Mendoza gets the start as Yellow Jackets open season tonight
Georgia Tech opens 2026 with Alberto Mendoza's first career start under new coordinator George Godsey, a full-strength roster and a sold-out Bobby Dodd waiting for Deion Sanders and hometown favorite Julian Lewis.
Mendoza gets the start, and Tech is finally healthy for it
The competition Brent Key insisted wasn't really a competition is over — Alberto Mendoza gets the start tonight against Colorado, closing a summer that stripped Georgia Tech's quarterback room bare. Haynes King is out of eligibility, and the presumed fallback, Aaron Philo, followed since-departed offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner to Florida, where CFBKings reported he has already been named the Gators' Week 1 starter. Faulkner's exit was the bigger event — Georgia Tech's offense ranked 2nd in the ACC in total offense at 437.7 yards a game across his 3 seasons here, per Pete Nakos, and our own desk wrote up the hire that took him to Gainesville.
What Mendoza has actually done on the field is thin but sharp: 18 of 24 passing for 286 yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception in mop-up duty across 9 games last season, his first year on The Flats after transferring in from Indiana, where he spent 2 seasons learning behind his Heisman-winning brother Fernando. Key has been specific about why the staff trusts him anyway, calling him "smart, cerebral" and someone who "sees the whole field, can get us in and out of good plays, bad plays," with "a good release," via Yahoo Sports. New offensive coordinator George Godsey put it in football terms to SI's fall-camp notebook: Mendoza "understands ball" and has earned the freedom to change plays at the line.
The roster around him is healthier than it has been at any point since Key took over. Tight end Gavin Harris is back after missing most of fall camp, giving Mendoza an athletic receiving threat as Godsey installs a higher-volume passing scheme, per SI's availability report; offensive tackle Josh Petty is the lone notable absence and isn't expected back until mid-October. Mendoza's own answer, when SI asked him about the moment, wasn't about himself: "I wouldn't say it's my team. I would say it's everybody's team," he said.
The Last Word: Game 1 🗞️ t.co/bhMxvr07ov #StingEm 🐝
How last season actually ended
Georgia Tech closed out last season on December 27 with a 21-25 loss to BYU, the last of a stretch that had little to like in it. The Jackets lost at NC State 36-48 in November, lost at home to Pittsburgh 28-42, and lost the in-state rivalry game to Georgia 9-16. The lone bright spot in that final stretch was a 36-34 win at Boston College. It was not a finish that left anybody satisfied.
That stretch is the backdrop for everything happening now — Mendoza's promotion to the starting job, a new-look offensive staff after Faulkner's departure, and DeAndre Hopkins in the building teaching route detail after his July hire as an assistant wide receivers coach. None of last season's box scores carry over into 2026, but they're the reason this camp has felt different from the ones before it, and the reason tonight's opener against Colorado is being treated like more than just a Week 1 game.
Julian Lewis comes home, and Key wants Deion Sanders' autograph first
Julian Lewis's homecoming has a Georgia Tech wrinkle to it: the Carrollton, Georgia native, about an hour from campus, was a target Tech once wanted, and SI reported Tech representatives quietly inquired about a transfer from him back in January before he stayed put with Deion Sanders. Lewis has since locked down the starting job outright, beating out Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter after closing last season as Colorado's quarterback in wins over West Virginia and Arizona State, and he now runs new offensive coordinator Brennan Marion's up-tempo "Go-Go" system for a Buffaloes team that went 3-9 a year ago and finished the season 14-24 at Kansas State. Sanders wasn't shy about the stakes: "Oh, we better win. That's going to be the surprise. We're going to win," he said, per ESPN.
Brent Key isn't hiding that he's a fan of the man on the other sideline. Sanders was one of his own childhood heroes, Key told reporters: "Deion was one of my heroes growing up as a kid. I played baseball and football. It was Deion and Bo Jackson." He's already planning the pregame moment: "Hopefully — I'll ask for (a) selfie pregame and shake his hand or I'll bring his rookie card out there with me and see if he'll sign it." Key also flagged the local pull working against his own team, noting Colorado's "got some guys from Georgia" who will have "a ton of people here to watch them."
Bobby Dodd is meeting the moment: the school's own account announced "THE FLATS. SOLD OUT." this week — a sellout for a season opener against a team that finished 3-9 a year ago, proof that a good chunk of tonight's crowd is coming for Sanders and Lewis as much as for the Jackets. Georgia Tech already has the head-to-head history on its side, having won 27-20 in Boulder last August when Haynes King broke a 45-yard touchdown run with 1:07 left, per ESPN. This time the Buffaloes make the trip to Atlanta, walking into a building where Tech's own quarterback change just got sorted out first.
Georgia Tech opens as a home favorite under the lights
Georgia Tech opened as a 6.5-point favorite at home over Colorado tonight, with the total set at 50.5 — a middling number for two teams breaking in new starting quarterbacks and, on Georgia Tech's side, a new coordinator calling the plays. Neither figure was posted by a specific book; it's the line the board is pinned to as kickoff nears, and it will keep moving on the game page through tonight.
Colorado enters 0-0 with zero games played this season, same as Georgia Tech, so tonight is the first real data point for either program under its new staff. Tonight vs. Colorado is the whole plot in one kickoff: Mendoza's debut, Lewis's homecoming, and a sold-out Bobby Dodd about to decide which story it wants to tell first.