Georgia and Georgia Tech will renew its Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry this Friday at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
Last year, the Bulldogs edged out a 31-23 victory over the Yellow Jackets to complete a perfect 12-0 regular season. They’ll try to win their 10th game this week before the SEC Championship game next week.
After defeating UMass, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and his team have now shifted focus to Georgia Tech.
“If you’ve been in our program for four years, you understand. But 50 percent of our team is either a freshman or new from the portal, and they didn’t know; they weren’t part of it, they haven’t been part of it,” Smart said. “So it’s something that’s important. It’s instilled early in your career here. We’ve had lots of rivalries. This is one of the biggest ones.”
Georgia has won six straight in the series and 20 out of the last 23 games, dating back to 2000. Smart is 6-1 overall against Georgia Tech as the Bulldogs’ head coach, with the only loss coming in his first year in 2016.
Smart played at Georgia, and Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key is a former Yellow Jacket. So, the rivalry means a lot to both.
“It’s a huge game,” Smart said of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate on Nov. 23. “It’s a rivalry game, the end of the year, it’s inner state. It’s representing your state, your program, and your conference.”
The Yellow Jackets (7-4) recently knocked off a top-10 Miami team and had an exciting win over N.C. State. Tech is coming to life with the quarterback duo of Aaron Philo, an Athens native, and Haynes King.
King has been injured but is the more mobile quarterback, so Georgia Tech uses him more in running situations. Philo has been elevated as the starter for the Yellow Jackets, and the offense relies more on his arm.
“Great poise, confidence. He broke the Georgia high school passing record, most ever passing yards. That’s a lot of really good quarterbacks who he surpassed to get that record,” Smart said of Philo. “So, he’s got confidence. He’s thrown the ball a lot. It’s not like it’s foreign to him. They’ve got some really good weapons. Their backs catch the ball well out of the backfield. They’ve got speed on the perimeter. They do a really good job in the run game, so they keep you honest. But he’s played really well, played with confidence, and to watch him play the game like he did Thursday night, he was at his best when his best was needed.”
This is Key’s best coaching job since taking over midway through the 2022 season after Geoff Collins was fired.
Georgia must come ready to play, especially because Key and Georgia Tech want to break the Dogs’ winning streak. The Yellow Jackets also have a chance to ruin the Bulldogs’ chances at making the College Football Playoff.
“What has stood out is he’s doing it the good old-fashioned way. Hard work, recruiting, they’re in those same recruiting battles we are,” Smart said of the way Key has built back up his program. “They’re going after the best players in the state just like we are, and they’re doing a better job on that front in terms of being able to recruit them, but they’re still really physical. He coached with Nick [Saban]. He coached with George O’Leary, who’s one of the best there is at managing a program and being physical, so he knows what he’s doing. He’s got a great staff. I mean, he’s hired a really good staff, and they’ve got good football players.”
Kickoff on Friday is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.