They talked essentially the entire video about Georgia Tech and how well they played on Saturday. It’s super encouraging to finally see Georgia Tech talked up like this on a national level. If you haven’t read Pete Thamel’s column on the game, it is a fantastic read.

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Andy Staple’s CFB Bracketology after Week 0. Wish it could stay this way!

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Paul Moala- Bears
Tre Swilling- Jets
E.J. Jenkins- Eagles
Pressley Harvin III- 49ers

What games we planning to watch this week?

Thursday
UNC @ Minnesota. I hope Minnesota scores 100 and actually wouldn't mind them breaking the record for the biggest blowout in history -- Minnesota 223, UNC 0

Saturday Noon Games
I'll be flipping between Clemson versus UGA and Va Tech @ Vandy. Go Tigers obviously and I'm interested to see what this Va Tech hype is about

Saturday 3:30 Games
Flipping between Miami @ Florida and Ohio @ Syracuse. Go Gators and I want to see what this new look Syracuse team is about.

Saturday Night Games
I'll be at Bobby Dodd

Monday Night Game
BC @ FSU. Let's go Noles with the blowout

THE FLATS – Entering his 46th year with the Georgia Tech track and field program and 32nd as the head coach of the men’s team, Grover Hinsdale announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the 2024-25 academic year.

“Being a part of the men’s track and field program and the Georgia Tech Athletic Association for the last 45 years has been one of the greatest honors and blessings of my life,” Hinsdale said. “There are so many people to thank for making that possible, starting with the support and love of my beautiful wife and family. My eternal thanks to Buddy Fowlkes for giving a young upstart coach fresh out of grad school a chance back in 1979. To all the wonderful and talented coaches that have been with us and are with us now. To the seven athletics directors, including our current AD, J Batt, that allowed me to start, continue and finish my entire professional coaching career at this incredible Institute. I appreciate and thank you all. To all the team members that were here before I arrived and have been so supportive. A very special thanks to the hundreds of young men that cast their lots with this Brotherhood and gave me the honor of being their coach. You are what kept me here and loving every day for all these years. You will be my main men forever and always.”

“From his beginnings as an assistant coach to his development of Olympic medalists, national champions and conference titlists as the program’s head coach for 32 years, Grover Hinsdale has left an indelible mark on Georgia Tech,” Batt said. “He has not only coached champions on the track, but also countless men that have gone on to represent Tech with distinction in all walks of life as alumni. We could not be more appreciative of Coach Hinsdale’s contributions to Georgia Tech over the past five decades and look forward to honoring him and his legacy as he continues to pour his heart into coaching his team over this final year of his legendary career.”

The Yellow Jackets have posted seven top-10 indoor and outdoor NCAA Championship finishes during Hinsdale’s tenure. He was named Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2008 and has coached three Olympic gold medalists, 13 NCAA champions and 87 all-Americans. Twenty-five members of the men’s team during his tenure have gone on to be inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame.

Among the group of talented athletes that struck gold is Derrick Adkins, who won Olympic gold in 1996, and was a two-time national champion and six-time all-American during his Tech career. A second Olympic medalist is Derek Mills, who won gold as part of the 4×400 relay team in Atlanta. He was a four-time national champion and an 11-time all-American for the Jackets.

The third Olympic gold medalist is Angelo Taylor, who won gold in the 400 intermediate hurdles at the 2000 Sydney Games, for which Hinsdale was honored with the USATF Outstanding Coach Award. Taylor also won two NCAA titles and was a four-time all-American during his career on The Flats.

Other top runners Hinsdale has tutored include Octavius Terry, a three-time national champion and nine-time all-American, and Jonas Motiejunas, a two-time national champion and five-time all-American, as well as national champions Michael Johnson and Tomas Motiejunas.

Hinsdale came to Tech in September 1979 as an assistant track coach, a position he held for 13 years under the legendary mentor Buddy Fowlkes. He was promoted to assistant head coach in 1992 and was named head coach the following year.

A former decathlete at Ferris State, Hinsdale’s first 14 years with Tech were spent in the field events.

Some of the top field performers under Hinsdale include Rich Thompson, a three-time all-American in the triple jump; Mark White,an all-American discus thrower who won two ACC Championships in the discus and was the 1990 ACC Champion in the shotput. Other top athletes are Eric Bowers, the 1995 and 1996 ACC champion and current ACC record holder in the long jump; along with Joe McDonald, who broke the school record in the decathlon for the third straight time in 1992 and was the ACC indoor long jump champion in 1991.

A Sand Creek, Mich., native, Hinsdale lettered four years in track and field at Ferris State. He graduated in 1976 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology and human science. He later received his master’s degree in physical education from Eastern Kentucky in 1979. Hinsdale was inducted into the Ferris State Hall of Fame on Sept. 19, 2003.

Hinsdale previously worked as a graduate assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky in 1978-79 and as assistant coach at Ferris State from 1976-78 before coming to Tech. He is a member of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Hinsdale and his wife, Laura, have two sons, Bobby and Luke and a daughter, Kelsey. Bobby and his wife, Abby, have a son, Finn.

with Prince Avenue Christian head coach Greg Vandagriff.

ATLANTA- Georgia Tech returned practice field after a mandatory day off on Monday to begin preparations for Georgia State. Head football coach Brent Key spoke to the media after practice and shared some thoughts on his team going into the first of two in-state tilts coming off an emotional win over #10 Florida State in Ireland.

The Jackets come into game number two a little banged up after losing backup running back Trey Cooley on the opening FSU kickoff of the game. Projected starting defensive tackle Horace Lockett arrived in Ireland with a cast on his arm from an undisclosed injury and was dressed in Ireland, but did not play. Beyond that Key said his team has a lot of guys dinged after a very physical game with the Noles.

"We are banged up," Key said. "It was a physical football game and that is going to happen week in and week out. A lot of guys weren't able to go today so hopefully we will get them back tomorrow and hopefully by Thursday I can address a little bit more of where we are at as a team as far as injuries go. We are hoping to get them all back, but it is highly unlikely we will so we've got to prepare everybody."

One of the core principles of Key's program has been building a solid three-deep on both sides of the ball and he said he is confident that he will have options if key players are out or unavailable on Saturday.

"The reason why we practice the way we do is to be able to have the twos and threes get work. Guys who weren't able to play on Saturday will play, but we are not going to force somebody back sooner than they can be. We are banged up now and a lot of guys who played and finished that game are kind of walking wounded right now," he said.

Tuesday's practice was an opportunity for some of the second-string and third-string players to get reps with the first team offense and defense.

"It was good today to have guys out there that had been taking a lot of reps with the twos and threes and sometimes special teams reps. Those can become game reps and help. The depth is important and we've continued to increase our depth by the acquisition of talent, but then you truly increase your depth by also developing those guys and that is what we have done over the course of the last eight or nine months," Key said. "When one person goes down, you want to have that mentality on the team that it is the next man up and you are not going to miss a beat."

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Key shared that he knows the FSU game was a big win for the Georgia Tech family but this is a new week and a new opponent. He appreciates all the attention the win over FSU brought and exposure to the CFB world and it was a great opportunity for the school and the program and the fan base, but this is a new week and that game is over.

He said that winning that game creates a new challenge for the team and seeing how they react to that will be a big tell on the program. They enjoyed the win, but it is time to move on and he told the guys that on Sunday when they started to work on Georgia State. He brought up his three phases of growing as a team, learning how not to lose, learning how to win and learning how to win consistently and the challenge this week he told the team on Sunday is the latter. Key said that if they had lost in Ireland the challenge would be easier this week, but that is not the way they want it and that is not what they are working to do. Success and failure can both be a distraction if you let them, the mental makeup of being a good football player and a good football team is not letting distractions in. They are not there yet, but they are striving every day to get there and momentum is not created by a win, momentum does not carryover from last year to this year, momentum is created by how they practice and how they prepare for each game. He said that is why the windshield is a lot bigger than the rearview mirror on a car. If you get distracted looking in the rearview mirror while driving you will crash and they've all been in a crash caused by that in the past.

They want to win a state championship and a conference championship and all of that is still ahead of them. He thinks it will be a good environment on Saturday night and he wants all the GT fans to come out. He said the students did a great job in the second half of last year coming out and making an electric atmosphere and he hopes they will do that again.

On the LT rotation with Corey Robinson and Jordan Brown, Key said it was 60/40 on snaps and they both did some things really well and it is hard to rotate at every position but that is always his preference to rotate guys. Corey got hurt early in camp and Jordan Brown played in the game the same way he practiced all of camp, he is a Steady Eddie out there, but they both have things they can work on.

Key said he would love to play more OLs, but this isn't the YMCA so they are only going to play the game who earned the opportunity and deserved to play. Both Corey and Jordan showed they deserved to play.

On Jordan Williams, Key said that he has all the ability and has played 50 games here and he is held to the same standard as everyone is and he has played a lot of football and Key called him in the team meeting and asked him to tell his teammates the one thing he is going to work on this week to improve upon and that commitment is something he is looking for from his whole team. He said they all hear 100 things a day that they can improve upon but focus on one thing that day and suddenly you have 6, 7 or 8 things you got better at and it compounds over the whole team and it goes for the whole team down to the scout team.

Key was asked about Haynes King mentioning that he had moved on to Georgia State when the team arrived back in Atlanta on Sunday and he said asked how many in the media pool have the mindset to truly live in the moment and not think about the past or the future, it goes against Human Nature to be in the moment and that is why there is anxiety and stress and pressure. It is multiplied way worse now with twitter and social media and he preaches to his team to focus on what you are doing in the moment, the bench press, running a 40, whatever the technique is on the field, live your life that way. He said he struggles with it every day and he can be a hypocrite to these kids, but you have to focus on the task at hand and you can't do anything about what already happened and you have to eliminate external distractions as much as possible. Every kid has girlfriends or school or whatever going on, you have to focus on that moment and you are either getting better or getting worse.

I asked Key if the focus was there today given the past setbacks against teams from the G5 in the last few years. He said no one in the building is blind to what happened in the past but the focus has to be on what they are going to do and not what they aren't going to do. It is about taking a step forward and taking ownership of this team and he trusts them and you can't change the script on August 27th and telling them on Jan 4th what the standard is. This is the biggest game of the year and practiced indicated that and they are banged up and hurt and he told other guys he needs them to step it up.

Key said his job is to make sure they stay focused on the goals ahead for the 120 guys in the locker room and the 40-50 support staff and coaches. Momentum is created by preparation and it is all about the family in the locker room going out there and doing it. He liked how they practiced today.

Key said what he learned about his team in Ireland is they played hard for 60 minutes and overcame obstacles and stuck together as a family while executing the plan on defense, offense and special teams. Now what do they need to improve upon and you are getting better or worse every week if you are not improving. That is the standard to improve each week.

On Haynes King cutting back his interceptions, he could talk about that for two hours, but it is about learning from the past and not living in it. Being honest with yourself is the hardest thing and he has understood that and the maturity Haynes has shown and the development from the beginning of last year to now really shows up when it needs to.

I asked him about recruiting and he said they expect a loaded group of Georgia kids and local players for the game on Saturday night and he wants to recruit the best players to come help Georgia Tech win football games and graduate from Georgia Tech.

Key said this is kind of a neat opportunity to play two season openers with no film and it is similar to last week because you don't know what Georgia State will come out with. They have an idea of what they will do based on personnel but you don't know for sure, so you try to not overcomplicate anything and be simple and make adjustments and the example of that is the defense in the FSU game from drive one to drive two. There was no fussing or pointing fingers after FSU scored on the first drive and they were calm and collected coming off the field and Tyler Santucci was upstairs and made the adjustments and they played well after that. This is a game of uncertainties.

LaMiles Brooks

Jamal Haynes

Jordan Williams

I knew there were a few but even more popped up once I dug in to get this together. Lots of familiar faces on the visitor sideline on Saturday night.

The Beta fraternity hired our company to provide one of our outdoor LED screens for their watch party on the front lawn of their house. Shameless plug for our business - Magnolia Displays. Reach out if your neighborhood, company or any outdoor special event wants to create the ultimate tailgate this fall. It's going to be a special year on the flats!

We will be back on campus with one of our screens at the ACC Huddle Tour. Come by and say hi. https://www.magnoliagolfgroup.com/displays

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You can post em here! Carne will be first up for me on Saturday. Can’t wait.

Like many GT fans, I received a number of positive social media messages after the game, many from people that I have not spoken to in a very long time. The most notable message came from my 80 year old 1st cousin who was born in Cartersville, grew up in Rome, went to Emory, became a doctor, but has lived in Montana for the last 50 years. His message was “Go Jackets! Like Leon Hardaman and Wade Mitchell reincarnated.”

Post your memes here.
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Does anyone have recommendations on good, simple tailgating spots? I have 3 young kids so I'm not looking to drag everything out too far from the car. Just looking to set up a tent and table nearby

Format will be Name/Snap Count/Rating. (Caveat: these scores tend to change for the first 2-3 days after the game.)

QB
King/51/59.5
Pyron/1/67.4 (not sure how this isn't higher with 1 play and 1 TD)

RB
Haynes/37/77.5
Alexander/13/79.6

WR
Rutherford/43/64.0
Singleton/41/69.2
Lane/30/64.8
Blackburn/14/66.1
Janneh/8/60.7
Leary/5/59.2
Stockton/1/60.0

TE
Hawes/47/68.4
Beetham/9/61.0
Goede/7/54.4
Boyd/5/75.7

OL
Williams/52/78.2
Franklin/52/68.0
Fusile/52/66.6
Rutledge/52/62.0
Robinson/28/69.7
Brown/24/60.7

NT/DT
Biggers/39/55.2
Scott/37/66.7
VanDenBerg/21/66.9
Gore/14/61.6
Moore/7/63.4
Was Lockett hurt?

DE
Youndjouen/28/67.4
Robinson/26/67.3

Rush
Height/39/59.7
Harris/30/58.0

LB
Efford/56/63.4
Tatum/54/56.5
Butler/7/52.1
Lightsey/5/72.9

N/S
Powell-Lee/60/62.5
Brooks/39/52.0
Daniels/37/60.9
Seymore/21/52.4

CB
Harvey/56/65.5
Shelley/46/64.8
Burrell/40/64.1
Tobe/9/55.6

I'm 46 years old. I've been a tech fan all my life. My dad listened to Bobby Dodd football while picking cotten on the farm. I've never in all my life heard and seen so much praise for tech. We are about to see how good a coach Key is. Saban was so great at this. After great success he had his teams hungry for more success. That's what separated him. Tech has got to keep this momentum going. We have to beat GA State!. If we don't....we are same Ole Tech that we have seen for 30 years!

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Thought they nailed it—starts with the 2nd down fumble and goes for about 2 minutes after the kick

ATLANTA (Aug. 26, 2024) - Officials from the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and Peach Bowl, Inc. today announced that Georgia Tech head football coach Brent Key has been selected as The Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week Presented by PNC Bank.

The Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week award honors a football coach who led his team to a significant victory during the previous week, while also embodying the award’s three pillars of scholarship, leadership and integrity.

Key and the Yellow Jackets captured their first victory of the season with a thrilling 24-21 win over No. 10 Florida State on Saturday at the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland. The Yellow Jackets won the game as time expired thanks to a 44-yard field goal courtesy of sophomore kicker Aidan Birr. The field goal culminated a 49-yard drive that took 12 plays and the final 6:33 off the game clock. Georgia Tech finished the game with 190 yards on the ground, led by running back Jamal Haynes’ 75 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns. The stout Yellow Jackets defense countered by holding Florida State to just under 100 yards rushing (98) on the day to help secure the program’s first win over a nationally-ranked opponent in a season opener since 2005.

Key now improves to an impressive 5-0 mark against ranked Atlantic Coast Conference opponents following Saturday’s win. It also represents Georgia Tech’s first over a top-10 opponent since the “Miracle on Techwood Drive” in 2015, which was also over then No. 9 Florida State.

“Coach Key and the Yellow Jackets pulled off an impressive upset over the defending ACC champions to open the 2024 college football season,” said Jim Terry, chairman of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation. “This was a historic win for the Georgia Tech football program that truly has the college football world buzzing about the Yellow Jackets.”

Brent Key, a Georgia Tech alumnus and football letterwinner, was officially named the 21st head coach in Yellow Jacket football history on Nov. 29, 2022. After winning just 10 of its previous 38 games, Georgia Tech is now 12-10 in Key’s 22 games as the head coach at his alma mater, including a 7-6 mark in his first full season at the helm in 2023. The winning season was Tech’s first since 2018 and was capped by a 30-17 win over UCF in the 2023 Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.

Off the football field, Key’s players have had success in the classroom during his tenure, recording a 944 Academic Progress Rate and an 88 Graduation Success Rate during the 2023 season. The Graduation Success Rate measures the number of student-athletes who graduate from their school within six years of entering.

In the community, Key recently competed in the Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge charity golf tournament this spring, where he raised $10,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

“Coach Key is already taking the Georgia Tech football program to new heights his first two years at the helm, both on and off the field,” said Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO and President, Gary Stokan. “We’re excited to see what additional new milestones he’s able reach this football season and throughout his career.”

The Dodd Trophy Presented by PNC Bank – along with the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week Award – celebrates the head coach of a FBS team who enjoys success on the gridiron, while also stressing the importance of scholarship, leadership and integrity.

A panel consisting of all previous winners, national media, a member of the Dodd family and a College Football Hall of Fame member will identify the final list of potential recipients at the conclusion of the 2024 season. The winner of the 2024 Dodd Trophy Presented by PNC Bank will be announced in Atlanta during the week of the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

See how the Georgia Tech Class of 2025 commits did in their most recent games, including Christian Garrett, who has now moved from the category of priority target to commit. And I'm hearing another Big Body could be joining the class this week too.