ATLANTA — Georgia Tech gets an opportunity Saturday night to do something Brent Key’s program has become strangely comfortable doing: walk into a game where plenty of people expect the Yellow Jackets to lose and make everybody reconsider what they thought they knew.
No. 20/18 Tennessee comes to Bobby Dodd Stadium Saturday for a 7 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN, and the Volunteers enter as heavy favorites. On paper, it makes sense. Tennessee opened its season by dismantling Furman 56–9, while Georgia Tech is trying to pick itself up after a painful 14–13 loss to Colorado. But a 12.5-point spread at Bobby Dodd feels enormous for a Georgia Tech program that has made a habit under Key of being dangerous when expectations are lowest.
And there’s some history here.
This will be Tennessee’s first trip to Bobby Dodd Stadium in 40 years. The last time the Volunteers played on The Flats was Oct. 25, 1986.
The final score?
Georgia Tech 14, Tennessee 13.
Yes, the exact same score Georgia Tech lost by against Colorado last week.
Maybe that means absolutely nothing Saturday night.
But it’s certainly an interesting way to begin this story.
Georgia Tech Has to Find Its Identity Again
The final score against Colorado doesn’t tell the entire story of Georgia Tech’s opener.
Early in the game, the Yellow Jackets looked like the team many expected to see this season. Georgia Tech attacked Colorado between the tackles, leaned on its offensive line and showed signs of the physical running game that has become part of this program’s identity.
Then Colorado adjusted.
That’s where Georgia Tech struggled.
The Buffaloes began taking away what had worked early, and the Yellow Jackets never consistently found the counterpunch. That’s the part that should concern Georgia Tech heading into Saturday—not whether the Jackets can run the football, but whether they can continue evolving offensively once Tennessee starts taking away Plan A.
And Tennessee has the personnel to do it.
That makes the combination of Justice Haynes and Malachi Hosley particularly important.
Haynes, the former Alabama and Michigan running back, gives Georgia Tech the thunder. He runs behind his pads, can absorb contact and has the type of style that can force a defense to tackle him for four quarters.
Hosley provides something different.
He’s the lightning.
There is an acceleration and explosiveness to Hosley that gives Georgia Tech another dimension. The Jackets need both.
Establish Haynes inside. Make Tennessee respect the physical run game. Then find ways to get Hosley into space and force the Volunteers to defend the entire field.
Because if Georgia Tech can force Tennessee to devote additional bodies to stopping the run, Alberto Mendoza becomes the player who can change this game.
Don’t Forget About Alberto Mendoza
The Colorado loss can make it easy to overlook what Georgia Tech has at quarterback.
Mendoza can throw the football.
In his first collegiate start, Mendoza completed 17 of 23 passes for 237 yards without an interception. And even after Colorado took the lead with only 37 seconds remaining, Mendoza immediately hit Dalen Penson for 42 yards to put Georgia Tech in position for a potential game-winning field goal before Aidan Birr’s 45-yard attempt was blocked as time expired.
That poise matters against Tennessee.
The Volunteers are breaking in a new defense under coordinator Jim Knowles, and the early returns were impressive. Tennessee piled up 13 tackles for loss and seven sacks against Furman.
So Georgia Tech shouldn’t enter this game expecting Tennessee to make mistakes.
The Jackets need to force them.
Run the football. Use formations, shifts and motion. Make Tennessee communicate before the snap. Make the Volunteers fit their gaps correctly. And when Tennessee starts creeping toward the line of scrimmage, let Mendoza attack.
Even Tennessee defensive backs coach Anthony Poindexter acknowledged this week that Georgia Tech’s formations, shifts and motion are going to force the Vols to think before the ball is snapped.
Georgia Tech cannot play scared Saturday night.
Welcome to Your First Road Start, Faizon Brandon
Then there is the most fascinating player in this game.
Faizon Brandon looked spectacular in his Tennessee debut.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound true freshman completed 13 of 17 passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns against Furman while adding another dimension with his legs.
And he made a little history in the process.
Brandon became the first SEC player since Cam Newton in 2010 to throw three touchdown passes and rush for two touchdowns in his collegiate debut.
That is some serious company.
But Furman in Neyland Stadium and Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium are two entirely different assignments.
Saturday will be Brandon’s first collegiate road start. Tennessee itself has emphasized the increased importance of communication, control and command when a young quarterback goes on the road.
Georgia Tech needs to make sure it feels like one.
If I’m Georgia Tech, I’m coming after him early.
Pressure him.
Change the picture before and after the snap.
Make him process.
Make him communicate.
Make him prove that the calmness and poise he displayed in his debut travels with him when the crowd is against him and defenders are arriving faster.
Brandon may eventually be a star.
He may prove Saturday night that he already is one.
But Georgia Tech shouldn’t simply assume it.
Make the freshman prove it.
Tennessee’s Running Game Might Be the Bigger Problem
The danger for Georgia Tech is that Tennessee doesn’t necessarily need Brandon to carry the offense.
DeSean Bishop gives the Volunteers a proven weapon in the backfield. Bishop rushed for 1,076 yards last season, becoming Tennessee’s first returning 1,000-yard rusher since Jalen Hurd.
That creates the matchup that could ultimately decide this game.
Can Georgia Tech stop Tennessee’s rushing attack without sacrificing its secondary?
There is some reason for optimism.
Lost in the disappointment of the Colorado loss was the performance of Georgia Tech’s defense under first-year coordinator Jason Semore. Colorado scored only 14 points, tied for the third-fewest points Georgia Tech has surrendered to a power-conference opponent since the beginning of the 2018 season.
Now that defense gets a much different test.
If Georgia Tech can defend Tennessee’s run game honestly with its front, the Jackets can devote resources toward confusing Brandon and limiting Tennessee’s explosive passing game.
If they can’t, the entire equation changes.
Once Georgia Tech starts bringing safeties downhill and adding defenders to the box, Tennessee gets the matchups it wants outside with players like Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley.
And Matthews has already shown how dangerous that can be. He opened the season with 132 receiving yards.
There’s another complication for Georgia Tech: Arion Carter is back.
The veteran Tennessee linebacker and senior captain missed the Furman game because of an NCAA suspension but returns against Georgia Tech, adding another proven piece to a defense that already produced seven sacks without him.
Georgia Tech is going to have to earn everything it gets.
Make the Freshman Chase You
The best possible scenario for Georgia Tech is to turn Saturday night into something Brandon hasn’t experienced yet.
Pressure.
Imagine Georgia Tech establishing Haynes early.
Hosley breaks one.
Mendoza connects on a shot downfield.
Bobby Dodd erupts, and suddenly Tennessee’s freshman quarterback isn’t playing with a comfortable lead against Furman anymore.
He’s down 7–0.
Maybe 10–0.
Now what?
That’s when Georgia Tech can start asking questions Tennessee hasn’t had to answer yet.
Can Brandon chase points?
Can he make the correct read when Georgia Tech knows he has to throw?
Can he respond after taking a hit?
Can he quiet a hostile stadium after a turnover or a three-and-out?
Georgia Tech’s job is to get him into that game.
Because the opposite is dangerous.
Georgia Tech does not want to spend Saturday night chasing Tennessee by 10 or 14 points while Brandon hands the football off, uses his legs and takes selective shots downfield.
That is Tennessee’s game.
Georgia Tech needs to make Tennessee play its game.
This Feels Like a Brent Key Game
Talent for talent, Tennessee probably has the advantage.
There’s no reason to pretend otherwise.
The Volunteers have SEC size, legitimate offensive weapons, a proven running back, a defense with playmakers and one of the most talented young quarterbacks in America.
Georgia Tech will have to play substantially better than it did against Colorado to win.
But we’ve seen this before with Brent Key.
Remember Cam Ward and No. 4 Miami in 2024?
Miami arrived at Bobby Dodd 9–0, boasting the nation’s No. 1 offense and a quarterback who would become the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Georgia Tech ran for 271 yards, held Miami to a season-low 23 points and handed Ward and the Hurricanes their first loss, 28–23.
Then came No. 12 Clemson early in 2025.
Georgia Tech jumped on Clemson, battled through the Tigers’ comeback and watched Aidan Birr drill a 55-yard field goal as time expired to win 24–21. It was Georgia Tech’s first victory over Clemson since 2014 and moved Key to an incredible 7–1 against ranked ACC opponents as Tech’s head coach.
That’s what makes Saturday so fascinating.
Georgia Tech has developed a strange habit under Brent Key of becoming extremely dangerous when the national conversation has already decided what should happen.
But the Jackets have also had the opposite problem.
There have been moments when Georgia Tech appeared ready to take the next step and didn’t.
And now they’re 0–1.
Tennessee is 1–0.
The Jackets just suffered a gut-wrenching home loss, and now a ranked SEC opponent is coming into Bobby Dodd Stadium under the lights.
Nobody needs to manufacture urgency.
It’s already there.
Georgia Tech needs to rediscover the physical identity it showed early against Colorado. It needs to find the adjustments that disappeared later in that game. Establish Haynes and Hosley. Trust Mendoza when Tennessee crowds the box. And make a true freshman quarterback play four quarters of uncomfortable football.
Tennessee might have the better roster.
Tennessee might deserve to be favored.
But 12.5 points?
At Bobby Dodd?
Against a Brent Key team with its back already against the wall?
That’s a lot.
Forty years ago, Tennessee walked into Bobby Dodd Stadium and Georgia Tech sent the Vols home with a 14–13 loss.
Saturday night, we’ll find out whether Georgia Tech’s 14–13 loss to Colorado was a warning about what this season could become—or merely the setup for another one of those nights when Brent Key and the Yellow Jackets do something nobody thought they could.
The question isn’t whether Brent Key has shocked the nation before.
The question is whether he’s about to do it again.
