Brayden Manley isn’t easing into Georgia Tech’s 2026 opener against Colorado.
The Yellow Jackets defensive end, entering his second season in Atlanta, made it clear he expects to be in the middle of the action when the Buffaloes come to town on Thursday, Sept. 3 at 6 p.m. MT on ESPN.
Manley, who is 6-2 and 250 pounds, already has a game against Colorado on his résumé after playing in last year’s meeting in Boulder. He finished that one with a pass defended, and he’s aiming for a much louder impact this time around.
“First game, Colorado. They got Julian Lewis at quarterback as a kid,” Manley said.
“We walking in there. I could go get the 13 (sacks).
Really though, I’m going for two. And one of them I got to get the ball out.”
Manley was joking about the 13-sack line, but the rest of the message was pretty direct: he wants two sacks on Lewis and wants one of them to end with a forced fumble.
Lewis, a redshirt freshman, appeared in four games as a true freshman in 2025. He threw for 589 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Manley’s own 2025 season gave Georgia Tech a solid rotational piece on the edge. He played in 12 games and posted 18 total tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, one pass defended and one forced fumble.
The matchup brings plenty of change on both sides from last year’s opener. Colorado started Kaidon Salter in that 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech in Boulder, and Salter put up 159 passing yards with one touchdown and no interceptions while also adding 43 rushing yards and a rushing score. He’s now gone, leaving Lewis as the likely starter.
Georgia Tech has a new quarterback situation too after Haynes King moved on to the NFL. King threw for 143 yards and ran for 156 yards and three touchdowns against Colorado last season. The projected starter for the Yellow Jackets is Indiana transfer Alberto Mendoza, the younger brother of 2025 Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Colorado enters the game as a 7.5-point road underdog at DraftKings Sportsbook. The Buffaloes are listed at +220 to win outright, while Georgia Tech is -270. The over/under is 51.5 points.
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Lewis enters this year after playing four games last season and now has the added challenge of following Shedeur Sanders while learning Brennan Marions offense. Colorado believes his accuracy, pocket awareness and football IQ can travel, and the arrival of new targets such as Danny Scudero and DeAndre Moore should help, but the bigger question is how quickly he can turn traits into production against a tougher standard. [Read more 🡒]
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The upside is obvious, but so is the risk. New schemes tend to reveal as much as they unlock, especially when so many of the key pieces are still learning one another and the staff is still sorting out who can be trusted in the biggest moments. Colorado added help up front and more bodies on defense too, which should give the Buffs a better chance to stabilize the operation, but the real question is whether the offense can turn all that promise into production before the season starts asking harder questions. [Read more 🡒]