Syracuse will host Georgia Tech on Saturday at the JMA Wireless Dome in its first ACC game of the season.

To get prepared for the game, we caught up with Kelly Quinlan from JacketsOnline for a scouting report on the Yellow Jackets.

This is a very experienced team that just needed an overhaul on the defensive end. Head coach Brent Key brought in an impressive stat led by former Duke DC Tyler Santucci and longtime college and NFL defensive line coach Jess Simpson to revamp that side of the ball and so far that has worked really well. Georgia State failed to score a touchdown on three different drives where they had first and goal last week getting only three points out of those trips. Key pushes the us against the world concept and from game one people have doubted Georgia Tech and that feeds into his core concepts of focusing on the Jackets and no one else.

It wasn't an upset to the Tech players and it wasn't an upset as far as my staff was concerned on JOL. We pick games fairly but I picked almost the exact score missing by one point thanks to the swinging gate FSU used to convert a two-point conversion on the first touchdown of the game. It wasn't an upset to GT players either. They played UGA almost to a draw in the final regular season game last year and that UGA team smoked FSU in the bowl game. So much of FSU's success rode on the shoulders of Jordan Travis the last two years and he went so did the Noles so when they picked a very average replacement with a low ceiling it was easy to pick against them and see they were not as good as people thought. FSU also hit a home run on their portal pickups last year and that is extremely rare and they were due to have some misfires and they were weak at the receiver spots.

Everything runs through the middle of the offense, the center Weston Franklin, quarterback Haynes King, and running back Jamal Haynes. When they are on the same page the offense can hum and run through people, but King is also a talented passer from the Brett Favre gunslinger mode and is capable of putting up 300-400 yards in the air if that is how teams play the Jackets. So far GT has throttled down in the first two weeks on offense controlling the clock. They can go uptempo or slow down like they have. Defensively, they are very good on the defensive line and very disruptive up front. The linebacker play has been very solid so far which was a concern going into the season and the corners have played very well among the best in the ACC through two games. The safety and nickel spots have been the weakest link defensively through the first few games, but they are capable players who can and have made key plays in the past.The kicker and punter are among the best in the ACC as well.

I was not impressed with how Syracuse looked in game one and Kyle McCord struggles when the picture isn't perfect. I think with a less mobile quarterback for the first time this season, Santucci will dial up the pressure and the Jackets will clamp down defensively. I think the Orange run defense was a real area of concern and Tech has multiple running backs, speedy receivers and King who they all use in the run game and all of them are home-run threats on every play and that is not a good thing for the Orange either. Last week the Jackets had two different touchdowns on long runs called back due to erroneous holding calls that were actually pancake blocks on the perimeter. If they are locked in and they usually are on the road, I think Tech wins 31-24. I think Cuse will put up some points early, but Tech's defense has really adjusted well throughout the first two games after the opening drive.

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