ATLANTA -- It's been a long season for the Georgia Bulldogs, with a lot of long nights.

Saturday's visit to Georgia Tech was the sixth night game this season for the Bulldogs, who played three in a row under the lights in September and have closed with three straight. Georgia never had played six night games in a regular season until this year, which was the first under the Southeastern Conference's lucrative 15-year television deals with CBS and ESPN.

The Bulldogs played twice last season at night, winning at Arizona State and losing at home to Alabama.

"We're kind of used to a certain routine," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "We've always had some night games occasionally over the years, so we pretty much used that model. We do spend time on offense, defense and special teams, and we do want to give them a little rest time in there. We'll have a chapel service for anybody who chooses to go and a little motivational thing before we hit the road.

"I'm not into waking them up at 7 or 8 in the morning for an 8 p.m. game, so we let them sleep a little bit on a game like this."

Ealey's career night

Georgia freshman tailback Washaun Ealey posted his first 100-yard rushing game with a 34-yard run around left end at the 10:31 mark of the second quarter. That carry was his eighth of the night and gave him 122 yards.

Ealey had 12 rushes for 139 yards in the first half as Georgia built a 17-3 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs opened the game with a 10-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, with all 10 plays on the ground. Ealey had three carries for 46 yards on the opening possession, including a 35-yarder, while sophomore Caleb King had six carries for 32 yards and scored from 6 yards out.

Jackets set records

Junior running back Jonathan Dwyer and junior quarterback Josh Nesbitt entered Saturday's game with a combined 2,050 rushing yards, leaving them 39 yards away from breaking the school rushing mark for a duo. The two combined for 38 yards on Tech's opening possession, which ended with a missed field goal by Scott Blair, and set the mark on the second play of the second drive when Nesbitt kept for 4 yards.

Nesbitt was shaken up on that run with 1:03 left in the first quarter and was replaced by Jaybo Shaw until he returned with 3:18 left in the half.

Georgia Tech needed 98 rushing yards to break the Atlantic Coast Conference record for single-season rushing yards, which the Yellow Jackets set last season with 3,552 yards. The Yellow Jackets got 98 exactly in the first half.

Russ fills in

Russ, the 5-year-old half brother of the recently deceased Uga VII, served as Georgia's mascot for Saturday' s game. He also may be the mascot for the bowl game but will not be next in the line of permanent Uga mascots.

Uga VIII will not be selected until early 2010.

The most famous previous substitute for a game was "Otto," who served four games for younger brother Uga IV in 1986. Uga IV had injured ligaments in his left hind knee prior to the '86 game with Vanderbilt, and Otto watched his team post a 3-1 record.

Otto and Uga IV served as co-mascots that season in a 31-24 win over Georgia Tech at Sanford Stadium, which snapped a two-game losing streak against the Yellow Jackets.

Odds and ends

Before kickoff, former Georgia defensive end David Pollack posted on Twitter: "To all, it does appear that Willie Martinez will not be back next year." ... Georgia won the toss for the sixth time this season but for the first time opted to have the ball. ... Vance Cuff earned his first career start at cornerback, replacing Brandon Boykin. ... When King fumbled at his 40-yard line with 1:31 left in the first quarter, it marked the 27th turnover this season by the Bulldogs and the 20th in their own territory. ... Blair Walsh made a 22-yard field goal midway through the second quarter to improve to 17-of-18 this season.