Jordan Williams grew up in Gainesville, so he wasn’t completely oblivious to how much fans of the football teams at Georgia and Georgia Tech dislike each other. But he said it wasn’t until later that he had the realization of just how deep the hatred festers between Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets.
“Probably the first time I heard somebody bark,” he said Tuesday on his “Welcome to Clean Old-Fashioned Hate” moment.
Williams, who will tie Roddy Jones’ record of 52 career starts at Tech when he takes the field at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Sanford Stadium against No. 7 Georgia, is like a lot of the Jackets on the 2024 roster when it comes to the UGA-Tech rivalry: A lot of them were cognizant of it growing up before fully comprehending it as members of the Ramblin’ Wreck.
Center Weston Franklin, from Jesup, said that he simply preferred not to follow the crowd and become a Georgia fan like the rest of his community. Kyle Efford, from Dacula, said he simply loved watching football and never even thought to pick a side before playing for Tech.
Tech coach Brent Key grew up in the heart of Alabama, where the annual rivalry between Auburn and Alabama dominated headlines. His feelings toward UGA changed when he became a player at Tech and helped the Jackets beat Georgia three times from 1998-2000 — the Jackets have beaten UGA only three times since.
Key didn’t hold back over the summer when voicing how he felt toward the UGA program. But feelings and emotions won’t make tackles or complete passes Friday when the Jackets try to snap a six-game losing streak to that team in red and black.
“The big thing is taking the emotion and using it as fuel. You don’t wanna play emotional in games. Emotions get you out of whack, cause you not to be disciplined,” Key said. “When you lose control of the emotional state, now everything else is gonna go behind it. It’s hard to think clearly when you’re in an emotional state. I want guys to get all their emotions out prior through the week, that’s why we practice the way we do and do the things we do.
“But you have to turn those emotions into fuel and use that fuel to propel you throughout the game and to play your best.”
The Jackets (7-4) are 19.5-point underdogs. That may, at first glance, seem like a large margin of possible victory for the home team, but Tech hasn’t exactly made the rivalry competitive in recent seasons. The 2023 result of 31-23 was the closest score since Tech won 28-27 in 2016, but still the Bulldogs have beaten Tech by an average of 29 points over the past six meetings.
Key’s squad heads into the game with its main motivation, undoubtedly, to break finally the woeful string of losses to the Dogs. Georgia, on the other hand, is fighting to remain in the College Football Playoff picture and has an SEC Championship game to play Dec. 7.
Also, Georgia (9-2) has been virtually unbeatable in Sanford Stadium the past four-plus seasons.
“Very challenging game. Hostile environment,” Key said. “It’s gonna take everything we have and all of our players firing on all cylinders, play with the fundamental basics of football that you have to play with. Can’t try to do anything extreme or over our heads. We gotta play a solid game. We know it’s gonna be a challenge. We’ve had challenges this year, and we’re gonna go in Friday night and play to the best of our ability.”
Key’s squad has beaten two teams ranked inside The Associated Press top 10 at the time of the meeting, No. 10 Florida State in August and No. 4 Miami earlier this month. Tech also knocked off a Duke team that was undefeated when it came to Bobby Dodd Stadium in October.
The recipe for success in those victories, and Tech’s other four wins this season, has been rather simple: establish an effective ground game and win the turnover battle. In their four losses, the Jackets have averaged only 92.5 rushing yards per game and turned the ball over five times.
Georgia, meanwhile, is allowing only 124.5 yards per game on the ground.
“Definitely got a lot of good players. I know a lot of those guys over there. I’ve played with a few of ‘em,” Franklin said of UGA’s defense. “They’re just all good players, and they all have their specialties that they have — just figure out how to attack them.”
The Tech defense will face a Georgia offense that presents a bit of a different look than in year’s past. The Bulldogs’ run game has struggled, averaging only 130.1 yards per game, which ranks 98th nationally and 15th in the 16-team SEC.
But quarterback Carson Beck covers up that deficiency by leading the nation’s ninth-best passing offense. Beck has thrown for 3,132 yards and 23 touchdowns this season and, after throwing 11 interceptions over a five-game span earlier this year, is 65-for-102 passing (63.7%) for 830 yards and six touchdowns (with just one pick) over his past three outings.
“They’re an explosive offense, per usual,” Efford said. “We just gotta come out there and play our brand of football. We’ll be able to stop ‘em if we play our best.”
A shade more than eight years ago, Tech went to Athens and beat Georgia 28-27. The Jackets scored 14 points in the fourth quarter and got a Qua Searcy game-winning touchdown run with 30 seconds left for the victory.
Tech’s players planted a flag in the middle of the Georgia “G” at midfield as part of the celebration. Though there hasn’t been much celebrating by the white and gold since, the vitriol remains.
“When I think of Georgia it’s just a strong dislike of that program. I’ve never liked it, never wanted to be there,” Franklin said. “Just where I grew up, everybody around me was a Georgia fan, I just didn’t like it. Wasn’t me. Never liked red.
“For us as a program, that’d definitely be a huge goal checked off for us, and that’s a goal we have ever year is to win a state championship, and that’s what we plan to do.”
