A regular season that began more than three months ago reaches its dramatic conclusion Friday when Georgia Tech rolls up in the road and into Athens to face its fiercest rival. Can the Yellow Jackets bookend 2024 with yet another marquee victory?
Tech (7-4) will be facing its third top-10 team of the season at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Sanford Stadium when it squares off against No. 6 Georgia. It has already conquered two such tests, beating No. 10 Florida State 24-21 in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 24 and knocking off No. 4 Miami 28-23 on Nov. 9 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
The Bulldogs (9-2), who will be playing the SEC title game Dec. 7 and who were ranked 10th in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, are favored by 19.5 points to beat their in-state rival.
“We got a lot of work to do this week, a lot of work to put in,” Tech coach Brent Key said Monday. “They’re a good football team. There’s a reason why they’re a top-10 team. They got really good players, they got really good coaches, they’re well-coached, they’re disciplined. They go out and they execute. And they’re especially hard to play at their home stadium and at nighttime.
“We’re ready for a challenge. We gotta prepare this week and have our best week of preparation to be able to go out there and play a good, clean game on Friday night.”
Key spoke a little less passionately about the program to the northeast than he did over the summer when he expressed his disdain for UGA. The demeanor Monday was all business for the former Tech offensive lineman as he and his team prepare this to week to try to break a six-game losing streak to Georgia — another loss would equal UGA’s longest win streak in the series since 1991-97.
But Key’s squad should be a confident bunch. It has, after all, won two straight coming in, secured seven wins in the regular season for the first time since 2018, is bowl eligible for a second straight season and has found numerous ways to be victorious through a schedule wrought with ups, downs, injuries and tough opponents.
All that has led to this week, Tech’s final few days of practice before its 12th game, a game Key said he’s focused on preparing for, not discussing whether his squad will win or lose.
“We don’t talk about winning games. We don’t talk about anything other than playing to the best of our ability every play, one play at a time,” he added. “I can’t sit there and tell a team, ‘There’s no scoreboard, don’t look at the scoreboard, we’re not outcome-oriented,’ and we’re not, and then sit up here and talk about winning a football game. That’s not the way we’re wired, that’s not the way this team’s built, that’s why we’re able to have adversity hit and be able to continue to play through it because it’s all about playing the next play.”
Tech, at the very least, will have some matchup advantages, on paper, on Friday.
The Jackets have one of the nation’s best third-down defenses — an area UGA has struggled with on offense. The Bulldogs, abnormally, have one of the nation’s worst rushing attacks — Tech’s rush defense is among the top four in the ACC. Georgia’s defense has not been stout in the red zone — the Jackets score 87.8% of the time when reaching that area of the field.
Still, coach Kirby Smart’s program has become one of college football’s dominant forces with a 81-8 record in its last 89 games, 33-1 mark at home in the last 34 and a 30-game home winning streak (the Bulldogs haven’t lost in Sanford Stadium since Oct. 12, 2019).
Those factors and more will make for high emotions Friday and will add to the fuel that burns within Key in his desire to beat Georgia.
“You don’t go to Georgia Tech or play football for Georgia Tech unless you feel the way I do (about Georgia),” he told 680 The Fan on Monday.
