Georgia Tech practices in Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Georgia Tech may never again practice in conditions as deluxe as the team experienced Tuesday.
The Yellow Jackets bused two miles south to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, getting in a full-pads practice in the brand-new venue where they’ll play Tennessee in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game next Monday.
“It was amazing,” A-back Nathan Cottrell said. “I’m not going to lie – that place is insane.”
With the practice, the Yellow Jackets were able to get accustomed to surroundings such as the artificial-turf field and the overhanging video board. Coach Paul Johnson had hoped to get into the stadium this week if possible.
“You never know how the young guys are, walking into a stadium filled with 65,000-plus people,” A-back J.J. Green said. “You just go in there, look at the big ole Jumbotron, big ole round thing, get everybody’s butterflies out of their stomachs and just go in and practice.”
Green said that “you really have to dial it in” to track kickoffs because the ball can get lost in the halo-shaped video board, which is 58 feet tall and 1,100 feet around.
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All four teams playing in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff games this weekend – Alabama and Florida State on Saturday and Tech and Tennessee on Monday – have been offered the chance to get into the new stadium before playing in it. Tennessee is scheduled for a walk-through on Sunday, according to a Chick-fil-A Kickoff game spokesman.
“The turf is nice,” B-back KirVonte Benson said. “I believe it’s soft. It’s not the traditional turf you feel, but I believe once we got out there, it was like your foot was going to sink in the ground, but once you run a little bit, maybe you get used to it. It is an amazing field.”
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.
