2025 Pop Tart Bowl: Can BYU Avoid Being Swarmed by Georgia Tech

We all get caught up in the College Football Playoff. These days, it feels like bowl games aren’t even all that important. However, they still provide plenty of benefits. Extra practices. Some teams treat it as a chance to see what younger guys may be able to bring to the table the following season. And then some bowl games are just meant to be fun. The Pop-Tarts Bowl falls into that category. From Pop-Tarts sprinkled on the helmets to an edible mascot, it’s meant to be a good time. And this year, the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl gives us two teams that once had playoff hopes, and now find themselves just trying to end the year on a positive note.

So can Georgia Tech manage to right a ship that has fallen on hard times late in the season? Or does BYU prove to the country that they were wrongfully left out of the playoff?

The Yellow Jacket offense is extremely efficient. They don’t put up a ridiculous number of points, but that’s largely due to the fact that they do like to run the ball and shorten the game. Despite that, they still finished the year ranked 23rd nationally in scoring offense, averaging 33 points per game. However, to show the balance of the offense, they also finished 28th in passing offense. A lot of that is because of veteran quarterback Haynes King. A decent passer and physical runner, King creates a lot of problems for opposing defenses. So, the issue with Georgia Tech clearly isn’t the offense.

The defense, however, is another story.

On the season, the Yellow Jackets are giving up 25 points per contest. That puts them down at 71st nationally.

Furthermore, they gave up at least 34 points in three of their final four games. That’s simply not good enough, especially for a team that once had playoff hopes. Now, they take on a BYU team averaging 32 points per game. More importantly, it’s a Cougar offense that leans heavily on the rushing attack. And Georgia Tech is giving up a hefty 170 yards per contest on the ground. Needless to say, if the Yellow Jackets can’t find answers on the defensive side of the ball, it could be a long day for the guys in gold.

For BYU, the hope is that its offense can succeed against the struggling Georgia Tech defense. Assuming that’s the case, the question becomes whether the Cougar defense can continue its strong season. So far this year, the BYU defense has been solid, giving up only 19 points per game. That’s good enough for 21st nationally.

Diving deeper, the defense has been balanced in stopping the run and the pass, relatively well. Through the air, they’re giving up a bit over 200 yards per game. On the ground, they give up 122 yards per game. Against a balanced offense that the Yellow Jackets bring to the table, doing a decent job of stopping the run and pass should go a long way.

In a game that should feature plenty of runs, which can shorten the game, the question comes down to avoiding mistakes. If there is one concern for the Cougars, it’s the fact that their quarterback, Bear Bachmeier, is a true freshman who doesn’t have a tremendous amount of experience. Despite the relative lack of experience, he’s done a good job of not turning the ball over, with only six interceptions on the season. Ball security is going to have to be a big part of BYU’s success in this one.

This is an intriguing matchup for multiple reasons. It features two good offenses that should challenge the opposing defense. The other side is that both teams should be fired up and excited for this one. One reason for this is the fact that both coaches, Brent Key and Kalani Sitake, signed extensions with their programs, despite receiving interest from other schools recently. This should mean we get a solid effort from both teams, which is sometimes lacking in bowl games.

Given that, the question comes down to who is the better team, and who is playing better as of late. The undoubted answer to that second question is BYU. Where Georgia Tech has struggled to close the year, the Cougars have played well, except when playing Texas Tech. And with the BYU defense being a better unit than the Yellow Jackets on that side of the ball, take BYU to get a big bowl win.

Expect a close game, likely one that won’t see many defensive stops. However, the Cougars manage to do just enough on that side of the ball to sneak away with the win.