Georgia Tech football finished the 2022 season with a 5-7 record, firing their head coach mid-season. Their wins came against Western Carolina, Pittsburgh, Duke, Virginia Tech and North Carolina. Aside from Western Carolina, all four wins occurred by five points or less. They got blown out in all of their losses with the exception of Virginia.
DraftKings Sportsbook puts the Georgia Tech win total at 4.5 with the under juiced to -140. Georgia Tech also sits at +20000 to win the ACC, which is ahead of only Virginia. With that said, let’s dive into our 2023 Georgia Tech football season preview.
2023 Georgia Tech Football Predictions & Season Preview
2023 Georgia Tech Football Season Preview: Coaching Staff
After firing Geoff Collins mid-season, Georgia Tech promoted their interim coach Brent Key to head coaching responsibilities. He coordinated the run game from 2019 to 2022 and the players like him. At offensive coordinator, he hired Buster Faulkner, who most recently worked as an analyst for Georgia. Faulkner has offensive coordinator experience going back to Southern Miss in 2019. At defensive coordinator, Georgia Tech retained Andrew Thacker, who has been with the program since 2019. Keeping so much of the previous staff is the ultimate and final shot fired in Collins’ direction.
2023 Georgia Tech Football Season Preview: Offense
Quarterback
At quarterback, Georgia Tech lost Jeff Sims to the transfer portal, but they added Texas A&M transfer Haynes King themselves. King has started portions of multiple seasons at this point in his career. He has completed 128 of 226 attempts (56.6%) for 1,579 yards (7.0 yards per attempt), seven touchdowns and six interceptions. King does have decent mobility with 150 rushing yards on 41 career rush attempts (3.7 yards per carry). Those numbers include nine sacks in his career. Last year, King finished as the 15th-graded quarterback in the SEC, per Pro Football Focus. It should be noted that Texas A&M did him little favors and King originally ed the program as a high 4-star recruit. Perhaps he can be rehabilitated, but that the chance that Georgia Tech is the program to do it remains low. Behind King, Georgia Tech retains Zach Gibson, who will battle Zach Pyron for a spot. Gibson completed 57 of his 104 es (54.8%) last year for 589 yards (5.7 yards per attempt), one touchdown and two interceptions. He is not mobile whatsoever with -14 rushing yards last year. Pyron completed 49 of 82 es (59.8%) for 565 yards (6.9 yards per attempt), three touchdowns and three interceptions. He also rushed 35 times for 127 yards, which gives the offense more options than Gibson. The depth of this quarterback room is actually decent, but the high-end talent remains questionable.
Running Back
A year after losing Jahmyr Gibbs, Georgia Tech now loses two of their top three rushers in Hassan Hall and Jeff Sims. Fortunately, they return their second-leading rusher Dontae Smith. Last year, Smith rushed 87 times for 420 yards, while catching 19 es for 125 yards. Smith is 5-foot-11, 203 pounds, and has been efficient in this career. He averages 3.91 yards after , while forcing a missed tackle on 36.1% of his attempts. Behind him, Georgia Tech added Louisville transfer Trevion Cooley. Cooley rushed 59 times for 278 yards and two touchdowns last year, while catching nine es for another 66 yards. Cooley is 5-foot-9, 200 pounds, and has also been efficient in college. He averages 3.13 yards after with a forced missed tackle on 21.4% of his attempts through his career. The third string back should be Jamie Felix, who carried just 23 times last year. This running back room should be a little better this year, but the high-end talent simply is not there to compete in the ACC.
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