SP+ Predicts Georgia Tech vs Florida State Week Zero Score

Welcome to game week everyone. Every Saturday for the rest of the 2024 calendar year will have a college football game on it and to start everything off will be Georgia Tech vs Florida State in Ireland. It will be the first chance to see FSU try and defend their ACC title and make a run at the College Football Playoff while Georgia Tech is looking to take the next step as a program after a successful first season under Brent Key.

Florida State enters the game as a double-digit favorite and the Sportsbooks are not alone in thinking that the Seminoles are going to win comfortably. ESPN analyst Bill Connelly and his SP+ system have Florida State winning and winning big, by a score of 39-20, a touchdown more than the spread of the game. SP+ is gving Florida State an 89% chance to win the game.

IT'S WEEK 0. TIME FOR WEEK 0 SP+ PICKS.

Florida State (-11.5) 39, Georgia Tech 20
Montana State (-9.5) 34, New Mexico 20
SMU (-27.5) 42, Nevada 15
Hawaii 47, Delaware State 9https://t.co/P1obDUJz9q
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) August 19, 2024

What exactly is SP+? Here is how Connelly himself describes it:

"As always, these are based on three primary factors: returning production (final rankings for which you can find at the bottom of this piece), recent recruiting and recent history. How good have you been recently? Whom do you have coming back? How good are the players replacing those you don't have coming back? That's loosely what we ask when we're setting expectations for a team; it's also what these projections attempt to do objectively.

As always: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date."

Bleacher Report's Morgan Moriarty thinks it is a game to keep an eye on for an upset:

"I know this will upset some Florida State fans putting this one on here. But do not sleep on this matchup, folks. Week Zero's game in Dublin, Ireland, feels like it has a lot of juice.

Florida State will be out for revenge in 2024 after being snubbed by the selection committee last season following Jordan Travis' season-ending injury. Although the Seminoles will be dealing with a good bit of roster turnover, ranking 89th in ESPN S&P+ returning production, Mike Norvell has this team in a good spot for 2024. At quarterback, the Noles will turn to former Clemson and Oregon State signal-caller DJ Uiagalelei. He'll be boosted by returning offensive tackle Darius Washington and transfer portal receiver Malik Benson.

Georgia Tech, meanwhile, comes into this game riding a ton of momentum from last season. GT won four out of its last six games, including a come-from-behind win over UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl to finish 7-6. It marked the first season above .500 since Paul Johnson's last year in Atlanta in 2018. Returning are quarterback Haynes King and star receiver Eric Singleton Jr. and four offensive linemen.

Florida State is a 12.5-point favorite. But I wouldn't be surprised if this one goes down to the wire."

I think Georgia Tech certainly has a chance in this game. It will likely come down to how much the defense has improved and if they can stop the run. If they can, the Yellow Jackets can put Uiagalelei in uncomfortable positions and force mistakes. It will take them playing an all-around good game, but Georgia Tech is more than capable of winning this game.

Georgia Tech vs Florida State kicks off next Saturday at 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.