The Georgia Bulldogs (4-0) travel to Oxford, Mississippi to face with the Ole Miss Rebels (1-3) Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 9:12 p.m. ET, which would be the latest kickoff in Georgia football history. The previous record was set in 1997 during the Vanderbilt game in Nashville when the game kicked off at 9:09 p.m. ET.
The Georgia Bulldogs are 11-3 in games away from Sanford Stadium that kickoff after 5:30 p.m. under head coach Mark Richt. Since the start of the 2004 season, Georgia is 7-1 in late games with their only loss coming in last year's Sugar Bowl to West Virginia.
Some of the Georgia players prefer the atmosphere and the added prep time allotted by night games.
"For night games we eat, sleep, and watch film before the game on Saturday, so we have a lot of extra time to prepare," said senior safety Tra Battle. "It gets more intense for the night games because the fan base has more alcohol in them at night games and they are a little bit more rowdy, so that always adds to the excitement of the game."
Senior linebacker Danny Verdun prefers to get the game over with early and to have the rest of Saturday off to enjoy.
"If I had to chose I would rather play at one or two in the afternoon, so we could go over there and get back home" said Verdun. "When you have late games you have to pass the time before the game and you sit around, try to sleep, go to meetings, get nervous, and pace around, but I think night games can be good especially when we are at home."
The team will travel back from Oxford after the game and they are not expected to return to Athens until 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning. A few of the players and coaches voiced their concerns about the late return.
"It just throws the whole sleep schedule off completely getting back at 6:30 Sunday morning, I could not tell you how bad that will mess up my sleep schedule and I will probably have to sleep all day after church on Sunday," said junior cornerback Paul Oliver.
On the plus side for the Bulldogs, they will be back in Sanford Stadium next week for their first home night game when Tennessee (3-1) rolls into Athens. The Tennessee game will be a 7:45 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN.
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