If the 2024 ACC season plays out like Saturday’s Week 0 season opener for Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin, American football fans are in for a thrill.
Aidan Birr fired a 44-yard field goal as time expired to give the Yellow Jackets a 24-21 victory over the No. 10 Seminoles. Brent Key begins his third season as Georgia Tech head coach with a blowout win over a top-10 team and the perceived favorite in the ACC.
Georgia Tech was in danger of being pushed out of field goal range when quarterback Haynes King botched a shotgun snap on the go-ahead drive, apparently covered up by Eric Singleton Jr., who was running to his right in motion when the ball was snapped. The mishap resulted in a loss of 10 yards, sending the Jackets back to FSU’s 38-yard line.
But King and Singleton followed up and caught a 12-yard pass with 41 seconds left, getting the ball back and setting up Birr for the winning field goal.
The Yellow Jackets took a 21-14 lead to start the fourth quarter, capping an 11-play, 89-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run by Jamal Haynes. The Seminoles answered with a long scoring drive of their own, covering 84 yards in 15 plays to tie the game.
The highlight of the drive was a fourth-down pass from DJ Uiagalelei to Malik Benson for a 19-yard gain to the Georgia Tech 1-yard line. Roydell Williams followed up by driving the ball in for the score.
Uiagalelei finished with 193 passing yards on 19-for-27 passing with no touchdowns, while Williams led the Seminoles with 38 yards rushing and a score on 12 carries. Ja’Khi Douglas caught four passes for 55 yards.
For Georgia Tech, King collected 200 yards from scrimmage, while Haynes rushed for 75 yards and two touchdowns. Rutherford added 66 yards receiving on four catches.
Saturday’s game got off to a hot start with FSU’s Lawrance Toafili quickly cutting to his right and making a 28-yard run for a touchdown. The Seminoles added a two-point conversion on a swinging gate trick play to take an 8-0 lead.
Georgia Tech struck back immediately on their opening drive, highlighted by a 42-yard catch-and-run by Malik Rutherford. Three running plays later, they put their first touchdown on the board.
The Yellow Jackets kept Florida State on its toes, taking a 14-11 lead in the second quarter by capping a 75-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run by King. But a 59-yard field goal by Ryan Fitzgerald — the second-longest in school history — tied the score at 14-14 as the clock expired.
For the Seminoles and coach Mike Norvell, the season opener loss to a team that went 7-6 last season was a major disappointment. Florida State was looking for revenge after being snubbed from the College Football Playoff last season despite a 13-0 record.
That revenge tour clearly suffered a setback with this loss, putting them behind from the start in what could be a tough ACC race with Clemson and Miami. Perhaps Georgia Tech has simply put the conference on notice that they should be considered a threat as well.
Florida State’s next game is on Labor Day against Boston College at 7:30 p.m. ET. Georgia Tech hosts Georgia State next Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
