Evidently Georgia's hype for 2008 extends all the way to the Middle East.

"There are a lot of Dog fans here," Georgia coach Mark Richt said Thursday.

Only they are not wearing red and black. Richt and several other college coaches, including Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, are visiting troops in the Middle East this week.

Richt, who spent last week on a mission trip in Honduras, boarded a plane Tuesday and touched down 17 hours later.

"We are in parts unknown," he said.

Before Richt made it there, he and the coaches stopped at a hospital in Germany to visit wounded soldiers.

"They all had tremendous attitudes," Richt said.

Several had messages. One soldier, who had received a medal for valor, gave Richt a letter to pass on to those back home.

"He wanted the people of the Bulldog Nation to know that we are not doing this in vain," Richt said. "It is an absolute necessity. They don't want anybody to feel sorry for them. They want people to know they are doing what is absolutely necessary, and after being here I understand that."

Richt has even put his personal message on a mission. The coach took paint to a 2,000-pound bomb and wrote on it, "Go Dawgs. Finish the Drill. Hunker Down."

"That was a little bit of an eye-opening experience," he said.

Another factor that has caught his attention is the camaraderie between the branches of the military.

"You think the Army is over here on the land and the Navy is out in the sea and the Air Force is somewhere else, but they are all here and working together," Richt said.

"There is a real esprit de corps. Everybody has just come together."

Richt has primarily been visiting bases.

"It's a little bit like picture day back home," he said. "There are a lot of just college football fans here. They may work 16 hours and then sleep for three hours and get up in the middle of the night to watch the games."

Richt is expected to return home Monday.