Georgia Tech heads into Saturday’s matchup with Louisville carrying plenty of baggage. The Yellow Jackets have dropped three straight, and they’ll be trying to turn things around at Bobby Dodd Stadium as big underdogs against Jeff Brohm’s Cardinals.
Before kickoff, I checked in with WHAS 11’s Matt McGavic, who covers Louisville, to get a read on where the Cardinals stand and what Georgia Tech is dealing with on its side.
McGavic said Louisville’s recent adjustments have started to show some promise. After opening 2-3, Jeff Brohm made a pair of major moves, most notably handing off play-calling duties for the first time in his head coaching career to offensive coordinator Brian Brohm, his younger brother.
That shift was part of a broader effort to give Jeff Brohm a more direct role in fixing the defense. He also simplified the defensive communication setup, moving co-defensive coordinator and defensive play caller Mark Ivey into the booth while assistants Dave Elson and Mike Cassity help him there.
McGavic noted that the schedule has helped some, but Louisville does appear to be moving toward a more complete team.
Even so, the defense still has obvious cracks. McGavic pointed to Louisville’s vulnerability to explosive plays, especially in the passing game.
The Cardinals rank 121st in 40-plus-yard plays allowed with 12 and 136th in 60-plus-yard plays allowed with six. Syracuse hit them for 145 yards on just three plays, and Stanford got 156 yards on three chunk plays.
Outside of those breakdowns, though, Louisville has been more steady. Against Syracuse, the Orange managed just 3.96 yards per play on the other 80 snaps, and Stanford was held to 2.95 yards per play on its other 66 plays.
The secondary remains the weak spot because of miscommunication, but the front seven is starting to generate more push.
Quarterback play has also become a strength. McGavic said Kienholz has grown into a more consistent player over the last month after early-season slow starts that often didn’t give Louisville much until the second quarter or later.
Now, he called him a top-five quarterback in the ACC. Kienholz brings real value as a runner, especially on designed QB runs like power, and McGavic said he may be one of the best quarterbacks in the country when throwing on the move.
His accuracy has improved after some uneven stretches early, his decision-making has been mostly strong, and he has “an absolute cannon of an arm.” If Louisville were still ranked, McGavic said he wouldn’t be surprised if Kienholz was drawing more national attention.
There are still two areas that could trip the Cardinals up. One is the offensive line, which has been shuffled repeatedly because of injuries to players such as Anwar O’neal, Cason Henry, and Cam Gorin.
McGavic said the unit has been average at best even before the injuries piled up. The other issue is receiver depth.
Tre Richardson is a clear No. 1 option, and tight end Jaleel Skinner is having a breakout season, but Lawayne McCoy is set to miss a few weeks with an injury. TreyShun Hurry, Brody Foley, T.J.
McWilliams, and Jackson Voth all have ability, McGavic said, but none has become a reliable weekly threat yet.
Discipline has been another problem. Louisville is averaging 7.25 penalties and 72.00 penalty yards per game, which ranks 97th and 122nd nationally.
McGavic said a lot of those flags have been costly 15-yard penalties after the whistle, including unsportsmanlike conduct. If the Cardinals can clean that up, he likes their chances.
On Georgia Tech, McGavic’s read was bleak. He said the vibes around the program “could not be lower,” pointing to Brent Key’s coordinator hires, the O-line coach hire, and a poor transfer portal class. He said the offensive line, which is usually supposed to be a strength under Key, has been a disaster, and Georgia Tech is missing Buster Faulkner and Haynes King badly.
He was especially blunt about the coaching changes, saying George Godsey has been “a disaster of a hire” and that the offense has lost the creativity it once had. In his view, the run game has fallen off sharply, and he said there probably has not been a bigger coordinator downgrade in the country at this point.
At quarterback, Mendoza has gone from steady to shaky. McGavic said Mendoza was fine early in the season, managing the offense, hitting open throws, and showing accuracy.
Lately, though, it has turned messy. He has been loose with the ball, fumbling four times against Pittsburgh and losing two of them while completing only 16 passes for 81 yards.
He was benched in that game, and McGavic said his confidence appears to be slipping, with a possible change this week not out of the question.
McGavic also pushed back on the idea that Georgia Tech’s pass defense numbers tell the whole story. In his view, teams have leaned on the run so heavily against the Yellow Jackets that they haven’t needed to throw much. He pointed instead to the Stanford and Virginia Tech games as evidence that the secondary is not as strong as it looks on paper.
As for how Georgia Tech can pull off an upset, McGavic said it would likely take Louisville coming out flat. He pointed to several recent examples of the Cardinals not showing up against lesser opponents, including the Pitt loss in 2023, the loss to Stanford in 2024, and the NC State loss earlier this season.
In Other News...
Georgia Tech Has A New Problem Up Front Before Louisville
Georgia Techs first injury availability report of the week arrived with the kind of up-front concern teams hate to see this late in the season. Ahead of the Louisville matchup, the Yellow Jackets listed several players sidelined, adding another layer of uncertainty to an offensive line that has already had to absorb some shuffling as the calendar turns toward November.
The timing matters because the front has been a key part of Georgia Techs identity, and now the Jackets have to manage it with less depth than theyd like. Brent Key also noted that Josh Petty is being handled carefully after making his first career start, which leaves Georgia Tech balancing development and protection at a spot where every rep counts. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Tech Faces One Huge Question Before Louisville Showdown
Georgia Tech heads into its matchup with Louisville carrying one of the more important questions on its week-to-week checklist: whether Brent Key will make a change at quarterback before the Yellow Jackets take the field. Key said the decision will come after practice, leaving the offense in a holding pattern as it prepares for a game that could shape the tone of the stretch ahead. Louisville brings a strong rushing attack, but the Cardinals have also had their issues on defense this season, which gives Georgia Tech at least a path to keep things interesting.
The timing matters because Georgia Tech has its own concerns on that side of the ball, especially against the run, and that is exactly where Louisville can lean on teams. Even with the Cardinals favored, this is the kind of matchup where a small offensive spark could matter a lot for the Yellow Jackets. A quarterback switch would be the clearest sign yet that Georgia Tech is looking for a different kind of answer as it tries to pull off an upset. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Tech Faces A Bigger Problem Than Louisville This Week
Georgia Tech heads into Week 11 knowing the matchup with Louisville is only part of the challenge. The Yellow Jackets are trying to steady themselves after a season shaped by roster changes, injuries and a series of leadership transitions that have made consistency hard to find, and Brent Key has been candid about how much those factors have affected the teams performance.
Louisville brings a rushing attack that can put pressure on a defense already looking for answers, which makes the task in front of Georgia Tech even steeper. For the Jackets to have a real shot, they need a cleaner defensive effort and a more complete showing than they have been able to put together so far, because the margin for error in this one is thin. [Read more 🡒]