Vanderbilt Pulls Away From Georgia Tech In The Second Half to Win The 2024 Birmingham Bowl 35-27

Georgia Tech finishes the 2024 season 7-6, making it their second consecutive 7-6 season

Dec 27, 2024; Birmingham, AL, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King (10) looks to throw against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the first half of the 2024 Birmingham Bowl at Protective Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images / Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

Turnovers, poor defense, and some questionable officiating calls in the second half of today's Birmingham Bowl between Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt sent the Yellow Jackets home with a bowl loss and a poor finish to what has otherwise been a solid season for Brent Key's team.

It was the above three things that killed Georgia Tech today. The defense, which was down key players today such as Romello Height, Taye Seymore, Kyle Efford,, and Rodney Shelley, but they looked unprepared for this Commodores offense, but a lot of credit should go to Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia for making plays. He was the best player on the field tonight and was a huge reason they won.

The officiating was also an issue. With the game 14-13, Georgia Tech was called for pass interference on third down and that would have ended the drive and gave the ball back to Georgia Tech. Instead, that call seemingly sent the Yellow Jackets into a spiral and it turned into an unsportsmanlike conduct on head coach Brent Key. After that, a defensive holding was called on Georgia Tech and then another scuffle between the two teams resulted in offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Vanderbilt scored to make the game 21-13 and then it was an avalanche of turnovers and mistakes for the Yellow Jackets that sent them into a defeat in Birmingham.

It was not the best day for quarterback Haynes King. He was not effective at all as a runner and could not hit big plays through the air. At times, King held the ball too long was sacked three times by the Commodore's defense and he had the crucial interception after Vanderbilt went ahead 21-13. King has been consistently very good this season, but this was arguably his worst game of the season. He finished the game 25-33 for 204 yards and three touchdowns, but a lot of his yardage came on the final two drives when Georgia Tech went into their two-minute drill.

Jamal Haynes finished his season on a nice note, rushing for 136 yards on 17 carries. Georgia Tech finished with 394 total yards, higher than Vanderbilt's 306. The Yellow Jackets threw for 204 yards and rushed for 190. Georgia Tech averaged 5.7 yards per play, Vandy averaged 5.2 The sequence of penalties and how the team responded was the story of the game in this one, but far from the only reason they lost the game. It is onto 2025 for Brent Key and Georgia Tech.

Vandy won the toss and elected to kick the ball and the Yellow Jackets started the day on offense. They went three and out and both offenses exchanged punts to start the game. After Georgia Tech punted for their second time in as many possessions, Vandy got on the scoreboard, thanks to their passing game.

Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia led Vandy on an eight play, 87-yard TD drive that ended with Pavia finding Nick Spence in the end zone to make it 7-0. Vandy wide receiver Loic Fouonji caught a 40-yard pass on the drive and the Commodores offense looked sharp.

Georgia Tech needed an answer and they got one in one of their trademark drives that took over seven minutes off the clock and got the game into the second quarter. The running game was looking strong, with Jamal Haynes ripping off 17-yard and 11-yard runs and Malik Rutherford picking up a crucial 1st down on a 4th down. Despite a holding call near the goal line, King finished the drive by finding tight end Ryland Goede for his first career touchdown. It was a tied game, but it was Vandy's turn to go on a long drive.

After Georgia Tech's long possession, Vandy held the ball for over eight minutes and went 81 yards in 14 plays, which resulted in a touchdown on a 4th down play. The drive was aided by a poor facemask penalty called on Yellow Jackets cornerback Warren Burrell. After the penalty, Vandy moved the ball near the goal line, but faced a 4th down on the two-yard line. Pavia ended the drive by running the ball in and giving them the lead back 14-7.

The two long drives by both teams left little time on the clock for Haynes King to move the ball down the field for Georgia Tech. With under two minutes remaining in the 1st half, King led the Yellow Jackets down the field in nine plays to get into field goal range. After being on the wrong end of a call earlier, Georgia Tech benefitted from three straight penalties from Vandy to set them up with a field goal attempt from Aidan Birr. Birr has been shaky this year, but he nailed the 43-yard field goal with eight seconds left in the half. Vandy would then kneel the ball out and take a 14-10 lead into the half.

The Commodores got the ball to start the half and Georgia Tech's defense needed a stop. They got off the field quickly thanks to a pressure from Zeek Biggers that resulted in an intentional grounding penalty and then Omar Daniels brought heat on Pavia on 3rd down to end the drive. Georgia Tech got the ball back and had a chance to cut into the lead.

After a good punt return from Bailey Stockton, Georgia Tech got a pair of 20-yard completions, one to Rutherford and one to tight end Avery Boyd and they were moving the ball. They were not able to put it into the endzone though and had to settle for a field goal. Birr hit the 33-yard field goal and cut the lead to one point 14-13.

After both teams exchanged punts, the referees injected themselves into the game once again and most of it went against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets were first called for a questionable pass interference against Trenilyas Tatum on 3rd down and that kept the drive alive. Displeased with the call, head coach Brent Key got upset with the officials and was then called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. After those two penalties, a defensive holding was called on Georgia Tech, before another set of unsportsmanlike penalties were called, two on Georgia Tech and one on Vandy, offsetting the fouls. The drive ended with Pavia finding tight end Eli Stowers for a touchdown and Vandy took a 21-13 lead over Georgia Tech.

Brent Key upset with the call pic.twitter.com/xjrDloEBom

— NMD Grant (@NMDgrant) December 27, 2024

Needing some good momentum, the Yellow Jackets got the last thing they needed and that was an interception from Haynes King. The Commodores turned that interception into points three plays later and led Georgia Tech 28-13 with 14:55 left in the game.

With the game in the 4th quarter and Vandy being able to hold the ball for so long on multiple possessions, it was imperative that Georgia Tech get a scoring drive together down 15 points, but what happened was yet another turnover. After a big run from Jamal Haynes to start the drive, Rutherford took a handoff and picked up big yards, but fumbled the ball and the Commodores recovering.

After the fumble, the back-breaking touchdown occured. Pavia found Stowers for a 39-yard gain and then ran it in the end zone for his fifth total touchdown of the day and putting the Commodores comfortably ahead 35-13. It felt like the penalties and the turnovers had put the team in a spiral and that was the final nail.

The game then entered a lightning delay and play did not resume until 6:30 p.m. CT. Georgia Tech had the ball trailing 35-13 and got a big run from Jamal Haynes that put him over 100 yards for the day, but a false start penalty did set them back to the seven yard line. On 3rd down, King found Haynes for a nine-yard touchdown to trim the lead to 35-20 with 5:15 left in the game. The onside kick was unsuccessful and Vandy took over and looked to run out the clock. They were not able to do that though and Georgia Tech forced a three and out to give themselves the ball back with 4:06 left in the game, trailing by 15.

Credit to Georgia Tech, they did not give up. King led them down the field 83 yards in 11 plays and after a pass interference penalty on Vanderbilt put the ball at the two-yard line, King found Bailey Stockton for his first career touchdown to cut the lead to 35-27. Georgia Tech needed to recover an onside kick to keep the game going, but the kick went out of bounds and the game was over. Vanderbilt won 35-27 and finished their season with a win and giving the Yellow Jackets their second consecutive loss to end the 2024 season with two losses.