Georgia Football Gains an Edge with New Travel Plans
The Georgia Football team won’t miss the bus.
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Get off the bus!
The smallest of differences win the big games in the Southeastern Conference – a fumble into the end zone by inches, a fingertip deflected pass at the goal line, a deflected desperation reception in the waning moments. Hoping to gain edge at home and on the road, the Georgia football team is improving its game day routine.
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For home games, Georgia is dumping out-of-town team accommodations at Chateau Elan in Braselton. The UGA Hotel and Conference Center at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education is the new home game Friday night destination for the Dawgs.
Coach Richt has not yet chosen between Lumpkin Street or Sanford Drive for the Dawg Walk route.
“There was an effort to save time on the road,” athletic director Greg McGarity to Marc Weiszer of the onlineathens.com. “The Georgia Center has been great working with us on our training table meals and things like that so we asked the question and they were able to make it work out.”
No word yet on whether Uga’s accommodations have been forfeited.
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In all seriousness, considering the number of Georgia fans who stay at the Georgia Center each football weekend, and the level of support those patrons generally provide, “make it work” likely took a large dose of University administrative support.
The Dawgs road travel arrangements will improve as well, now flying out of Athens Ben-Epps Field instead of busing to Atlanta – Hartsfield International Airport. A $17 million dollar runway extension at Athens-Ben Epps Airport will accommodate two Boeing 717 aircraft made available for team use by Delta.
The third prong of the attack on the bus is the chosen location of the Indoor Athletic Practice Facility. With the IAF a few the steps from the football locker room, any need to load up the buses and travel to a bad weather practice facility is eliminated.
The most vocal critic of Georgia’s bus heavy arrangements, Jeremy Pruitt, may have seen this coming. “Go outside and practice and you sit a day and a half on a bus,” Marc Weiszer quoted Pruitt. “You’re in the SEC. You’re at a competitive disadvantage. I think all that is going to get fixed.”
Indeed, it has.
Pruitt estimated Georgia players spent 34 hours sitting on a bus. “At other places I’ve been, the same schedule, you spend two hours on a bus,” Marc Weiszer again quoted Pruitt. “That’s a whole day and a half sitting on a bus.” Putting aside that Pruitt might have spent more time calculating how to stop Georgia Tech and less time calculating travel hours, the point was well received.
Indoor practice facility, runway extension, two 717s available for team use, Georgia Center rooms made available on the busiest weekends of the year – something is different, Dawg fans. It all starts at the top. The Dawgs are kicking the bus to the curb. Expect a difference on the field.