Georgia Tech headed to Pop-Tarts Bowl

“Really, really excited to play BYU. What a great team,” Tech coach Brent Key said Sunday. “Great coach, he’s done an unbelievable job. Can’t say enough great things about him and the program, what they’ve done, the year they’ve had. Outstanding matchup, two really good teams, but also two teams, I think, that go about things the right way and have high values, high character, wanna play with toughness and discipline. So this should be a really good football game.”

Tech finished the season 9-3 after an 8-0 start. The Yellow Jackets have lost three of their past four games, including their regular-season finale 16-9 to rival Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That followed a 42-28 loss at home to Pittsburgh.

Key’s team has not lost three straight since he took over the program four games into the 2022 season. Tech has not lost three games in a row since dropping seven straight to end 2021 and start 2022.

“This is a huge, huge game for us,” Key said. “Bowl games are meant to be a reward for the players and the team and the staff, the coaches. At the same time we have one mission and that’s to go Orlando and win a football game. Bottom line. We’re gonna have fun, we’re gonna enjoy it, we’re gonna enjoy everything that Orlando has to offer and Pop-Tarts Bowl has to offer us.

“Excitement comes with the reward within this game and a chance a to get 10 wins, a chance to really send the seniors off who have done so much for this program over the last several years they’ve been here. And then you get the positive momentum going into the offseason.”

The Cougars of BYU lost 34-7 to Texas Tech on Saturday in the Big 12 championship game, their second loss to the Red Raiders this season. As Tech did, BYU (11-2) started the season 8-0 before a loss, then won three consecutive games before its second defeat to Texas Tech.

Coach Kalani Sitake’s team recorded 22 takeaways this season, had the Big 12’s best red zone offense and best red zone defense, the conference’s third-best total defense and third-down defense, and was 10th nationally in time of possession (32:50).

Quarterback Bear Bachmeier, a freshman, has thrown for more than 2,700 yards and completed 14 touchdown passes. He is also the team’s No. 2 rusher, behind LJ Martin (1,305 yards, 12 scores), with 527 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns.

Safety Tanner Wall and cornerback Evan Johnson have four interceptions each and Wall and safety Faletau Satuala lead the Cougars in tackles.

“Really excited about the opportunity to play in this bowl game. Have a lot of respect for (Tech), have a lot of respect for coach Brent Key,” Sitake said. “Georgia Tech, I see a lot of things in their program that’s very similar to ours. I know that they are tough and they play really hard and they’re not afraid to run their quarterback as well. Well-balanced team, I think well-coached, and you look at what they do fundamentally well is everything. Looking forward to the matchup and we know it’s gonna require us being at our best.”

Tech and BYU have played each other four times, with the Jackets winning 28-19 in 2002. The Cougars won in 2003, 2012 and 2013.

Tech won its 1990 UPI national championship by defeating Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Jan. 1, 1991.

Key’s first bowl game as a player was in the 1997 Carquest Bowl, played then in Miami, before it changed names and location. He also spent 2005-2015 as an assistant coach at Central Florida.