Coach Kirby Smart wants Bulldogs fans to make another G-Day statement

Georgia set an SEC record last April when 93,000 fans packed Sanford Stadium for the annual G-Day spring football game.
Georgia set an SEC record last April when 93,000 fans packed Sanford Stadium for the annual G-Day spring football game.

Georgia football fans responded to coach Kirby Smart's challenge last April when 93,000 red-clad spectators packed Sanford Stadium for the G-Day spring game.

What is Smart's attendance goal for his second G-Day event this Saturday?

A lot.

Smart has not placed a numerical objective for the 2017 game after last year's contest contained a "93K" theme and included a pregame concert by Ludacris. Georgia's crowd a year ago broke the Southeastern Conference spring-game standard of 92,310 set by Alabama in 2011, and while matching 93,000 might be a stretch this time around for Bulldogs backers, producing the league's largest total again wouldn't be an unreasonable quest.

"Our fans should be challenged to have more than all the other teams have," Smart said in a news conference following Saturday's second scrimmage. "It does help in recruiting, and it shows the passion and the energy our fan base has, so it is important.

"You can't imagine the effect it had on recruiting. When you talk to the kids we just signed, they all tell you it had a great effect."

Saturday's G-Day game will have a 2 p.m. start and be televised by the SEC Network.

Georgia signed the nation's No. 3 recruiting class in February, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings, trailing only Alabama and Ohio State. The Bulldogs landed six top-50 national prospects, and 20 of their 26 signees were four- or five-star recruits.

Florida (48,000) and Auburn (46,331) have the SEC's largest spring-game crowds so far this year. Alabama, LSU and Tennessee also are holding spring games Saturday, and Arkansas will hold its game on April 29 to wrap up the league schedule.

"I want our kids to have a great environment to play in all the time," Smart said, "because you find out more about kids when they have to play in great environments. What number will we have? I'm not going to sit here and do over-unders, because I don't think that's important."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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