Happy game day FRIDAY my fellow Dawg fans. It’s a crisp freezing arse cold here in the Queen City, but the steaming coffee and radiant hatred I have for the nerd herd from North Avenue is keeping me warm. It's Rivalry Week! Clean Old Fashioned Hate is here.
What a season this has become. Hands down this has been exactly what the playoff overlords wanted when expanding to 12 teams: absolute chaos. Waking up Sunday morning to find out we were back in the SEC Championship game was a “huh? I need a cup of coffee” moment. FU beating Ole Miss? Auburn beating A&M in 4 overtimes? Regardless of all that and the looming date in Atlanta, we have another Atlanta problem this week to face and its the nerds.
Brent Key has been running his damn mouth about this game all week, and even before the season began. Giving the devil his due, this Tech team is a very well coached team and there is not a doubt in my mind that Key has every single player on that team and the equipment managers believing they have what it takes to beat us. This is absolutely a dangerous game that will be very unforgiving if we get caught with our pants down and put on a defense performance like he allowed against UMass.
Tech isn’t even a top 30 team in rushing defense, so our ground game that will (probably) be the Frazier/Bell/Jones show should be able to move the ball collectively as a group, but I still expect us to put pressure on a pretty loose Tech secondary and move the ball vertically. It took the offensive schemers until Week 10 to figure out we had big beefy tight ends who could receive the ball from Beck and gain chunks of yardage, and since then, they have been Beck’s go-to.
Our defense is going to be pressured early and often on first and second play efficiency from Tech. They are averaging 6.2 yards on first and second downs and giving them lots of 3rd and shorts to convert and a key part of that offensive success is Haynes King being a true dual threat QB. I think we see a similar defensive scheme to stop him that we saw against Quinn Ewers. These guys are gaining a lot of early yardage on jet sweeps and power tosses to Malik Rutherford. If we keep them in 3rd and longs, the nerds aren’t even in the top 50 of FBS teams in 3rd down completion percentage.
What can’t we do in this game? Slow start. I have been told by several friends this week “no way Tech beats us.” I channel my inner Corso and fire back “not so fast my friend…” No, I do not think they do, but I can think of about 10 different ways we give this game away if we are not laser focused on each play of each drive of each quarter and keep the positive momentum going from the last two games. Worry about Atlanta next week and take care of Atlanta’s big problem this week.
GO DAWGS! GATA! SIC EM!!!!
Game & Broadcast Info
- Kickoff: Friday, November 29 – 7:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Sanford Stadium (93,033) | Athens, Ga.
- 2024 Records: Georgia (9-2, 6-2 SEC), Georgia Tech (7-4, 5-3)
- 2024 Rankings: Georgia #6/6, Georgia Tech NR
- TV: ABC (Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, Katie George)
- Video Stream:
ESPN+
- Radio: 95.5 FM WSB – Bulldog Network |
Affiliates
| Scott Howard (PxP), Eric Zeier (Color), DJ Shockley (sideline)
- Audio Stream:
georgiadogs.com
- Satellite: SiriusXM (84)
- Web Stats:
georgiadogs.com
- Twitter: #GTvsUGA
- SECN ReBroadcast: 12/5 – 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET
- History:
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech All-Time Series Results: UGA 71-39-5
- Last Meeting: UGA won 31-23 in Atlanta, Ga., 11/25/2023