carries. Remove those 2 carries and we’re left with 35 carries for 55 yds (FSU says hello). We clowned the shit out of FSU for that rushing performance but as we saw, they couldnt pass either. You can try to argue that O-line deserves the blame but they didnt have a whole lot of problems in pass pro from what i saw, and thats what makes this 10x more frustrating. King was 21/32 for 312 yards averaging 9.8 yards per attempt. Its not like we couldnt rely on the passing game, we made the decision not to.



I made the comment earlier in the game thread that we were lucky to score before halftime. 1st and goal on the 3 yard line and we end up scoring on 4th down because Jamal Haynes made a great play. I cant remember which game(s) it was, but i remember that happened earlier this season as well where we had 1st and goal and got bailed out on 4th down after essentially wasting the first 3 downs with stupid playcalling. So far we havent had to suffer the full consequences in those situations but you would be naive to assume that regression to the mean isnt coming. We make important situations much harder than they need to be and we got to see a lot of that today.



I dont have a problem with going for it on 4th down in most situations when theres logic behind it. I have a problem with the way we go about it. We were 4/15 on 3rd down and have only had 1 game this season where we converted more than 50% of our 3rd downs (FSU, 5/9). We were 3/8 against VMI…So don’t try to tell me that these are flukes. Tell me why our gameplan on critical 4th downs was the exact same as it was on every 3rd and short. I dont have the exact stats of how long our average 3rd down distance was, but I know we had a lot within 5 yards. Over and over we watched Buster try to fit a square peg into a round hole, and run the exact same BS for 2 yards at best. In the 2 most critical moments of the game, we did the same thing with absolutely ZERO evidence to begin to justify it. I dont know why hes so committed to it, but something has to change and change now.



Now lets talk about Keys performance. He’s a new head coach so obviously theres going to he a learning curve on the game management front, but today was inexcusable. I agreed with going for it before halftime and thought it was an obvious decision, but couldve been executed better. I agreed with his attempt to kick the first fg, but we know we know about Birrs struggles from the right hash so I’m not sure why Buster didnt consider that in the playcall on 3rd down. What I don’t understand is Key refusing to challenge any of the bad spots we got on numerous 3rd downs. But where the wheels really started to fall off for him was his decision to take the delay of game of 4th and a half yd on the 5 yard line, after going for it earlier on the same drive around the 20. Those 2 decisions on the same drive are connected by no logical thought process. You dont preach all that shit about trusting your guys on the field, then tuck your tail in a no-brainer situation to go for it. Not to mention not calling a timeout to challenge the spot on that same play. Later we all get the pleasure of watching him waste a timeout on 4th and long in an obvious kicking situation. It shouldnt take more than 5 seconds to realize that kicking the fg is the right move there. Yea they blocked it but kicking the fg is the right move, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, required burning a timeout. And to save the best for last, we get to watch him slowly bleed away our last (albeit small) chance at winning by not using the last timeout before the 2 minute warning. Had Shelley not roughed the punter, we wouldve lost about 45 seconds of clock while also wasting the 2 minute warning. This ones a real mind boggler. The 2 minute warning would’ve occurred during the already dead clock after the punt.



Key’s atrocious game management and Busters critical down playcalling was the most coach-sabotaging-team rendition I have ever seen. We have 2 strong running QBs, yet refuse to even consider a QB sneak or even lining up under center. We have a ton of support staff, yet Key won’t delegate his game management deficiencies (atrocities) to someone else. And if he has delegated them, whoever was in charge of today needs to fired effective immediately. I couldnt put together a more illogical, self-sabotaging game management performance if I tried.



Its been over an hour since the game ended and the more I’ve thought about how we lost, I’ve only become more angry. Call it an overreaction if you want, but I’ve stayed out of every game thread this season for the most part until today. These issues are glaring and we deserve some real answers now. I can accept being beat by the other team, I cant accept being beat by our own coaches. My fear is that some of the players share a similar perception of what lost them the game today, and I dont see that playing out well unless we start to see improvements immediately. Rant over.

And I love him. But man. Terrible play calling.

Fire away

Four games in for GT, what are your thoughts? There have been quite a few comments in various threads on coaching versus talent, but I thought it would be good to have it in one place. Yes, we are currently 3-1, but I have to say I’m a little conflicted because in spite of that, both coaching and talent have been lacking at various times this season. Louisville hopefully shows us a positive trajectory for this team.

Defense: There’s been a lot of love and high expectations for Tyler Santucci, but so far, I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed. I didn’t exactly expect miracles, but frankly, I expected better than what we have seen; hopefully on par with what he did at Duke last year. Can anyone argue that Duke last year had more talent than what CTS has to work with here?

Are GT’s issues with no pass rush and soft coverage due to talent, or is it scheme and game planning? Is CBK “meddling” and holding CTS back, as some have alluded?

Offense: We returned most of our production on offense, and all we’ve heard about is how deep and experienced our O-line is this year, yet at times we’ve been soft and have struggled.

As with most things, there’s plenty of blame to go around, but what thoughts do you have on what we have to do to be better?

and the 4-star, Rivals top 250 safety said he wasn't able to get to the Georgia Tech-VMI game for the visit like he had initially planned but will be there for a gameday visit soon, probably for the Miami game. He said Georgia Tech is recruiting him hard with Brent Key and Tyler Santucci visiting him at the school this past spring and secondary coach Cory Peoples communicating with him a lot and letting him know how much of a priority he is for the '26 class.

He has around 20 total offers right now (several ACC, SEC and Big Ten) with several more schools talking to him or close to offering. He said he wants to narrow things down either later this year or in the spring and be locked in with a commitment next summer before going into his senior season. He named five or six schools that are standing out so far and Georgia Tech is right up there at the top of the list. He is a playmaker in the secondary with three interceptions already during his junior season just five games in.

Will have full update story on him either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Tech Schedule and Results | Final Leaderboard (Golfstat) | Complete Results (PDF)

Olympia Fields, Ill. – On a rainy early morning at Olympia Fields Country Club, Benjamin Reuter closed out his final-round 2-under-par 68 and secured Georgia Tech’s first tournament victory in 17 months, a one-shot triumph over No. 2 Arizona State at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational.

Reuter finished with a par at 17 and a bogey at 18, while his playing partner Joe Luis Ballester of ASU finished par-par, which did not alter the leaderboard as it stood when play was suspended by darkness Saturday night. The Jackets earned the win with a tournament record score of 828 (-12), and Reuter, with an 8-under-par total of 202, posted a runner-up finish, two strokes behind Ballester, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion.

It is Georgia Tech’s first tournament victory since the 2023 NCAA Salem (S.C.) Regional, and the 73rd in the illustrious coaching career of head coach Bruce Heppler.

Tech shot an 8-under-par 272 in the final round, erasing the seven-stroke lead held after 36 holes by the Sun Devils, who posted an even-par 280 for round 3.

The final round of the 54-hole tournament was originally scheduled to be played Sunday, but in an attempt to avoid a stormy Sunday weather forecast, the teams played 36 holes Saturday. All but the final group – Reuter, Ballester and Ian Gilligan of Florida – were able to finish before darkness halted play at 7:56 p.m.

Tech returns to action next Monday and Tuesday (Sept. 30-Oct. 1) at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational at Fort Worth, Texas.

TECH LINEUP – Reuter, who’s previous high finish was a tie for fourth place at the 2022 NCAA Columbus Regional, recorded six birdies on his card for the final round, posting a 2-under-par 68. The runner-up finish was a career best for the redshirt junior from Naarden, The Netherlands.

Reigning NCAA Champion Hiroshi Tai shot a pair of 1-under-par 69s Saturday and tied for sixth place individually at 3-under-par 207. The junior from Singapore has nine top-10 finishes in his career.

Tech received stellar closing rounds from its two sophomores Saturday at Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) led the Yellow Jackets with a 4-under-par 66, and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) posted a 69. Both players tied for 28th place overall at 213 (+3).

Freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) shot a 68 for Tech in round 2 Saturday and a 75 in the final round, and finished in a tie for 37th place at 215 (+5).

TEAM LEADERBOARD – Arizona State (-11) led the tournament by six shots after Friday’s play and seven after the second round closed Saturday, but Georgia Tech (-12) made it a two-team race and overtook the Sun Devils with four players under par in the final round.

No. 18 Oklahoma State put forth two solid rounds Saturday and tied for third place with No. 16 North Carolina at 1-under-par 839. No. 11 Texas finished in fifth place at 3-over-par 843, with No. 20 Stanford and No. 19 Texas A&M tied for sixth at 848 (+8). Host Illinois (No. 5) and No. 9 Florida are tied for eighth place at 9-over-par.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – The Sun Devils’ Ballester, who won the U.S. Amateur title in Augusts, finished with a 10-under-par score of 200 and earned his first collegiate victory by two strokes over Reuter, who shot 8-under-par 202.

Texas’ Christian Maas and Northwestern’s Daniel Svard are tied for third place at 203 (-7), followed by Tech’s Tai, Illinois’ Ryan Voois, Florida State’s Luke Clanton, Texas’ Luke Potter and North Carolina’s David Ford tied for sixth place at 207 (-3).

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Yellow Jackets competed in the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational for the third time, winning for the second time after sharing the 2019 title with Baylor and finishing third last fall. Illinois hosted the 15-team event, which will be contested over 54 holes beginning Friday and concluding Sunday at Olympia Fields Country Club’s North course, which plays to a par-70 and measures 7,353 yards. The club has hosted two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships.

The 15-team field (with current Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches national ranking) included Alabama (7), Arizona State (2), Baylor, Florida (9), Florida State (10), Georgia Tech (17), Illinois (5), Michigan, North Carolina (16), Northwestern, Oklahoma State (18), Stanford (20), Texas (11), Texas A&M (19) and Texas Tech (14). Tech, FSU, Illinois and North Carolina all reached match play at the NCAA Championship last May.

Right now, there is a lot of good energy around the program in both recruiting and play. Starting 2-0 is great - our last 5 games will be challenging.
Cuse- w
VMI -w
LVille- L
Duke - w
Carolina_W
ND-L
VT -W
U-L
NCST- W
UGA L

8-4 I feel like this would be a fantastic season for the program

If Brent Key is going to die on that hill he should of just taken the knee. When you need 30+ yards to score down 12 with 5 minutes left you're not playing for the first. You're playing to get the score quickly and extend the game.

I will NEVER understand that play calling. I'm willing to bet that's not what Buster wanted to do either.

For the late-night crowd, I thought I'd go ahead and write this up since I've just been sitting here stewing on it since the final whistle in Louisville and not wanting to go to sleep after the frustrating loss. Here are my thoughts. Some aren't pretty, but after a frustrating game like that, it is what it is.

Absolutely beautiful

Man for all the analyst on staff we got no situational awareness. When we tied it with the FG why take a delay and not try to draw offsides. When they stack the box on 3rd and 4th why run up the middle from pistol which means RB has to get 8 yards just to get back to the line. Love my Jackets but they love to reel us in and kick us in the balls. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Tech Schedule and Results | Leaderboard and Pairings (Golfstat)

Olympia Fields, Ill. – Georgia Tech’s golf team, six strokes off the lead to start the day, is 9-under-par in the final round and holds a two-stroke lead over Arizona State after Saturday’s play was suspended due to darkness at the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational. The 17th-ranked Yellow Jackets, who did not win a tournament in 2023-24, is in the cusp of its first victory since the 2023 NCAA Salem (S.C.) Regional.

With thunderstorms forecast for Sunday, the tournament pushed tee times ahead 30 minutes Saturday with the intent to play 36 holes and finish the tournament. The final group of Jose Luis Ballester of Arizona State, Benjamin Reuter of Georgia Tech and Ian Gilligan of Florida was the only one unable to finish Saturday before play was suspended at 7:56 p.m.

Reuter (-9), tied for the lead after Friday’s opening round, is one stroke behind Ballester (-10), the reigning U.S. Amateur Champion, as both players return to the Olympia Fields Country Club at 8:30 a.m. Sundayto complete their final two holes. Those two holes will determine the team and individual champion. Reuter is 3-under-par for the final round, while Ballester is even.

Tech posted a 3-under-par 277 in round 2 Saturday and has a 9-under-par final round going, seven strokes better than the next best round of the day. The Jackets, 13-under-par for the tournament, overtook the No. 2-ranked Sun Devils (-11), who are even-par in round 3, on the team leaderboard.

TECH LINEUP – Reuter, who’s previous high finish was a tie for fourth place at the 2022 NCAA Columbus Regional, has six birdies on his card for Saturday’s final round, and is 3-under-par despite a triple bogey on the par-4 14th. The redshirt junior from Naarden, The Netherlands shot even-par 70 in round 2 Saturday.

Reigning NCAA Champion Hiroshi Tai shot a pair of 1-under-par 69s Saturday and is tied for sixth place individually at 3-under-par 207. The junior from Singapore has nine top-10 finishes in his career.

Tech received stellar closing rounds from its two sophomores Saturday at Kale Fontenot (Lafayette, La.) led the Yellow Jackets with a 4-under-par 66, and Carson Kim (Yorba Linda, Calif.) posted a 69. Both players are tied for 28th place overall at 213 (+3).

Freshman Albert Hansson (Fiskebäckskil, Sweden) shot a 68 for Tech in round 2 Saturday and a 75 in the final round, and will finish in a tie for 37th place at 215 (+5).

TEAM LEADERBOARD – Arizona State (-11) led the tournament by six shots after Friday’s play and seven after the second round closed Saturday, but Georgia Tech (-13) made it a two-team race and overtook the Sun Devils with four players under par in the final round.

No. 18 Oklahoma State put forth two solid rounds Saturday and is tied for third place with No. 16 North Carolina at 1-under-par 839. No. 11 Texas finished in fifth place at 3-over-par 843, with No. 20 Stanford and No. 19 Texas A&M tied for sixth at 848 (+8). Host Illinois (No. 5) and No. 9 Florida are tied for eighth place at 9-over-par.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD – The Sun Devils’ Ballester (-10) and the Yellow Jackets’ Reuter (-9) will finish their final two holes Sunday morning to determine the individual champion.

Texas’ Christian Maas and Northwestern’s Daniel Svard are tied for third place at 203 (-7), followed by Tech’s Tai, Illinois’ Ryan Voois, Florida State’s Luke Clanton, Texas’ Luke Potter and North Carolina’s David Ford tied for sixth place at 207 (-3).

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – The Yellow Jackets are competing in the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational for the third time, having shared the 2019 title with Baylor and finishing third last fall. Illinois hosts the 15-team event, which will be contested over 54 holes beginning Friday and concluding Sunday at Olympia Fields Country Club’s North course, which plays to a par-70 and measures 7,353 yards. The club has hosted two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships.

The 15-team field (with current Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches national ranking) includes Alabama (7), Arizona State (2), Baylor, Florida (9), Florida State (10), Georgia Tech (17), Illinois (5), Michigan, North Carolina (16), Northwestern, Oklahoma State (18), Stanford (20), Texas (11), Texas A&M (19) and Texas Tech (14). Tech, FSU, Illinois and North Carolina all reached match play at the NCAA Championship last May.

Trying to get more information on the Georgia Tech end right now. Not really sure when this happened as he played and had two catches vs. VMI last Saturday.

It’s hot as hell here. Good crowd tailgating.

Am I doing this right?

Key said they wrapped up Thursday prep on the field and they will have one more day of stuff before they leave for Louisville on Friday. He feels like they had a really good look from the scout team this week and he is pleased with how their roster development has improved the scout team via the depth they now have on the roster and it improves the competition during practice and elevates the team while shrinking the gap between practice and the game.

Scout Team Players of the Week:
Nehemiah Chandler for the offense (playing DB for the scout D)
Patrick Screws Jr. for the defense (playing OL and apparently TE for the O) he said Screws scored a TD on a 40-yard seem route today at 330 pounds and it was a sight to behold!
Jack Collins walk-on LB

Key said the team has a collective GPA right now that is higher than the GPA they had coming out of HS enrolling at GT and the speaks volumes to how hard they are working as student athletes.

Key said they have a big challenge with Louisville coming in this week and he has the highest respect for Jeff Brohm calling him a "ball coach" and that is what you call someone who is very good at coaching in this profession.

Key said that they have good players on both sides of the ball and good special teams and GT will have to have a good day, good execution and disciplined play to go up there and have the game close in the fourth quarter with a chance to win at the end and that is what they are planning on doing.

Brody Rhodes walked by and was talking loudly and Key quipped that he was the last person he would expect to do that (TIC) and that Rhodes will be in this building for a long time as a future coach following the path of many other former players turned coaches in GT history.

I asked him about the soft coverage and if they plan to be more aggressive in the secondary this week. He danced around this a little saying they have different calls, different alignments and different things they can do, but he wants to put the defense in the best position for them to go out and execute well if that is man press or press bail or playing off the ball or creeping into press, they will do any of those and he wants them to be consistent in their execution.

Key was asked if they have a set number of QB runs planned for Haynes King each game and he said that is not part of the plan. The plan is to take what the defense is giving them each week and whatever personnel and matchups make sense to win the game. They work each week to put a plan together and what is appropriate for the types of fronts or looks on both sides of the ball and sometimes certain defenses dictate that they may run more with the QB than other games.

Key said that Louisville's defense has been very good at creating negative plays and they get after the QB and mix up their coverages and have some things up front that are challenging to block. He said that can create some opportunities however for the offense and they have to be able to get into the right calls and execute and win one-on-ones and ultimately football is a game about one-on-ones. They have the opportunity to try to win those one-on-ones in all three phases on Saturday and need to do that.

He got asked about play-action passes and if stopping the run makes that more likely (weird question) and he said well usually play-action is a result of stacking the box on D to find the weakness in the coverage and you are robbing Peter to pay Paul at some point if you are putting an extra guy in the box. Key said he would rather have one go over their heads than be nickel and dimed to death.

I asked him how Harrison Moore got into the LG rotation and what he is doing well to get some snaps and he said that he is a good football player and is going to be a good football player and his job is to get the best 11 on the field and if they don't do that they are doing a disservice to everyone else on the team so as guys continue to develop like Moore has they will be added to the rotation and be in those positions this season.

Key was about about Jordan van den Berg and he said he is tough and what you want out of a defensive lineman. He approaches every play like a street fight and he has added more technique and fundamentals coupled with his size and strength that make him good. He has a good twitch and he has been able to affect the QB more times than you would think. He isn't just a run stopper and they need to put him in a position to generate some pass rush and occupy two blockers and let the other DLs get to the QB as well.

Key was asked about the team starting slow in road games (he didn't like this question) and he said that is true but offensively he felt like they didn't start as slowly. They had a three and out at Cuse and then scored, he said he can't remember what he had for dinner let alone remember every play sequence. He explained the only thing he can remember that he eats is what he has for breakfast because his wife makes him the same thing every morning, egg white sandwich with some cream cheese and a lean protein and a yogurt with 15 grams of protein in it. Off mic he explained he eats a breakfast burrito before every game as well as a routine and had some funny stories about that.

He said on the slow starts they have to win one-on-ones early and bring energy to start the game. They've got to pass block from the jump and execute in the run game the correct schemes and defensively tackling in space has been an issue early.

I asked about Avery Boyd and his renaissance as a TE now, Key said they started working on this a few years ago with him and Boyd kept having bad luck with injuries. He said in the spring he was doing a great job and then got banged up in the last week of spring ball and it took him some time to come back and settle back into that role. He said that he is a scary dude when he gets a head of steam and he is coming off that edge and they need to find more ways to get him the ball and use him within the games. He is also playing faster now but is still a little tentative when he sees something from the defense he hasn't experienced at that position, but that is improving as well. He said he is a matchup problem now and he has the size and strength now to block and do those things with LBs and safeties but then has the speed of a WR.

I asked him about Horace Lockett and where he is at, Key said he has to bring it in practice and Horace is a great kit and he loves him to death and they practice from Sunday to Friday and he has to keep working to develop and they will put the best 11 on the field each week and consistency is a big part of that and Lockett has to continue being consistent with what he does. He is a big body guy and he can move well when he is on, he is on. It is a shame that he had the hand (arm) injury and he has another week or so with the cast on and for a younger DL dealing with that type of injury for the first time, he is learning to work back through it. He wants to see where he is in a few weeks with it off and he is fully ready to go. He has done some really good things the last couple of days and he is excited when he comes back and is fully back in the mix with everybody.

It's Jackets' gameday for a big one at Louisville.

Big Al the fan says Tech by fifty!

Alex the professional team writer says very competitive ballgame ahead, but the Jackets pull out a tight one 37-33 and head into the bye week at 4-1.

What say you?

Bigger than I would’ve thought tbh but not crazy.

O/U at 57.5

Implied win chance of 26%