Georgia Bulldogs Feeling All the Pressure vs. GT

Though the Georgia Bulldogs enter Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate as a 4-point road favorite against Georgia Tech, UGA will feel all the pressure in this game.

Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate writes its newest chapter tomorrow afternoon when the Georgia Bulldogs drive down 316 and then I-85 to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Georgia Bulldogs are 8-3 (5-3) and still have a legitimate shot at winning 10 games this year in an otherwise down season for the program. Georgia Tech isn’t bowl eligible in 2015, after an abysmal performance in ACC play turned them into a 3-8 (1-7) team.

However, I’d be crazy not to say that for an in-state rivalry game that has no implication on anything more than bragging rights in 2015, the Georgia Bulldogs have little to gain in this game and Georgia Tech is playing with house money.

Georgia has four things riding on a road victory over the Yellow Jackets:

1. The Dawgs could still win 10 games in 2015. By beating Tech and winning their holiday season bowl game, the Georgia Bulldogs could match their 2014 season win total with a 10-3 overall record.

2. The Georgia Bulldogs lost to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Sanford Stadium last Thanksgiving holiday. UGA has never had a losing versus GT in the Mark Richt Era (since 2001).

3. Mark Richt has never lost on Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium. He is 7-0 in his previous 7 trips to the Flats when his Dawgs take on the Ramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech.

4. Mark Richt has been on and off the hot seat since UGA’s pitiful 27-3 loss to the Florida Gators on Halloween. Though UGA hasn’t lost since, needing overtime to beat Georgia Southern at home and a road loss in Atlanta to Georgia Tech could stand as the last regular season game of the Mark Richt Era in Athens. Richt cannot afford to lose to a 3-8 Georgia Tech, regardless of it being on the road against a Top 3 historical rival of the UGA football program.

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While Georgia will play either a middle of the pack Big Ten or ACC team in their meaningless holiday bowl game somewhere in the Southeastern United States, Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate is Georgia Tech’s bowl game this year. Tech has fallen a long way from last year’s convincing Orange Bowl win over Mississippi State.

Georgia hopefully won’t play Nebraska in some place like Jacksonville for third time in four years. Besides being all in on UGA Saturday, I’m rooting heavily for the No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes, not so that they can go undefeated in the regular season only to get crushed by Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship, but so that the Nebraska Cornhuskers aren’t bowl eligible in their first season under HC Mike Riley. Iowa plays Nebraska at 3:30 PM ET tomorrow.

So bring on the Birds With Teeth! Here’s to beating Bobby Petrino’s Louisville Cardinals every year should the Georgia Bulldogs not make the College Football Playoff!

All joking aside, yes, I’m a little worried about Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Though the Georgia Bulldogs held another triple option team under 300 yards rushing in Georgia Southern at home last week, I hope the Dawgs can play their man and wrap up out on the edge.

I have a feeling that Tech will play loose in the first half and UGA will come out stiff for some unbeknown reason. Hopefully the players and the coaching staff fully understand the ramifications of what it would mean to the program to lose to the 3-8 (7-1) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on the road.

Next: Mark Richt: Does He Have to Beat Tech to Stay?

Losing to the 2015 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is in all honesty worse than losing in Boulder to the 2010 Colorado Buffaloes, a 5-7 team. That football program in the Pac-12 has yet to make a bowl game since 2007. Commit to the G, Finish the Drill, and Go Dawgs! Beat Tech!

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