Mendoza Meets The Moment For Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech's new QB Alberto Mendoza had an unsatisfying first game to launch his time at the helm for the Yellow Jackets. The sophomore was part of a losing effort, with Tech falling 14-13 to Colorado.
"I'm a winner", declared Mendoza in a subdued post-game press conference. "I've been a winner my whole life ", he went on. And the he further explained by saying that since winning is his primary goal, personal stats become relatively unimportant .
Obviously, in 2025, losing a game was a foreign experience for Tech's affable young signal- caller. Indeed, Mendoza has experienced more losses this season than all of last year, when he was in a back- up role with 15-0 Indiana.
There is a silver lining though. His overall play represented one of several bright spots in Thursday's season opening loss to the Buffaloes. And it's easy to forget that Mendoza's play in 2025 was mostly in mop-up time, when games were largely decided. In fact, his numbers on Thursday came close to his total stats for all of last year at Indiana, when he went 18 of 24 for 286 yards, with five scores and one pick for the entire season.
On Thursday in his first game as starting QB for Georgia Tech, Mendoza completed 17 of 24 passes, for 237 yards, with no interceptions. There were no touchdown passes, as Tech's sole six- pointer came on a 100 yard kickoff return by Rahkeem Smith. Mendoza was sacked three times for a total of 22 yards lost, contributing to a paltry 51 yard rushing total for Tech on 30 carries, a 1.7 yards per carry average.
Throughout, Mendoza showed good mobility and pocket awareness. Perhaps most impressive was the manner in which he guided his team down the field in the waning moments of the game, covering 48 yards in roughly 20 seconds of game clock to set up a potential winning field goal. Unfortunately for Tech, Aidan Birr's 45 yard effort was blocked , sealing a one- point loss .
From a broad perspective, the young QB performed well. We don't know details about whether he may have made an incorrect read on an option call here , or if he missed an open receiver on a given pass play there.
However, we do know that his team averaged 9.9 yards per passing attempt . That's an elite number, normally pointing toward a highly productive offense– which is all the more remarkable, given that all agreed pregame that Mendoza's work would be enhanced by a steady and relentless ground game.
For whatever reasons, Tech performed poorly in running the football against Colorado. By comparison, the only game in 2025 in which they were held under 100 yards rushing was against Georgia, where 23 attempts yielded only 69 yards. On Thursday, Colorado's defense looked to be stacking the box, and the Yellow Jackets had very little success running inside.
Also noted on this night vs Colorado, Jordan Allen was by far Tech's most productive receiver, grabbing eight catches for 113 yards 43 of those yards came after the catch. That sounds like a good basis for a successful partnership between Mendoza and Allen, but Tech needs more balanced production from its wide receiver group going forward. The next most productive on Thursday was Kevin Roche with four catches.
Spreading the ball around more , and making better use of backs coming out of the backfield will help Tech's offense generate more punch in 2026. In a contest in which the rushing element is being stymied, a fruitful short passing game can function in a similar fashion, to spread the defense.
In the meantime, with an admittedly small sample size against an opponent who is largely an unknown in 2026, Alberto Mendoza holds strong promises as a young player who can successfully drive the offense for Brent Key and the Yellow Jackets.
Next week will be another challenge for the Yellow Jackets as they host Tennessee, who walloped Furman 56-9 in their opener on Saturday .
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports.com