For a team that hung its hat on offensive line play and an ACC-best rushing attack in 2023, Saturday’s performance for Georgia Tech was as alarming as it was confounding.
The Yellow Jackets managed just 98 yards rushing — 23 of which came on a Haynes King touchdown run in the first quarter — and averaged just 2.6 yards per carry at No. 19 Louisville in a 31-19 loss. That marked the first time since Oct. 7 at Miami that Tech has been held to less than 100 yards on the ground.
“(Louisville) did a really good job scheming us up,” King said. “We’re gonna have to find a way. Doesn’t matter what they’re doing, whether it’s a stunt, scheme, we gotta find a way.”
What was more concerning for Tech than its rushing total was its inability to move the chains in short yardage situations:
- Early in the second quarter, Tech needed a yard on third down on its own 24, but running back Trelain Maddox was stuffed for a yard loss.
- Needing a yard on the Louisville 4 in the third quarter, Maddox was stood up at the line of scrimmage for no gain. Tech would take a delay of game on fourth down and then have Aidan Birr kick a 26-yard field goal.
- To start the fourth quarter, the Jackets had three yards to gain at the Louisville 3 on fourth down, but King could only scrap for two trying to burrow his way through the line of scrimmage toward the goal line.
- Finally, on consecutive plays which sealed Tech’s fate late in the fourth quarter, Maddox gained only a yard on 3rd-and-2 and then Jamal Haynes was stonewalled for no gain on 4th-and-1 at the Louisville 21.