By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

A few weeks ago, I did a season preview for Georgia Tech. I said I expect them to lose the season opener against Florida State and struggle to win 6 games and become bowl eligible.

By now, you have to be aware of their upset win in Week 0, beating #10 FSU 24-21.

“It’s definitely a special moment, definitely want to enjoy this one tonight, but like the guys said, it means nothing if we can’t go out next week and handle business,” Tech running back Jamal Haynes said. “We gotta get back (Sunday) got to practice, clean up the details, clean up anything that we made mistakes on and get to work.”

Tech was more physical than the Seminoles. They had a physical run game, which accounted for 190 yards of the 336 yards of total offense. They scored on four of seven drives and were 5-of-9 passing on third downs.

They ranked 120^th last season in total defense out of 130 FBS teams. They looked much better in that game and if they can sustain this, they can have a special season.

They have a new defensive coordinator this season, Tyler Santucci. He was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Duke last season. Before that he was the co-DC and LB coach at Texas A&M.

“We talk about putting the extra emphasis on response, how to respond to adversity,” linebacker Kyle Efford said. “We knew after that first drive we had to respond. We can respond negatively or positively. We got on the sidelines and was talking about it, ‘Hey we gotta step up. It’s gonna be on us.’ It was really just that response.”

This win has led to a recruiting win. Two days after the game, four-star defensive lineman Christian Garrett committed to Georgia Tech. The 6’4, 280-pound senior at Prince Avenue Christian was previously committed to Georgia since June and then he backed off that pledge earlier this month.

He is a top 20 defensive lineman in the nation. Garrett had offers from programs like Tech, UGA, Clemson, Florida, Auburn, Miami, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

This is a bit different from when Paul Johnson was the head coach. The players he recruited would have offers from teams like Austin Peay and Gardner-Webb.

I have reexamined their schedule and I think they can get off to a fast start. The next game is home against Georgia State. That should be a blowout win.

The next five games are at Syracuse, VMI, at Louisville, Duke and at North Carolina. The Yellow Jackets should be favored in all of those games. I believe they have a real shot to start the season 7-0. The schedule will get drastically tougher after that.

They will face off against #7 Notre Dame October 19 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Initially, I did not think Tech had a chance in this game but I think they have a chance to win.

Establishing the run game and playing physical gives them a puncher’s chance in every game.

The final games are at Virginia Tech, #19 Miami, #22 NC State and at #1 UGA. My new assessment of GT is they can win nine games as a best-case scenario. Realistically, I think they go 8-4 and that is a very good season.