Analyst Ranks Georgia Tech-Georgia Rivalry Game as the One with "The Least Playoff Importance" On Saturday

It is safe to say that nobody is going to give Georgia Tech much of a chance on Saturday against the No. 1 team in the country.

The Bulldogs are 24.5 points favorites coming into the next edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, and not only that, they are on a 28-game winning streak and looking to win a third straight national championship.

When it comes to this weekend, the game itself is not getting much respect. ESPN college football playoff Analyst Heather Dinich ranked nine rivalries by playoff importance and Georgia Tech's game vs Georgia came in dead last.

Here is what she had to say about the game this weekend:

If Georgia Tech wins: "After everyone picks their jaws up off the floor from witnessing the biggest upset of the season, the SEC will need to hope that Alabama wins the league. A loss to the unranked, five-loss Yellow Jackets could keep the SEC out of the CFP if Georgia wins the league. (If you're paying close attention, you'll count that this is the third way the SEC would get left out of the playoff.)"

If Georgia wins: "The Bulldogs maintain their grip on the No. 1 spot heading into the SEC championship game and hang onto the teeny-tiny possibility that they could finish in the top four without winning the SEC. If Alabama wins the league title and Georgia finishes as a one-loss runner-up, the Bulldogs could get some consideration for a top-four spot, but they would need some help. And Alabama winning would mean that Texas would have something Georgia doesn't: a win against the SEC champs."

I agree that it is a long shot for Georgia Tech to win this game, but the matchup between Arizona and Arizona State ranks above Georgia Tech vs Georgia and that is where I would have disagreement.

Most are not giving Georgia Tech much of a chance this weekend and it is hard to argue given past results in this rivalry since the Yellow Jackets last won it in 2016 and how good Georgia looks this year.

Key is a Tech alum and he talked about how much the rivalry has gotten lopsided and how it bothers him:

"To answer the first part of your question, you are damn right it does. Yeah it does. Rivalries are not one-sided, rivalries are competitive games between two games, that is what makes rivalries great, this is hands down one of the greatest rivalries in the country. Well, in order for that to be the case, outside of our scope, it needs to be competitive. That is on us, that is on us at Georgia Tech to be able to go out and compete for four quarters in a football game.

As far as selling it to the team, we have another opportunity to play another game and our rival. If you have to do that, you have to have ice water running through your veins."

According to odds released by DraftKings, Georgia Tech will be a 24.5-point underdog against the Bulldogs this weekend.

The Yellow Jackets have not beaten the Bulldogs since 2016 and have not won against Georgia in Atlanta since 1999. Since 2000, Georgia Tech has only beaten Georgia four times. Georgia is currently 11-0 and just finished SEC play 8-0 with a blowout win over Tennessee yesterday.

The Bulldogs defense gets a lot of the attention (as it should), but the offense for Georgia is as good as you'll find in the country and Carson Beck is playing as well as any quarterback in the country. It is hard to find a weakness on this offense and it will be a big challenge for the Yellow Jackets to stop them on Saturday.

Georgia leads the all-time series 70-41.

In Brent Key's first matchup against the Bulldogs last year, the Yellow Jackets played them much closer than anyone could have anticipated. Georgia Tech led 7-3 at the end of the first quarter and only trailed the eventual national champions 10-7. Halfway through the third quarter, the game was 13-7, but tight end Brock Bowers scored to take a 20-7 lead and the Bulldogs finally pulled away and ended up winning 37-14.

Since the day he was hired as the head coach at Georgia Tech, Key has made it clear that he wants to close the gap with Georgia:

"There is one thing I want everyone in this room to understand and everyone associated with Georgia Tech understands... There is an opponent in this state we will work 365 days a year to defeat. We will work 365 days a year to dominate. When we all wake up in the morning, we want to dominate our opponent. The feeling of dominating your opponent is like no other and whatever team is on our schedule, that will be our goal. That is what we will work towards every single day.

Players in here, understand that. That is our goal and that is our mindset. We have an opponent in this state that is included in that. For 365 days, we will work to dominate that opponent. Understand that."

ESPN's David Hale wrote an intriguing piece during ACC Media Days this summer about how Key wants to change the narrative of the rivalry and Key made some interesting comments:

"Is it annoying? Heck, yeah," Key said Tuesday of the Georgia accolades. "Kirby [Smart] has done a great job -- he has. And I told him, 'We've got to do something about it."

"What pisses me off is to look at lists of the 10 or 20 best rivalries in the country and, not to have [Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate] on there, that's bulls---," Key said. "But at the present time, they're probably right. So we've got to do something about that."

Offensive lineman Jordan Williams also talked about the rivalry:

"It really gets on my nerves," Williams said. "But rivals or not, they're the best. You've got to beat the best, and it's kind of a burn-the-boats mentality, stake everything on it. That's the place we want to be."

Key has pulled off several big upsets in his short time as the Georgia Tech head coach and they will get to measure themselves against arguably the best team in the country next Saturday night.

Brent Key on if the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry being lopsided bothers him: "You're Damn Right it Does"

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