Friday night’s 44-42 eight overtime victory over Georgia Tech left most of the sellout crowd in Sanford Stadium breathless.
But not linebacker Jalon Walker.
Although he was on the field for most of the Yellow Jackets’ 84 offensive plays, Georgia’s junior linebacker joked after the game that he could have gone a little longer.
“That was fun,” said Walker. “It might be nerve-wracking, but it’s football. I mean, college football. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy it?”
Walker hopes his grandmother did.
The family matriarch made a rare pre-game visit and stayed for Friday night’s four-and-a-half-hour marathon.
But like most of the rest of the crowd, she went home happy for the Bulldogs (10-2), who won the longest overtime game in SEC history, and the second-longest since the new format was implemented.
“This was the first time I've seen her before the game. I saw her at Dawg Walk, and she might come and call me later on,” Walker said. “I might talk to her about her nerves. But, to me, it's just another play.”
The eight-overtime thriller was certainly something to behold.d
Georgia played its 16th overtime game in school history and is now 9-7 including 2-2 against Tech. The Bulldogs are 2-2 in OT games in the Kirby Smart era.
“Obviously, the overtime was epic. I guess eight overtimes, and I don't know,” Smart said. “Not many conversions were made by either team. It seemed like maybe two or three. The defense made a lot of stops. But what a great game.”
Indeed.
Georgia Tech won the toss and chose defense. Georgia scored a touchdown on a 14-yard pass from Carson Beck to London Humphreys to finish a four-play drive and take its first lead of the night before the Yellow Jackets answered with a TD to make it 34-all.
But the fun was just getting started.
Under NCAA rules, teams must go for two points after the second touchdown in overtime. Both the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets would score, before missing their two-point tries sending the game into college football’s version of sudden death.
“We simulate about once every three weeks before we get into the two-point contest, but we stop around two or three,” Smart said. “We carry a lot of them. But I've never practiced that (eight attempts). I think a couple of weeks ago before we went to Texas, we did an overtime simulation similar to that just so the kids know the rules.”
In the fifth overtime with the score tied at 40, Beck converted with a pass to Dillon Bell for a 42-40 lead only to have Tech answered with a conversion to tie the game again.
Each team would make a pair of defensive stops sending the game to an eighth overtime.
Georgia Tech was up first, but the Yellow Jackets were unable to convert thanks to some heavy pressure by CJ Allen.
On Georgia’s next play, freshman Nate Frazier ran in to give the Bulldogs the unlikely win and in an excellent position for a spot in the CFP playoffs.
“You're trying to run things that give you multiple options. They did, and we did. It was interesting because Buster (Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulker), you know, was calling their two points, and he was here so long,” Smart said. “We were talking to our offense back and forth about, what do you think this is? What do you think he's going to run next? I mean, we have a lot of the same plays in two-point situations, and so it was unique.”
