They’re throwing out the records for Saturday night’s Georgia-Georgia Tech football game at Sanford Stadium, which is a good thing this year.
The Yellow Jackets attained bowl eligibility this past Saturday, topping Duke 30-20 at Bobby Dodd Stadium to improve to 6-5 a year after winning 11 games and the Atlantic Coast Conference title. The Bulldogs are 5-6 and need to defeat Tech for a ninth time in 10 tries under Mark Richt to earn a postseason destination.
“When you get to this point where we’re at with no chance at the SEC championship game,” Richt said Sunday, “you’re always looking as a coach for things to motivate a team. When you play Georgia Tech, I won’t have to strain very hard at all.”
The in-state rivals combined for 16 victories entering last year’s matchup, which Georgia won 30-24, and for 17 entering the ’08 encounter, which Tech won 45-42. The 11 combined wins this season represent the fewest since 1996, when the 4-6 Bulldogs defeated the 5-5 Yellow Jackets 19-10 in Athens.
That ’96 matchup also serves as the last time neither team entered this game with at least seven wins.
“I don’t know that what your records are changes the nature of the game,” Jackets coach Paul Johnson said. “It’s always going to be a big game when it’s a rivalry game, and I don’t think the records of either team are going to diminish the importance of the game or how the kids view it.”
While Richt has an 8-1 record against the Yellow Jackets, Johnson is no slouch in rivalry games either. He was 6-0 against Army during his six seasons at Navy from 2002-07 and guided the Jackets to an upset of Georgia in his first try.
Richt’s Bulldogs returned the favor last season by stunning Tech at its own game, rushing. Washaun Ealey had 183 yards on 20 carries and Caleb King added 166 on 18, performances neither has been able to equal this year.
“We wanted to try to test the waters, but we didn’t go into it thinking we were going to run the ball as much as we did,” Richt said. “We haven’t had many games over the years where we’ve been able to run it that effectively. Once things started going well, we just stayed with it.”
When asked if last year’s game would serve as motivation, Johnson said, “Any time you get beat, if you’re a competitor, it motivates you. I’m sure they were motivated when they came in here last year. They sure played like it. I don’t think motivation will be a problem for either team.”
Georgia Tech leads nation in rushing with 319.36 yards a game, and its option offense hasn’t tailed off since starting quarterback Joshua Nesbitt suffered a season-ending broken forearm in the Nov. 4 loss at Virginia Tech. In the past two games with redshirt sophomore Tevin Washington taking the snaps, the Jackets produced 308 rushing yards in a loss to Miami and 320 against Duke.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time, and the numbers are pretty relative to what they’ve always been,” Johnson said.
Odds and ends
Richt reiterated that today’s practice will provide a good gauge for quarterback Aaron Murray, who has been listed day-to-day after suffering a bruised knee and a chest contusion during the 49-31 loss at Auburn. … Georgia leads the series against Georgia Tech 60-37-5 according to UGA records and 60-39-5 according to Tech records. … Richt on the 2011 opener against Boise State in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game: “It’s a game that everybody in the country will watch and have a high level of interest in, which I think is important for our program.”