Tech Takes Down The Orange For A Happy Homecoming
If you are a Georgia Tech football fan, it doesn't get much better than Saturday, October 25, 2025 at Bobby Dodd Stadium. On a picture-perfect autumn day, your undefeated team properly dispatched a struggling conference opponent. Throw in a sunny noontime kickoff and an energetic capacity Homecoming crowd. Now add yet another day of stellar play from your Heisman candidate/favorite quarterback and you have a reasonable rendering for Pigskin Nirvana.
Georgia Tech is 8-0. First time since 1966, back in Bobby Dodd's final season as head coach. A whole slew of accomplished players and coaches have plied their craft for the Institute since 1966, but no group has achieved 8-0 since that time. That includes the 1990 national championship team that finished 11-0-1.
So this is rarefied air. And it seems to have arrived here somewhat suddenly. The three most recent preceding seasons were 7-6, 7-6 and 5-7. Quite an about face. Two years ago, bowl eligibility with win #6 was headline news. This year, win # 6 is two winning weeks ago and all eyes are on the playoffs. So the fan base should savor these days. On a clear day, rise and look around you.
And it's not merely the wins. It's the way these Yellow Jackets win. This year's slate of games has taken on the feel of a lovable string of episodes- each a little different from the others, each enjoyable in its own way, but all ending with happy outcomes.
In this past Saturday's example, Tech stumbled out of the gate with another early turnover, this one a fumble by WR Isiah Canon, a typically reliable player whose burgeoning skill set has only recently begun greeting reality on game days.
The early turnover- usually a fumble--has become almost routine for the Jackets, akin to a awkward scene in the first moments of a weekly sitcom installment- think Dick van Dyke tripping over the ottoman– before the new plot has taken shape.
Once again, though, Tech's improving defense minimized the damage, holding the Orange to a field goal, which the home team matched only minutes later.
From there, Tech's offense began to purr, producing 17 unanswered points to take a 20-3 lead into the locker room. The two touchdowns came on catches by TE Josh Beetham, this week's exemplar of OC Buster Faulkner's growing use of his talented tight ends as true weapons.
Perhaps just to keep it interesting, the Yellow Jackets allowed another quick score to begin the second half– a 34 yard touchdown pass from Collins to Gill to cut the lead to 10.
Again Tech answered the challenge with a points flurry, first on a scoring pass from QB Haynes King to WR Dean Patterson, and then again on a short touchdown run by King, building the bulge back to 34-10 and effectively settling the issue.
For Syracuse it was another tough day in what has become a challenging season. Coach Fran Brown's team has struggled since losing QB Steve Angeli to injury a few weeks back, as his backup Ricky Collins is having to learn on the fly . The Orange offense therefore enjoys only very sporadic success, stressing a defense that is not quite up to that job. The result will likely be a losing season, quite different from 2024 when hotshot QB Kyle McCord - currently employed by the Philadelphia Eagles--led Syracuse to a 10-3 mark, including a three -point win over Georgia Tech. That loss to Syracuse a year ago featured the middling brouhaha birthed by Syracuse coach Fran Brown in which he " took personal" some fairly generic pregame remarks from Tech coach Brent Key. Key had said his Jackets would need to play with toughness at Syracuse. Brown said he felt that these words were tantamount to an assertion that his men were not tough, and thus he got his guys to bring home the win in order to resolve the insult.
One year later, the competitive balance between these two programs has flipped. The Yellow Jackets now have the upper hand , and on this perfect pigskin Saturday in the deep South, there was no hinting around about insults--Georgia Tech beat the Orange to a pulp.
Tech's offense looked easily resourceful, with QB HaynesMan King involving nine different receivers and six ball-carriers in the Tech attack. King had a clean sheet passing, connecting on 25 passes out of 31 attempts, for three scores and no interceptions.
For Georgia Tech's fans, this comfortable win (an uncommon occurrence in 2025 even at 8-0) became a moment to reflect on the glorious possibilities that lay ahead. Will perfection persist? Will the football world wake up to the magnificence that is Haynes King, he who produced five more touchdowns on this day?
And what of that date with the school from Athens, barely a month away?
8-0 keeps Brent Key wary. But it makes the fan base giddy. And why not? For three plus years, Tech's football program was steadily sinking, even amidst public pleas from the then -AD that things were getting better. When Key became the head man, and when President Cabrera publicly averred that excellence was not just the goal, but the expectation, the tone of the football program changed– for the better.
Quickly , it now seems, Georgia Tech football is in a heady place. Challenges remain, but here at October's end, it sure feels good to sit and ponder a possible spot in the college football playoff lineup.
Enjoy , Yellow Jacket fans. Your Jackets are 8-0. Stay tuned for next week's episode.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports