Georgia football coach Kirby Smart will give credit where it’s due.
Friday night’s game opponent Georgia Tech will be one of the toughest and most physical opponents his Bulldogs have played all year.
If you know Yellow Jacket coach Brent Key like Smart does, this should not be a big surprise.
Having worked before with Key, a former offensive lineman, Smart and Georgia Tech’s third-year coach adhere to the same philosophy of physicality and hard-nosed philosophy.
That’s why when both coaches look at this game, they agree the team that brings the necessary intensity will likely win.
“Well, it's not about them ... it's not about what they think,” Smart said. “It's about what we think and how we play. We have to control that.”
During his Tuesday press conference, Smart described Friday night’s game (7:30 p.m., ABC) as a looming “street fight.".
During Key’s final press conference on Wednesday, the Yellow Jacket coach wholeheartedly agreed.
"That is the way games are when you play them the right way," Key said of Smart's comment. "There is nothing easy about the game of football. Football is for tough guys, and we've had a lot of those games, and they have had a lot of those games.”
Bulldog center Jared Wilson is getting his first real taste of the rivalry after backing up Sedrick Van Pran-Granger last season.
Although he’s a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Wilson said he recognizes the game will be a physical war.
“Maybe some guys have doubted us up front and doubted us physically at times. We have to go out there and prove who we are and go get the job done,” Wilson said. “It is going to be a street fight. It’s what they call an old-fashioned hate rivalry. It is going to be good fun.”
Smart hopes his team takes the same attitude. He promises Georgia Tech will.
“We have to have a ‘seeking contact’ attitude and enjoyment of a street fight,” Smart said. “Not everybody loves that, so it’s just one of those things that you find out a lot about yourself when you get to play a really physical football team like these guys. So, that's what we focus on – us.”
Bulldog linebacker CJ Allen believes Georgia will be up for the challenge.
“The things we have been through and how we practice, you can’t count that out. How we go about our business … for this game specifically, the history behind this game, the in-state rivalry,” he said. “To me, I never won a championship in high school. I’ve never been to a state championship, so this is like a state championship for me being a kid from Georgia.”
Georgia Tech center Weston Franklin credits Key for helping instill the mental and physical toughness that’s been necessary for the Yellow Jackets to gain the confidence he says the team currently has.
“It's just a gritty, tough mindset. And that's just kind of what Coach Key's instilled in this program,” Franklin said. “That's what's been shown lately. And that's what we want to be known as - a gritty, tough football team that's just never going to say die and just continue to work. We have a goal set out and that's what we're going to achieve and do anything to get there.”
But so do the Bulldogs.
Georgia has already achieved one of its goals by earning a spot in next week’s SEC Championship.
But any thoughts of Mercedes Benz Stadium will wait. All the Bulldogs are thinking about is Georgia Tech, and the kind of game it’s going to take to beat their arch-rivals and win the Governor’s Cup for the seventh straight time.
Key knows just what to expect.
“We've watched them on tape, we've watched them throughout the season, so yeah, we are expecting a tough, physical football game. They pride themselves on being a physical team,” Key said. “They pride themselves on winning the line of scrimmage and they don't just say it, they back it up. Not just recently, they've backed it up for a long period so it will be a big challenge for us."
