Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Georgia Southern Eagles preview
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have managed to stay out of the loss column in both of the first two weeks of the season after knocking down Wofford at home and then traveling to Tulane a week later and coming away with a win. This Saturday, the Jackets are back at home and will be welcoming coach Paul Johnson’s former school, Georgia Southern.
Opponent: Georgia Southern Eagles
Time/TV: 12:00 pm ET, RSN, ESPN3
Georgia Tech Offense vs. Georgia Southern Defense
The Jackets match up well against Georgia Southern’s defense this time around, as Justin Thomas will be one of the more dynamic players the Eagles will see all season, and the team really outmatches them from a talent standpoint.
N.C. State and Savannah State are both teams with worse offensive units than Georgia Tech, and with the way this team has shown they can run the triple-option, it should easily be the biggest challenge of the year for Georgia Southern.
Georgia Tech Defense vs. Georgia Southern Offense
The Jackets have an interesting task on defense this time around against the Eagles, as new head coach Willie Fritz has been brought in and is implementing a pistol-based option offense. The formation has worked quite well so far this season for Georgia Southern as they managed to come up one point shy of N.C. State in the season opener (a 24-23 loss) before completely anihalating Savannah State a week later.
In that game the Eagles scored 83 points after rushing for 564 yards. Those numbers are ridiculous, and while Savannah State is hardly the toughest competition, it should still be cause for worry for a defense that allowed 19 points to Wofford and 21 to Tulane.
Still, the Jacket defense should be accustomed to going up against an option offense at this point–they play their own team daily and also had to deal with the option offense that Wofford roles out. This could be the most talented offensive unit that the Jackets have come up against so far this season though, so the unit is going to need to be on its A game.
—–
While at first it seems like Georgia Southern could actually prove a real challenge after moving into the Sun-Belt Conference, this should still be an “easy win” for the Yellow Jackets. The Golden Eagles’ statistics are definitely inflated after their 83-9 rout of Savannah State and while the Jackets still haven’t shown us a polished game for four full quarters, they have shown us that they can take care of inferior teams.
Tech should have no problems with this one, but the defense might have to work a bit more than they have in the first two matchups.
Stay tuned for post-game coverage, and a live game thread that will open on Saturday morning. Check it out!