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Atlanta – The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets showed no mercy, as they defeated Virginia Military Institute Keydets 59-7 in their second home game at Bobby Dodd stadium this season. The game was never in doubt and it seemed like a foregone conclusion they’d be victorious by halftime.
Overview
VMI was simply out matched in this one. They didn’t record a first down until a bit under 10:00 minutes left in the second quarter. The Yellow Jackets defense feasted on an overwhelmed offensive line all day.
Positives
Offensively, Georgia Tech was razor sharp, recording 30 plays that led to first downs and eight overall touchdowns. The game was so lopsided early that they were able to play second and third-string players in the second half.
Both Yellow Jacket quarterbacks had a field day against the Keydets. Haynes King went 17-22 for 275 passing yards and three touchdowns passes. Second-string signal caller, Zach Pyron had a pair of one-yard touchdown runs in the first half and then took over behind center in the second half. He went 3-5 for 58 passing yards, while adding another touchdown through the air.
Wide receiver Eric Singleton Jr. recorded his first 100-yard receiving game of the season as well as his first receiving touchdown. Malik Rutherford finished the game with four catches for 50 yards and a touchdown with 47 of those yards coming after the catch.
The offense was spread around with so many players seeing action. Four different Yellow Jackets players caught a touchdown pass and three different players scored on the ground.
The defense held the Keydets in check, limiting them to 104 total yards on the day. VMI quarterback Chandler Wilson had a particularly bad outing, finishing the game with 50 passing yards and zero touchdowns. The running game wasn’t able to provide any assistance averaging 0.4 yards per rushing attempt. None of their players had more than 16 yards on the ground.
Negatives
If there could be any negatives in such a demolition, it was a small lack of concentration by the Georgia Tech wide receivers. There were a good amount of dropped passes, starting with a few on their opening drive. You could clearly see that the wide receivers were thinking about turning upfield before securing the ball, and there was even a couple that looked secured and then dropped after a first move.
Tech Notes
This 52-point win was their biggest margin of victory since they defeated South Carolina State by 35 points (48-13) last season.
The last time the Yellow Jackets scored 50 or more points was a 56-33 win over Duke in the 2020 season.
Georgia Tech will travel to Lexington, Kentucky next week to take on the 19th ranked Louisville Cardinals. It will be the second ranked opponent they will face this season.
