“It hurt. It’s going to be like that for a while,” Tech linebacker Kyle Efford said. “But on the other hand, we will use it as fuel. Just come out and give yourself more and more every day. We’re going to get these guys, man.”

Efford and his teammates played another impressive game in Friday’s 44-42 eight-overtime loss at Sanford Stadium. Only 27 of No. 7 UGA’s 44 points came in the regular season, and seven of them came on the heels of a lost fumble by Haynes King on the Tech 32 with 2:02 left.

Tech shut out UGA in the first half, the Bulldogs’ first scoreless first half in a game since 2019. It stopped Georgia’s two-point conversion in the second overtime, then again in the third overtime, fourth overtime, sixth overtime and the seventh extension.

Georgia also managed just 108 yards rushing and needed five touchdown passes from Carson Beck to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive. Tech’s defense did more than enough to keep the Jackets in the game.

“(Defensive coordinator) Tyler (Santucci) came up with a really good plan,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “We were able to influence the quarterback the way we wanted. They kept fighting, they kept fighting, they kept fighting, they kept working to find a way.”

Key and his offensive staff entered the game with King committed and played the junior quarterback for all but one snap. Over the last two weeks, Tech had used King and freshman Aaron Philo in wins over Miami and North Carolina State, respectively. King had to sit out the previous two games due to injury and lost to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech respectively.

King delivered one of the most memorable performances in the rivalry’s history. He threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns while completing 26 of his 36 passes. He ran the ball 24 times for 110 yards and scored three scores.

He did all this with his sore right shoulder and ended up with a bloody left knee that was seeping through his white pants. After the loss, he met with reporters and tried to find the words to describe the pain through bloodshot eyes.

“You either make it or you don’t. We don’t have that,” King said. “That’s just the way it is.”

King’s fumble in the fourth quarter will be unfairly remembered. He lost the ball after being hit directly and violently in the helmet. But before that play, Tech had missed a field goal attempt during the night, turned the ball over on downs and ended a 90-play, 10:36 drive in the second half with just three points.

NOTES