Four Tech players recognized by prestigious honor society

Staff Reports

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech tight ends Josh Beetham (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville H.S.) and J.T. Byrne (Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif./Carmel H.S.), offensive lineman Joe Fusile (Richmond Hill, Ga./Richmond Hill H.S.) and defensive lineman Jordan van den Berg (Johannesburg, South Africa/Providence Christian Academy (Ga.)) received one of college football’s most prestigious recognitions on Wednesday when they were named to the 2026 class of the National Football Foundation’s Hampshire Honor Society.

In its 20^th year, the Hampshire Society recognizes football student-athletes that have completed their final season of eligibility and/or earned a bachelor’s degree, attained a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.2 as an undergraduate and were starters or main contributors for their teams throughout the 2025 season.

Beetham, Byrne, Fusile and van den Berg each played in all 13 games and combined to make 40 starts for Georgia Tech in 2025. They helped lead the Yellow Jackets to a historic season that concluded with a 9-4 overall record (tied for the 10^th-most victories in Tech’s 133-season football history) and No. 24 final national ranking. The Jackets rose to as high as No. 7 in the national rankings in ‘25 and were ranked in the final 14 national polls of the season, which is their longest streak since Tech was ranked in all 16 polls in 1999.

Georgia Tech also went 6-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play in ‘25, which was good for a tie for second place in the 17-team conference. With the second-place finish, the Yellow Jackets became the only ACC team that has finished in the top four of the conference standings each of the last three seasons.

Beetham and van den Berg both earned master’s degrees from Georgia Tech in December in management and international affairs, science and technology, respectively. Fusile graduated from Tech in December with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, while Byrne holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Cal and studied business administration in his lone year at Georgia Tech.

Fusile was a member of the all-Atlantic Coast Conference academic team in 2025 (a recognition reserved for underclassmen), while van den Berg was named first-team Academic All-America, becoming the first Yellow Jacket to earn the honor in 23 years.