-- McGarity would love to get out of playing @ Louisville in 2012. With one of our home games already in Jacksonville that year, and 1 of our OOC games on the road in Louisville, we would only have 3 SEC home games and 3 OOC games in Athens. McGarity has been on record as saying he wants to juggle the schedule so that we can play 7 home games every year. If we can get rid of Louisville the next 2 years, it sets up like this:
- Odd years: 4 SEC games in Athens, 3 OOC games in Athens and 1 OOC game at the massive stadium in Atlanta vs. the Geeks
- Even Years: 3 SEC games in Athens (the 4th home game in JAX), 4 OOC Games in Athens
-- Next year, we would only get 6 games in Athens, but 2 of our Away games would be in Atlanta. The biggest challenge we face with a road OOC game is the long travel back and shortening our week after travelling back east from Oklahoma or Arizona. And, while this game vs. Boise will be a neutral site on paper, it will be a home game in reality. Everybody knows that 85% of the crowd will be barking like crazy.
-- We need to get some national juice going with our program again. We have fallen far off the national radar with our substandard performances in 2009 and 2010. Opening the season vs. Boise State and South Carolina will get us back on that radar as both Boise and USCe could both be top 10 pre-season. GameDay will be there and we will be in the prime-time 8:00 slot nationwide on ABC.
-- This is one final sales pitch to the in-state 4 and 5 star recruits that we are battling Bama, Florida, Auburn, and FSU for --- You can have your coming out party playing in front of Herbstreit, Corso, Fowler and a national TV audience vs. a top 5 team in the GA Dome. 17 and 18 year old kids love this stuff.
-- It keeps Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Urban Meyer, Les Miles, etc out of our city and away from all the HS talent in Georgia.
-- We have everything to gain and nothing to lose -- we might be playing a team coming off of a BCS title game. If Boise doesn't make it to the big game, we are playing against a team that will have played in 2 consecutive BSC bowl games. IF we lose, as much as I hate to say this - it's what is expected - we will be underdogs. But, WHEN we win, it could catapult us into a great season and into the national spotlight. Can you imagine what Sanford stadium will be like when we kick it off vs. South Carolina the next week after beating Boise State?
-- Hopefully, opening up with these strong 2 opponents will grab our players attention in the offseason and keep them out of trouble. Nobody will want to be suspended for the national game of the week with GameDay there. This is certainly a double-edged sword as we could very well be without a key player or 3... But, nothing else is keeping our kids out of trouble - maybe this finally will.
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