Saturday night in the ATL marked the Odyssey’s first Georgia-Georgia Tech tilt. One shocking episode occurred before opening kick. I was wearing a Michigan hat to celebrate the Maize and Blue’s 3rd straight win over the Buckeyes. Security only let me enter after I was the victim of an invasive body search and had to check my cell phone with security.
“Would I be so obvious if I was trying to steal Georgia’s signs?” I heatedly complained. “And why would Georgia Tech care? They ain’t going to the playoff!” This whole sign stealing saga was getting out of hand. First, stealing signs is as American as apple pie. Second, Ryan Day has no more excuses. Day could always say that Buckeye drubbings of 2021 and 2022 were entirely due to Connor Stalions and his evil confederates. What now? The Odyssey is only guessing that the Buckeyes changed their signals. What was interesting was that Day cut his post-game press conference short. While we can understand his pain, rumors surfaced that his next act was to call Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz to give him the lowdown on the signals used by The Team Up North.
Can we please get back to football and stop talk about about how deep the conspiracy goes in Ann Arbor?
Please!! Georgia’s winning streak was extended to 29 (and its regular season streak extended to 39 as its last loss was to Bama in the 2021 SEC championship game). But the Peach State’s rivalry game was not a walk in the park for the Bulldogs. Tech actually held a lead of 10-7 at the end of the first quarter, fueled by an early pick that led to their touchdown. Georgia reasserted control with 252 rushing yards. Tech’s run defense has been a major issue all year for the Yellow Jackets.
In a year of coaching blunders, Kirby Smart committed a felony up 31-16 with 10 minutes to go. With third and goal at the GT5, a chip shot field goal would have made for a 3-possession game. Inexplicably, Carson Beck threw a pass that was picked off. Tech marched down the field behind the very capable hands of QB Haynes King to make it a very interesting 31-23 affair. Tech’s onside kick was recovered by the Dawgs. A couple first downs salted away the game for the hometown Bulldogs.
Oh, wait, did I say hometown? Well, it seemed like it as about 70% of the fans were dressed out in red. The prevalence of support for the road team reminded me of Kansas State home games against Big Red in the pre-Bill Snyder days where woeful KSU teams had to contend with hordes crossing the state line to root on their beloved Huskers.
Georgia seemed human Saturday night. The Dawgs had no semblance of a pass rush and surrendered more than 200 yards on the ground. Now, Georgia Tech is not chopped liver and is clearly on the rise under Brent Key (thank God, GT showed Geoff Collins the door in 2022!). Even if we factor in the notable absence of super duper receivers, Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey, the idea of Georgia being unbeatable was Ludacris, a faint shadow of the squad that looked invulnerable in blowouts of Ole Miss, Tennessee and Kentucky (Ludacris was on stage for a pre-game concert).
So beatable that the Odyssey has changed its opinion of the playoff winner. Our current choice is not even ranked in the top 4: Oregon!