Game Day - Arizona State

FOOTBALL

The 17th-ranked Dawg's will host the Arizona State Sun Devils tonight at 7:00 pm.

The Dawgs, 2-1 after defeating South Carolina and Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference will welcome the Sun Devils (2-0) of the Pacific-10 to Sanford Stadium for a showdown "Between the Hedges." It will mark Arizona State's first-ever trip to Athens after the two teams met for the first time last season in Tempe, Ariz., with the Dawgs winning that contest 27-10.

"I have never really thought of that," head coach Mark Richt said when addressing Arizona State having to travel from west to east as opposed to the Dawgs going west last year. "The only thing I have thought about is that it would probably be more humid here than what they are used to, and humidity, when you are not used to it, is just as tough as going to that thin air is tough on you if you are not used to it. I don't even know what the humidity is going to be but I'm hearing a pretty good chance of rain, and I don't even know if they see rain over there. They may come here and it rains and they haven't seen rain in months. I don't know if that could be a factor either – just things they are not used to is never usually easy to deal with."

Richt also addressed playing a non-conference game in between two Southeastern Conference contests.

"Our focus, beside studying the opponent and getting the plan, has really been to try to get better at what we do," Richt said. "That's been the biggest focus during the week, but when I talk to them tomorrow night we'll talk about what this game means in the big picture and all those kind of things. To this point, the focus has been on what we have to do to improve at every position on a daily basis."

On the injury front, Richt noted that junior safety Quintin Banks would "probably not" play and that junior cornerback Vance Cuff is "doubtful," and that with the injuries freshman Branden Smith and redshirt freshman Sanders Commings would see more snaps at defensive back.