Last year at this time, the Virginia Tech football team was considered a dark horse to crash the new 12-team College Football Playoff from the ACC. Instead, while the Hokies were stumbling to a 6-6 regular season, SMU took the bull by the horns and crashed with a 12-1 record and a last-second loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game.
Now, a year later, the vibes surrounding the Hokies are different, and there are some other schools that are sitting in the same boat as Virginia Tech did a year ago. Clemson is the clear-cut favorite to run away from the rest of the conference and collect the automatic bid to the CFP by winning the conference championship, but if the ACC gets a second school, who could that be? Well, FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt gave his choice.
FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt names surprising second ACC CFP team
One quick look at the ACC and you could come up quickly with either Miami or Louisville also crashing the CFP in December. Maybe you could make the case that SMU is primed for another run. However, Klatt went outside the box with Georgia Tech on "The Joel Klatt Show.''
"I thought deeply and for a long time about putting them in my top 25, and I just couldn't," Klatt said. "I liked the other teams there more. It's not that I didn't like Georgia Tech. Haynes King and Jamal Haynes, the running back, that's a really good combination. I love the fact that they can play with the best teams in the country.
"They get Clemson at home and Georgia on a neutral field. That's a team that could easily go 10-2, and a 10-2 Georgia Tech team, in particular, with the way that they played Georgia last year and the opportunity to still play Georgia this year, how they play in those two games is going to matter."
Virginia Tech will visit the Yellow Jackets this season in October, a year after they beat them in Blacksburg, 21-6, in which they lost running back Bhayshul Tuten late in the game with an injury. King didn't play in that game for Georgia Tech, but he's back for another year and itching to go.
If the SEC and Big Ten had their way, the ACC wouldn't get a second team, but Georgia Tech cashing the College Football Playoff is certainly a dark horse pick. The Hokies will get an up-close look at King and crew in what is turning into arguably their most difficult ACC road contest of the 2025 season.