Clean Old Fashioned Hate: UGA vs. GT Preview

With the new playoff format, there will always be a perennial mid-tier team that starts the season hot and convinces itself it has a shot at the playoff. When that happens, the whole campus feels different—professors suddenly extend due dates, Monday classes start with five minutes of game recap, and Friday classes end with five minutes of preview. Luckily for Tech, their magic ended the Saturday before Thanksgiving break, so they get an extra week before reality sets back in.

On top of the slide Tech has taken since losing to NC State, UGA has gone in the complete opposite direction. Starting with the Mississippi State game, the Dawgs have looked unstoppable. A huge part of that turnaround comes from the defense finally getting off the field on third down. From August through October, UGA ranked 92nd in opponent third-down conversions. In November, they’re 12th. That’s a jump from giving up first downs at around a 41% rate to just 26%, and you can feel it when you watch. Early in the season, no matter what they tried—penalties, missed tackles, busted assignments—they just couldn’t get off the field. It looked like they took the “bend but don’t break” saying too literally, but at the University of Georgia there really shouldn’t be any bend. Now the defense is playing with a confidence and edge they didn’t have earlier in the year, and with a mindset of not allowing the opponent to gain anything.

That said, rivalry week has a way of throwing all logic out the window. Haynes King and Buster Faulkner will make things tough on Georgia’s defense, especially since UGA hasn’t faced an offense where the quarterback leads the team in rushing yards, rushing attempts, and rushing touchdowns. But even then—last year, Haynes King might’ve played the game of his life on the road in Athens: 5 total TDs, 413 total yards… and it still wasn’t enough to beat UGA in 2024. Now you’re looking at a Georgia offense operating at a higher level than it was this time last year, a defense that just held Texas to 23 rushing yards, and a matchup that isn’t even a true home-field advantage for Tech. I just don’t see a world where King can do more than he did last year, and that’s exactly what it would take for Tech to win.

My score prediction: 45–21 Dawgs, with more Brent Key tears in the postgame presser.