No. 14 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. No. 8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets roll into South Bend this weekend to take on the ailing Notre Dame Fighting Irish. With star quarterback Malik Zaire out for the season due to an ankle injury, the Irish will now have backup QB DeShone Kizer making his starting debut under center. The Notre Dame defense have a hard task ahead of them, though, as they face quarterback Justin Thomas and the Yellow Jacket’s brutal triple option offense.
Details for Saturday’s game are below:
Date: Sept. 19
Start Time: 3:30 P.M. EST
Location: South Bend, IN
Stadium: Notre Dame Stadium
TV Info: NBC
Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Extra
Radio: Georgia Tech IMG Sports Network, SiriusXM Channels 129, 198, 967
Keys to Victory
In order for Georgia Tech to come away with a win, the defense will need to make a point of restricting senior running back C.J. Prosise.
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The losses of lead RB Tarean Folston and tight end Durham Smythe have made Prosise a major option on offense, and he leads the team in rushing yards. The Irish still has a load of offensive talent of course, especially with the wealth of experience they have in the receivers. But if senior Adam Gotsis and the rest of Georgia Tech’s rowdy defensive line can limit Prosise, it will jack up the pressure on DeShone Kizer in his first start.
Besides that, Georgia Tech will need to hit the ground running, figuratively and literally, getting ahead early. They had trouble starting off fast in their past two games, and Notre Dame isn’t Tulane. They’ll need to beat out the Irish defense early and often. Luckily, with their elite running game and quarterback Justin Thomas at the helm, they have a great chance of doing so.
As for Notre Dame, they face a difficult road to a win against the Yellow Jackets. Their main objective more simply said then done: stop Justin Thomas. In the Georgia Tech triple option, quarterback Justin Thomas is the ring leader, and has done a very good job of it during his college career. Last season he had the most rushing yards at QB in school history with 1,086 yards, and guided the Yellow Jacket offense to a nation-leading 4,789 rushing yards.
Head coach Brian Kelly put a focus on solving for the triple option during the offseason, having muddled the Irish for years against teams like Navy. One part of the solution will be keeping the offense off the field as much as possible, so they’ll need to control that clock. Clock control, however, will only get them so far. If they want bring home the win, they’ll need to put whatever they’ve been planning into full effect.
Betting Odds
Point Spread: GT -2.5
Moneyline: -140
O/U: -110
Prediction
Despite all the talent that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish still have, the pieces they’re missing definitely hurt them, not to mention that this will be Kizer’s first game at starter. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets haven’t faced a Power 5 team yet this season, but they have been running on all cylinders and are even doing better than last year’s elite squad, averaging almost twice as many points as the 2014 team through the first two games. Look for Notre Dame to be very competitive, but for Georgia Tech to come out on top.
Final Score: Georgia Tech: 35, Notre Dame: 28
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