Friday’s Clean Old-Fashioned Hate is one of the biggest in rivalry’s history

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.

The Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs have 19 combined wins ahead of the showdown at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the most in the history of the series.

The stakes are heightened this weekend, too.

Georgia (10-1) begins the week ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings and likely will hold that spot when the fourth CFP Top 25 is announced Tuesday. The Bulldogs beat Charlotte on Saturday at Sanford Stadium in Athens.

Coach Kirby Smart’s team needs some teams to lose this weekend if it hopes to play in the SEC championship game Dec. 6 back at the Benz. Regardless, beating Tech likely would put UGA in position to be awarded a bye into the CFP quarterfinals either Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.

Tech, on the other hand, needs ACC teams Virginia, Pittsburgh and SMU to lose this weekend. That would get the Jackets (9-2) to the ACC title game Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Coach Brent Key’s squad also is playing for its first 10-win season since 2014, and while its CFP chances likely are slim to none, there is a minute possibility the Jackets could make the 12-team field.

Oh, there’s also the small detail that Tech hasn’t beaten UGA in seven tries, dating to 2016.

“Not gonna say a win’s a win. This is a game that means a lot to a lot of people, a lot of people that have gone to school here, played here, been fans of this place, but that doesn’t mean more to them by any means than it does to the players on this football team,” Key said.

Tech goes into Friday’s game having lost two of its past three games. The Jackets are reeling from a 42-28 loss to Pitt at home Saturday, a defeat in which it trailed 28-0 early in the second quarter. They have allowed 41.3 points and 510.6 yards per game over the past three outings.

Those numbers don’t bode well for Tech, which now faces a Georgia offense that ranks fourth nationally with 281 first downs, 26th in scoring (33.7 points per game), and 29th in rushing offense (190.5 yards per game) and total offense (430.3 yards per game).

Georgia’s defense probably is the best unit Tech has faced all year, too. The Bulldogs have given up only 17.4 points per game, allow only 87.6 rushing yards per game and are stout in the red zone having made eight stops in 29 chances.

“Huge challenge for us. It’s a challenge we’re excited about,” Key said. “Very good football team, good players, good coaches and playing good football right now. And we’ve kind’ve been the opposite. We have not been playing good football the last few weeks. I’m not gonna sit there and deny or hide from it. We got work to do. We’ve gotta improve.

“That’s what this week is. It’s about what’s right now. It’s not about anything in the past, not about anything in the future. I told the team, you gotta put all those things away, tie ‘em up in a little bag and deal with ‘em after because the full focus has to be on the game this week.”

During its current seven-game losing streak, the Jackets have been outscored by an average margin of 41.7-16.3. But that gap has shrunk to 37.3-26.3 since Key took over Tech a third of the way through the 2022 season. And the past two meetings have been decided by a total of 10 points.

Tech is 13.5-point underdogs at the start of this week, the eighth consecutive time the Jackets have been double-digit underdogs against their in-state rival.