Georgia Tech's Haynes King Says He Was "Pissing Blood For a Couple of Days" After Last Season's Near Upset Over Georgia

Many college football fans were formally introduced to Georgia Tech's starting quarterback Haynes King in the final week of the 2024 season (i.e. Rivalry Week). The Georgia Tech Yellowjackets were +19.5 underdogs on the road vs the Georgia Bulldogs. I remember thinking that line wasn't big enough. I had it on good authority that a 5-3 ACC team would be laughed off the field by any SEC school, let alone the #7 Georgia Bulldogs.

But holy shit. Georgia-Georgia Tech wound up being an 8 OT thriller. It might have been the best game of the year. In large part due to an all-time gutsy performance by Haynes King. 

26-36 for 303 yards & 2 TD's (passing). 124 yards & 3 TD's (rushing). At halftime, Haynes King had more yards than the Georgia Bulldogs offense. And seemingly every time Haynes King tucked the ball, whether it was on a scramble or a designed run, it ended violently. Sometimes for King. Sometimes for the Georgia defense. By the end of the game, it seemed like a miracle that Haynes King was still standing. 

After matching each other back and forth for 7 OT's, in the 8th OT, Georgia Tech failed to convert. Georgia didn't. The Bulldogs came out on top. It sucked. 

What I didn't even remember, was that Haynes King had a shoulder injury heading into the game. The week leading up to it, Georgia Tech's coaches weren't even sure that he'd be able to go. But the way his coach Brent Key describes, a few days before the came, Haynes King "chose to not be injured anymore".

ESPN – A month earlier, the Yellow Jackets quarterback had injured his right shoulder. By the final Monday in November, King still couldn't throw a ball more than a few feet without a tidal wave of pain radiating down his arm, and the Jackets' coaching staff doubted he could even play against Georgia.

Then, miraculously, just three days before kickoff, King arrived at practice and uncorked a deep ball. Then another. Then another.

It made no sense. King had seemingly healed overnight. Or, perhaps, as head coach Brent Key surmised, King simply chose not to be injured anymore.

"He's just got an innately high pain tolerance," Key said. "He's able to just block it out. It still hurts, right? But he blocks it."

Which makes his performance all the more impressive. Most quarterbacks would sooner run out of bounds before the sticks (on a 4th down) than lower a fully health shoulder into a Georgia linebacker. Haynes King did it with a torn labrum. Pretty damn impressive. 

And just to add a little more lore to Haynes Kings performance vs the Georgia Bulldogs last year, a couple days after the game, he texted his coach:

"Shoulder's fine, Coach," King wrote. "I have been pissing blood for a couple days though."

Hell yeah. I believe we call that a "Football Guy" here at Barstool Sports. Buy a shirt. 

That Georgia-Georgia Tech game is one of my favorite games from the last decade. Had Georgia Tech actually pulled out the win, it would probably be #1. But still… especially considering the ball was pissing blood for days following the game… that was maybe the most improbable individual performance I've watched start to finish since 2018 when Purdue's Rondale Moore (as a true freshman) had Ohio State in hell.