TV Execs Oddly Salute Heated History of UGA-Clemson

Ok, I’ll admit it.

Finding out that the AFLAC Kickoff Game will commence at anti-primetime is a bit of a letdown.

Unless you are setting up shop in a downtown Atlanta hotel, this one will have the feel of many a Georgia Tech game at Noon over at Historic Mark Richt Field on The Flats.

No, it won’t be a full day of tailgating like an SEC Championship or even a kickoff affair like a few years back against Oregon, but it could be worse – you won’t be sitting inside the stadium sweltering to death, as Dawg fans have done through the years against the school that, as the late Lewis Grizzard noted, is “Auburn with a lake.”

If you want to talk obscene heat in August, those at the 2003 Clemson game don’t have to be reminded, for sure.

If this game were in Athens at noon, it’d be a cruel joke. The hook for TV execs, I suppose is to tee up a full day of college football with a rather tasty attraction.

Sure, there’s excitement for this game of two rivals, perhaps bigger foes on the recruiting trail, teeing it up.

But it’s also a rekindling of a rivalry that should be played each year, and many of those games were early afternoon, just as the late great Dan Magill would have intended.

Go Dawgs!