This is it. The Enemy. Tech. Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.
(Spit)
We hate these guys. They hate us. We want to rip their faces off. They want to slit our throats. No matter who you think Georgia’s biggest rival is, this is the game you least want to lose for so many reasons.
It’s the last game of the regular season. It’s the last taste of Sanford Stadium for several months every other year. For a select group of seniors, and some juniors who are leaving for the league, it’s the last time they’ll suit up in a regular season game wearing the Georgia G, and that means quite a bit.
Even though Georgia has another game on the horizon after this one, you can’t forget about Tech. If we lose this one, then everything we’ve worked to get back this season is gone. Don’t tell me that 11-1 doesn’t look a whole lot sweeter than 10-2.
I know it. You know it. Worst of all, Tech knows it.
It may not be 12-0 that they’re trying to prevent, although you know they would relish the chance, but Tech understands how important this game is for us to win.
You know all that, though. None of this surprises you.
So let’s talk about the actual game ahead.
If you’re a Georgia fan and you’re not nervous about what Tech is capable of, you’ve not been paying attention.
The Jackets are coming in on a four-game winning streak after a disastrous 1-4 start to the season. They’ve won six of their last seven, with wins over Miami and Virginia as their current crowning achievements. Yes, that was a Miami team in free-fall in the midst of a four-game skid of their own, but they still have one of the best defenses in the country. Tech put up 27 on the ‘Canes. Beating Virginia in overtime was a pretty serious win, too, since UVA had a chance to win their division until the week before the loss to Tech.
Tech’s Robert Godhigh runs away from Ramik Wilson during the 2013 double-OT Bulldog victory in Atlanta. I hate Tech. (Photo by Larry Wynn)
Oddly enough, Tech has scored exactly 27 points in regulation during both of their last two games, with 38 against UNC and 49 against Virginia Tech.
Now, we should keep in mind that Virginia Tech is at an all-time low this season, so I don’t know how much stock you really want to put in that result, just like Tech beating Louisville 66-31. Louisville is abysmal right now. Honestly, the fact that Louisville scored 31 against the Jackets is somewhat comforting to me.
Louisville has only scored more than 30 points in three games: a 31-7 win over Indiana State in week 2, the aforementioned 66-31 loss to Tech, and then a 56-35 loss to Wake Forest.
Tech is 42nd in all of FBS for yards-per-game with 360.5. The really good news, though, is that Tech is 70th in scoring defense with 27.5 points allowed per game. People talk about their ball control offense and how you have to take advantage of every scoring chance you get against Tech. Well, so far this year, teams haven’t had that much trouble doing exactly that.
At least not good teams.
Clemson and South Florida each scored 49 points against Tech. Even as bad as Virginia Tech is, the Hokies put up 28 points on Tech’s suspect defense. Virginia Tech is 72nd in scoring offense, with 28.2 points per game. Louisville is 119th, averaging 20.6 points per game.
Let me say that again. There are only 10 teams in FBS football who are worse at scoring than Louisville, and the Cardinals had one of their best games of the year offensively against Tech. Only two teams in the bottom 10 of scoring are from Power 5 conferences, with Rutgers next to last and Michigan State exactly one spot worse than Louisville.
The Dawgs have plenty of reasons to be optimistic that we can move the ball. That’s the good. The bad is that Tech can move the ball, too.
Tech is actually 20th for scoring offense, averaging 36.9 points-per-game. They’re just five spots behind the Dawgs, who come in at 15th with 39.6 points-per-game.
Perhaps more worrying, Tech is 15th in the country for 3rd-down conversion percentage, converting on 47.4 percent of their attempts. If you want more good news, of course, Georgia is actually fifth in the country at converting, sitting at 50.4 percent on third down. (The bad news is that Alabama is third, but we’ll get to them next week.)
Starting quarterback TaQuon Marshall has been a key player in Tech’s late-season run, no pun intended. He’s the king in the triple option right now, with 857 yards total and 4.9 yards-per-carry. If you want to put his numbers in perspective, Marshall has exactly as many rushing yards this season as D’Andre Swift on 49 more carries with three more touchdowns.
I find it especially interesting that he is the only player on Tech’s roster whose season long carry was for a touchdown. Marshall had a touchdown run for 45 yards earlier this year, but four guys on the roster have longer runs that failed to score. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds unique.
Tight end Michael Bennett hauls in a catch against Tech in 2013 to set up a Todd Gurley touchdown. Have I mentioned that I hate Tech? (Photo by Larry Wynn)
Tobias Oliver is one of those guys. He’s got 808 yards and averages 5.7 whenever he touches the ball. Oliver and Marshall have more than half of the team’s 44 rushing touchdowns, and they’ve been pretty equal in that department. Marshall has 11, Oliver has 12.
Not surprisingly, Tech has the top rushing offense in the country at 353.7 ypg. They, uh…they run the ball well. The Jackets are sitting almost a full 50 ypg. better than anyone else and almost 100 yards better than Georgia. But, again, there’s room to hope.
Georgia is sitting at 257.5 rushing ypg., good enough to be tenth in FBS.
There’s even more reason to hope. I know I just said that Tech runs the ball well, but not very well against good teams. Clemson held Tech to just 146 yards rushing and 57 yards passing. Pitt held Tech to just 320 yards.
However, most of those yards came in the second half. In the first half, Tech had three drives that picked up less than 10 yards. They also had drives of 24 yards, 48 yards, 35 yards, and 39 yards in the first half. All for zero points. Holding Tech to just 155 total yards in a half is pretty significant. It can be done.
Georgia has not been great this season on rushing defense. We’ve given up 128.5 ypg. and come in at just 27th in the nation for that category.
However, Pitt is just 64th in rushing defense with 163.5 ypg. Clemson is third with an astounding 84.3 ypg. If the Dawgs can follow the stats and finish somewhere between Clemson and Pitt for rushing yards allowed on Saturday, that’ll be a good game.
Now I know I’ve mostly glossed over Tech’s passing game, and that’s with good reason. As well as they run the ball, Tech barely throws the ball. The Jackets are one of four teams to average less than 100 yards-per-game in passing offense. Not surprisingly, all four of those teams are notorious option offenses: Tech, Army, Ga. Southern, and Navy.
I guess we can at least say Tech is the best passing option offense by about two yards?
Speaking of Gurley…
Oh, and I still hate Tech. (Photo by Larry Wynn)
Unfortunately, Tech is also second in passing yards per completion with an average of 20.02. The Jackets have attempted exactly 100 passes this year, and their completion percentage is 46.0 percent, which is not great, but they do have plenty of pop when they decide to put the ball in the air.
Two different receivers, Clinton Lynch and Qua Searcy, have touchdown catches of more than 80 yards.
Not many teams can say that.
One of the challenges for Georgia will be figuring out how to supplement our relatively weak run defense with our impressive corners. You clearly can’t take Deandre Baker out of coverage on every play, that would just be inviting disaster through the air, like lighting fireworks from the Hindenburg, but you also can’t let Tech’s offensive scheme neutralize one of Georgia’s best weapons.
Players like D’Andre Walker and Jonathan Ledbetter will need to step up and seal the gaps, they’ll need to keep everything in front of them, and they’ll need to play disciplined football. The most important thing to do against a team like Tech is to play disciplined football. It can be tempting to give up on the pitch man and go after the ball carrier, but that’s how Tech can break big plays on you.
It helps that the Dawgs have spent time every week this season working on Tech. A lot of that time is dedicated to shedding cut blocks, because those are still somehow legal, but I imagine some of that time has also been spent on working the option.
After all, Tech isn’t the only team we’ve ever faced that uses options. Florida and Auburn, for example, both tried to run option plays against us. Thankfully, neither of them had great success in that department.
Florida did amass 170 rushing yards in Jacksonville, but Auburn just barely squeaked out 102 rushing yards against the Dawgs. Kentucky only had 84 yards on the ground, and that was with All-SEC back Benny Snell. It’s a different type of run game, yes, but that has to be an encouragement for Georgia. If we can slow down Snell, then maybe we can slow down a few of the guys Tech will throw at us, too.
We’ve all heard the old adage that anything can happen in a rivalry game. Beyond that, anything can happen in college football. This is the sport of chaos. Even though Tech has enough weapons that they don’t have to rely on chaos to win this game Saturday, that element of the game cannot be ignored. If chaos favors the Jackets, then the Dawgs will have to rely on their superior talent to win. I mean…isn’t that always how it works? I don’t know.
Look. I’m nervous, okay? Tech has only won three games against Georgia since 2001, but I was at all three. And all three were in Sanford Stadium. We’ve lost two in a row to the Jackets between the hedges, and that cannot stand.
This game Saturday is for more than that 11-1 record. It’s for more than just getting back to Atlanta and taking another step towards the playoff. It’s for the state and another year’s worth of pride.
This is Tech. This is the enemy. It’s Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. And losing this game just hurts.
Now that’s what I’d call a good word, Jordan Jenkins. (Photo by Larry Wynn)