Bulldog fans 'were elite' in win over No. 1 Tennessee
Bulldog fans 'were elite' in win over No. 1 Tennessee
ATHENS — Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has played and coached in many games at Sanford Stadium.
However, he had never heard fans cheer that loud during Saturday’s top-five SEC East matchup between No. 1 Tennessee (8-1, 4-1 SEC) and No. 3 Georgia (9-0, 6-0 SEC). The Bulldogs dominated the Volunteers 27-13 in front of a sold-out crowd at Sanford Stadium.
"What an incredible environment,” Smart said of the game’s atmosphere on Saturday in Athens. “I don't know that I've ever [heard it that loud]. I texted my wife — I've never seen our fans not leave the stadium like that, even when it rained. [UGA Sports Information Director] Claude [Felton] made a mention that at the start of the second half, there wasn't an empty seat in the house other than the ones they purchased. Our fans were elite today. We asked them to be. They responded and they get the second-place vote.”
Georgia fans helped from the start as the crowd noise affected Tennessee’s offensive rhythm. The Volunteers had a season-high seven false start penalties in the loss to the Bulldogs.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel highlighted the crowd noise greatly affected the offense.
“I didn’t think - all in all - we handled the noise very well. That’s false starts, being in sync, communicating up front,” Heupel said. “At the end of the day, [the crowd noise] hurt us certainly early in the football game and, at times, throughout the course of tonight.”
The Bulldogs were also dominant defensively, which helped stop the Volunteers’ high-powered offensive attack. Their defensive front recorded a season-high six sacks, eight tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and pressured quarterback Hendon Hooker all game long.
Georgia’s crowd of 93,000 strong helped quarterback senior Stetson Bennett lead the offense.
“Good Lord, they were loud,” Bennett said. “That was awesome. It helped so much. It helped us ride the momentum wave and hurt them because they couldn’t communicate as well.”
The environment around Athens and the University of Georgia’s campus were alive as well. ESPN’s College GameDay and SEC Network’s SEC Nation were in town for the matchup.
Fans packed UGA’s Special Collections Library lawn and Meyer’s Quad on Saturday morning. They showed up early and showed their support for the Bulldogs before the game.
Georgia inside linebacker Smael Mondon Jr. described the conditions as “crazy.”
“You can’t really expect that,” Mondon said. “You hope for it, but for how crazy the atmosphere was, how lit the fans were, it just a great environment to be in.”
Smart recalled previous home games such as Notre Dame in 2019 and Arkansas in 2021.
He acknowledged the crowd played a difference in all three, but especially on Saturday.
"I always tell people: when you can't hear, it's deafening. Like, what's more, deafening than deafening?” Smart asked. “The decibel thing, I don't understand that. No way it's accurate. Tennessee was loud, Arkansas was loud and Notre Dame was loud. It was loud. So, there's a point where you cannot hear. I'm also proud of fans because I don't know if our stadium is exactly built vertically for just crazy crowd noise, but they were impactful tonight."
Here is the video from Smart’s postgame interview: