Man this is just too damn cool not to share. Peep the perfect timing when Cash makes contact with Dominick’s helmet.
And the Victory Highlights this week is pure cinema. Enjoy.
A nice slowmo of Lovett getting targeted his bell rung.
Up close and personal with a Saturday morning two point conversion.
And the crowd goes wild…
To be perfectly honest, it was a Friday, no church the next day, and this game had me deep in my cups when all was said and done. I don’t think I spoke much the entire game, my wife asked me a few times what was going on (she was watching) and I just replied “this is the 2024 Georgia Bulldogs. We are the embodiment of bipolar…”.
When Tech went up 27-13, thinking about the impossible chances of a comeback, how we hadn’t stopped King all night, why Kirby called the most bizarre game I’d ever witnessed, I gotta admit…I was ready to turn it off.
Then the impossible…happened. We woke up, like we’ve done several times before save for the Ole Miss debacle, and we came back. Even when we scored with one minute to go, I didn’t really say anything or celebrate. I was halfway convinced Tech was going to easily drive the field and score again. But Kirby made some adjustments and started brining the heat straight up the middle.
When Frazier scored the two point conversion to win, I had lost count of the overtimes. Joe Tessatore’s commentary was dull ringing in my ears, like I had just unloaded a magazine from a rifle. My kids were somewhere upstairs, doing God knows what. Finally, I screamed. The house erupted, pets scattered, my wife and I were in a state of absolute shock. I did a few laps around the living room, the last thing I stopped to watch was Kirby and Key embracing midfield. Respectful, earned admiration and total exhaustion for two head coaches of the programs they played for and now lead. It reminded me of Rocky and Creed at the end of their bloodbath battle.
I asked last week if anyone had a favorite Tech athlete, and I now can say I don’t have a favorite but I have one I admire: Haynes King. The man left his heart and guts on Dooley Field. For a night, he was the best athlete on the field among many athletes that will be playing in the pros.
The kids were calling downstairs wanting to know if everything was okay.
Indeed, everything was okay. All was right with the world, at least for another year. The last of our rival matchups of 2024 fell in the most spectacular of fashions, and it just so happened to be against the team I hate the most.
A tip of the cap to the Jackets. They gave us everything. The rivalry is renewed and respectable again. Fish Fry, Chantastics, and Awful House are a laughable memory. There’s a real threat on North Avenue now, and we will need to start prepping for this game in August again, or, at the very least, operate knowing one of our toughest games will be our last regular season game of the year.
Still, now more than ever:
To Hell with Georgia Tech.
Go ‘Dawgs.
Excellent summary, and hats off to the Jackets for that game. I see King and Efford (and Kirby and Key) and almost feel sorry for them. But then I read all the whining about the officials and the hate starts flowing again. 🙂
I watched the game with my in-laws, a bunch of casual fans, so I really had to reign in my emotions. It actually helped because normally I would have been a raging ball of emotions, especially with that game. Like you, I didn’t fully react until Nate scored.
Not sure where we go from here but at least we have some more football to play. Let’s get everyone doubting the Dawgs again so Kirby can get them fired up.
It was sad in the stadium watching fans leave after the last Tech score in regulation but satisfying to know they heard the roar when we scored just after they got out of the gates and saw the fireworks but could not see what was happening. The students stayed and were loud. We should have played Saturday when we scored. We got home about 3:30 am but it was worth it.
What did Kirby say last week when asked about Key’s hate? Something about Execution instead of Emotion. He was right…we executed in the end while they were exhausted from the emotion. Haynes King was MVP though. Carson is more talented and came through spectacularly in the 4th. We don’t win if Dan Jackson isn’t a Javelin anti-tank missile. But King took on our D personally and was within an eyelash of beating us. I don’t ever want to see that dude again.
Games like this is why I hate COFH. The NATS live for this game, they think about it 24/7/365 and they hate us more than we hate them. They are ALWAYS more fired up for us than we are for them and they give it all they got. We are their Super Bowl and they almost ruined our season as they made us look bad and unprepared to play this game. If the SEC goes to 9 conference games, I would not mind if we dropped this game as we have nothing to gain from playing it except the tightening of our collective sphincters every year. The only way I wouldn’t mind playing them is if they were back in the SEC and then could be as beat up as we are at this point in the season and not able to have more rest going into this game from playing a Thursday night game where they looked average against a mediocre NC State team. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not afraid to play them, but I see no upside in playing them as the game is placed right before the SEC Championship game and I don’t know where our heads are each year heading into this game. Maybe we should move the game to the start of the season? Regardless, all I could do as Nate Frazier scored the winning 2 point conversion, was exhale in relief and wonder why this team looks more like a Mark Richt team than a Kirby Smart team.
Well, that’s one way to look at it, I suppose.
Games like Friday are why I never want to drop Tech or any of our true rivals. That game Friday is why I love college football, and why I’m sad it’s going away. It was an instant classic, warts and all.
I enjoyed the 2021 & 2019 UGA – GA Tech games so much more than this one. I’d rather beat them 45-0 or 52-7 than go 8 overtimes with them. I would rather be stress free than sweating it out against them.
I really think the issues we have are coaching. We’ve lost so many good coaches and have not replaced them with the same quality of coaches. I hope we clean house in the offseason and get some new coaches that are more than great recruiters. Something is not right and it needs to be fixed.
But the 2019 and 2021 games had about the same amount of “juice” as when we play a I-AA team at noon, Tech fans couldn’t even muster up any smack talk….
Oh, and for all the nerds whining about targeting on King (it wasn’t), just look at numerous plays throughout the game, including the hit on Lovett above. Targeting is probably only behind holding in that it can be called nearly every down.
There are a lot of problems with the targeting rule, and one of the most outlandish is the idea or notion that it can be applied to a run between the tackles along the line of scrimmage – in what is basically a scrum – where bodies are just flying and pushing and no one has control….
There are two justifications for the targeting rule, and one or the other is typically shouted out by fans like the nerds if it’s missed.
The first is to protect the tackling player. They don’t want tacklers leading with their head down because of the potential for a neck injury. That is what Dirty Dan appeared to do, although I don’t know how hard he actually hit King to knock the ball out. Although I suppose that any level of hard contact has a chance of an injury.
The second is to protect the ball carrier. Those are the targeting calls where contact is made with the carrier’s helmet. Those seem to be the most common, and I think that’s what refs tend to look for. I think that’s why it wasn’t called. Yes, Dirty Dan lowered his head but he didn’t make contact anywhere near King’s head.
King was not defenseless as the ball carrier and though leading with the crown of his helmet Jackson stuck him in the chest, not shoulders or head. Game saving play for sure, no penalty.
I really respect Tech for their effort. They whipped our ass in all facets for the first 55 minutes of the game. I’m not going as far as saying it’s a shame someone had to lose but I really thought they had our number. And Key, King and Efford embodied pathos in the best sense of the word in the immediate aftermath of the game.
I was wondering if Tech fans might be reflective and measured in the wake of what really was a battle for the ages. Not a chance. They’re the same bitter, whiny sourpusses they’ve always been. They’re going to be bitching about the refs (rightly) not calling targeting on Dan Jackson until they can no longer fog a mirror. And sad to say, Key decided to join in after the dust had settled.
+1 on the last paragraph….