Fresh off a field storming and one of the program’s biggest wins in recent memory, No. 18 Georgia Tech will look to avoid a letdown Saturday against visiting Temple in Atlanta.
Georgia Tech (3-0) soared into the Associated Press Top 25 after its dramatic 24-21 victory over then-No. 12 Clemson. A week after Aidan Birr’s 55-yard field goal as time expired sent Yellow Jackets fans into a frenzy that resulted in a $50,000 fine for the program, the team’s next challenge awaits against the Owls.
“We’ve got to continue to stay the course, continue to improve every day,” Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key said. “We’re happy that we got a win last week, but at the same time, we have a long way to go.”
After a brief appearance as a ranked team last year, the Yellow Jackets are as highly ranked as they have been since 2015, when they peaked at No. 14. Squarely in the hunt in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship race and a potential dark horse for the College Football Playoff, Key’s team knows it can’t take its foot off the pedal, even as heavy favorites Saturday.
“Coach Saban used to tell us, more people die on the way down from Mount Everest than on the way up,” said Key, who served as Nick Saban’s offensive line coach at Alabama from 2016-18. “You can’t relax. You have to be just as prepared every single week. Our goals before the season were not just to win Game 3 or 4. Our goals are a lot bigger than that. Our expectations internally are a lot bigger than that.”
Temple (2-1) followed easy wins over UMass and Howard with a 42-3 home setback against then-No. 13 Oklahoma last week. The road won’t get any easier for first-year Owls head coach K.C. Keeler, whose team will see consecutive AP ranked opponents for the first time since October 2019, when Temple faced off against No. 23 Memphis and No. 19 SMU. The Owls’ 30-28 victory over Memphis marks the program’s last ranked win.
“We’ve got another big test against Georgia Tech coming up,” Keeler said. “It’s another top 20 opponent we have a chance to play. This time, we’re going on the road. The focus is really more about us. For us to be in that game at all last week, we needed to play a lot cleaner, and we didn’t. Let’s get that cleaned up.”
Through three games, second-year starting quarterback Evan Simon has thrown for nine touchdowns and no interceptions but was held to just 75 passing yards in the loss to Oklahoma.
Totaling just 105 yards last week, Temple’s offense will have to take a giant step forward to hang with the stout Yellow Jackets front.
“Defensively, they obviously did a great job against Clemson,” Keeler said of Georgia Tech. “You evaluate where we went wrong last week, but you’ve got to let that one go and move on to Georgia Tech.”
In the schools’ only meeting, Temple won 24-2 in 2019 in a game that featured former Temple and then-Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins.
