ATLANTA -- In what Brent Key called a competitive, even, back-and-forth spring overall, the annual White and Gold Spring Game delivered a fitting result as Team "Wreck 'Em" defeated Team "Swarm" 20-19 in a tightly-contested battle in front of the Jackets' fans at Bobby Dodd Stadium Saturday afternoon.

Both teams had late touchdown drives after the game went to the latter part of the fourth quarter with it tied at 13-13. Zion Taylor caught a 34-yard touchdown pass from Graham Knowles which put Wreck 'Em up 20-13 after the PAT with 1:47 left in the game.

Team Swarm answered by pushing down the field on the ensuing drive with some long completions by quarterback Aaron Philo to set up a 17-yard touchdown pass from Philo to Luke Harpring to pull them within one. Swarm went for the potential game-winning two-point conversion but was denied by the Wreck 'Em defense to seal its victory.

"Today was a perfect example of why it's important to play spring games," said Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key in his postgame press conference. "There is a lot of reasons behind it from external...the fans and student body and people around. But the importance is when you go out and scrimmage and you have people in the stands, it's a different environment. And you don't know how you're going to scrimmage by the way you practice necessarily. You hope you do, but then you don't know how you're going to scrimmage in the stadium with people in it as opposed to a stadium that is empty. Then it comes to playing the game. Everything we're doing is trying to shrink that gap between our preparation and playing in the game, and this is another step toward that.

"These are all coaching moments and coaching opportunities and a chance for us to take things that might've been failures or mistakes that kids made or us as coaches make and get those corrected and go play. I was pleased with the effort today. I was pleased with the guys. I thought we've had a good spring, and the thing I told them afterwards is I think we have a chance to have a good football team. But if they want to have a chance to have a really good or great football team, then from this point on everybody's got to make the commitment for themselves and each other to do a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more from this point on. If we can do that, I like our chances of continuing to come together as a football team and have a chance to play good football this year."

Philo had the biggest yardage day from the quarterbacks throwing for 77 yards on 8-of-11 attempts for Wreck 'Em and 198 yards on 11-of-23 passing with a touchdown and two interceptions for Swarm. (Several players at the skill positions played for both teams due to lack of availability from others on the roster.) Haynes King threw for 66 yards on 9-of-12 attempts and Graham Knowles also had 133 yards on 11-of-20 attempts with one touchdown and one interception.

Taylor had 156 yards on seven catches with two touchdowns combined between his play on both teams while Bailey Stockton had a 100-plus receiving yard day on six catches. Harpring also had 77 yards on seven catches with a touchdown, and transfer tight end JT Byrne added four catches for 31 yards. Debron Gatling had seven catches for 56 yards.

Trelain Maddox and JP Powell were the leading rushers as the running game was held in check for the most part with 39 and 35 yards, respectively. Powell had the lone rushing touchdown.

Defensively, AJ Cheeks led Wreck 'Em with five tackles and an interception. Andre Fuller Jr. and Jason Moore each had one sack, and Omar Daniels had an interception.

On the Swarm defense, Kelvin Hill was the leading tackler with six stops while Myles Forristall had four tackles and a sack. Matthew Alexander added a sack, and Clayton Powell-Lee came up with one interception.

Team Wreck 'Em got on the scoreboard first after a couple nice throws from Aaron Philo to David Prince and Debron Gatling for first downs before Aidan Birr was called on for a 47-yard field goal when the opening drive stalled out. Birr connected to make it 3-0 with 7:23 remaining in the first quarter.

After a stop, Wreck 'Em once again put together a nice drive with some solid throws from Philo, runs for first downs by JP Powell and Trelain Maddox and eventually Powell plunged in from one yard out for the TD to make it 10-0 early in the second quarter after the PAT.

Swarm got on the board on the ensuing drive as Daylon Gordon ran for a first down followed by throws for first downs by Haynes King to Chris Elko and JT Byrne. The drive was punctuated with a successful trick play as King found Jamal Haynes in the flats before Haynes sent one downfield to Zion Taylor for the 38-yard touchdown pass. The Wreck 'Em lead was cut to 10-7 after the PAT with 7:23 remaining in the second quarter.

Omar Daniels came up with the first turnover of the game as he picked off a Philo pass near midfield and put together a nice return for Team Wreck 'Em in the second quarter.

Clayton Powell-Lee added the second interception of the first half for the defense when he picked off a Graham Knowles pass near midfield late in the first half for Team Swarm. Powell-Lee's interception set up good field position that Swarm converted into three points as Birr connected for a 43-yard field goal to end the half and tie the game at 10-10.

Team Wreck 'Em took the lead with the first points of the second half as Andrew Nelms connected on a 27-yard field goal with around five minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Team Swarm responded with a scoring drive to close out the third quarter that culminated in a 51-yard field goal by Birr to tie things up at 13-13 going to the fourth.

Team Swarm had a golden opportunity to take the lead midway through the fourth quarter but were turned away on a fourth and goal from the 1 as cornerback AJ Cheeks picked off an RPO pass in the flat.

Team Wreck 'Em proceeded to drive down the field and finishing a scoring drive with a 34-yard touchdown pass from Knowles to Taylor to put them up 20-13 with 1:47 left in the game after the PAT.

Swarm responded right back with a long pass from Philo to Taylor to set up a 17-yard touchdown pass from Philo to Luke Harpring. But the two-point try for the potential win was turned away by the Wreck 'Em defense as they sealed the 20-19 victory.

Georgia Tech will start summer workouts in a few weeks leading up to Fall camp in early August. The Jackets open the 2025 season on Friday, Aug. 29 at Colorado with a time to be announced.