Everything you need to know about No. 4 Georgia vs. No. 23 Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech and Georgia will renew their annual rivalry at 3:30 p.m. Friday, playing at a neutral site for the first time in the rivalry’s history.

Having signed a six-game contract with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Tech opted to have this year’s edition of Clean Old Fashioned Hate played a mile and a half from its home venue.

How that affects the outcome, or if it does at all, remains to be seen. And that outcome will have serious ramifications for both squads.

Georgia, No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, needs a victory to strengthen its case as one of the at-large selections for the 12-team CFP field and to earn a bye into the quarterfinals of the postseason tournament. The Bulldogs (10-1) also are looking to run their win streak to eight in the series.

The Yellow Jackets (9-2) are, first and foremost, looking to break that long run of losses to UGA. And a win Friday would keep their faint CFP hopes alive while also putting them in position to make a more prestigious bowl game (should they not be selected for the College Football Playoff).

Details about Saturday’s Georgia-Georgia Tech game

Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (75,000)

TV: ABC

Streaming: WatchESPN

Weather: N/A

Tickets: Mercedes-Benz Stadium has officially announced Friday’s game is sold out. Tickets are still available via secondary sites and starting at $187.

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Storylines ahead of Georgia vs. Georgia Tech

Looking to snap the skid: It has been nine long years since Georgia Tech has beaten Georgia. Georgia’s win streak over Tech has reached seven during that span (the two programs did not meet in 2020 because of COVID-19).

If the Bulldogs win again on Friday, UGA will match the record for the longest win streak, a run of eight consecutive wins by the Yellow Jackets from 1949-56, by either team in the series.

The latest COFH is one of the biggest: Is this the biggest Clean Old-Fashioned Hate game ever? It’s certainly one of the big ones in the rivalry’s 132-year history.

Not since 2014 have Georgia Tech and Georgia played each other when both teams came into the matchup with nine wins. And 1942 was the only other year when that had happened.

Faulkner, Tech offense have UGA’s attention: Win or lose Friday, Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner will turn his attention quickly to the Athens area.

Not because he’s coming back to Georgia’s coaching staff, but because his son Harrison will have a state quarterfinals playoff game for North Oconee High School. Harrison Faulkner is the team’s quarterback and will be playing for Georgia Southern next season. Friday’s game against Marist could well be the final game of his high school career.

King vs. Stockton: Fans who come for the next installment of the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry could be treated to an elite level of play by two quarterbacks.

Both Tech’s Haynes King and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton have been exceptional for their respective teams this season, and both have been in and out of the Heisman Trophy discussion for the past four months. Now the two will take the same field for the first time as opposing QBs.

Jackets heavy underdogs: Georgia has a College Football Playoff run ahead of it, while Georgia Tech likely doesn’t have much to play for other than the Clean Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry game with the Bulldogs.

It’s hard to know exactly how the psychology associated with the teams’ circumstances will factor in, but oddsmakers have made Georgia a 14-point favorite.

Tech defensive starter out for season: Georgia Tech has lost a starting defensive back because of injury.

Tech coach Brent Key announced Monday that Jy Gilmore, a 5-foot-9, 190-pound redshirt senior, will miss the rest of the season. Gilmore was carted off the field in the first quarter Saturday loss to Pittsburgh at Bobby Dodd Stadium with an injury to his left leg.

Tech has one of nation’s best kickers: Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr is one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award. The Groza Award is presented annually to college football’s top kicker.

Birr, a junior, is the second Groza Award finalist in Tech history and the first since Scott Sisson was a finalist in 1992, the inaugural year of the award.

How Tech can still play in the ACC title game: The Yellow Jackets failed Saturday to clinch a berth in the ACC title game. But their title-game chances are not technically zero with one week of the regular season remaining.

Georgia Tech (9-2, 6-2 ACC), after losing 42-28 to visiting Pittsburgh at Bobby Dodd Stadium, will step out of league play at 3:30 p.m. Friday when it faces No. 4 Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The league’s other title game hopefuls will all be fighting for a chance to play Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Teetering Tech now faces nemesis: There won’t be many folks outside the locker rooms at Bobby Dodd Stadium giving Georgia Tech a chance to beat rival Georgia.

The Yellow Jackets, 9-2 after a devastating, 42-28 loss at home to Pittsburgh, are 12½-point underdogs in the latest version of Clean Old-Fashioned Hate.

After loss to Pitt, Tech was quick to turn attention to UGA: In “Spider-Man 2″ (2004), a distraught Harry Osborn, after seeing his investment in Dr. Otto Octavius’ experiment for sustainable energy literally blow up in his face, uttered a phrase that’s since been further popularized in internet culture.