‘We’re gonna get these boys, man’: Georgia Tech vows to use loss as fuel

For another year, Georgia Tech will have to endure the pains of yet another loss to Georgia.

Seven times in a row the Yellow Jackets have lost to UGA. The streak matches the longest run of wins for the Bulldogs in the history of the series and the second longest overall behind Tech’s string of eight victories in a row from 1949-56.

And what makes the sting of the latest defeat for the boys from The Flats hurt even more was the way it went down, with missed opportunity after missed opportunity and a fourth-quarter collapse that left the visitors drained and despondent. Yet, when the dust settled on one of the greatest Clean Old-Fashioned Hate games ever played, the Jackets couldn’t help but already start to think of the 2025 matchup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“It hurt. It’s gonna be around for a little bit,” Tech linebacker Kyle Efford said. “But, then again, we are gonna use it to fuel us. Just come out and go harder and harder and harder every single day. We’re gonna get these boys, man.”

Efford and his teammates played another impressive game Friday in the 44-42, eight-overtime loss at Sanford Stadium. Only 27 of those 44 points by No. 7 UGA came in regulation and seven of those came on the heels of a Haynes King lost fumble on the Tech 32 with 2:02 left in the clock.

Tech shut out UGA in the first half, the Bulldogs’ first scoreless first half in any game since 2019. It stopped Georgia’s two-point conversion in the second overtime, then again in the third overtime, the fourth overtime, the sixth overtime and the seventh overtime.

Georgia also managed only 108 yards rushing and needed five touchdown passes from Carson Beck to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive. Tech’s defense did more than enough to keep the Jackets in the game.

“(Defensive coordinator) Tyler (Santucci) came up with a really good plan,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “We were able to affect the quarterback the way we wanted to. They kept fighting, they kept scrapping, they kept battling, kept working to find a way.”

Key and his offensive staff went into the game committed to King, playing the junior quarterback for all but one snap. The previous two weeks Tech had utilized King and freshman Aaron Philo in wins over Miami and North Carolina State, respectively. The two games before that King was held out because of injury in losses to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, respectively.

King turned in one of the more memorable performances in the history of the rivalry. He threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns while completing 26 of his 36 passes. He ran the ball 24 times for 110 yards and three scores.

He did all that with his sore right shoulder and, by the end, a left knee covered in blood that was seeping through his white pants. After the loss he met with reporters and tried to muster the words to describe the hurt through bloodshot eyes.

“You either get it done or you don’t. We didn’t,” King said. “That’s just how it is.”