Georgia head football coach Mark Richt addresses the media during NCAA college football media day, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Athens Banner-Herald, David Tulis)ATHENS, Ga. – Saturday night’s Georgia-Boise State showdown in the Georgia Dome is a potential statement game for the Bulldogs, but calling it make or break might be a stretch.
“I don’t personally think that the season is riding on this one game,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Tuesday. “It’s a game we absolutely want to win and a game we expect to win, but we talk a lot about winning the Eastern Division, because that’s the one thing we can control, and this really has no bearing on the Southeastern Conference race.
“I do believe it will give us a pretty good feel of what we’re made of right away, and I think it will be a great teacher of what it’s going to take to win in our league down the road.”
Richt admitted the buildup for the No. 5 Broncos and No. 19 Bulldogs is as big as he could remember for an opener during his 11 years at the helm. Georgia opened last season against Louisiana-Lafayette, but the Bulldogs have opened against Clemson twice, Oklahoma State twice and now Boise State twice in the Richt era.
The Bulldogs haven’t defeated a top-five team since stunning No. 5 Auburn 37-15 in 2006.
“I think it’s definitely a statement game considering the year we are coming off,” junior defensive end Abry Jones said. “We’re trying to re-establish ourselves in the college football world.”
Welcome to Idaho
The Broncos opened their 2010 season against Virginia Tech in Washington, D.C., and have proven they will travel anywhere to play anybody. Will there ever be a day when an ACC or SEC team faces Boise State at the 33,500-seat Bronco Stadium?
“I envision it. I just don’t know if it will happen,” BSU coach Chris Petersen said. “We would love it and our fans would love it, and I think it would be great for college football to get someone like a Georgia to come here. It would just be awesome.
“Oregon has come here and Oregon State has, and that’s been great.”
The Broncos are scheduled to open at Michigan State next season, at Washington in 2013 and against Ole Miss in Atlanta in 2014.
Settled at safety
After making nine starts at cornerback last year and working at both corner and safety this month, Georgia junior Sanders Commings will start at free safety against the Broncos.
“I didn’t really know until we started game-planning for Boise,” Commings said. “We started game-planning last week and they had me at safety, so that’s when it all hit me.”
Commings believes his position each week could be determined by matchups and he could be a corner against bigger receivers. That may be as soon as next week against South Carolina and Alshon Jeffery.
Odds and ends
Starting tailback Richard Samuel did not practice at full strength Tuesday, and Richt said, “It may be that Isaiah [Crowell] gets the nod.” … Saturday will mark the first regular-season game in a dome for the Bulldogs since 1967, when they lost 15-14 to Houston in the Astrodome. … Bulldogs senior kicker Blair Walsh will play indoors for the first time since the 2008 U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio’s Alamodome, where he missed an extra point and a field-goal try. … Richt is 9-1 in openers. The setback was in 2009, when the Bulldogs lost 24-10 at Oklahoma State.
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