By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lost to #18 Tennessee at home, 45-24. They lost their first game to Colorado, so they are now 0-2.

Tech is one of only three Power Four conference teams to open this season with consecutive games against power-conference opponents.

The Vols are led by true freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon. I thought the Yellow Jackets had a chance to win the game because they were facing a young QB making his first start on the road. Brandon went 10 of 21 for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns.

RB DeSean Bishop rushed for 147 yards and 2 scores.

Tennessee also had 14 penalties for 142 yards.

Georgia Tech blocked a punt and scored a touchdown after Elgin Session returned it. It was their first blocked punt return for a score in 22 years. They led 10-7 after the first quarter. After that, UT scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter.

The offense finally scored their first touchdown of the season in the third quarter on a 2-yard touchdown reception by RB Justice Haynes. The Michigan transfer had 117 total yards and two touchdowns. The offense needs to make him the focal point.

QB Alberto Mendoza, the transfer from Indiana and younger brother of #1 pick, Fernando Mendoza has struggled. He completed 26 of 40 passes for 221 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions. One of those was a pick-six.

“Yeah, they played, they went to more of a, not the entire time, but a good portion of the time, played a three down front to be able to change up their gaps in the front, but also to bring the edge pressure” head coach Brent Key said. “And that’s what was happening a couple of times, some of the balls that were batted down even as well. And then when you’re doing that and they’re showing and they played a floater-type guy in the middle that’s a down lineman that’s playing in a linebacker-type stance, and they’re dropping different guys into coverage.”

Key also spoke about the team’s identity after the game.

“Yeah, you know, you don’t really expect anything. You don’t live in that type of world. You know, I guess you say you do it. There’s what you want. There’s the standard that you have, right, and that you play to. I will say this, last week was nothing close to a standard, an identity, whatever fancy word, you know, culture, whatever word you want to put up on social media. It was not even close to it. It didn’t even resemble anything. I thought a lot of times tonight it was a lot closer to what we want to be.”

This might be a tough season. I thought they would win the first game before the season started. I believe it will be tough for them to get six wins and become bowl eligible.

The next game is at home against Mercer, an FCS team. The Bears are ranked #22 but they are coming off of a loss to Furman. This should be an easy win for the Jackets.

The remaining schedule is @ Stanford, Duke, @ Virginia Tech, Boston College, @ Pitt, # 23 Louisville, @ Clemson, Wake Forest and @ #2 Georgia. Where will the other five wins come from?

They should be favored against Stanford, Duke and Wake Forest. I think they’re evenly matched against BC and Clemson. It’s possible they might pull an upset and beat a team they aren’t supposed to. The opposite of that is also possible.