If the 2024 ACC season plays out like Saturday’s Week 0 opener between Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin, college football fans could be in for a surprisingly thrilling game.
Aidan Barr converted a 44-yard field goal with time running out to give the Yellow Jackets a 24-21 win over the 10th-ranked Seminoles. Brent Key started his third season as Georgia Tech’s head coach with a big win over a top-10 team that was considered a favorite to win the ACC.
Georgia Tech was in danger of being pushed out of field goal range when quarterback Haynes King fumbled the shotgun snap on a turnover drive and Eric Singleton Jr., running to the right, didn’t seem to see it when the ball was snapped. The mishap resulted in a loss of 10 yards and pushed the Jackets back to the FSU 38-yard line.
But with 41 seconds left, King and Singleton completed 12-yard passes to regain the yardage and put Beer in position to kick the winning field goal.
The Yellow Jackets led 21-14 early in the fourth quarter after an 11-play, 89-yard drive ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Jamaal Haynes. The Seminoles also scored on a long drive, going 84 yards in 15 plays to tie the score.
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 and tucked the ball in for the score.
Uiagalelei completed 19 of 27 passes for 193 yards and no touchdowns, while Williams rushed 12 times for 38 yards to lead the Seminoles. Jaki Douglas caught four passes for 55 yards.
For Georgia Tech, King had 200 yards from scrimmage, Haynes ran for 75 yards and two touchdowns, and Rutherford added 66 yards on four catches.
Saturday’s game started off thrillingly with FSU’s Lawrence Toafili making a quick cut to the right and running 28 yards for a touchdown, and the Seminoles added two points on a swinging-gate trick play to take an 8-0 lead.
Georgia Tech fought back on their opening drive, highlighted by a 42-yard catch and run by Malik Rutherford. Three running plays later, they scored their first touchdown.
The Yellow Jackets held off a Florida State comeback, capping off a 75-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run by King in the second quarter to take a 14-11 lead, but Ryan Fitzgerald’s 59-yard field goal (the second-longest in school history) with time running out of the clock made the score tied at 14-14 going into halftime.
Losing their season opener to a team that went 7-6 last season was a big disappointment for the Seminoles and coach Mike Norvell, who were looking for revenge after Florida State was left out of the College Football Playoff despite a 13-0 record last season.
With that revenge tour clearly derailed by this loss and them falling behind early in a tough ACC battle with Clemson and Miami, perhaps Georgia Tech just warned the conference that they, too, should be considered a threat.
Florida State’s next game is against Boston College on Labor Day at 7:30 PM ET. Georgia Tech will host Georgia State next Saturday at 8 PM ET.