Someday, years from now, I will be sitting in my rocking chair with more white hair than I have now and I will tell whoever will listen about “the game”.
I’d like to think it will be my grandchildren, but I don’t even have children yet and I feel I am running out of time. Oh, well, those things are thoughts too depressing for last Friday night’s history.
The Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game from Friday is one that is an instant, alltime classic in the chronicles of Bulldog football!! Phew!!! I didn’t play a single down but I’m winded.
I couldn’t exactly wrap my head around the classic, in-state rivalry game between Georgia and Georgia Tech being played on a Friday.
It generally is always played in the vicinity of Thanksgiving and I was privileged to go watch it between the hedges with my second Mama, Aunt Margaret, several years ago. We won’t tell how that one turned out. It was, overall, a great experience, but a last minute score by Tech, well, you know. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
Maybe playing on a Friday, put the football spirits all in a tizzy. It was a crazy, upside down, topsy and turvy kind of contest.
I went to Baxley to cheer on my beloved alma mater Appling County. I know that gets me dog cussed around Bear country, but, you gotta be true to your school. I wouldn’t ask you to do any different. And, I have lots of respect for you, too.
Anyway, I sat with a lifelong friend of mine, Stormi Turner Alexander, and her husband, Jon, at the game in Baxley.
We rallied our Pirates on to victory on a shivering cold evening — at least shivering cold for us in these here parts. It finally felt like football weather.
All the while, we kept an eye on the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech score. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the 17-0 score at the half.
I knew it would be a barn burner. Georgia and Georgia Tech always is, but the Dawgs played awful and looked like we were asleep. Probably stuffed with turkey, which I warned everyone about eating in my last column.
My friend, Nancy Perry, texted me from Athens. She and her husband, James and son, Jim (our middle school band director) had made the trip up for the game. James and Jim were playing in the alumni band for the Redcoats.
I told her I had the Pirates rallied and asked her to rally the Dawgs for me. It looked like a lost cause at the time, but Mrs. Nancy came through for us!
I listened to Scott Howard and Eric Zeier on the way home. Georgia scored to make it 20-13. Tech scored again to open up a 27-13 lead with five minutes to go. Then Georgia cut it to 27-20, but as the late great Larry Munon would growl “My God! Look at the clock!” Time was running out. Tech had the ball.
Tech quarterback Haynes King ran for the first down but was stripped by safety Dan Jackson and linebacker Chaz Chambliss recovered at the Tech 32 with 2:02 to play.
That’s the official sentence description. What I heard on the radio was Howard exclaiming over the airwaves: “Georgia’s got the ball! Georgia’s got the ball!”
I made it home in time to see what seemed like all 85 overtimes. They tell me it was only eight, but I could barely count that high either.
In the eighth OT, linebacker CJ Allen’s pressure forced an incompletion on King’s pass attempt, and again Georgia was just one play away. On the Bulldogs’ attempt, Nate Frazier scooted through the middle for the victory.
Georgia Tech gave it their all. I know there is no such thing as a win out of a loss, but this one had to be close. And, seeing Coach Kirby Smart hugging Coach Brent Key after the contest was a classy thing.
Talk about epic! Talk about classic! Talk about dramatic!
I’m out of adjectives. But somewhere, sometime in the future, I will tell this tale about the time Georgia and Georgia Tech played on a Friday night way back in 2024.
And, if you are a Dawg fan, you will, too.
And, you’ll say, How bout them Dawgs!
