ATHENS — It will go down as one of the greatest games in the history of Clean Old-Fashioned Hate. That makes it no less excruciating for the visitors from Atlanta.
Nate Frazier’s 2-yard run in the eighth overtime early Saturday at Sanford Stadium gave No. 7 Georgia a 44-42 win over Georgia Tech. It was the seventh straight defeat for the Yellow Jackets to their bitter rival, and even though it much closer and much more thrilling than the last six, it still ended with a loss.
“It’s definitely tough,” Tech quarterback Haynes King said. “Right now my emotional state is just, kinda, tired of feeling like this. Tired of always playing your heart out, doing all this till the last play and always coming up short. Just tired of feeling that way right now.”
Tech had a 27-13 lead with 5:37 to play and was seemingly in total control. But two Dominic Lovett touchdown receptions, the second coming after Tech quarterback Haynes King fumbled with 2:02 to play, tied the score at 27-27 with 61 seconds left.
But the loss could in no way be pinned on King who threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns on 26-of-36 passing and ran for 110 yards on 24 carries. He tried every which way to will his teammates to win with an injured right shoulder and, by the end, a blood-stained right knee.
The Bulldogs (10-2), though, don’t lose at home. And something began to swirl in the frigid night air in the fourth quarter when UGA began to start its comeback with a wave of a sellout crowd behind them.
Tech (7-5), bewildered going into overtime, matched touchdowns with UGA in the first two overtimes. Then, moving to two-point conversion tries, neither team scored until the fifth overtime — when both scored. Now at 42-42, the defenses made stops in overtime six and overtime seven.
In the eighth, King was pressured and through a desperation to intended for Eric Singleton Jr. that flew incomplete. Frazier’s heroics followed.
“It’s tough. Love that team in there. ...,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “There’s no moral victories. I’m proud of those guys. We’re gonna use this to continue to fuel us, continue to improve in all areas of the program. Because Georgia Tech’s special. These kids are special.”
Georgia quarterback Carson Beck threw for 297 yards and five touchdowns. The Bulldogs were held to 108 yards rushing and had possession 14 fewer minutes than the Yellow Jackets.
It looked like their 30-game home win streak would fall by the wayside as time dwindled away late Friday. Georgia clawed within 20-13 with 8:18 to go thanks to a six-minute, 13-play drive that Fraizer polished off with a 1-yard plunge.
Tech punched back with an assertive, 75-yard dive that ended with King’s 11-yard touchdown run. It put the Jackets up 14 points with a little more than 5-1/2 to play. Turns out that was just enough time to UGA to mount the comeback.
“Everybody says it’s nobody’s fault, but at the end of the day, with me being who I am, I can’t let that fumble happen,” King said about his fourth quarter turnover. “Toward the end I gotta have six points pressure, two hands no matter what. I know he made a really good hit, helmet to the ball and it popped out. But I can’t let happen.”
Tech, which now waits until Dec. 8 to find out its bowl destination and opponent, put together a crafty game plan at the outset.
Going exclusively with King at quarterback, instead of the two-quarterback system it has used in the two previous wins coming in, the Jackets mounted a 17-0 lead at the half getting an Aidan Birr field, goal, King TD run and King touchdown throw to running back Jamal Haynes. They also had that lead despite a missed field-goal attempt and turnover on downs.
Georgia managed a single touchdown in the third quarter, a 2-yard pass from Beck to Oscar Delp. Georgia curiously went for two after the score, and failed, leaving the Bulldogs down 20-6.
The Jackets’ upped their lead to 20-6 after Birr’s 23-yard field goal ended a 90-yard drive that exhausted 10:36 seconds of clock. Georgia would go on a 21-7 run from there to force overtime.
“Losing stinks. Losing like this, I told ‘em, there’s no moral victories,” Key said. “I’m proud as heck of ‘em. I’m proud of the seniors, what they’ve done for this program. I’m proud of everybody on that sideline, the work the put in, really, since January. They’ve never wavered. They’ve hit obstacles and they’ve overcome ‘em. They’ve truly cemented what our vision, the Tech way.
“It’s tough right now. It’s mentally exhausting. It takes a lot. Just came up a little short.”
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