Former Tech QB reveals weird trash talk from Jalen Carter
Not to be upstaged by Georgia football’s most recent national title campaign of 2022, the Bulldogs’ distinguished championship defense from the year before remains on the minds of its opposition.
Late last week, former Georgia Tech quarterback Jordan Yates described in a three-minute TikTok video what it was like to face Georgia’s 2021 defense, or, according to Yates, “statistically, the best college football defense ever.”
“To hell with Georgia, and all that. I hate Georgia with all my heart, so it pains me to talk about it,” Yates began before detailing his perspective of the 2021 game versus Georgia. “But I’m just going to tell you how it went.”
Yates said during a meeting of the offensive unit earlier that week, a Georgia Tech assistant, a “Mike,” was interrupted by another assistant while describing Georgia’s defense. The other assistant coach wanted Mike to “tell them how [Georgia’s defense] really is.”
After a pause, Mike responded, “Well, statistically this is the best college football defense ever.”
The Bulldogs entered their 2021 regular-season finale against Georgia Tech ranked first in the FBS in total defense (236.0), scoring defense (7.5), and passing efficiency defense (95.23); and second in rushing defense (77.3) and passing defense (158.7). Playing on the road at Atlanta’s Bobby Dodd Stadium, the Bulldogs were a staggering 35.5-point favorite over the home Yellow Jackets.
Yates indicated Mike’s simple statement had gotten the point across regarding Georgia’s dominating defense. Regardless, the Georgia Tech offense, like every previous opponent of the Bulldogs, still found it difficult to move the football.
“The best way I can describe playing against that defense was the field [seemed] small when playing against them. They are so big and so fast,” Yates said. “It felt like we were not playing on a 53½-yard field, but it felt like the field was only 30 yards wide.”
In an amusing manner, Yates highlighted a mere 5-yard run by him late in the opening quarter with Georgia leading, 10-0. Considering the Bulldogs’ side-to-side quickness on defense, according to Yates, the run was “a big accomplishment in that game,” picking up a first down, one of only nine totaled by the Yellow Jackets.
Directing an offense that gained only 171 yards while reaching no closer to the end zone than Georgia’s 33-yard line, Yates completed 8 of 16 passes for only 73 yards while netting minus-28 yards rushing on six carries, including getting sacked three times. Georgia’s Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Robert Beal each had a sack, while Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker shared one.
Yates said he was hit so many times in what resulted as the most lopsided win (tied) for Georgia in the series, the Tech quarterback “finished the game with a concussion,” according to him. Yet, occurring towards the end of the game, he can still vividly recall the “weirdest trash talk” he has ever experienced.
“[Jalen Carter] said the strangest thing to me,” Yates said of the soon-to-be first-round pick, who was in his second year at Georgia at the time. “He looked at me and said, ‘Y’all are so unprepared…”
Puzzled by Carter’s statement, Yates asked what he meant, to which the Georgia standout defensive tackle said, “Y’all just don’t know what’s going on.”
“Yeah, we don’t,” Yates replied in what ended in a 45-0 Bulldogs victory.
After playing football for three years while earning his degree at Georgia Tech, Yates transferred to Sam Houston State where he began the 2022 season as the team’s starting signal-caller before he was injured. He has changed positions since then, moving from quarterback to running back and slot receiver for the Bearkats.
Notably, although he no longer plays for the Yellow Jackets, Yates remains “a Tech man for life,” as he says, and signed off on his video with a bold, and some would say, outrageous prediction regarding the Georgia-Tech series.
“Also, Tech will beat Georgia [in football] at least once in the next three years,” Yates declared. “You heard it here first.”