Brent Key on if the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry being lopsided bothers him: "You're Damn Right it Does"
Since the Yellow Jackets last beat Georgia in 2016, things have taken a turn for both programs.
Georgia has won back-to-back national championships and has not let Georgia Tech get close to smelling victory since Kirby Smart's first year. They have won every game by double-digits since then and it is fair to say that the first half of the game last year was the best half that Georgia Tech has played against the Bulldogs since their last win in the series in 2016.
When talking with the media today, Key was asked if, as a Tech alum, how lopsided the rivalry has gotten in recent years bothered him and he was pretty honest about how he felt about it:
"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."
Brent Key and Kirby Smart before last year's game
While it has been a lopsided rivalry, Key knows what it takes to beat the Bulldogs, having done it three times in his playing career in Atlanta:
"It was tremendous. The feeling of winning that game and receiving the Governor's trophy, to be able to... I have one in my office now, I want guys to see that and I want them to know what that is, I want them to understand the importance of this game. It is not just another game. When you come into the season, there is two goals. There is a goal to go to the bowl game and there is a goal to beat Georgia. We don't come out and openly talk about what our goals are. That is why last week I began to talk about a bowl game because it is time to talk about it and now it is time to talk about another goal and that is to beat Georgia. Is your goal to win every football game? Yeah, it is to win every game, but our true team goals are to go to a bowl game and to beat Georgia.
I said it in my opening press conference a year ago. We will work every day to beat the team on the other side of the state and that is what we have done."
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.
Georgia Tech and Georgia kicks off at 7:30 this Saturday on ABC.
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