FOOTBALL PREVIEW: Georgia Tech football looking to right the ship in 2022

Before toe meets leather for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in 2022, the team has already made headlines.

First, on July 18, Georgia Tech’s new jerseys were revealed. Then, three days later, it was announced that Georgia Tech’s Labor Day season opener versus Clemson was sold out.

The Yellow Jackets are hoping that all of the recent buzz will help rejuvenate the program to more success than its experienced in the last few years. In total, head coach Geoff Collins has accumulated nine wins in his three-year tenure at the helm, including a 3-9, 2-6 finish in 2021.

Georgia Tech’s 2022 slate of games does it no favors, either. Its 2022 schedule is bookended with two top-15 matchups against recent national champions.

Tech’s first game of the season – that aforementioned opener against No. 14 Clemson – will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the second year in a row as part of the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff. Closing out the schedule will be a Nov. 26 tussle at the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs.

Last year’s battle in Death Valley was the closest Georgia Tech has come to topping the Tigers since the Yellow Jackets beat Clemson in 2014. However, the Bulldogs are riding a four-game winning streak in the Clean Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry, and it hasn’t been remotely close as Georgia’s won the last two games by a combined 97-7 score.

Georgia won’t be the only SEC opponent the Yellow Jackets will face this season.

Ole Miss comes to town in week three. These two teams have only squared off against each other on the gridiron four times. The last was in 2013 when Ole Miss defeated Georgia Tech 25-17 in the Music City Bowl.

Central Florida (UCF) finds itself on the Yellow Jackets’ schedule for the second time in three years. Georgia Tech’s only remaining non-conference opponent will be against Western Carolina in the second week of the season.

In week six of 2022, Georgia Tech will feature one of the teams that the Yellow Jackets have beaten under Collins. In fact, Georgia Tech has enjoyed back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021. It’ll look to make it three in a row over the Blue Devils.

Coming off a bye week, Georgia Tech will participate in Thursday night action with Virginia coming to town with its last home game being on Nov. 12 against Miami — another team that Georgia Tech has beaten on Collins’ watch in 2019.

Four of the Yellow Jackets’ games in 2022 will be on the road at Florida State (Oct. 29), at Virginia Tech (Nov. 5) at North Carolina (Nov. 19) and the Bulldogs on Nov. 26.

So, for a team that looks to right the ship, it’ll be a tough task week in and week out to do so.