ATHENS — The game remains more than four months away, but it looms large over spring football practice at Georgia.
“Every time we go out there,” safety Jakar Hamilton said after a recent practice, “that’s what we think about — getting better to beat Boise State on Sept. 3rd.”
The season opener against a likely top-10 opponent — to be played under the bright lights of the Georgia Dome in the nationally televised, prime-time Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game — has become the Bulldogs’ rallying point as the program tries to get back on track after a dismal 2010 season.
Coach Mark Richt used it in recruiting, pitching to prospects the possibility that they could make their college debuts on a big stage by signing with Georgia, and has continued to use it through a grueling spring practice, which will wrap up with the G-Day intra-squad scrimmage Saturday at Sanford Stadium.
“We’re not a team that can be just kind of getting our act together Game 1,” Richt said. “We have to be at midseason form to compete with this [Boise State] team. ... It affects us hopefully in a very positive way as far as everybody’s attitude toward what it’s going to take.”
Georgia was in the midst of a 1-4 start last season when it began talking seriously with Gary Stokan, president and CEO of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, about setting up the game.
The pairing did not come together easily, requiring some major matchmaking assistance from ESPN, which will televise the game at 8 p.m. Sept. 3. (The game will have head-to-head TV competition from the LSU-Oregon matchup, which will air at the same time on ABC from Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.)
No fewer than eight teams had to juggle their schedules to make the Georgia-Boise State game happen: the two principals, plus Louisville (dropped from Georgia’s schedule), North Carolina (added to Louisville’s schedule to replace Georgia), James Madison (switched dates on North Carolina’s schedule to accommodate the UNC-Louisville game), Ole Miss (moved a scheduled 2011 season opener against Boise State to 2014), BYU (replaced Boise on Ole Miss’ 2011 schedule) and Oregon State (changed dates on BYU’s schedule to accommodate the BYU-Ole Miss game).
“It was a real Rubik’s cube, but [Richt and UGA athletic director Greg McGarity] said all along that ‘whatever you can do to make this happen, we’d be in favor of,’” Stokan said. “I think they looked at this as an opportunity to strategically ignite some enthusiasm in the program.”
McGarity said scheduling the game put “some juice in our program,” and Richt said it was needed “to let the college football world know that Georgia is still alive and kicking.”
Stokan said several coaches whose teams have played in the Atlanta game the past three seasons — Alabama’s Nick Saban, LSU’s Les Miles and Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer — told him the high-profile opener fueled intense off-seasons. The game has developed a reputation as a springboard for the winning team.
Alabama vaulted from No. 24 to No. 13 in the polls with a 34-10 victory over No. 9 Clemson in the 2008 game, and Stokan said Saban later told him that game “put Alabama back on the national stage.” Alabama took a No. 5 ranking into the 2009 game against No. 7 Virginia Tech, and a 34-24 victory started the Tide’s national-championship season. No. 16 LSU beat No. 18 North Carolina 30-24 last season and went on to a 10-win season.
Georgia doesn’t typically work on the game plan for specific opponents during spring practice and hasn’t made an exception for Boise State. (Richt figures the players generally would “forget everything” by September.) But the Bulldogs have prepared by ratcheting up the physicality and competitiveness of spring drills.
Richt came up with a points system in which score is kept for each competitive drill during practices. At the end of each day, a winner — the offense or the defense — is declared. Players on the winning side run half as many post-practice sprints as those on the losing side.
“I just want to make sure everybody understands how important it is to compete every day, how important it is to play hard every day,” Richt said.
The change is partially rooted in how last season ended — a 6-7 record and a Liberty Bowl loss to Central Florida — and partially in how the 2011 season will open.
Boise State — which, like Georgia, will play its spring game Saturday — is 106-12 over the past nine seasons, including 12-1 last season, and not expecting a falloff this season. The Broncos return quarterback Kellen Moore, who last year was the NCAA leader in passing efficiency and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy vote, and tailback Doug Martin, who ran for 1,289 yards. The Broncos do have to replace Moore’s two top receivers and three key defensive players.
“Boise State — that game alone is huge,” Georgia wide receiver Tavarres King said. “That’s a game you can look forward to all year long.”
About the Author
