College football is officially back.
In Week 1, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets brought a taste of Atlanta across the sea to Dublin, Ireland, where they played against the No. 10 Florida State Seminoles, who had an 80.8% probability of winning, according to ESPN Analytics.
Georgia Tech and Florida State entered the fourth quarter tied at 14-14 before Tech’s Jamal Haynes fought his way into the end zone to take an early fourth-quarter lead. Roydell Williams tied the score at 21-21 with a 1-yard run, setting up an epic ending.
With seconds left, Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr scored a 44-yard walk-off field goal to secure the 24-21 victory for the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech’s consistency resulted in the final 6:33 minutes of regulation time being on the field, and according to ESPN Stats & Information, the Yellow Jackets were only hit on one of their eight runs behind the line of scrimmage on their final drive.
The Yellow Jackets were also perfect in the red zone against the Seminoles, scoring 3 of 3 touchdowns in the red zone. According to ESPN Stats & Information, this is the third time the Yellow Jackets have scored 3 of 3 or more against an AP Top 10 team. The other two wins came in the 2014 season against then-No. 4 Florida State and then-No. 7 Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Georgia Tech’s surprise victory shocked the sports world on the first day back after a seven-month hiatus. Here’s how athletes reacted on social media.
OKAY, GA TECH๐!!! College football is back!
โ Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) 24 August 2024
I’m pretty sure everyone thinks the exact same thing about FSU, smh
โ Jalen Ramsey (@jalenramsey) 24 August 2024
Sleepy ๐ป #bangerafterbanger https://t.co/z0McQPdgpG
โ Sheamus (@WWESheamus) 24 August 2024
I’ll just leave this to the so-called “experts” @PatMcAfeeShow #GeorgiaTech ๐ฎ๐ช๐บ๐ธ๐ pic.twitter.com/Od4OvuYeTO
โ Sheamus (@WWESheamus) 24 August 2024
Enter https://t.co/dFMhhOYmiJ
โ Jermaine Johnson II (@ii_jermaine) 24 August 2024
College football is back โผ๏ธ
โ Mike Kidd-Gilchrist (@MKG14) 24 August 2024