ATHENS — Kirby Smart didn’t spend much time speaking about Georgia’s 35-3 win over Charlotte on Saturday.
There wasn’t much to say given how overmatched the visiting 49ers were. Georgia is now 10-1 while Charlotte falls to 1-10.
The next opponent for Georgia will be much better and much more fit of giving Georgia a game, as the Bulldogs travel to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
“I know the brand of football they play and they’re physical and they’re tough and they’ve got an elite quarterback,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.
That quarterback is Haynes King, one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy. He’s powered the Georgia Tech offense to the No. 1 ranked offense in the country in terms of yards per game this season.
Georgia knows all too well about what King can do. He threw for 303 yards, ran for 110 yards and accounted for 5 total touchdowns against Georgia last season.
The Bulldogs needed eight overtimes to escape with a 44-42 win. Georgia will enter the game with a better record and ranking than last season.
So too will Georgia Tech.
“It was crazy, and it was a dogfight in eight overtimes,” running back Nate Frazier said. “That was one of the craziest games I ever experienced. So going into this game, I know it’s going to be a lot of heat between the teams. It’s obviously a rivalry, so it’s going to be a great game, I can’t wait for it.”
Frazier would score the winning points for the Bulldogs, rushing in a two-point conversion. Georgia fell behind 17-0 before rallying to tie the game thanks to a Dan Jackson forced fumble.
Georgia has won seven in a row against the rival Yellow Jackets, with Georgia Tech’s last win in the series coming in 2016. But since Brent Key took over for Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets have slowly made the series more competitive each year. Key’s teams have cut the margin of victory from 45 points to 23 points to 8 points to 2 points.
With King powering the Georgia Tech offense, the Yellow Jackets are ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time since 2014. Georgia Tech is No. 16 in this week’s rankings and could move up if it beats Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
“It’s gonna be a physical game,” linebacker Justin Williams said. “It’s going to be a war. We’re excited to play our rivalry game, so let’s do it.”
Georgia will have one less day of prep than normal to prepare for the Yellow Jackets, much like last season. But there are a few notable differences from when the two teams played on Black Friday last year.
This time around, Georgia has to leave the friendly confines of Athens. That hasn’t been an issue in this rivalry, with Georgia’s last loss in Atlanta against the Yellow Jackets coming in 1999.
The game will be played at a different venue, as Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the two teams instead of Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Georgia does get the same amount of rest as the Yellow Jackets, as Georgia Tech had a two-day edge in rest advantage last year. Georgia also wrapped its game on Saturday before the Georgia Tech game even kicked off.
“Definitely a short week, but we’ve just got to attack it like it’s any other week,” cornerback Daylen Everette said. “So that’s all we’ve got to do. That’s all we’ve got to worry about.”
Georgia doesn’t yet know if it will play in the SEC championship game. Its path to the College Football Playoff is still unpaved.
All it can focus on to this point is Georgia Tech. And it’s got one less day of prep than usual.
“Well, for us it’s the next game on the schedule,” Smart said. “If we want to continue to grow and get better then we’ve got to play well against them. They’ve got a really good football team. They’ve got a really physical football team. So it’s the next one up.”
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