Georgia Tech cornerback Tobias Oliver’s first game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was memorable for him, and he didn’t even play. It was his first season at Tech, when the Yellow Jackets played Tennessee in a Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in 2017, an overtime loss for Tech.

Even though he wasn’t dressed to play in the game, he still was anxious.

“I had on a jersey and shorts, but I still thought I was going to play somehow,” Oliver said Wednesday. “I thought somehow I’d go in the locker room and put on pads at halftime or something.”

His eagerness for Saturday’s game against No. 21 North Carolina is all the more given that he’ll actually play. The game will be the first in Tech’s six-game series at the gleaming sports palace.

“It’s amazing just to have that (stadium) here and have the ability to go and play there,” he said. “For that to be my first game there, Saturday night, 7:30, you couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to play there.”

Wide receiver Malachi Carter was similarly excited.

“Even the sidelines are, like, futuristic,” he said. “Like the scoreboard behind the bench – never even seen anything like that before. It’ll be cool when we’re the team playing in there.”

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