3 Thoughts From Georgia Tech-South Carolina State

It’s easy to take away too much from an FCS game, but here I go anyway.

1. Special Teams Worries

Special teams were a constant issue in the Geoff Collins era. I thought it would be an area of easy improvement, but that was not the case in the Louisville game. There were some questionable kickoff returns and Gavin Stewart went 0/2 on field goals (albeit one was from 54 yards).

Things were better against South Carolina State. Georgia Tech kickoffs were deep into the endzone giving no chance of return. On both kickoff and punt returns the returners made good choices and got some solid results including almost breaking a few punt returns. Gavin Stewart missed the first field goal of the game (from 47 yards), but Aidan Birr came in and made the next two (from 30 and 42). He might have taken over the starting job with that performance. David Shanahan was good against Louisville and he didn’t get any chances against South Carolina State so we’ll continue to keep an eye on him.

2. Discipline

Georgia Tech has so far been one of the better teams in the country. Through two games the team has only accrued 5 penalties through the first two games. The Yellow Jackets averaged 6 penalties per game last year. Now 4 of those 5 have been 15 yarders, but still. Good to see them playing within themselves and mostly avoiding dumb losses.

3. The Haynes and Haynes Show

This game on offense was all about quarterback Haynes King and running back Jamal Haynes. King had a fantastic day throwing the ball. 21/29 for 290 (I think you can calculate the yards per attempt) and 4 TDs. I liked his accuracy and he had good decision making. I was very happy with his performance.

Georgia Tech had no problem running this week. They had 8.1 yards per carry as a team and every running back had serious success. But Jamal Haynes was the star with 113 yards on just 9 carries. The three main running backs has been a strong point for this team so far this year.

Next up is a really tough game at Ole Miss. The Rebels are definitely going to put up some points on this defense so the Georgia Tech is going to need to step it up if they want to win this game. Haynes needs to make good throws like he did this week and they’ll need to get some movement on the ground to help him out.