Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Last year: 3-9 (2-6 ACC) Best win: at Miami, 28-21, in OT Worst loss: vs. The Citadel, 27-24, in OT
Coach: Geoff Collins (second year, 18-19 career)
Starters returning: 18 (9 offense, 8 defense, 1 specialist)
Offensive player to watch: QB James Graham. Graham is a sophomore who was recruited to play in former coach Paul Johnson's triple-option offense. He started the final eight games under center for the Yellow Jackets in Collins' first season and struggled as expected, completing just 45.1 percent of his passes for 1,164 yards, but he did toss more TDs (12) than INTs (seven). He also rushed for 290 yards and a trio of scores. If he doesn't take a step in his second season, other QBs who could see time are redshirt freshman Jordan Yates and true freshmen Tucker Gleason and Jeff Sims.
Defensive player to watch: LB David Curry. Curry is going into his sixth year at Tech because he took a redshirt year in 2015 and then saw his 2017 campaign wiped out due to injury. In 2019, Curry led the Yellow Jackets with 97 tackles, six for losses, two sacks, a pick, three breakups, and two forced fumbles.
Special teams player to watch: P Pressley Harvin III. As a junior in 2019, Harvin averaged 44.8 yards per punt and put 18 inside the 20-yard line.
Schedule: at Florida State, vs. UCF, at Syracuse, bye, vs. Louisville, vs. Clemson, at Boston College, vs. Notre Dame, bye, vs. Pittsburgh, at Miami, vs. Duke, at N.C. State.
Win-loss prediction: 3-8 or 4-7. This guess could be a little high on wins for a team that has to face Notre Dame and Clemson, and does not pick up a cupcake for its non-ACC game, instead facing UCF, which has won 35 games over the past three seasons. But I'm counting on Collins' bunch to show a little progress in his second season. The offense's success likely revolves around Graham's improvement or lack thereof, and also the offensive line making a jump in the pro-style offense. The unit has a weapon with running back Jordan Mason, who had a good sophomore season, collecting 899 yards (5.2 ypc) and seven TDs, while also tallying eight catches for 45 yards. There's some potential at receiver as well, with the return of senior Jalen Camp from injury. He had seven catches and one TD in four games last year and possibly would've been the team's leading wideout with a full season. Also back are juniors Ahmarean Brown and Adonicas Sanders, who finished with 21 and 19 catches, respectively, in 2019. Brown hauled in seven scores -- including a 59-yarder against Virginia -- while Sanders had zero. Collins is a defense-first guy, and he is surely looking for his group to be more disruptive in 2020 after it finished with just 17 sacks last year, the same number as in 2018. Besides Curry, there are other solid guys on this unit, including hybrid LB-DB Charlie Thomas (65 tackles, 9.5 for losses, two sacks, two breakups, two forced fumbles) and CB Tre Swilling (10 breakups, one INT), but the line needs to create more of a pass rush.
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