What is Georgia Tech's Best Chance at Pulling a Big Upset During the 2026 Season?

The 2026 season for Georgia Tech is less than four months away.

The Yellow Jackets wrapped up spring practice last month and it was the first chance for this new look Georgia Tech team to take the field. Brent Key's team is having to replace two coordinators, the starting quarterback, multiple offensive lineman, a chunk of the receiving production, and members of the defense, such as Jordan van den Berg (6th round draft pick) and multiple starters in the secondary.

One constant theme of Brent Key's Georgia Tech teams since he was hired as the permanent head coach is that they have a tendency to play up to their competition and find ways to pull upsets or come awfully close at doing so. Think back to Pittsburgh and North Carolina in 2022 (as the interim), Miami and North Carolina in 2023, Florida State and Miami in 2024, and Clemson last season. While he has not gotten over the hump against rival Georgia yet, he has played them to a one score game three years in a row, a huge turnaround from how the series was being played before he was the head coach.

Who could be the next team to fall victim to the Georgia Tech upset trap?

Looking at the schedule

When you take a look at Georgia Tech's schedule, I think they are going to be favorites in the following games:

vs Colorado
Mercer
At Stanford
Duke
Boston College
Wake Forest

Which would leave them as underdogs against:

vs Tennessee
At Virginia Tech
At Pitt
vs Louisville
At Clemson
At Georgia

While I think they are going to be underdogs against Virginia Tech, Louisville, Pitt, and Clemson, I don't think it would surprise anyone if Georgia Tech won those games. They will be short underdogs at worst, mainly because the games are going to be played on the road.

Virginia Tech is a big mystery after hiring James Franklin, Pitt lost a lot of key players from last year's team (and Georgia Tech will have this game circled), Louisville is expected to be one of the top challengers to Miami in the ACC, but the game is at home, and Clemson is not as talented as they were last season. I am of course not predicting Georgia Tech to win all of those games, but they won't be large underdogs.

Which leaves us two teams to choose from.

Tennessee or Georgia?

While Brent Key is known for pulling upsets over ranked teams, nobody is going to be picking Georgia Tech in either of these games heading into the season. That is what would make them such big upsets.

Right now, I think Georgia Tech is more likely to upset Tennessee than Georgia and there is one key reason why.

The Volunteers are a more talented team than Georgia Tech, but they have a major question at quarterback heading into next season. After not getting a high-level veteran QB in the portal, it will be either true freshman Faizon Brandon or redshirt freshman George MacIntyre in all likelihood, though if neither impresses, Colorado transfer Ryan Staub could get some early-season snaps until they are ready. If it is Brandon or MacIntyre, they will be making their second career start in this game.

Not knowing who the QB is and the QB making their first start on the road introduces some variance into the game, but Georgia Tech has to take advantage of that. New defensive coordinator Jason Semore is going to have to have this Yellow Jackets team ready for a heavy dose of the run game, which I suspect Tennessee is going to lean on in week two. The Yellow Jackets have talked all spring about how they like the improvements they made on the defensive line, but it is going to be put to the test against the Volunteers.

It would be by no means an easy upset to pull, but of the two teams, I think Georgi Tech being able to surprise Tennessee in week two is their best chance at a big upset.

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