ATLANTA — Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins’ second season will begin the way his first did – with a Thursday night season opener against Clemson.
The Yellow Jackets will face the Tigers, who finished the season 14-1 after reaching the College Football Playoff championship game, at Bobby Dodd Stadium Sept. 3.
That was among the highlights of the schedule for Tech as the ACC schedule was released Wednesday morning.
Georgia Tech 2020 football schedule (Home games in bold)
- Sept. 3: Clemson
- Sept. 12: Gardner-Webb
- Sept. 19: UCF
- Sept. 26: at North Carolina
- Oct. 3: at Virginia Tech
- Oct. 17: Virginia
- Oct. 24: at Pittsburgh
- Oct. 31: at Syracuse
- Nov. 7: Duke
- Nov. 14: Notre Dame (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
- Nov. 21: Miami
- Nov. 28 at Georgia
Tech and Clemson opened the 2019 season on a Thursday night at Death Valley, a 52-14 win for the Tigers that began their journey to their fifth consecutive ACC title and their fourth appearance in the College Football Playoff championship game in five years. The Jackets went on to finish 3-9 in Collins’ inaugural season.
The teams will meet again in an opener in 2022, in a Chick-fil-A Kickoff game on Labor Day night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, part of the Jackets’ five-game series at the sports palace.
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After Clemson and two home non-conference games (Gardner-Webb Sept. 12 and Central Florida Sept. 19), Tech will play four of its next five games on the road. Away games at North Carolina (Sept. 26) and Virginia Tech (Oct. 3) and then two more at Pittsburgh (Oct. 24) and Syracuse (Oct. 31) will sandwich a single home game against Virginia Oct. 17.
Tech’s lone open date of the season will precede the Virginia game.
The Jackets will then play three consecutive home games — Duke (Nov. 7), Notre Dame (Nov. 14) and Miami (Nov. 21) — before finishing the regular season at Georgia on Nov. 28. The game against the Irish will be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the first of the team’s series at MBS.
The closing stretch — Notre Dame, Miami and Georgia — could well be formidable. Notre Dame finished the season 11-2 and will likely be a top-10 team to start the season. Miami slid at the end of the season to finish at 6-7 but has added two significant grad transfers (Houston quarterback D’Eric King and Temple defensive end Quincy Roche). While the Bulldogs were hit hard on offense by early departures to the NFL, they figure to be stocked as usual.
The rhythm is similar to the Tech schedule for 2019, when the Jackets also played three of their first four league games on the road, then finished with three of four at home.
The open date would appear favorably scheduled, falling after the fifth game of the season. The Cavaliers also will have an open date prior to that game. UVA will be the only team that has an open date prior to facing the Jackets this season.
This article was written by Ken Sugiura, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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