Georgia’s sideline trophy was inspired by the rabid students who make up the Spike Squad

As the confetti rained and Georgia’s players celebrated a berth in the National Championship, linebacker Lorenzo Carter was wearing both the pads that’d helped him tackle Oklahoma 10 times and a special golden set. He was looking for someone in the postgame din.

“I had to go find him. I saw the green hair — I rushed over there — had to get my pic with The Joker,” Carter told SB Nation. “It was pretty crazy when I got over there. I had to make sure I made it back to the field.”

This is that Joker. Needless to say, he isn’t hard to pick out of a group.

“Spiked shoulder pads came about as a way of our defense to show that we got turnovers and made plays to help the team win or put us in a better set-up,” defensive tackle Michael Barnett told SB Nation. “It just motivates us. Me and the guys just try to make big plays.”

Georgia doesn’t lead the nation in turnover margin or takeaways. The Dawgs are more stifling on defense than they are opportunistic, but when they do get an interception or a fumble, the spiked pads become a sideline scene.

“For me, the biggest problem is getting my helmet off because they wont go over with it on. Helmet off first, I learned that the hard way,” Carter said.

Rival Tennessee’s infamous trash can gained headlines for the wrong reasons ...

... and Miami’s turnover chain gained a mythical quality as the Canes ran to the ACC championship game.

But Barnett favors UGA’s prop over the one used by former UGA coach Mark Richt’s Miami.

“I feel like our spiked shoulder pads are better, why not?” he said.

If you’ve watched a Georgia game on TV, you’ve seen The Joker, or at least someone who looks like him. He’s part of the Georgia Spike Squad, among the more colorful fans you’ll find in any stadium.

“We have a Spike Squad that shows up to every game in Athens,” Carter said. “So we just had to give a tribute to them, support our fans, and then just — motivation to get turnovers, getting the ball off of people.”

To answer that question, I turned to a friend. This is Zack Watson.

He was a member of the Squad for nearly three years when he was in college. The Squad has been around for about seven years, after a student named Travis Fetchko and some of his friends wanted to show off their passion in a different way.

Watson had seen the Spike Squad on TV. He’s as passionate a fan as they come and never missed a home game until he moved to New York after college.

“The first game my freshman year, I walked up to them after the game and said, ‘I wanna be one of you guys, how can I do it?’” Watson said. “And they were awesome. The leader, Travis, he was accepting. He said meet us at this time. Make sure you’re ready and you’re rowdy and you’re ready to cheer on the Dawgs.”

There are no plays off, as far as cheering is concerned. The gates at Sanford Stadium open two hours before home games. Spike Squad members are there even earlier than that, to make sure that their coveted spot in the front row of section 109 is lined with spikes.

“The student gate runners kind of know us, so they allow us to get front,” Watson said. “But as soon as those gates open up, it’s all bets off. You gotta sprint to your spot. So we have a couple sprinters in the group. There’s like two or three guys that are known sprinters. They’re not fully painted up. They get the front of the line, and as soon as they get their tickets checked, they sprint to that section and reserve it.“

But the Squad is not a group of refined polo or sundress-wearing Dawg fans.

The number of Spike Squadders can fluctuate, depending on what game it is and whether or not the Squad is trying to spell something out with body paint. What doesn’t fluctuate: The shoulder pads.

Each member makes their own theme (like The Joker), but the base is the pads and the paint. The spikes are spray-painted test tubes affixed to pads using bottle caps as screws.

Watson had directions to go to a specific Dick’s Sporting Goods near UGA’s campus and pick up some youth-sized shoulder pads.

“All I had to worry about was what my theme was gonna be,” Watson said. “The spikes and the pads were taken care of. They had the spikes, they had the formula ready, they just said, ‘You buy the pads, and then you come to us, and we’ll make sure it’s tricked out the right way,’ because you can’t have janky-lookin’ football pads. You gotta be in suit. Football pads have to match each person.”

Zack might not be in the spikes Monday night, but those that will be won’t be hard to find. If Georgia can beat Alabama, look for Carter to recreate a picture like this.

And know Watson keeps the spikes close, just in case.

“Ya know, I don’t know if the spikes are ever really in retirement,” he said. “There may be a day coming up soon when they’re needed most and I dust ‘em off.”