Georgia Tech is walking into a bad matchup on Saturday, and the biggest problem is staring right at it: Louisville can beat you on the ground in a hurry.
That’s been a painful theme for the Yellow Jackets already. A few weeks ago, Boston College ripped them for 399 rushing yards and five touchdowns, with Mason McKenzie and Bo MacCormack both posting career days.
Then Pittsburgh kept the pressure on, as Damon Ferguson Jr. ran for 185 yards and two scores. Now comes Louisville, bringing the best rushing attack Georgia Tech has seen all season and a quarterback who changes the math every snap in Lincoln Kienholz.
Kienholz has been a nightmare for defenses this year. He has rushed for 313 yards and 11 touchdowns, and his impact shows up everywhere, especially in the red zone. Georgia Tech has to account for him as a runner, whether he’s pulling it down on a pass play, keeping it on a read, or taking off on a designed run.
“Dual-threat quarterbacks are a major challenge. That's what makes college football so entertaining.
It's what gives. Any team, an opportunity to win on any given Saturday in college football, that guy is a big reason.
And when you've got plus-one runs, whether it's a pull it down and scramble on a pass, whether it's a read-type play or it's a designed quarterback run, I mean, really, it's a totally different type of responsibility-driven defense that you have to have and be disciplined. You've got to be disciplined.
You can't just go and try to make plays. Everybody's got to do their job.
They've got to focus in and win their one-on-one. But do it within the scheme of what we're trying to get done on defense,” said Key.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets have dropped three straight and haven’t found enough answers to stop the bleeding.
One issue gets cleaned up, and another one pops up. Right now, the run defense is still the glaring concern.
Louisville’s ground game, paired with Kienholz’s ability to create extra stress on every snap, makes this a tough ask for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets would need to turn it into a shootout to have a real shot, but that hasn’t been a reliable path for this defense all season.
There’s also the emotional wrinkle of Keyjuan Brown returning home to Georgia, where it all started for him at the high school level. Add that to everything else Louisville is bringing, and this has the feel of a long afternoon for the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech has a brutal four-game finish ahead, and Louisville looks like a bad matchup at the worst possible time. The Cardinals should be able to put up points, and if the Yellow Jackets can’t slow the run, Saturday night could get ugly.