{"id":71023,"date":"2024-12-27T20:36:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T01:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71023"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:30:19","slug":"vanderbilt-beats-georgia-tech-in-messy-birmingham-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/27\/vanderbilt-beats-georgia-tech-in-messy-birmingham-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanderbilt Beats Georgia Tech in Messy Birmingham Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a rainy, gloomy day in Alabama, things got chippy between the Yellow Jackets and the Commodores.\u00a0 By the time it was over, Vanderbilt beat Georgia Tech 35-27 in a messy Birmingham Bowl. The gameplay became as messy as the weather did, which included a 54-minute lightning delay in the fourth quarter. \u00a0As expected<\/a>, this game was decided by the quarterbacks.\u00a0 Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia<\/a> accounted for five touchdowns, and Georgia Tech’s Haynes King<\/a> reaffirmed the toughness and leadership he brings to the team.<\/p>\n

Heading into the Birmingham Bowl, both Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech could be described as well-disciplined and smashmouth.\u00a0 They exude the personalities of their head coaches.\u00a0 Brent Key, the coach at Georgia Tech, was an offensive lineman for the Yellow Jackets.\u00a0 Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea was a fullback for the Commodores.\u00a0 The Birmingham Bowl was what you would expect from teams led by a right guard and a fullback.\u00a0 However, the discipline devolved in the second half, as the intensity grew.\u00a0 There were questionable penalties on Georgia Tech players and even Georgia Tech’s coach.\u00a0 There was a scrum and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.\u00a0 The collective passion of these teams was on display, and the game clearly mattered to both squads.<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways: Vanderbilt Beats Georgia Tech in Messy Birmingham Bowl<\/h2>\n

The Birmingham Bowl was a reunion of old-time rivals and original members of the SEC.\u00a0 It is the first postseason meeting for the schools.\u00a0 The first matchup was in 1892 and was Georgia Tech’s second football game ever.\u00a0 Through time, the programs have evolved and Georgia Tech moved to the ACC.\u00a0 The teams had not met since 2016.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, this game was a hard-nosed, tough football game.\u00a0 Between the weather and the intensity of the coaching staffs, these teams would not have it any other way.\u00a0 It was messy and it was old-school.<\/p>\n

Wait’ll We Get Our Haynes on You<\/h3>\n

Georgia Tech looked to balance its attack between the run and the pass.\u00a0 The team turned to a Haynes in either instance.\u00a0 Quarterback Haynes King, coming off a very gritty performance against Georgia, ran the offense and threw the ball effectively.\u00a0 Running back Jamal Haynes<\/a> contributed through both the running game and passing game.\u00a0 However, the Georgia Tech offense starts and ends with the performance of the quarterback of the Yellow Jackets.<\/p>\n

King has been the leader of the offense, and his toughness spreads to the rest of the team.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, he embodies the smash-mouth mentality of the Yellow Jackets.\u00a0 The redshirt junior is dependable and makes good decisions.\u00a0 This year, he has worked on cleaning up his throwing fundamentals to become a more complete quarterback.\u00a0 In the Birmingham Bowl, King took a few big hits.\u00a0 Consequently, his offensive linemen and\/or the trainers had to literally and figuratively pick him up.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, he kept coming back for more.<\/p>\n

When a quarterback feels pressure to do too much, bad things can happen.\u00a0 The end of the third quarter of this game is a testament to that.\u00a0 Following a Vanderbilt touchdown to put the Commodores up 21-13, King tried to do too much.\u00a0 He forced the ball into coverage.\u00a0 Instead of moving the chains, he threw only his second interception of the season.\u00a0 Georgia Tech had the second-lowest turnovers in the country entering the game.\u00a0 Pushing in the second half, they turned the ball over twice (a fumble in addition to the interception).<\/p>\n

The lightning delay reinvigorated King and the Georgia Tech offense.\u00a0 The Yellow Jackets outscored Vanderbilt 14-0 once the game resumed.\u00a0 However, it was too little too late for the Yellow Jackets.<\/p>\n

Stay Classy Diego<\/h3>\n

On the other sideline, quarterback Diego Pavia continued to lead the Vanderbilt offense, as he did during most of the season.\u00a0 The 2024 SEC Newcomer of the Year is an on-field extension of the coaching staff.\u00a0 With ample experience running the offense, both with Vanderbilt and New Mexico State, helped him in this game.\u00a0 Pavia, a senior, was recently granted another year of eligibility by the NCAA.\u00a0 This will provide continuity to the Commodores entering 2025.\u00a0 Speaking of the win after the game, Pavia said “This is just a stepping stone.”<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt’s offense is methodical, and not one that will produce multiple highlight reel plays.\u00a0 However, in this game, the Commodores did take selective chances down the field.\u00a0 For example, Pavia went long in the first quarter to complete a 40-yard pass to set up a first and goal on Vanderbilt’s first touchdown drive.\u00a0 That touchdown was on a run-pass-option (RPO).\u00a0 As expected, it was a good read by Pavia.<\/p>\n

When the intensity greatly accelerated in the second half, Pavia’s game reached a new level as well.\u00a0 Consequently, he became harder to tackle.\u00a0 At times, Pavia looked like a magician as he scrambled.\u00a0 He also threw the ball crisper and led his team to the endzone when a score was needed to quiet a potential Georgia Tech comeback.\u00a0 Then, following an interception, Pavia threw another touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it a two-score game.\u00a0 At that point, the game was as good as over.<\/p>\n

By the Numbers: Vanderbilt Beats Georgia Tech in Messy Birmingham Bowl<\/h3>\n

Offense<\/h3>\n

Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>Georgia Tech threw for 204 yards, compared to 160 for Vanderbilt.\u00a0 King completed 25 of 33 for 204 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception.\u00a0 For Vanderbilt, Pavia completed 13 of 21 for 160 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions.<\/p>\n

Rushing:\u00a0<\/strong>Georgia Tech had 190 yards, compared to 146 yards for Vanderbilt.\u00a0 Haynes led Georgia Tech, and all players, with 136 rushing yards on 17 carries.\u00a0 Malik Rutherford<\/a> added 29 yards on one carry.\u00a0 Vanderbilt was led by Pavia, who had 85 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns.\u00a0 Sedrick Alexander<\/a> rushed 13 times, gaining 32 yards.<\/p>\n

Receiving:\u00a0<\/strong>Abdul Janneh Jr.<\/a> led Georgia Tech with 34 yards on three catches.\u00a0 The Georgia Tech receiving touchdowns were scored by Haynes, Bailey Stockton, and Ryland Goede.\u00a0 For Vanderbilt, Eli Stowers<\/a> led the team with a game-high 55 yards on four receptions with a touchdown.\u00a0 Cole Spence and Quincy Skinner Jr. had the other Vanderbilt receiving touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n

Defense: <\/strong>Zachary Tobe<\/a> had seven tackles to lead Georgia Tech.\u00a0 Zeek Biggers had the only Georgia Tech sack.\u00a0 Nicholas Rinaldi<\/a> and Bryan Longwell<\/a> led Vanderbilt with a game-high nine tackles each.\u00a0 Rinaldi added two sacks, with Yilanan Outtara contributing a sack.\u00a0 The Vanderbilt interception was by CJ Taylor<\/a>, and the fumble recovery was by Aeneas DiCosmo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Special Teams:\u00a0<\/strong>For Georgia Tech, Aidan Birr<\/a> converted both of his field goal attempts.\u00a0 He converted all three of his extra-point attempts.\u00a0 David Shanahan<\/a> punted three times, averaging 41.7 yards per punt.\u00a0 For Vanderbilt, Brock Taylor<\/a> did not attempt any field goals but converted all five of his extra-point tries.\u00a0 Jesse Mirco<\/a> punted four times, averaging 48.8 yards per punt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a rainy, gloomy day in Alabama, things got chippy between the Yellow Jackets and the Commodores.\u00a0 By the time it was over, Vanderbilt beat Georgia Tech 35-27 in a messy Birmingham Bowl. The gameplay became as messy as the weather did, which included a 54-minute lightning delay in the fourth quarter. \u00a0As expected, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":71041,"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":[34665,1204,9462,8099,34666,275,34667,10225,20,96,34669,34668],"class_list":["post-71023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","category-bowl-games","category-sec","category-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-bailey-stockton","tag-birmingham-bowl","tag-brent-key","tag-clark-lea","tag-cole-spence","tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","tag-quincy-skinner-jr","tag-ryland-goede","tag-sec","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-yilanan-outtara","tag-zeek-biggers"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71023","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=71023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71042,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71023\/revisions\/71042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}