Georgia football has many teams that they consider their rival, but arguably none are more of a rival to Georgia than Georgia Tech.
The Yellow Jackets are the other big school from the state of Georgia, so it is no surprise that these programs have learned to hate each other over the years. Both programs also have great history to them and have had stretches of dominance against each other, so add all of that together and you get one of the best rivalries in all of college football.
Kirby Smart clearly understands the importance of this rivalry. He has coached in it for nearly a decade now and was a player in it for four years as well. So one important thing he must do every year is stress the importance of this game, because not everyone in the program has been a part of this rivalry for as long.
"Well, I don't mean, we have kids from all over, right? They have kids from all over, and if you don't grow up in this state, sometimes you don't acknowledge or recognize that rivalry," Smart said via 247sports.com. "I think our players, our current players understand it. If you've been in our program for four years, you definitely understand it. But 50 percent of our team is either a freshman or new from a portal, and they didn't know, they weren't part of it, they haven't been part of it. So it's something that's important. It's instilled early in your career here. I mean, we've had lots of rivalries. This is one of the biggest ones."
Georgia beating Georgia Tech is more important than ever before
It is always important for Georgia to beat Georgia Tech, but this season arguably is more important than ever before.
Georgia currently finds themselves inside the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket, but that could change in a hurry. Regardless of this result, a win in the SEC Championship game will get Georgia into the CFP, but if UGA loses to Georgia Tech and in the SEC Championship game then they will be left out.
So to eliminate the chances of that happening, Georgia has to beat the Yellow Jackets on Friday.
So in a game that could be easy to overlook for someone who isn't familiar with the rivalry, it is nice to hear that Smart is going to make sure everyone understands the importance of it. So hopefully he is able to get that message across, so the best version of Georgia shows up for the game on Friday night.