A look at the Yellow Jackets: Georgia Tech brings a reinvigorated offense to the Vaught, led by former A&M QB Haynes King
OXFORD, Miss. — Haynes King and his Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will be in Oxford this Saturday to take on an undefeated, No. 17-ranked Ole Miss team. Georgia Tech heads to Oxford 1-1 on the season and is coming off a 48-13 home win over South Carolina State.
Tech lost by five to Louisville in its first game of the season, 39-34. The 2-0 Cardinals own the 13th highest scoring offense in the country. To follow up the Louisville game, Tech hosted South Carolina State where the Yellow Jackets bounced back in a 48-13 victory.
This week, however, head coach Brent Key’s team will face its toughest test yet in a very skilled Ole Miss team while being on the road for the first time all season.
Here are several aspects of the Georgia Tech squad that are worth noting before kick-off.
Georgia Tech offense led by A&M Transfer QB
First and foremost, it starts for Georgia Tech with quarterback Haynes King. King has had himself quite a start to the year with a pair of productive performances. The Texas A&M transfer threw for 313 yards with three touchdowns against Louisville and 294 yards with four touchdowns against South Carolina State.
Haynes King 🎯
The Yellow Jackets are rolling South Carolina so far this afternoon #StingEm
— Oliver Hodgkinson (@ojhodgkinson) September 9, 2023
King leads the ACC with 301.5 passing yards per game and seven passing TDs. Five different Yellow Jacket receivers have hauled in at least one receiving TD this season, including Eric Singleton, Jr. and Brett Seither who both have two receiving touchdowns on the season.
The Yellow Jackets rank No. 9 nationally in total offense, averaging 533 yards per game through the first two contests of the 2023 season.
Running backs Jamal Haynes and Trey Cooley have shared the workload on the ground, combining for 310 rushing yards and four TDs through the first two games of the season. In week two, Jamal ran for 113 yards with one touchdown. Most impressively, he needed just nine carries for his overwhelming stat line, with an average of 12.6 yards per carry.
My play of the game from yesterday. Really love what I’m seeing from Jamal Haynes (@Jamalhaynes16), his switch to running back has been seamless.
Really showed off his speed & vision on this play and set the team up to go into the half with some momentum after a SC State score. pic.twitter.com/F11Ouy8PtJ
— Jared Halus (@JaredHalus) September 10, 2023
On an unfortunate note for Tech, their number two wide receiver Chase Lane will be absent in Oxford this week due to injury.
Yellow Jackets Defense
Defensively for the Yellow Jackets, junior Kyle Kennard has been a force to be reckoned with. Kennard received the week two ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week award after forcing a fumble, recovering a fumble, and intercepting a pass.
Kennard was a turnover-forcing maching on Saturday for the Yellow Jackets defense, intercepting a pass, forcing a fumble, and recovering a fumble. He becomes only the second Georgia Tech player since 2000 to do that. Kennard also leads Tech with 12 tackles going into week three.
Defensively, Georgia Tech is giving up 382.5 yards per game, including 211.5 yards per game on the ground.
In last week’s bounce-back win over South Carolina State, the defensive unit showed more consistency than in week one; however, they had trouble getting off the field at times as the Bulldogs were 46 percent on third down conversions. It is worth pointing out the Yellow Jackets forced two turnovers that ended in offensive scoring drives.
Special teams
There has been a bit of a situation developing in the kicking room for Georgia Tech. Despite Tech’s starting kicker Gavin Stewart being 8-8 on extra points, he missed two field goals against Louisville and one against South Carolina State.
In the second half against South Carolina State, redshirt freshman Aidan Birr was given his turn to kick. Birr took advantage of the opportunity and completed his debut by going 2-2 on field goals, and extra points. According to the Georgia Tech depth chart, Birr will now be the one taking field goals and extra points with Stewart sticking to kickoffs.
This will be Birr’s first time kicking on the road.
Game info
Ole Miss and Georgia Tech kick off at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Vaught-Hemingway and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
Hotty Toddy! Be loud and Pack the Vaught, Rebels!
