ATLANTA — A week after Georgia Tech opened college football’s 2024 season in thrilling fashion, rallying to upset No. 10 Florida State on a field goal as the game clock hit zero in Dublin, Ireland, the Yellow Jackets were back home as they reached 2-0 for the first time since 2016.
No comeback needed.
Haynes King threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and Georgia Tech never trailed in a comfortable 35-12 win over Georgia State on Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
It was a balanced offensive effort for the Yellow Jackets, who totaled 499 yards (274 passing, 225 rushing), with five players scoring a touchdown.
“The key to it all is being able to get guys touches,” Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said. “When you have a lot of guys who can be explosive, in order to be explosive, you have to get the ball to explosive playmakers. We created different ways to get those guys the ball.”
King was 24-of-29 passing for 275 yards with an interception. His 27 rushing yards came on five carries, including a touchdown. Jamal Haynes led the ground attack with 84 yards on 17 carries, including a touchdown.
Malik Rutherford had career highs with seven catches for 131 yards.
“It felt good,” Rutherford said. “I’ve been wanting to get over that 100-yard hump. It’s my first time. It was just a good game all around. I’m excited.”
Erik Singleton Jr.’s lone carry covered 35 yards to the end zone, and he had four receptions for 43 yards.
“They made me look good,” King said of Rutherford and Singleton. “I don’t have to do too much. Just get them the ball in space and let them do their thing.”
The Yellow Jackets had opened the season on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean against an Atlantic Coast Conference foe, beating the Seminoles 24-21 on Aidan Birr’s 44-yard kick at the horn, but they stepped out of conference play for their second game, hosting the Sun Belt’s Panthers in the first meeting of these Atlanta programs.
Georgia State tallied 360 yards (210 passing, 150 rushing) in its season opener — and threatened to land the first blow after the hosts won the pregame coin toss and deferred to the second half. On the game’s first series, the Panthers marched 64 yards to the Georgia Tech 1 and had first-and-goal.
The Yellow Jackets denied running back Sy’veon Wilkerson three times before quarterback Christian Veilleux threw on fourth down, with the pass incomplete.
The Yellow Jackets played strong defense in the red zone as Georgia State went 1-for-3 inside the Georgia Tech 20-yard line. Georgia Tech’s offense was 3-for-3 in the red zone.
“They executed, and that’s the whole key to defensive football, is getting a call, getting to the line and being able to execute what the call is,” Key said. “A couple of times the quarterback got free, which we have to do a better job on that.”
Georgia Tech took a 14-3 lead into halftime behind Jamal Haynes’ 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and King’s 2-yard run that capped an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive with four seconds left before intermission.
The Yellow Jackets pulled away early in the third quarter. After Singleton’s touchdown run, King found Rutherford for a 52-yard touchdown that stretched the lead to 28-3 with 11:19 left in the third quarter Rutherford was all by himself down the middle when he caught King’s pass.
“It was just a simple post route on a squeeze set, and they kind of blew the coverage,” Rutherford said. “Haynes saw me; I made the catch for a touchdown.”
The Panthers scored nine points on a field goal and a 24-yard touchdown pass from Veilleux to Dorian Fleming later in the third quarter.
King found Avery Boyd for a 22-yard touchdown pass about a minute into the fourth.
The Panthers kept it close for a half, and they will look for their first win with coach Dell McGee when the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga visits next week. UTC, which competes in the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision and opened its season with a 69-3 loss to Football Bowl Subdivision member Tennessee, is in its sixth season under head coach Rusty Wright, a former Georgia State assistant.
McGee is a Columbus native with 22 years of experience that includes back-to-back national titles as the run game coordinator and running backs coach for the Georgia Bulldogs. The Peach State product was named the fourth head coach in Georgia State football history on Feb. 23 after Shawn Elliott resigned to take a position as an assistant at South Carolina.
Georgia Tech returns to ACC play next weekend by visiting Syracuse, a 38-22 winner at home over Ohio on Saturday.