Georgia football should never drop the Georgia Tech rivalry

Georgia football has a lot of rivalries, but the one that should never stop happening is the “Clean Old Fashioned” rivalry with Georgia Tech. “We run this state,” the thing we all love to cheer and brag about each year.

However, if we eliminate this rivalry game, that would be gone.

Some may say, well, it’s been so lopsided, and they aren’t real competition, but at the same time, this is such an incredible rivalry. Last year didn’t feel right without this game, but thankfully it’s back in 2021, and these two teams can battle it out again. Losing this rivalry game felt like the year was left unfinished.

If Georgia drops this game, they will lose out on participating in the annual Week 13 rivalry week with Alabama-Auburn, Clemson-South Carolina, Louisville-Kentucky, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State — the list goes on, but still, losing that tradition doesn’t seem right.

Georgia leads the overall series 68-38-5, with the Dawgs currently on a three-game win streak. Dawgs’ head coach Kirby Smart fell to them by one point in his first season, and since then, it hasn’t been much of a competition.

However, during former head coach Mark Richt’s tenure, while he had a 14-2 overall record against the Yellow Jackets, the Dawgs had to fight hard to win some of them.

Since 2001, Georgia has beaten Tech by 24-plus points five times, with three of those instances coming in the last three years.

Richt’s 2012 team beat the Yellow Jackets by 32 points, and his 2002 squad won by 44 points.

Outside of those, 17 to 14 points decided five games, and eight or fewer points decided 10 of the games.

While Georgia has won 17 of the last 20, the games have been close, and they still make the rivalry enjoyable. Tech plays to beat Georgia each season. That is their biggest goal of the year, outside of attempting to be bowl eligible.

Like this year, there is nothing more Tech head coach Geoff Collins would love more than to beat the No.1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. However, Georgia’s team is much, much different than the last 20 years. This group isn’t going to try and sleep through this game. Instead, they’re going to put it away early, then let the rest of the travel roster get some playing time.

This rivalry is important to Georgia football, and it should be something the two universities strive to keep together. All the teams play Tech and treat it like the football rivalry. These two teams have gone back and forth for a long time, and it’s competitive.

However, just because a team has gone 17-3 against a rival doesn’t mean it isn’t still a competitive rivalry. This game made Georgia fans sweat a bit because they knew if the right team didn’t show up, Tech could upset the Dawgs.

Clean old fashion hate is something every Georgia and Georgia Tech fan should appreciate and look forward to each year. Who knows what Collins could do with that program in the next 10 years? They could become competitive and give the Dawgs another good opponent on the schedule.

Sure, that is hard to see right now, but not too far-fetched either because Collins is modernizing Tech, and it’s silly to think he won’t get that group competitive. Georgia Tech is the kind of university that’ll give a coach time, especially when a coach transforms a team from the triple-option to being a spread offense.

This rivalry is one of the oldest in college football as there are only 13 other rivalries that have played longer than the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets.

Last year was the most points Georgia has ever scored on the Yellow Jackets at 52, and while Smart has kept it pretty one-sided, but he knows as he lost during his senior season to the Yellow Jackets. He should want to keep it one-sided but should never want to eliminate this traditional game because it’s important to keep the Governor’s Cup in Athens.

Never get rid of this matchup because no one knows what the future holds and how competitive this game could eventually be again. Georgia and Georgia Tech need to keep playing each other forever, along with keeping the Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville. It’s a tradition, and college football should protect those at all costs.