A "Yardstick" Game.

UGA defeated Georgia Tech in "Clean Old Fashioned Hate" but there are encouraging signs for the Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech hosted the #1 Georgia Bulldogs last Saturday night in downtown Atlanta. The Dawgs prevailed 31-23, a much closer margin than the 24 point spread set by the oddsmakers.

As Jackets Head Coach Brent Key said after the game, there are no moral victories. Tech has much more building to do if it wants to consistently go toe to toe with the two-time defending champ Georgia Bulldogs.

Still, this season has been an encouraging one for Georgia Tech fans like myself. The Jackets finished with a record of 6 wins and 6 losses, good enough to earn a spot in a post season bowl game - their first since 2018.

Recency bias is prevalent in sports. The previous coach, Geoff Collins has a record of 10-28. This has seemingly purged from the collective consciousness of football fans that Georgia Tech has a rich history of college football success. From 1997-2018, Tech played in 20 bowl games, won the ACC title twice, and played for the conference title four other times. Over this period the Jackets finished the season ranked in the top-25 eight times, twice in the top 10. Going back further in time, Tech has won four national championships, most recently in 1990. Our legendary coaches include John Heisman, Bobby Dodd, Bobby Ross, George O’Leary and Paul Johnson. We Techies have much to be proud of.

Collins was fired after Tech started the 2022 season 1-3. Offensive Line Coach Brent Key served as interim head coach and things began to turn around immediately. Tech went 4-4 the rest of the season, knocking off two top-25 teams along the way.

Key’s interim tag was removed and he came into this first full season as Head Coach with renewed optimism from many fans, as well as some skeptics. Key is a former Yellow Jacket himself, a four year starter on the offensive line from 1997-2000. Those teams were a combined 34-14, and finished each season in the top 25. That kind of success is what Key intends to replicate as Head Coach.

As might be expected from a new coach trying to establish the culture he wants, Tech lost some games they should have won and pulled of some upsets the odds-makers said were impossible. Making a bowl game is a big deal for this team, and for Key’s rebuilding efforts.

Getting back to the game against the Dawgs, staying in the game for four quarters, and ending only down by eight points is a heck of an accomplishment. Georgia has dominated this annual series in recent years (nicknamed “Clean Old Fashioned Hate), and defeated Collins’ teams 52-7 and 45-0. Mercifully there was no game against Georgia in 2020.

As I said, Tech is not on Georgia’s level at this point in time. But games like these are valuable as “yardstick” games to see how far you’ve come, and the distance that remains toward your goal.

I’ll leave you with what Ken Sugiura wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday: