CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Georgia Tech coach Brent Key is tired of hearing so much love throughout his home state for his biggest rival.
But with the Yellow Jackets on the losing end of five straight games against Georgia, Key said it's up to his team to change the narrative surrounding "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate."
"Is it annoying? Heck, yeah," Key said Tuesday of the Georgia accolades. "Kirby [Smart] has done a great job -- he has. And I told him, 'We've got to do something about it."
Key played at Georgia Tech from 1997 through 2000, when the Yellow Jackets went 3-1 in the rivalry, including a 1998 victory in which Smart played for the Bulldogs.
Since then, however, Georgia is 18-3 against Georgia Tech, winning the last three meetings by a combined score of 134-21.
Key, in his first full year as Georgia Tech's head coach after taking over for Geoff Collins midway through the 2022 season, said he's upset by how much the lopsided results have damaged the popularity of the rivalry nationally.
"What pisses me off is to look at lists of the 10 or 20 best rivalries in the country and, not to have [Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate] on there, that's bulls---," Key said. "But at the present time, they're probably right. So we've got to do something about that."
Yellow Jackets offensive lineman Jordan Williams, who is from Gainesville, Georgia, said he used to drive past the UGA campus on trips to visit family, and he's always been frustrated by the Bulldogs' popularity -- and two straight national titles have only added fuel to that fire.
"It really gets on my nerves," Williams said. "But rivals or not, they're the best. You've got to beat the best, and it's kind of a burn-the-boats mentality, stake everything on it. That's the place we want to be."
