Inside the most exclusive suite at the Peach Bowl
At first glance, nothing was so unusual about the activity in the field-level suite Friday night in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Behind the east end zone, some guests watched the Peach Bowl intently from their leather theater-style seats, looking up after each play at the video board for replays. Others chatted, turning to the field only when the crowd’s roars compelled their attention. Some had their heads in their phones.
But a closer look told a different story. That was former Outland Trophy winner Greg Eslinger, turning around in his seat to talk with three-time national championship coach Urban Meyer.
With an eye on the game between Oregon and Indiana, five-time Pro Bowler Haloti Ngata shot the breeze with Montee Ball, who set an FBS record at Wisconsin for most career touchdowns, and Ryan Yarbrough, who set five NCAA receiving records at Wyoming.
Welcome to the Peach Bowl’s most exclusive suite. No amount of money can get you through the door. You’re either one of the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame inductees, one of their guests or you’re invited to watch the game elsewhere.
“We didn’t pay for this room,” legendary Ole Miss offensive tackle Terrence Metcalf told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Blood, sweat and tears will get you in this room.”
The doors into this space are impossibly narrow. The 18 former players and four coaches who were inducted this year brought the total number of inductees to 1,111 players and 237 coaches.
In the 150-plus years that college football has been played and coached by almost 5.8 million participants, they constitute less than .02% of the players and coaches in the game’s history. That’s fewer than 1 out of every 5,000.
Twelve of this year’s 22-member class and their guests filled the suite at Friday’s College Football Playoff semifinal at MBS. They were brought onto the field between the first and second quarters to be honored by the sellout crowd.
“In a lot of ways, it’s humbling,” Miami linebacking great Darrin Smith told the AJC. “It’s humbling to be recognized with such an outstanding group of players and coaches. It’s truly a blessing.”
For several years, the Peach Bowl has invited the newest inductees to its game, a fitting event with the actual Hall of Fame just down the street. The highlight for most is a dinner on the night before the game, when they are presented with their commemorative silver blazers.
The game is another chance for the greats to hang out, swap stories and fanboy each other. It is part of the Hall of Fame’s efforts to build a bond among inductees.
“It’s funny, because you talk to some of them, they’re like, ‘Oh, man, I used to love to watch you guys,’” said Smith, who won national titles with the Hurricanes in 1989 and 1991. “It’s like, ‘You used to watch us?’”
Like any group of people thrown together, they found commonalities. When they met at the induction ceremony in December in Las Vegas, Meyer and Ngata, a first-team All-American defensive lineman at Oregon, found they had Utah in common. Meyer coached at the University of Utah (2003-04), Ngata’s wife, Christina, was a student there, and Ngata is from the state.
Meyer and Ngata exchanged phone numbers, as did their wives. The four of them spent some of Friday night’s game seated together and plan to get together in Utah.
“Urban and I, we’ve been talking a lot,” Ngata told the AJC.
In this luxury room, they ate their fill. By the second quarter, only a few foil-wrapped Moe’s burritos remained in a large box on a counter. Many nursed cans of beer or soda.
The game was not the most entertaining, with Indiana controlling from the first snap on the way to a 56-22 blowout win. That seemed only secondary to the bonds being built.
Metcalf, the standout offensive tackle from Ole Miss who blocked for Eli Manning, was contemplative.
“To make it to this space, I had to have done something throughout my career to be voted in this room,” he said. “It’s just an awesome end to a great career. To cap it off and be honored as a College Football Hall of Famer, it’s crazy.”
From the back of the suite, Ngata looked around the room. Sitting in a scooter was John Henderson, the great Tennessee defensive tackle who he had watched play when he was in high school. Nearby was Metcalf, who had also been just a few years ahead of Ngata.
Out in the seats was Eslinger, the Outland Trophy winner from Minnesota. Ngata and he had connected over their being dads of broods of boys.
Not all of the class was there. The headliner, coaching legend Nick Saban, was in the building but was tending to his ESPN duties. Former Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, honored for his exploits at Virginia Tech, was not able to attend the game.
The bonhomie was no less spirited.
“It’s been fun to get to meet these guys and realize that we’re so alike,” Ngata said. “We all know the grind it was to get where we were, but then the grind of football, it’s tough. It’s been tough on our bodies, things like that. But then we know the sacrifices we had to make. It’s like we only know, amongst each other. It’s great.”
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About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
