College football’s pressure points are a little different than the NFL’s, but Georgia Tech still has a few players walking into fall camp with a lot on their shoulders.
The Yellow Jackets are coming off a 9-4 season and entering a new phase after an offseason filled with changes to the coaching staff and roster. As the 2025 push begins, the expectations around a few key players are easy to spot.
At quarterback, the spotlight never really turns off. For Alberto Mendoza, it gets brighter because he’s stepping in after one of the most productive quarterbacks in school history.
The standard isn’t just “be good.” It’s to keep the drop-off from King as small as possible, especially if the defense doesn’t take a step forward.
King wasn’t flawless, but his mobility kept defenses honest and his decision-making got much better over his three seasons as the starter. Mendoza has not started a game for Georgia Tech yet, but the pressure on him is clear: he needs to help keep the Yellow Jackets in the mix for an ACC Championship spot.
Then there’s Haynes, whose arrival brought plenty of buzz and even bigger expectations for 2026. In seven games last season, he piled up 857 yards on 121 yards, averaged more than seven yards per carry and scored 10 touchdowns. Four of those seven games featured at least 125 rushing yards, and he ranked among the highest-rated running backs on Pro Football Focus.
He was the biggest name Georgia Tech added this offseason, and he’s being viewed as one of the best backs in the country. With uncertainty elsewhere on the roster, the Jackets may need Haynes to be more than just productive. Their success could hinge on whether he’s great.
The third name is Fuhrmann, a productive receiver for Elon at the FCS level who now has a much bigger role waiting for him. Georgia Tech is losing a lot of talent and production at wide receiver, and the portal only brought in two receivers, which puts even more weight on Fuhrmann’s shoulders.
He’s being counted on to be a dependable target for Mendoza this season, but the jump to the power four level is no small thing. The question now is whether he can adjust quickly enough to make an impact right away.
In Other News...
Two Georgia Tech Departures Still Sting For The 2026 Roster
Georgia Techs 2026 roster is already taking shape with a lot of new faces, and not all of them are arriving through the front door. The Yellow Jackets have had to absorb significant turnover across the lineup, with new starters needed at multiple spots and several players already gone through the transfer portal. Under new defensive coordinator Jason Semore, the staff is leaning on incoming freshmen and returning players to steady things while the depth chart gets rebuilt.
Two departures still loom especially large because of what they would have meant to the teams ceiling. One would have been the top wide receiver on the 2026 roster, which leaves that room looking especially young and untested. The other was viewed as perhaps the most talented linebacker on the team and a player who seemed poised for a major season, making his exit another reminder that Georgia Techs next step forward may depend as much on replacing lost talent as developing the talent that remains. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Tech Linebackers Face A Defining Camp After Late-Season Collapse
Georgia Techs linebacker room is entering camp with a different kind of pressure on it this year, and Jason Semores arrival as defensive coordinator only sharpens the spotlight. Semore comes in with a reputation for coaching the position and bringing an aggressive style, while the Jackets also have a relatively stable group to work with after a season in which Efford and Lightsey handled a heavy load and helped anchor the middle of the defense.
The challenge now is turning that continuity into a cleaner finish than the one Georgia Tech got last fall. The room is short on turnover, with two freshmen added and only one linebacker leaving through the portal, so the Jackets should have enough familiar pieces to build around. What happens next in camp will go a long way toward showing whether this group can become a strength again, or whether the late-season issues that lingered from 2025 are still waiting to surface. [Read more 🡒]