Over the course of college football history, the success of the Georgia Bulldogs has resulted in a number of enemies within the SEC.

Annual matchups against Auburn, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee all spark mutual feelings of hatred and the rivalry games have produced some of the SEC’s most memorable moments.

But for UGA head coach Mark Richt none of these rivalries equate to the Bulldogs’ upcoming game this week against that “Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech.”

“We do have a lot of rival games,” Richt said on his Sunday teleconference, “but I think everyone in this state can agree that Georgia Tech is the most important one.”

While Georgia has navigated its way to a 9-2 record in the SEC this season, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are also finding success. They are currently ranked No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings and are on their way to the ACC Championship game.

With both teams playing well, Saturday’s matchup marks the first time Georgia and Georgia Tech are ranked going into “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.”

As always with every Georgia Tech team, its triple-option offense provides a challenging matchup for opposing defenses, but quarterback Justin Thomas’ emergence in the passing game (15 TD and 4 INT) give the Yellow Jackets a new wrinkle in their normally run-heavy offense.

“It seems like they are throwing the ball a little bit more with this guy,” Richt said. “They still kind of running their thing and he seems to run it extremely well. I see a lot more versatility in their passing game.”

There is some risk this week of diverted attention for the Bulldogs, however. Although they are done with their SEC schedule, there is still a chance of a berth in the SEC Championship game as long as Missouri loses. The Tigers will take on Arkansas on Friday afternoon, which means Georgia will know where they stand in the conference when it takes the field the following day.

With the situation out of their control, Richt is stressing to his team to be “100% focused” on Georgia Tech and not the game over in Columbia, Mo. Even if Georgia doesn’t make it to Atlanta, the ‘Dawgs still have a higher-tier bowl game to play for, especially with their top-10 ranking.

For Richt, he harkens back to how his team has handled past distractions earlier in the season and believes this will be dealt with the same focus and attention as in prior weeks.

“We’ve had some distractions this year from time to time and it hasn’t seemed to affect us in my opinion,” Richt added. “I think we’ve done a very good job of focusing on the things we can control and that’s going to be the goal again. This game kind of stands alone.”