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LOOK: Georgia football brings its own air conditioning to Williams-Brice Stadium

On3 imageby:Andrew Graham•09/17/22•

AndrewEdGraham

On3 image
Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

It got hinted at on ESPN’s College GameDay and quickly confirmed on Twitter ahead of their noon kickoff: Georgia brought their own air conditioning unit to South Carolina because they weren’t pleased with the AC in the visiting locker room at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Matt Vereen of WACH Fox in Columbia, South Carolina, posted a photo just before 10:30 a.m. showing the large, wheeled portable AC and the trio of flexible ducts presumably moving cool air into the visitors locker room. The temps in Columbia are supposed to reach the mid-80s today and are already approaching 80 prior to kickoff.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is wont to do whatever he wants to try and get his football team ready for action on Saturday be it motivational speeches, extra film study, or bringing in a portable industrial HVAC system to your road locker room.

And who knows, maybe it will be the difference between Georgia winning and losing — or more likely covering the nearly four-touchdown spread against the Gamecocks or not.

Smart was pleased with the ultimate result and how Georgia stayed focused

Georgia steamrolled South Carolina on Saturday, ringing up a 48-7 win on the road for its first Southeastern Conference win of the season. Almost everything was working for the Bulldogs, who had backups in early in the second half.

Still, there were teaching moments for Smart.

His defense surrendered its first touchdown of the young 2022 campaign when backup Gamecocks quarterback Luke Doty dropped a 13-yard touchdown pass to Traevon Kenion with 53 seconds to play. The score came against the second-team defense, which Smart explained can be a learning experience for the group.

“I think (the starters) want those guys to learn. We’re big on playing guys,” Smart told ESPN sideline reporter Molly McGrath following the game. “We were playing some guys as early as the second series of the second half so they can get experience for us. It’s unfortunate, but the ones didn’t get scored on. So the big deal for them is to keep trying to fight to do that.”

While Smart would have preferred to hold the shutout, he knows his group can learn from the late touchdown drive.

Getting this year’s group all the way up to the standard set by last year’s outstanding defense is the goal, Smart said in his postgame interview. That will take time as the depth continues to figure things out.