ATHENS, Ga. — Aaron Murray and his teammates never liked to sit around their hotel room, waiting for hours to leave for the stadium. That was the worst part. Then they would get there, kickoff would approach, the sky was dark, and the lights were on. That atmosphere was something else.
“We could feel the difference in the night games from the fans,” said Murray, Georgia’s starting quarterback from 2010-13. “Just the energy, the excitement, the more drunk they were, probably, the livelier they were going to be in the stadium.”
Murray never lost a home game that started under the lights, a domination that hasn’t stopped: Georgia is 20-0 in prime-time games at home since 2010, the last night loss at Sanford Stadium coming to Kentucky on Nov. 21, 2009.
That’s a big reason for hope for No. 12 Georgia on Saturday as it hosts No. 7 Tennessee in a win-or-else game for the Bulldogs’ College Football Playoff hopes. Also, as good as Josh Heupel has been as Tennessee’s coach, he’s only 7-8 in road games, including 2-4 the past two seasons. The Vols’ lone loss this season, at Arkansas, was a night game.
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