huckaby

Darrell Huckaby is a syndicated columnist and author of six books including two about Georgia football. Read Huck’s Wit and Wisdom every Wednesday and Sunday. Subscribe at darrellhuckaby.net.

11.30.25

Dawgs on Top Against Tech is Always a Thing of Beauty

Glory! Glory!

We have beaten The Enemy eight times in a row, to tie The Drought which plagued us from two years after World War II until five years after I was born. The last time the North Avenue Trade School beat UGA in Atlanta we were still wondering if all the computers would crash on Y2K and Britney Spears hadn’t even embarrassed her parents once. And if we’d had instant replay review back then, we wouldn’t have lost that game because Jasper Sanks was down.

And don’t tell me Friday’s win was ugly. I have eyes and I saw the same game y’all did. I know Gunner was tight and played poorly. Except for when he didn’t. I, too, was wondering why there were so many designed QB runs and I, too, wondered why we got away from the running game and wondered if Mike Bobo was having an off day. I, too, wished we had scored touchdowns in the red zone in the first half instead of field goals and, I too, thought we’d drive the field and bury the hated bumblebees on the first drive of the second half and put the game away.

But the win wasn’t ugly. No victory over the hated rival from the trade school on north Avenue is ever ugly to me. To me, it was a thing of beauty. Because we did it. We did it. We did it. We beat the hated Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for the eighth straight time. Since we didn’t play them during the Covid year, we haven’t lost to them in 3,287 days—and don’t have to worry about losing to them for another 365. And it is even sweeter because now we have an opponent in Brent Key that hates us as much as those of my generation—and Jeff Dantzler—hate them. And it eats at him because he can’t beat us. And his fixation on us probably cost his team a spot in the ACC Championship game and a chance at the College Football Playoff, because I bet you dollars to donuts that they spent time in the week—maybe weeks—leading up to their Pitt game getting ready to play us—at least covertly if not openly.

Let me remind you of something you probably didn’t know. During those horrible lean years when Bobby Dobb owned us, Tech won by scores of 7-0, 7-6, and 7-3. Nobody remembers those victories as ugly.

So, relish the victory. Relish the fact that we have won the last 52 games when leading at the half. Relish the fact that, under Kirby Smart, our Dawgs are 115-13 against teams not named Alabama, and 116-20 against the whole world. Relish the fact that our defense held the number one offense in the country to 250 yards and NO—as in ZERO—touchdowns. Relish the amazing leaping interception that Ellis Robinson IV made at our own 1-yard line. Relish the clutch throw and catch from Gunner Stockton to Zachariah Branch in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. Relish the clutch kicking of Peyton Woodring and the punting of the Awesome Aussie, Brett Thorson. Relish the victory. Because trust me. The sun doesn’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day, and UGA has had a lot of sunshine and bright lights on his rearend over the past nine years.

But speaking of the game. I loved it when Tech’s scholar athlete Shane Marshall downed the ball on the two-yard-line on the opening kick. Thank God he’ll have an engineering degree to fall back on if he can’t make a career out of football. You know, like Reggie Ball. And I will always wonder what the game might have turned into if the referees had had the guts to correctly call an intentional grounding and thus a safety on the second play of the game.

And wasn’t it nice of the Nerds to give us a de facto home game by moving the game to the Benz instead of their decrepit “stadium” on The Flats, near the projects, across the expressway from the Varsity. Plus, that gave us a chance to get reacquainted with those environs which might come in handy as we prepare to play in the SEC Championship game next week. Our fifth in a row. No coach other than Steve Spurrier has done that—not even Nick.

These are the glory years, y’all. Don’t let that slip your mind. Now bring on Bama and let’s get ready for life without Drew Bobo. God bless him. He’s a damn good Dawg. Look for me Saturday. I’ll be the good-looking guy in the red shirt—holding up two fingers. Yes, I need two. Go Dawgs

Darrell Huckaby

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