{"id":70474,"date":"2024-12-24T13:30:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T18:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=70474"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:30:20","slug":"georgia-tech-and-vanderbilt-face-off-in-the-birmingham-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/24\/georgia-tech-and-vanderbilt-face-off-in-the-birmingham-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt Face Off in the Birmingham Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt will face off in this year\u2019s version of the Birmingham Bowl.\u00a0 This bowl game pits two (very) old-time rivals from the SEC.\u00a0 While Vanderbilt still plays in the SEC, Georgia Tech now represents the ACC.\u00a0 Assuming most key players play and not opt out, this will be a solid matchup that will feature strong quarterback play and a focus on not turning the ball over.\u00a0 The quarterbacks are also very similar to each other.<\/p>\n

If there is one word to describe both Georgia Tech’s and Vanderbilt’s performances this season, it would be gritty.\u00a0 At different times, these teams won big games they were not expected to.\u00a0 Those wins had ripple effects that were felt all the way through the final College Football Playoff (CFP) seedings.\u00a0 Georgia Tech defeated then-#10 Florida State to begin the season.\u00a0 The Yellow Jackets then beat #4 Miami towards the end of the season.\u00a0 Miami was then one of the final two out in the final CFP rankings.\u00a0 Vanderbilt defeated the nation\u2019s top team, #1 (at the time) Alabama earlier in the season.\u00a0 Alabama was the other half of the first two out of the CFP.\u00a0 Given that, it seems very fitting that the Yellow Jackets and Commodores will face off in a bowl game between spoilers.<\/p>\n

Georgia Tech (7-5) and Vanderbilt (6-6) Face Off in the Birmingham Bowl<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When & Where:<\/strong> Friday, December 27th, 3:30 pm ET, in Birmingham, Alabama (Protective Stadium)<\/p>\n

Last Game\u2019s Results: <\/strong>Georgia Tech hung tough, but lost their last regular season game, 44-42 at Georgia in an eight-overtime thriller.\u00a0 Vanderbilt also closed out its regular season with a loss, falling to Tennessee 36-23 at home.<\/p>\n

Regular Season Results: <\/strong>These two teams found themselves on opposite trajectories to finish this season.\u00a0 Georgia Tech played three straight close games, all within five points, to finish the season with wins in two of those final three games.\u00a0 The Yellow Jackets finished with a regular season record of 7-5.\u00a0 Vanderbilt dropped its last three games of the season, falling to South Carolina, LSU, and Tennessee.\u00a0 Vanderbilt\u2019s finished the regular season 6-6.<\/p>\n

Series History: <\/strong>These two teams have met 38 times throughout history.\u00a0 Georgia Tech has won 20 times, Vanderbilt 15, and there have been three ties.\u00a0 Vanderbilt has not defeated Georgia Tech since 1941.\u00a0 Georgia Tech has won six straight, and the last time these two teams faced off was in 2016 when Georgia Tech won 38-7.<\/p>\n

Bowl History: <\/strong>Georgia Tech has appeared in 46 bowls, winning 26 of them and losing 20.\u00a0 The Yellow Jackets appeared in last year\u2019s Gasparilla Bowl, beating UCF 30-17.\u00a0 This will be Vanderbilt\u2019s first bowl game since 2018 when they lost 45-38 to Baylor in the Texas Bowl.\u00a0 It will be the Commodores\u2019 10th<\/sup> overall bowl, and so far, they have won four, lost four, and tied one.<\/p>\n

Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt Face Off in the Birmingham Bowl: Key Players to Watch<\/h3>\n

Both Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt rely on the quarterback for a few different aspects of the offense.\u00a0 Each team’s signal caller not only leads the passing game but also spearheads the rushing attack.\u00a0 Based on that, the quarterbacks are the players to watch in the Birmingham Bowl.<\/p>\n

Georgia Tech Quarterback Haynes King<\/h3>\n

The epitome of toughness, Haynes King<\/a> has been the perfect symbol of this year\u2019s Georgia Tech team.\u00a0 Despite being limited and missing about a month due to a shoulder injury suffered in mid-October, King stated in a press conference late last week that he is 100% ready to go for the Birmingham Bowl.<\/p>\n

The shoulder injury forced King to become more of a dual-threat quarterback, and he has responded well.\u00a0 No game showed his grit better than the eight-overtime loss against in-state rival Georgia, which wrapped up the Yellow Jackets\u2019 regular season.\u00a0 In the game, King completed 26 of 36 passes for 303 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.\u00a0 That would have been impressive enough.\u00a0 However, he also led all players with 110 yards rushing, and three rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

King has the ability to affect the game in many ways.\u00a0 Additionally, he takes care of the ball well.\u00a0 King has thrown just one interception this season and has only been sacked three times.\u00a0 His skills in both the passing and running games make King a player to watch.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt Quarterback Diego Pavia<\/h3>\n

Vanderbilt has won six games this season with a roster that would not have been expected to win that many.\u00a0 The schedule that the Commodores faced was a difficult one.\u00a0 What drove the performance and the bowl appearance was the play of quarterback Diego Pavia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Similar to King for Georgia Tech, Pavia is the engine that makes the Vanderbilt offense run.\u00a0 He runs the ball very well, perhaps even better than King.\u00a0 Pavia has also been banged up this season and has shown the perseverance to play through.<\/p>\n

Pavia knows the Vanderbilt offense very well, and at this point is an extension of offensive coordinator Tim Beck.\u00a0 The senior quarterback puts his teammates in a position to succeed.\u00a0 He takes care of the ball very well, throwing only four interceptions this season.\u00a0 Pavia also leads the team in rushing carries (176), and rushing yards (716), and is tied for the team lead with six rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt has relied heavily on the running game.\u00a0 At the forefront of this focus is Diego Pavia.\u00a0 His ability to succeed in the option offense that Vanderbilt runs makes Pavia a player to watch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt will face off in this year\u2019s version of the Birmingham Bowl.\u00a0 This bowl game pits two (very) old-time rivals from the SEC.\u00a0 While Vanderbilt still plays in the SEC, Georgia Tech now represents the ACC.\u00a0 Assuming most key players play and not opt out, this will be a solid matchup that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":70521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,7361,3,35580],"tags":[34544,102,1204,275,3435,20,1350,96],"class_list":["post-70474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","category-bowl-games","category-sec","category-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-2024-bowl-games","tag-acc","tag-birmingham-bowl","tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","tag-quarterbacks","tag-sec","tag-tim-beck","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70522,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70474\/revisions\/70522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}