After last season’s eight-overtime game, which featured a large halftime deficit, No. 4 Georgia (10-1) and No. 15 Georgia Tech (9-2) will renew their annual rivalry, called “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate,” this Friday in Atlanta.
The Bulldogs trailed by 17 points at halftime but tied the Yellow Jackets 27-27 in the fourth quarter, sending the game to overtime. They won the game 44-42 after eight extra periods, turning it into an instant classic.
“It was an intense game. There was a lot of back-and-forth,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart recalled on Monday. “I’ve never been a part of a game where there was a one-play outcome 14 times or whatever it was.”
This year’s contest will be a bit different. First, the game is being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium instead of Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium after the university reached an agreement with AMB Sports & Entertainment and Peach Bowl, Inc. to host one home game there a year. Second, the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets are both ranked in the top 15 of the AP Poll, which hasn’t happened since 2004.
Smart said his team won’t change its approach going into the game since it’s being played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He knows that the Bulldogs might be there again on Dec. 6 for the SEC championship.
However, Georgia isn’t focused on what could happen in the SEC, but is keyed in on Georgia Tech.
Smart knows that the Yellow Jackets, led by head coach Brent Key, will bring their A-game.
“A lot of respect for Brent and their program,” he said. “He’s done a tremendous job. They’re extremely physical. You can tell they’re modeled after what he believes in, which is running the ball and stopping the run.”
The game’s most important matchup will be Georgia Tech’s offense against Georgia’s defense. The Yellow Jackets tested the Bulldogs in last year’s game, as quarterback Haynes King was responsible for five total touchdowns.
King completed 26 of 36 pass attempts for 303 yards and two touchdowns. The Longview, Texas, native also rushed for 110 yards on 24 carries with three scores against Georgia in last year’s two-point overtime loss.
Haynes is having a stellar 2025 campaign, and Smart thinks highly of him.
“He’s extremely experienced, extremely tough. I don’t think people understand how fast this guy is,” Georgia’s head coach said of King. “He can run, and he was a great athlete in high school, a track guy. I mean, the stories are all over about his success and his stories of where he’s been and the injuries he’s been through. And you see the hits he takes. I mean, he just gets stronger with each hit. So he’s extremely valuable in terms of what they do and what they ask him to do. He’s hard to defend on all levels, throwing the ball. I mean, people think, well, he doesn’t throw the ball. He throws the ball really well, and he’s really efficient.”
Smart also credited Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, who was previously a quality control assistant for quarterbacks at Georgia before taking the job with the Yellow Jackets, for developing King.
Faulkner helped Georgia Tech reach a No. 5 national ranking in total offense this year with 485.9 yards per game. The Yellow Jackets also rank No. 20 in scoring offense, averaging 35.3 points, heading into Friday’s game.
“Nothing’s comfortable about defending an offense that can hurt you in so many ways,” Smart said. “First of all, Buster does an incredible job; he did here, too. He’s a really good football coach. He knows where things are, where all the nuggets are on defense. He knows how to attack them. He knows the answers to things when you do them. I mean, at the end of the day, they’ve got to block, we’ve got to tackle, and somebody’s got to do it better.
"And that’s a very tough thing when you play them because they stretch you horizontally. They stretch you vertically. They stretch you with tempo. They stretch you with number counts because of their quarterback. So, Buster does an awesome job, and that’s continued this year.”