This year’s version of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate was trending to be one of the most important Georgia-Georgia Tech games in the series’ long history.
That was before No. 23 Georgia Tech (9-2) likely squandered its chances of making its first College Football Playoff and No. 4 Georgia (10-1) all but clinched its fifth CFP appearance.
Nonetheless, Friday afternoon in Atlanta will determine bragging rights for 365 days — rights that Georgia has owned for seven straight years.
“This is a game that means a lot to a lot of people,” Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said. “A lot of people that have gone to school here, played here, have been fans of this place. But it doesn’t mean more to them than it does to the players on this football team. And that’s what rivalries are. I’ve said this before, we’ve got to do our part in it.”
Georgia Tech needed to beat Pitt last week to clinch a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, which would have served as a catapult to the CFP. The Yellow Jackets fell behind 28-0 en route to a 42-28 loss.
For Key’s team to slip into the ACC final, it needs to beat Georgia and get an abundance of help from teams throughout the conference.
In the likely event that Georgia Tech will miss out on playing in Charlotte in the title game, the Yellow Jackets still have all the needed motivation for Friday.
“Probably the only good thing is the fact that we have a short week this week,” Key said. “You’ve got to flip the script fast, turn it around.”
Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King entered last week as a potential Heisman finalist but had his first multi-interception game of the season.
“He’ll sit there and take responsibility for it all,” Key said. “But we had protection breakdowns. We had drops. We had everything. Let’s not for a second put all that on Haynes.”
Georgia enters as one of the nation’s most confident teams, winners in seven straight games. The Bulldogs are primed for another return to the CFP, with a chance to appear in their fifth straight SEC title game. Georgia will make it if Auburn beats No. 10 Alabama, or No. 16 Texas beats No. 3 Texas A&M.
Georgia nearly had its postseason situation altered against Georgia Tech last year before it rallied for a 44-42 eight-overtime win against the Yellow Jackets.
Smart dismissed the notion of any carryover from last season’s battle.
“The teams are trying to win the game, regardless of what happened last year,” Smart said. “I don’t know why eight overtimes would make people want to win more or less this year. I assure you, they want to win the game just as much as we did, regardless of the outcome last year.”
The Bulldogs are led by the steady play of quarterback Gunner Stockton, who’s thrown for 2,465 yards and 19 touchdowns, adding a team-high eight scores on the ground. Smart sees similarities in Stockton and King as hard-nosed leaders of their teams.
“The play (King) puts out and the production he’s put out, has really been incredible for what he’s been able to do and the toughness, and the durability he’s done it with has been similar for Gunner,” Smart said. “He just hasn’t done it as long as Haynes has.”
Georgia leads the all-time series 72-39-5 and hasn’t lost to Georgia Tech since Smart’s first season in 2016.
