Georgia Tech, Louisville aim for edge in ACC opener

Atlantic Coast Conference foes dive headfirst into league play Friday when Louisville visits Atlanta for a matchup against Georgia Tech in the season opener.

Former Louisville quarterback Jeff Brohm will be making his coaching debut for the Cardinals, who are coming off an 8-5 season. Louisville lost its 2022 opener against Syracuse, 31-7, and will be hoping for an improved effort against a Georgia Tech team that also got thumped in its 2022 kickoff game.

The Yellow Jackets got crushed 41-10 by Clemson in their first game last season and never really recovered en route to a 5-7 campaign. Brent Key coached Georgia Tech in its final eight games last season and was named the Yellow Jackets' permanent head coach on Nov. 29.

Georgia Tech returns 15 starters and quarterback Haynes King is one of the newcomers. The Texas A&M graduate transfer made seven starts for the Aggies over the last three seasons and is tasked with resurrecting an offense that averaged 17.2 points -- 125th nationally -- a season ago.

"Was there momentum last year? Yeah," Key said. "We quit waiting on bad things to happen. We went out there starting to expect to win. ... Winning grows in your locker room just like losing does."

Louisville will be welcoming in a new quarterback, Jack Plummer. The former California signal-caller passed for 3,095 yards and 21 touchdowns for the Golden Bears last season. He previously spent time at Purdue, where Brohm coached for the last six seasons.

"Jack has done a really good job," Brohm said. "He's got game experience. He's played a lot of football. He wants to win. ... So I just think we've tried to prepare Jack as much as we can. He's got to be smart and understand that if we get in a situation where we need some big plays, he can't do it all himself."

Even though Louisville has been part of the ACC since 2014, the teams have only met twice all-time. Georgia Tech has won both of those meetings by a combined 54 points.