Georgia's Home Field Advantage Comes Through After National Doubt

Kirby Smart started the week off with a challenge towards his fanbase, to show up elite and after a week of doubts on social media, they responded in a major way Saturday.

Brooks Austin | Nov 5, 2022

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Georgia Bulldogs

Sanford Stadium holds 93k fans on every given Saturday. It's packed to the upper deck on Dooley Field from noon kick against Kent State to the 3:30 prime time spot against the Nation's No. 1 football team in the form of SEC East rival Tennessee Volunteers.

So, when multiple people called into question the ability for Georgia's home fans to impact the football game leading up to Saturday's matchup, it's safe to say the Bulldogs fans took things to heart.

On Barstool’s Unnecessary Roughness podcast, co-host Kayce Smith, formerly a reporter for Fox Sports, ESPN, and NBC, said she didn't exactly believe in Sanford Stadium environment that produces 7 false starts on Saturday afternoon.

“I’m not taking anything away from Sanford Stadium. I’m not taking anything away from home atmospheres in any major conference, especially a top-four game like this. However, I’ve been to plenty of games at Georgia. Not of this caliber, I get that. Georgia’s home crowd will definitely play a [factor], it always does in college football. It doesn’t scare me for Hendon Hooker to walk in there and [have] him all of a sudden fall apart because it’s loud in there.” said Smith.

“I’m not putting as much weight into that home-field advantage in Athens, at 3:30, as I feel like a lot of people are. I think this offense for Tennessee is so good, and so well oiled as a machine right now, that even if they struggle and have a couple three-and-outs because it’s loud in there, it’s not going to affect them for the entire game.”

Well, there you have it. The world's first bulletin board material provided to a college football fanbase. It wasn't just the media either. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel stated leading up to the matchup that he expected his football team to "handle" the crowd noise inside Sanford.

“We’ll find out on game day. At the end of the day, there’s been times since we’ve gotten here that we’ve handled being on the road extremely well. There’s other times we haven’t handled it. That’s [coaches]. The communication, and playing smart football, will be important on Saturday. Anticipate us handling it well.” said Heupel.

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