This is not last year’s Georgia Tech. It is also not going to be the same team Colorado just beat.
Haynes King is gone. The guy who could run for 150 and keep a drive alive by himself is playing on Sundays now. In his place you get Alberto Mendoza, an Indiana transfer who just made his first real start, and a backfield that was supposed to bully people.Colorado came into Bobby Dodd and that plan got stuck in the mud.
Everybody wants to talk about Justice Haynes. Michigan transfer. People have been calling him a savage since he hit campus. Then he got 64 yards on 19 carries. That is 3.4 a pop. Malachi Hosley was worse. Five carries, 11 yards. Tech’s identity is still those two and a clock that never stops. For one night the identity did not show up.
Mendoza was the surprise. Seventeen of 23 for 237. No picks. He can buy time. He can use his legs when the pocket dies. He hit Dalen Penson for 42 yards with the game on the line and Aidan Birr had a chance to win it. Former Vol Boo Carter came off the edge and blocked it. That is how you go 0-1 at home without an offensive touchdown.
The slop buried them as much as the block. Mendoza and Jordan Allen botched a jet sweep handoff and Carter recovered that one too at the Tech 31. Later they got pinned at their own 1, punted it almost nowhere, and Colorado took over at the 35 and scored. Tae Harris had a scoop and score taken off the board on a blown dead ball. You do not get those back.
The defense was the group that almost saved the night and still got called out. Kyle Efford had 13 tackles and stuffed Colorado on fourth and goal at the 1. Taje McCoy had 11 in his first game as a Jacket. Savion Riley had 10. Tawfiq Thomas had the sack. Those are the names. The problem is the rest of the tape. Colorado ran for 183. Tech’s stuff rate on the run was zero. Key said his defensive line got knocked off the ball, busted gaps, and was not even in its stance waiting on the call. He called the whole team poorly prepared, poorly coached, and soft. Soft is his word.
That is why the Colorado version is not the one Tennessee should expect. They have had a full week to sit in that film. Key’s teams answer a soft tape by trying to punch somebody in the mouth. He is not waking up as an Air Raid coach. He is going to hand it to Haynes and ask that front to play like the group he thought he had in August.
The passing game has one proven piece. Jordan Allen just had 8 for 113. Penson made the play that almost won it. After that the room is thin. The line that protected King a year ago gave up three sacks and never got the run started.
So here is the full picture walking into Saturday. A physical coach who just dressed his own team down in public. A first year quarterback who can move and throw it when he has time. Two backs who are supposed to be the whole show. A linebacker in Efford who can still wreck a drive. A home crowd that watched the winning kick get blocked at the buzzer.
That is the other sideline. Not last year’s Jackets. Not the sloppy group from last Thursday either. A Key team that just got embarrassed and has spent the week being told they were soft.
Those teams usually come out looking for a fight.