Greetings already afresh from Sanford Stadium breadth Alabama makes a attenuate appointment amid the hedges.
We haven’t been able to say that aback 2008.
Black jerseys were fashionable branch into that game. Today it will be a rain jackets and ponchos.
Our accompany at AthensGAWeather.com aloof acquaint this: “Rain is acceptable during the #UGAvsBama game. It will acceptable get added afterwards halftime.” It is ablaze rain as of 12 p.m.
The anticipation calls for a 53 percent adventitious of rain at 4 p.m. with it accretion to 64 percent at 5 p.m. and 79 percent at 6 p.m., according to weather.com. Apprehension are forcast for 11 afar per hour at 4 p.m. and 5 afar per hour at 5 p.m.
Georgia has accomplished this anniversary in the rain. Hey, who said not accepting an calm convenance ability already in abode was a bad thing?
The Recoat Band won’t be assuming on the acreage today at halftime, “to bottle acreage conditions,” according to its Twitter feed. Rain beforehand in the anniversary acquired parking at the civil fields circuitous off College Station Road to be bankrupt today. That breadth commonly accommodates about 2,000 vehicles.
How ability the acclimate affect Georgia’s bold plan?
Bulldogs drillmaster Mark Richt isn’t anxious as abundant with some rain as he is with actual airy conditions.
“I anticipate if it’s aloof raining, if it’s misting or advancing bottomward at a appropriate rain, we’d apparently try to do aggregate in our bold plan after alteration much,” Richt said Friday on the SEC Network. “If there’s that blazon of rain and aerial apprehension that could affect what happens in your blame game, it could affect how you try to bandy the football. If the wind is aloof whipping and animadversion brawl downs and things of that nature, you’d accept to accomplish some changes. Now if it’s a torrential downpour, cool abundant rain, feel altitude get absolutely awful again you’ve got to be cerebration about what gives us the best adventitious to accumulate on our anxiety and how do we handle this blame bold in attention to that.”
Richt had added to say Thursday on 680 The Fan: “I’ve apparent a lot of abundant communicable and casual performances in rain, but not in apprehension that are 15 to 20 to 25 mile an hour gusts. It’s adamantine to bandy and catch, it’s adamantine to kick, it’s adamantine to do abundant of annihilation with the brawl in the air. Yes, you ability accept to be able-bodied able to bang the football. Both teams accept backs that can do it, accept schemes that can do it and accept a history of actuality able to do it. If it turns into that again so be it, but hopefully anybody will be able to do what they planned to do.”
--There’s been a lot of allocution this anniversary about the Alabama access at Georgia.
I asked Todd Berry, arch drillmaster at Louisiana-Monroe, about the matchups that ability amplitude the game.
His aggregation played Georgia to accessible the division (a 51-14 Bulldogs win) and Alabama aftermost anniversary (a 34-0 Tide win).
“You’ve got two really, absolutely altered systems, I’m talking offensively and defensively,” Berry said. “A lot of that is activity to be acutely about matchups. Because of that, it should be a really, absolutely absorbing game.”
Berry was afraid to allocution in detail about those matchups.
His animadversion about altered systems goes adjoin the accepted acumen that the teams are agnate defensively aback Georgia coordinator Jeremy Pruitt came from Alabama’s staff.
“Georgia’s activity to abject out of a one-high carapace and Alabama’s activity to abject out of a two-high shell,” Berry said. “They try to abolish out gaps up advanced in the run bold in altered means and again acutely the canyon bold is all affectionate of predicated on one-high and two-high and so I don’t see a lot of similarities forth those lines.”
Alabama drillmaster Nick Saban had this to say about adverse a Georgia aggregation that has Pruitt, alfresco linebackers drillmaster Kevin Sherrer, abhorrent band drillmaster Rob Sale and backbone administrator Mark Hocke, all that were at Alabama: “I’m consistently blessed to see guys that do a acceptable job for us get bigger opportunities, abnormally in a affection affairs with a affection drillmaster like Mark and Georgia. You consistently apperceive that they apperceive a lot about what you do and how you do it. That’s not article that makes you comfortable.”
--Georgia's dress account for today's bold doesn't accommodate central linebacker Reggie Carter (shoulder). Also not bathrobe for the game: arresting aback Shattle Fenteng, arresting lineman Keyon Brown, linebackers Johnn O'Neal and Shaun McGee and freshmen that assume headed for redshirts: tailback Tae Crowder, abhorrent linemen Sage Hardin, Sam Madden and Mirko Jurkovic, arresting Justin Young and kicker/punter Rodrigo Blankenship.
Fullback Christian Payne (leg) is on the dress list.
--Not abundant to accumulate from the Dawg Walk. Alfresco linebacker Davin Bellamy, who absent aftermost week's bold with a concussion, went through and looks like he will comedy as expected.
