A Yellow Jackets team fresh off its best season in over a decade flies cross-country to face a Stanford program starting over from scratch.
Bush’s Picks
GTSTAN
GTSTAN
OverUnder
Best BetGeorgia Tech
Georgia Tech enters this one with the better recent body of work — a 9-4, top-25 finish against Stanford's 4-8 collapse. Even with a new starting quarterback, the Yellow Jackets have more continuity in the building and more proven playmakers around him, starting with transfer running back Justice Haynes. Stanford is asking a first-year head coach and a transfer QB to beat a team that was ranked in the top 10 last season.
Georgia Tech
+9-4 finish, first top-25 season in 11 years
+Added Michigan transfer RB Justice Haynes
+Key calls roster depth best in 4 years
−Lost 4 of last 5 games to close 2025
−Replacing record-setting QB Haynes King with a sophomore
Stanford
+New staff led by NFL-experienced QB coach Pritchard
+Michigan transfer Davis Warren brings a fresh arm
+Home game against a team on its first road trip
−Coming off a 4-8 season
−Program still stabilizing after Taylor's scandal-driven firing
Both sides show up to Saturday, September 26 with a new guy under center. Georgia Tech hands the offense to sophomore Alberto Mendoza after Haynes King's departure closed out one of the most productive quarterback careers in program history. Stanford counters with Michigan transfer Davis Warren, the presumptive starter as first-year head coach Tavita Pritchard tries to steady a program that just fired its previous coach mid-scandal.
Mendoza takes over an offense that still has serious juice around him. Michigan transfer running back Justice Haynes gives Georgia Tech a legitimate breakout candidate in the backfield, and head coach Brent Key has said the roster depth is the best it's been in his four years running the program. Stanford's rebuild is starting from a different place entirely — Pritchard spent three seasons coaching quarterbacks in the NFL before taking this job, and Warren arrives with something to prove after transferring in.
Show fees
9:30 PM CT
Spread
ML
Total
GT Georgia Tech
STAN Stanford
The gap in recent trajectory is stark. Georgia Tech opened 2025 by winning its first 8 games, climbed to No. 7 in the country, finished 9-4, and landed in the AP Top 25 for the first time in 11 years. Stanford finished 4-8. That kind of momentum swing matters entering a season where both teams are breaking in new quarterbacks — one program is building on a proven foundation, the other is pouring a new one.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Sep 19?vs Mercer—
Sep 12?vs Tennessee—
Sep 3?vs Colorado—
Stanford Cardinal
Sep 19?@ Duke—
Sep 4?vs Miami—
Aug 29?vs Hawai'i—
Recent form.
Georgia Tech's late-season fade is the obvious counterpoint here — the Yellow Jackets lost 4 of their final 5 games in 2025, including a Pop-Tarts Bowl loss to BYU, so the top-25 finish came with some real cracks showing down the stretch. A young, rebuilt receiving corps and a first-time starter at quarterback means there's real turbulence risk even with the talent around Mendoza.
Stanford, for its part, isn't without a path here. A home game against a team playing its first true road test of the season with a new starting QB is about as favorable a spot as a rebuilding program can ask for. But this is still a roster and coaching staff that's had one off-season together after institutional chaos, and the Cardinal have to prove a bowl-caliber floor exists before anyone should trust them against a team of Georgia Tech's current caliber.
