Georgia Tech came back home on Saturday to take on No.14 Central Florida for their 2020 season home opener. The Yellow Jackets fall to the Central Florida Knights 49-21 and is now 1-1. After a huge win in Tallahassee against Florida State last weekend, the Yellow Jackets wanted to ride that momentum against UCF. Unfortunately, the Knights high powered offense and too many turnovers were too much to handle for the Yellow Jackets.
The 11,000 fans Georgia Tech welcomed into the stadium did have something to look forward too from their Yellow Jackets. Even though the home team got blasted, they still showed fight against elite competition.
Freshman running back Jahmyr Gibbs missed the season opener against Florida State, but showed Tech fans’ he was worth the wait. Gibbs returned the opening kickoff for 75 yards to start his collegiate career. Gibbs also finished the game with fifteen carriers, 73 rushing yards, four catches, sixty yards receiving, one rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown.
Yellow Jackets’ quarterback Jeff Sims got outplayed by the Knights quarterback Dillon Gabriel, but Sims held his own and showed flashes of what he could be once he puts it all together. Sims finished the day 18 of 36 with 244 yards passing, 83 yards rushing, and two total touchdowns. Sims had a productive day and moved the ball against UCF’s defense, but he has to work on ball security. Sims errored with two interceptions, and one fumble that cost his team in a big way.
The Yellow Jackets’ defense created two turnovers, but it didn’t help much when their offense had five turnovers. With a veteran and talented quarterback like Dillon Gabriel, those turnovers can cost you. Gabriel went 27 of 41 with 417 yards passing and four touchdowns. The Knights’ offense was able to capitalize off turnovers scoring fourteen points.
Georgia Tech’s head coach Geoff Collins spoke about the team’s turnovers and the future of the program.
“They’ll learn from their mistakes; they will get better. But the future and present are bright if guys continue to build on the things they’ve been taught, the things the older guys are teaching them, and just not let things go sideways on us in a hurry.”
The final score doesn’t reflect how hard the young Yellow Jackets fought. They went into the half down 28-14. They shut down the Knights’ offense in the third quarter and started the fourth quarter with a quick score to close the gap to 28-21 before turnovers, and big plays ended their comeback hopes.
Georgia Tech fell to 1-1 and will look to bounce back on Sep. 26th when they hit the road to face off against Syracuse, another conference opponent.
