Head coach: Brent Key, 4th season (18-16)

2024 season: 7-6, 5-3 ACC; lost to Vanderbilt in Birmingham Bowl

Series with CU: First meeting

The Game

Who: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Colorado Buffaloes

When: Friday, Aug. 29, 6 p.m. (ESPN)

Where: Folsom Field in Boulder

5 Guys to Watch

LB Kyle Efford: Led the Yellow Jackets with 64 tackles last year while also posting 5.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. He earned third-team All-ACC honors. He also led the team in tackles in 2023, with 81.

RB Jamal Haynes: One of the best backs in the ACC, despite spending his first two seasons at Tech as a slot receiver who didn’t record any stats. He moved to running back during fall camp in 2023 and rushed for 1,059 yards and seven TDs. Last year, he rushed for 944 yards and nine scores.

QB Haynes King: After starting his career at Texas A&M, he’s been the full-time starter at Tech the past two years, completing 66.4% of his passes for 4,956 yards, 41 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. He’s also rushed for 1,324 yards and 21 touchdowns. The Longview, Texas, native will be a sixth-year senior.

WR Malik Rutherford: Briefly entered the transfer portal but chose to stay. He led Tech with 62 catches last year, racking up 702 yards and three touchdowns. In four years with the Yellow Jackets, he’s caught 136 passes for 1,491 yards and seven scores. He’s also a running threat, with nine carries for 87 yards last year.

DT Jordan van den Berg: Earned second-team All-ACC honors last year, posting 23 tackles, five tackles for loss, a sack and two fumble recoveries. He spent three years at Penn State before transferring to Tech last year.

Good to know

• In 1990, CU went 11-1-1 and was voted as national champion by the Associated Press, with Georgia Tech No. 2. The Yellow Jackets went 11-0-1 and were voted No. 1 in the UPI/Coaches poll, with CU at No. 2.

• Georgia Tech’s longest road trip in the past decade was a game against Boston College in Dublin, Ireland, in 2016. However, this will be the Yellow Jackets’ first game west of the Mississippi River since a trip to Provo, Utah, to face BYU on Oct. 12, 2013.

• King’s completion percentage of 72.9% last year tied for third nationally with Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and only behind CU’s Shedeur Sanders (74.0) and Ohio State’s Will Howard (73.0).

• Tech lost receiver Eric Singleton Jr., who led the team in receiving yards (754) and average yards per catch (13.5) to Auburn. He was replaced, however, by Eric Rivers, who caught 62 passes for 1,172 yards at FIU and was fifth in the nation in TD receptions (12). The Yellow Jackets added a second FIU receiver in Dean Patterson, who caught 50 passes for 685 yards and seven touchdowns last year.

• Safety Savion Riley, who played at Colorado last year, transferred to Georgia Tech in the offseason. Riley, from Acworth, Ga., played a key role as an injury replacement in the Buffs’ opener last year but was mainly on special teams in the nine games he played.

• CU will complete the home-and-home set with the Yellow Jackets with a visit to Atlanta on Sept. 5, 2026.

Portal movement

Georgia Tech lost 29 players in the portal, but most of those were backups. They did, however, lose some key players in Singleton (Auburn), left tackle Corey Robinson II (Arkansas), edge Romello Height (Texas Tech), safety Taye Seymore (Auburn) and cornerback Syeed Gibbs (Kansas). Like just about every other team, though, the Jackets loaded up with transfers, adding 24. Rivers and Patterson lead the way, but several projected starters were added, including inside linebacker Melvin Jordan IV (Oregon State), edge rushers Brayden Manley (Mercer) and Ronald Triplette (UTSA), defensive linemen Matthew Alexander (UCF) and Akelo Stone (Mississippi), tackle Malachi Carney (South Alabama), tight end JT Byrne (California), cornerback Kelvin Hill (UAB) and punter Marshall Nichols (UNLV).