Georgia Tech vs No. 1 Georgia Set For Primetime Kickoff

Georgia Tech will face archrival Georgia at home for the final regular season game

Georgia Tech has their most important game of the season coming up on Saturday against Syracuse. Win that game and the Yellow Jackets will be in their first bowl game since 2018. While Brent Key and his team will be laser-focused on the game against the Orange, the game time for the regular season finale against the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs was announced today and Georgia Tech is going to get to face Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs in prime time. 

For rivalry weekend, Georgia Tech and Georgia will be kicking off at 7:30 on ABC. This game has grown accustomed to being at 12:00 p.m., but Clean, Old Fashioned Hate will be in one of the top gametime slots of the weekend.

📺🏈: Game Times and Networks announced for ACC Football on November 24-25.

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Georgia Tech will be trying to pull one of the biggest upsets of the season in this game. The Yellow Jackets are likely to be three to four-touchdown underdogs in this game next Saturday. 

The Yellow Jackets have not beaten the Bulldogs since 2016 and have not won against Georgia in Atlanta since 1999. Since 2000, Georgia Tech has only beaten Georgia four times. Currently, Georgia is 10-0 and coming off of a blowout win over No. 9 Ole Miss and they have their SEC finale against Tennessee this weekend.

Georgia leads the all-time series 70-41. 

Former Georgia Tech wide receiver EJ Jenkins catching a pass vs Georgia last season.  / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

In Brent Key's first matchup against the Bulldogs last year, the Yellow Jackets played them much closer than anyone could have anticipated. Georgia Tech led 7-3 at the end of the first quarter and only trailed the eventual national champions 10-7. Halfway through the third quarter, the game was 13-7, but tight end Brock Bowers scored to take a 20-7 lead and the Bulldogs finally pulled away and ended up winning 37-14. 

Since the day he was hired as the head coach at Georgia Tech, Key has made it clear that he wants to close the gap with Georgia:

"There is one thing I want everyone in this room to understand and everyone associated with Georgia Tech understands... There is an opponent in this state we will work 365 days a year to defeat. We will work 365 days a year to dominate. When we all wake up in the morning, we want to dominate our opponent. The feeling of dominating your opponent is like no other and whatever team is on our schedule, that will be our goal. That is what we will work towards every single day.

Players in here, understand that. That is our goal and that is our mindset. We have an opponent in this state that is included in that. For 365 days, we will work to dominate that opponent. Understand that."

ESPN's David Hale wrote an intriguing piece during ACC Media Days this summer about how Key wants to change the narrative of the rivalry and Key made some interesting comments:

"Is it annoying? Heck, yeah," Key said Tuesday of the Georgia accolades. "Kirby [Smart] has done a great job -- he has. And I told him, 'We've got to do something about it."

"What pisses me off is to look at lists of the 10 or 20 best rivalries in the country and, not to have [Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate] on there, that's bulls---," Key said. "But at the present time, they're probably right. So we've got to do something about that."

Offensive lineman Jordan Williams also talked about the rivalry:

"It really gets on my nerves," Williams said. "But rivals or not, they're the best. You've got to beat the best, and it's kind of a burn-the-boats mentality, stake everything on it. That's the place we want to be." 

Key has pulled off several big upsets in his short time as the Georgia Tech head coach and they will get to measure themselves against arguably the best team in the country next Saturday night. 

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