Josh Heupel isn’t expecting Georgia Tech to roll over on Saturday night.
With Tennessee set to visit Atlanta in Week 2, the Volunteers coach made it clear he’s preparing for a physical fight against a Yellow Jackets team that opened the season with a loss to Colorado. Tennessee handled Furman in its opener, and first-year quarterback Faizon Brandon looked sharp, but Heupel said the challenge ahead is a serious one.
“A ton of respect for Georgia Tech, what they’ve done down there, the program that they’ve built. It’ll be a great environment, physical football game, and we need to get prepared to go play our best”
That message fits the way Heupel sees Brent Key’s team. Even after Thursday night’s disappointing showing, Georgia Tech still has the traits Tennessee expects from a Key-coached group: toughness, downhill running, and enough experience up front to make things messy.
“They are a physical football team. They’ve had some turnover on their offensive line, but they still have a ton of experience - I think over 90 starts - on the offensive line.
Their running back room’s as deep as anybody in the country. They’re physical.
They run downhill. They’ve got great pad level.
“It’ll be a physical football game on Saturday night, and we have to win with physicality.
“Dynamic player. He is extremely physical.
Runs at great pad level, but he’s got really good vision. We’ve seen him before as a program (when he played at Alabama).
He’s a special talent.”
One of the players who stood out for Georgia Tech despite the loss was Alberto Mendoza. He finished 17-for-23 for 237 yards and was the highest-graded Yellow Jackets player on the field, according to PFF. Heupel praised the way Mendoza handled the moment.
“I thought he played extremely smart the other night. You can see him be able to progress through his reads, one through five, get all the way to the back side of the concept and do it extremely quickly.
Was accurate with the football. Athletic enough to extend, make plays as a passer and has the feet to go gain yards afterwards, too.
I thought he played extremely well the other night.”
Key offered a similar read after the game, though he said he wanted another look at the tape before going deeper.
"Yeah, you know, I thought that - I thought he did - and look, next time I get with you guys, after I watch the tape, I'll be able to give you a little better evaluation of it. But I thought he did a really nice job of getting us in and out of the right play, of coming to the line, having presence. you know, sitting in there when you need to sit in there, you know, rolling out when you need to roll out."
Georgia Tech’s identity under Key has usually leaned on grit and physicality, but Thursday night looked different. The Jackets now head into a matchup where they’ll be underdogs again, and the response matters.
Tennessee has the confidence edge right now, but Key’s teams have shown they can answer after a surprising setback. How Georgia Tech handles this one could say plenty about the direction of its season.
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Kirby Smart talked after the game about depth, but he also had to address a sloppier side of the performance, with penalties and a special teams mistake leaving room for correction even on a day that otherwise belonged to Georgia. For the Yellow Jackets, the takeaway is less about Tennessee State and more about the fact that the Bulldogs already look dangerous in the area that usually travels best as the season gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]