With three touchdowns, Georgia Tech quarterback Tim Byerly is tied for the team lead with wide receiver DeAndre Smelter and B-back Zach Laskey. Quarterback Justin Thomas, who plays a large majority of the snaps at quarterback, has one score.

“A lot of the guys are calling me Timmy Touchdown now,” Byerly said. “Touchdown Stealer, Touchdown Vulture, something like that.”

With more size and heft than Thomas, Byerly has been used as a goal-line quarterback for the Yellow Jackets and a short-yardage option elsewhere on the field.

Not knowing when he might go in, “it is somewhat nerve-wracking on the sideline, just because I know I’m very, very close, a play away,” he said. “But it helps me stay in the game. If I wasn’t that way, if Coach (Paul Johnson) called my name (only) in the fourth quarter, who knows where my mental game would be? So I kind of like it, just to keep me really in tune and know that there is already a good possibility of me going in.”

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Kirby Smart (left) and Georgia beat Brent Key and Georgia Tech 44-42 in eight overtimes last November in Athens. The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets bring Clean Old-Fashioned Hate off campus for 2025, playing at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC 2024)

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Carleigh Knight (left) and her sister, Natalie Rogovin, look at Christmas ornaments while shopping at Kudzu Antiques + Modern in Decatur on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (Natrice Miller/AJC)

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