ATLANTA, Ga.–Palpable excitement is already building in certain circles in Atlanta for the University of Georgia Bulldogs college football season opener. Considered by many to be the world capital of college football, winning more in the nationally prominent games played in downtown Atlanta is of the utmost importance if Kirby Smart’s program is going to be atop the tip of the upper echelon of the old sport, entering its 151st season.
Under Coach Smart, Georgia has fared extremely well at Grant Field in Midtown Atlanta while playing its in-state rival. But after opening 2-0 in big games played in the domes (Georgia Dome, Mercedes-Benz Stadium), UGA has somewhat alarmingly dropped three straight such contests. Each loss came to a powerful SEC West opponent: a national championship overtime defeat to Bama; a near replay of that game featuring the same two programs in an eerily similar SEC championship game; finally, a disheartening blowout at the hands of the current national champions, LSU.
Opening with the ACC’s Virginia Cavaliers in Atlanta could get the big city mojo flowing in the right direction. Georgia is plainly planning a return trip for a fourth straight SEC championship game and well-positioned amongst the favorites to win the SEC title.
The action commences on September 7th, on the holiday weekend Monday. UGA will be playing football on back-to-back weekdays for the first time, after beating Baylor in a midweek Sugar Bowl, on the first day of the new decade. Winning a New Year’s 6 bowl definitely pushed Georgia in a positive direction.
Hoos ahead for Dawgs: The Bulldogs are 1-1 in Chick-fil-A Kickoff games, including 1-1 versus the ACC, with a defeat of North Carolina in Kirby Smart’s head coaching debut in 2016. UGA and UVa met twice in Atlanta for Peach Bowls, which I attended. Virginia won 34-27 in 1995 after a gallant comeback effort by polyglot quarterback Hines Ward came up short in the final seconds, in Ray Goff’s final game as a coach. After that defeat, the all-time series stood at even. Then, Georgia was able to win the next two meetings between the programs, a narrow 35-33 escape in Atlanta in 1998 and a 37-14 blowout in Hawaii for the Jeep Oahu Bowl of 2000, in Jim Donnan’s last game coaching.
Virginia, who finished ranked 25th in the final Coaches Poll off a competitive defeat by the Florida Gators in the Orange Bowl, of the New Year’s 6, should be familiar with grad transfer quarterback Jamie Newman, a former Wake Forest Demon Deacon.
Kirby Smart is 4-0 in season openers as a head coach.