Georgia Tech's Matchup With Clemson Draws Massive TV Audience

Georgia Tech defeated Clemson in one of the biggest games of week three, and it drew a huge TV audience

Sep 13, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King (10) and head coach Brent Key talk to a reporter after a victory over the Clemson Tigers at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Georgia Tech was playing in one of the biggest games of week three when they faced rival Clemson and they won in dramatic fashion. The win over the Tigers was one of, if not the biggest in the Brent Key era, and the Yellow Jackets are now in position to be a contender in the ACC.

The dramatic win over the Tigers also brought in a massive TV audience.

An average of 4.8 million viewers, including a peak of 7.7 million in the thrilling final minutes, watched Georgia Tech’s 24-21 win over Clemson last Saturday on ESPN.

The audience of 4.8 million is the largest to watch a regular-season Saturday afternoon game on ESPN, in both the early afternoon (Noon ET) or mid-afternoon (3:30 p.m.) windows, since 2016 (excluding Week 0 games). It is also the largest audience for any Saturday game on ESPN this season.

Since the beginning of the 2024 season, Georgia Tech – the Atlantic Coast Conference’s most-viewed team in 2024 – has now played in:

• ESPN’s most-watched regular-season game of 2024 (4.99 million viewers – vs. Florida State, Week 0)
  ESPN’s most-watched regular-season Saturday game of 2024, excluding Week 0 (3.46 million – vs. Miami)
  College football’s most-watched Friday game of the 2024 regular season (8.47 million on ABC – at Georgia)
  ESPN’s most-watched Friday game of the last two seasons (3.7 million – 2025 season opener at Colorado)
  ESPN’s most-watched Saturday afternoon regular-season game since 2016, excluding Week 0 (4.8 million – last Saturday vs. Clemson).

📈@ESPNCFB won the day in Week 3 & delivered 5 of the top 6 most-watched games

🏈@GeorgiaFootball-@Vol_Football: 12.6M viewers, peaking at nearly 16M
🏈ABC off to best 3-week start EVER: 7.8M avg. viewers
🏈CFB on ESPN nets having best 3-week start since '09: 3.1M avg. viewers pic.twitter.com/qAvWRePbpY

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) September 16, 2025

All eyes on Temple now

Sep 13, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets wide receiver Dean Patterson (11) catches a pass for a two-point conversion against the Clemson Tigers in the fourth quarter at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

There are nine games left in front of Georgia Tech, but they have one of the more favorable paths among power four teams.

The Yellow Jackets are going to be favored in every game the rest of the way until they face Georgia. Now, that does not mean that they are going to win every game, but they are going to be the better team. They avoid Miami, SMU, Florida State, and Louisville in ACC play.

But the Yellow Jackets focus is squarely on the Owls this weekend and head coach Brent key has been impressed with what he has seen on tape:

“Yeah, so they started out 2-0,  played a really good Oklahoma team this past weekend.  New coaching staff there, who's had a lot of success everywhere they've been.  Really good football coach. You can tell that they're  a well-coached team. Offensively, these guys shift in motion. They're 77 % of the plays, they're motion, and they have eye candy.  They're second in the country in most times they motion. Defensively, they pose a lot of problems with you. They play three down front. They kick it to four down. They play bear a lot of different things in the back end that are a little unorthodox from what we've seen the last three or four weeks. They play hard. They've got length on their defense. You know you can tell they're coached the right way. They are sound on special teams, and they're not doing things to beat themselves.  Everybody is gonna make mistakes out there. I think the future is really, really bright for this football team and this coaching staff. I've been very impressed watching the way they play the game.”

What kind of challenges will the shifts and motions in Temple's offense present to the Georgia Tech defense? Key said discipline will be a big factor this week:

“Eye discipline. It's one of the two most important things we have to get done this week. We have to have great eye discipline on the defensive side of the ball. It's not as much the motion as the fakes within it, right? The rolling over the ball, the carrying out of your fakes. That's something we gotta continue to work tremendously on our fakes and having the same pad level and play action and run game. It's all the deception part of it in order to be able to accomplish what you want to get done. And look, the field is, know, as said, it's 100 yards long, it's 53 and a third wide. Our goal every game is to use every bit of it. And look, you could take the quarterback and put him under center every time, put the running back a little bit closer, and do some of those things. Probably think Coach Johnson was out there coaching. There are a lot of option elements that are involved with it. Being able to put conflict on players on the defensive side of the ball, being able to affect support, affect who sets the edges. And that's another thing they do. Temple does a great job of setting edges in a lot of different ways, right? When you're a team like us, it's understandable why they do it, because then you look on the other side of the ball at what they face every day. So they're every way trying to set the edges and keep that ball contained inside, so this will be a big challenge for us.”

The Yellow Jackets will face Temple at 4:30 p.m. ET this Saturday and the game will be televised on the CW Network.