Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel knows he’s walking into a physical trap in Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday. Georgia Tech’s Brent Key doesn’t quite agree.

Heupel opened up game week by telling reporters he expects a physical game in the Vols’ first road game. When a reporter informed Key of Heupel’s remarks, the Yellow Jackets’ head coach offered an honest assessment of where he thinks his team is at heading into Week 2.

“Josh is being nice then," Key said.

Key and Georgia Tech are coming off a one-point loss, 14-13, to Colorado at home — a loss at the extended hands of former Vols defensive back Boo Carter, who blocked the game-winning kick as time expired.

The Yellow Jackets struggled mightily to execute with physicality. Georgia Tech averaged a whopping 1.7 yards per carry and had a game-long rush of 11 yards. Lead back Justice Haynes toted the ball for 64 yards on 19 carries.

Georgia Tech failed to score a touchdown on offense across nine drives. The only time the Yellow Jackets found the end zone was on a 100-yard kick return.

Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is licking his chops at an offense that already proved it couldn’t produce. It’s even more desirable when you realize Knowles didn’t even touch the surface of what his defense could look like.

And it still only allowed 221 total yards.

“Man, we kept (the defensive game plan) so simple, and even keeping it so simple, it worked fantastically,” Vols senior defensive lineman Nathan Robinson said.

So how will Tennessee be challenged? Through the air.

Furman, under the direction of one-time power conference quarterback Jake Garcia, tossed for 43 yards in Week 1. Tennessee’s pass defense didn’t get presented much with a challenge.

But Garcia wasn’t cut out at the power conference level for a reason. Alberto Mendoza, the brother of 2025 Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, is Georgia Tech’s signal-caller. The Indiana transfer is an efficient playmaker, completing 74% of his passes for 237 yards.

He also proved the moment doesn’t get too big. After Colorado took a lead with less than a minute remaining, Mendoza only needed one play.

In his first career start, Mendoza dropped back and completed a 42-yard catch-and-run across the middle of the field to get Georgia Tech in scoring position. The Georgia Tech offense moved the ball to a desirable spot for kicker Aidan Burr to walk it off from 45 yards away — but Carter denied the Yellow Jackets from the win column.

That’s the challenge Knowles’ unit will face: a quarterback who makes all the right decisions, willing the test the field vertically. They’ll be forced to lock down Mendoza’s favorite target, Jordan Allen, who went for 113 yards on eight recpetions in the first week of the season.

But for all the challenges the Yellow Jackets present, the task be more about how Tennessee can clean up its own mistakes and help out a rookie signal-caller making his first-career start on the road in a night environment.

The Vols and Yellow Jackets kick off at 7 p.m. ET in Atlanta on Saturday.

Source: Yahoo Sports