Tickets available for G-Day, featuring Georgia football ring ceremony

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Credit: Tony Walsh/UGAAA

Credit: Tony Walsh/UGAAA

AD Mitchell hauls in a pass over Daylen Everette during Georgia’s practice session April 5 in the William Porter Payne and Porter Otis Payne Indoor Athletic Facility. The G-Day game is scheduled Saturday. (Photo by Tony Walsh)

ATHENS — Tickets remain on sale for Saturday’s G-Day game, but at this point, expect to sit up high if you haven’t bought yours yet.

According to Georgia’s interactive ticket site on its georgiadogs.com website, all lower-level tickets have been sold as of Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, only a limited number of tickets are available in the middle sections of the 300 levels on the north and south sides of Sanford Stadium. However, there are plenty of seats to be had in most of sections 302-337, which encompass the upper level of the 92,000-seat facility. The Bulldogs aren’t making any seats available in the extreme upper-level 600s section on the north side of the stadium.

UGA is selling tickets for $5 each for the annual intrasquad scrimmage and limiting them to eight per individual. Traditionally, G-Day admission has been free with the donation of canned goods for charity.

Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. (ESPN2), and Georgia’s spring game will be the only one in the SEC available on a nationally televised broadcast.

What will folks see?

The primary attraction will be the Bulldogs’ national championship ring ceremony. Though calling it a “ceremony” may be too strong of a word.

While planning by UGA’s operations staff was still taking place Tuesday, the preliminary plan is for Georgia’s championship rings to be presented between quarters of the scrimmage. Nakobe Dean, speaking on an Athens Banner-Herald podcast this week, told reporter Marc Weiszer that he and the other outgoing lettermen on the 2021 team have been encouraged by UGA to make every effort to be in attendance Saturday. Many of them are preparing for the NFL draft.

But early feedback is that Georgia doesn’t plan to make too big of a fuss about it. The Bulldogs were feted in a January parade for their 33-18 victory over Alabama and 14-1 season that resulted in the program’s first national championship in 41 years.

As for the contest itself, featuring the team split into Red and Black squads, the primary attraction will be catching a glimpse of the returning stars from last season’s team while determining which up-and-coming players have earned more prominent roles for the 2022 season.

On offense, Georgia will replace two offensive line starters, one receiver and two running backs. The defense has been undergoing a complete makeover. In addition to the replacement of defensive coordinator Dan Lanning, the Bulldogs will look for eight new starters, including three on the defensive line, both inside linebackers and three defensive backs.

Whatever thoughts coach Kirby Smart has about the proceedings won’t be known until after the game. Georgia’s seventh-year coach will not be available for any pre-scrimmage interviews this week. The Bulldogs will conduct practice numbers 13 and 14 of the spring Tuesday and Thursday.

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