I’ve said all year that history shouldn’t matter with this Georgia team.

The fact that the Dawgs struggled to show up in big games in the Mark Richt era would not determine the 2017 team’s fate. Kirby Smart is leading a team with a completely different mindset. With the exception of the Auburn game, Georgia has looked like a team focused on the task at hand, and not on the past or future.

Saturday, however, will be a different kind of challenge against Georgia Tech. History won’t determine the result of the Clean, Old-Fashion Hate rivalry showdown, though Georgia probably doesn’t need to be reminded that it dropped 2 of its past 3 to its in-state rival.

With the SEC Championship already penciled in, the feeling is that the 1-loss Dawgs will enter next week’s showdown as just that — a 1-loss team. If Georgia Tech were a 7- or 8-win team — and not fighting for bowl eligibility — perhaps that conversation would be different.

But Saturday’s game is one of Smart’s trickiest challenges yet, and not one that any Georgia fan should take lightly.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

It’s no secret that preparing for Georgia Tech’s triple option is not an easy ordeal. It takes the right scout team quarterback. It takes full speed on defense in practice. It takes discipline. It takes endurance. It’s one thing to prepare for it in the fashion that Tennessee did, where it had an entire offseason to work it into the defensive game plan.

For Smart’s squad, however, it’s been a season-long process.

Since the start of the season, Georgia has had a “Tech period” at the end of practice. Instead of cramming for a final exam the night before the test, the Dawgs have been studying day by day.

As you can tell, it sounds like an awful lot of fun.

“At the end of practice we’ll have the Tech period,” nose tackle John Atkins said to the Macon Telegraph. “It’s like, ‘Get this over with.’”

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That’s still not necessarily a new thing for Georgia. Paul Johnson has been at Georgia Tech since 2008, which makes Saturday his 10th game against the Dawgs.

What is new is the spot that Georgia is in. Having already locked up the division, the SEC Championship is in the bag. The showdown against Alabama or Auburn is what everyone has already turned the page to. After all, the Dawgs still control their own Playoff fate.

If they lose to Georgia Tech, though, that’s all out the window.

A loss to the Yellow Jackets would bring back all of those old Georgia narratives about collapsing when the heat gets cranked up. The Dawgs would look back on the 2017 season as the one that got away. They had the huge non-conference win, the No. 1 ranking, the relatively healthy starting lineup, the dominant senior class and the extremely weak SEC East.

If they aren’t even playing for a Playoff spot in the SEC Championship because of a loss to Georgia Tech, a once-magical season won’t look so magical anymore.

But wait, there’s more!

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Saturday isn’t easy from a game-planning standpoint, either. Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney would prefer not to open up the bag of tricks a week before meeting one of the nation’s top defenses. If he’s forced to get creative in a close game — and not run the ball 50 times — that could provide a whole lot of tape for Georgia’s SEC Championship opponent.

In Chaney’s perfect world, the Dawgs dominate the line of scrimmage against Georgia Tech and Fromm has one of those 7-for-10 days. In terms of defending the run, Georgia Tech is ranked a spot below the Kentucky defense that Nick Chubb and Sony Michel pounded last week. And speaking of last week, the Yellow Jackets allowed 319 rushing yards in a blowout loss to … Duke.

Still, all of that will be old news by kickoff on Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. History isn’t going to determine which Georgia Tech team shows up, nor will it determine which Georgia team shows up.

If the Dawgs commit careless penalties and get beat at the line of scrimmage like they did against Auburn, this could turn into a nightmare scenario. If they play with the same “our better is better than your better” attitude that fueled a 9-0 start, then Georgia Tech is going to have too steep of a hill to climb by halftime.

Smart will do everything in his power to make sure his team isn’t looking ahead to the SEC Championship. For a guy who preaches tunnel vision, he knew what lied ahead in the regular season finale against Georgia Tech. If he didn’t, “Tech period” wouldn’t be a thing.

Now, it’s Georgia’s job to get this over with.