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ROWE: Sanford Stadium showed me something

On3 imageby:Jake Rowe•11/05/22•

JakeMRowe

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Photo by Tony Walsh

ATHENS, Ga. — Former Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge is eating some crow this evening and I guess I could take a bite or two off his plate. When he Knoxville, Tenn. radio co host tweeted last week that Sanford Stadium isn’t all that intimidating and that it was overrated, I kind of agreed with him.

I’ve been to too many games in that stadium to count. Going back to the first time I went there in 1995, there have been times when I couldn’t hear myself think and others when you could hear a pin drop.

Make no mistake, I’ve seen been present for some scenes inside Sanford Stadium. My daughter had COVID, forcing me to quarantine and cover last season’s beatdown of Arkansas from home. I didn’t get to see that one in person but the 2007 Blackout vs. Auburn and the 2013 LSU game and the 2014 Clemson game. I was on the field for Tennessee in 2000 when goal posts were taken down. Those were wild.

None of them stack up to what happened in Sanford Stadium on Saturday night. I’ve never seen a crowd affect a game so much. I’ve never seen an environment so electric.

Kirby Smart asked the Georgia faithful to show up and show out. He got what he wanted. The Sanford Stadium crowd shook No. 1 Tennessee and it’s high-flying offense. I’ve never seen a team so under control and sure of itself for eight games crumble under the pressure — a large portion of it generated from the home crowd.

“What an incredible environment,” Smart said after the game. “I don’t know that I’ve ever —  I texted my wife — I’ve never seen our fans not leave the stadium like that, even when it rained. You know, Claude made a mention that 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. 

I haven’t seen official stats on the Volunteers’ pre-snap penalties this season but I was told in the press box that the seven they had in the loss to Georgia was as many or more than the rest of the season combined. That’s how big of an impact UGA fans had on the game. Sanford Stadium was rocking.

You saw it coming when they started letting fans into the stadium. When the student sections fill up in minutes, that means a storm is brewing. They wanted to see their team play the No. 1 team in the country. They wanted to find a way to get involved. They succeeded.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Tennessee’s tackles could be seen completely turning their heads and looking inside to the football. It played a role in some of the late-game pressure Georgia was able to generate. It eventually put the game away with its sixth sack on Tennessee’s final offensive play.

Sanford Stadium has done it big before. A new bar was set on Saturday, but we’ll see atmostpheres similar to that one down the road. If the Georgia team that calls it home continues to play like this in big games, we may even see a higher-ranked matchup.

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