College football is finally here after what seemed to be an extra long off-season.
No. 11 Oregon will travel to Atlanta to play in a “neutral: game against No. 3 and defending national champion Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game.
Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart held his first weekly press conference Monday morning in advance of the big opening contest. This game was scheduled a long time before Dan Lanning was hired by Oregon, so it’s just a coincidence the former colleagues will battle it out on the sidelines of the Mercedes-Benz dome.
“I love playing this game because No. 1, it’s in Atlanta. No. 2, I like playing in it because I think they do a tremendous job,” Smart said of the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game.
“It’s an unbelievable venue. Your hope is you’re back in the stadium, you’ve got a chance to play once already when it comes to the SEC championship game. But just in general, I think playing a big-time opponent opening, whether it’s at home, whether it’s a neutral site, that I just think if he fires up your fan base and it fires up your offseason workouts.
“To me, it’s a great opportunity to go out and schedule opponents that get your fan base and your team excited to play. when we scheduled this one a while back, we knew Oregon is going to be good and we expect that same kind of team so it makes for a great matchup.”
Smart said Georgia just started to put in the game plan for Oregon a few days ago, but will ramp up practices this week with the Ducks on the horizons
Having to match wits with Lanning was unexpected, but an added bonus.
But according to Smart, it boils down to who has the better players and who ultimately plays the best.
“Neither Dan nor I’ll be worried about each other. During the game, it’s not about that,” Smart said.
“He’ll do the best job he can for his organization and his players and I’m doing the same her. We have mutual respect for each other … always will always have. As far as the familiarity of the two systems, there’s probably a little overlap there in terms of defense and they’re watching our defense, and we watch our defense to get ready for them. But they’ve got coaches on their staff from other places. At the end of the day, it’s about how you execute and who’s got the best players and do the best players play the best and in the biggest moments.”
Oregon is more than a two-touchdown underdog, so if the Ducks are able to pull off the upset, there will have to be more than a few of those big moments.