Stanford, Georgia Tech Matchup Comes With Plenty of Stakes
· Yahoo Sports
Stanford hosts Georgia Tech this Saturday, September 26, at Stanford Stadium in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN, and however the game goes, it will be a first. The two programs have never met in the regular season.
Their only previous meetings both came in bowl games — the 1991 Aloha Bowl and the 2001 Seattle Bowl — and in both, an unranked Georgia Tech team upset a ranked Stanford squad.
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Both teams arrive at 1-2 looking for the same thing: a spark as conference play continues. Georgia Tech is coming off a 44-11 win over Mercer, with quarterback Alberto Mendoza throwing for 249 yards and three touchdowns, completing 71.4% of his passes. Running back Justice Haynes added 141 rushing yards and two more scores.
That result followed back-to-back losses to open the season, first a 14-13 defeat to Colorado and then a 45-24 loss to No. 18 Tennessee. A win Saturday would even Georgia Tech's record at 2-2 — something the program has done after an 0-2 start only four times in its 134-season history.
Stanford, meanwhile, is looking to snap its own two-game skid after a 45-6 loss to Miami and a 35-7 defeat at Duke. The Cardinal's defense has struggled early in the season, which could create a challenge against a Georgia Tech offense averaging 8.2 yards per pass attempt. Stanford's offense has had its own issues the past two games as well.
There is a bright spot for Stanford to lean on: the Cardinal rank 23rd nationally in turnover margin at plus-3, compared to Georgia Tech's minus-1 mark. Vegas has installed Georgia Tech as a 4.5-point favorite, but the Yellow Jackets have yet to cover a spread all season, going 0-3 against the number through three games.
Saturday's game also marks Georgia Tech's official ACC opener as the program makes its first trip to face one of the conference's three newest members — Stanford, Cal and SMU all joined in 2024. For Stanford, it's a chance to pick up its first conference win of the season after an 0-2 start in ACC play.
The late-night kickoff — 7:30 p.m. on the Farm, 10:30 p.m. back in Atlanta — adds another wrinkle for a Georgia Tech team playing its first true road game on the West Coast in any of head coach Brent Key's three seasons.
History offers little guidance either way given the lack of a regular-season series, but both programs enter with plenty on the line: a loss Saturday would put either team at 1-3 with ACC play only just getting started.