Dawgs Open With Boise State

FOOTBALL

The Dawgs and the Boise State Broncos will meet in the Georgia Dome to open the 2011 college football season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

Chick-fil-A Bowl, ESPN and team officials made the long-anticipated match-up announcement today. The game will be played Saturday, September 3 at 8 p.m. and will be nationally televised on ESPN or ABC.

“This is the type game that excites me, it will excite our players and I know it will excite our fans,” said coach Mark Richt. “We know it will put Georgia on a national stage in the season opener.  It will make for a great off-season of preparation and anticipation to play a great team at a great facility in our home state.”

“We are excited to participate in the 2011 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta against Boise State,” said UGA Director of Athletics Greg McGarity. “We are very appreciative of the efforts made by ESPN and the Chick-fil-A Bowl to create this opportunity, and we look forward to competing against one of the nation¹s elite teams. We know our fans will certainly enjoy this experience in the Georgia Dome to start the 2011 season.”

“It was a long time coming, but we wanted to make sure we got our 2011 match-up right. Today, we got it right,” said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO. “With this game, we have two nationally significant programs, two teams we expect to be highly ranked and a very interesting game. It’s a win all the way around.”

It will be a game of firsts, and a second.

When the current No. 4 BCS-ranked Broncos make the trip, they will become the first highly ranked out-of-region team to compete in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Southeastern Conference power Georgia will become the first team from Georgia to participate in the season-opening game in Atlanta. The match-up will be only the second meeting all-time between the two programs. The Dawgs played host to the Broncos in 2005, winning 48-13 as D.J. Shockley set a school record by accounting for six touchdowns (five passing and one rushing).

The Chick-fil-A Bowl in partnership with ESPN will manage the 2011 game and its surrounding events. Ancillary events included in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game weekend include a Fan Nights at local Atlanta attractions, a Kickoff Cook-Off tailgate experience, individual team tailgate parties and an indoor FanZone event.

Billed as the “Daytona 500 of College Football,” the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game matches top-tier programs in a BCS-style game to open every college football season.

The 2010 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game featured two top-20 teams, LSU and North Carolina, on Sept. 4. LSU held off UNC to win 30-24 in a game that came down to the final play.  The game aired nationally on ABC and earned the highest ratings of opening weekend.

Georgia was scheduled to open the 2011 season against Louisville in a home-and-home series, however North Carolina will now face the Cardinals in a home-and-home series. Georgia’s season-opening opponent for 2012 has not been set, according to McGarity.