The SEC just announced that its 2012 football schedule will be released on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Finally, a grateful group of beat writers exclaim.
It will be a shocking turn of events if Georgia doesn’t make a very early trip to Missouri, the SEC’s newest member. The Bulldogs and Tigers have met just once, and that was in 1960 in the Orange Bowl. So chances are most of you are not very acquainted with Mizzou or Columbia, Mo.
But Aron White, Georgia’s fifth-year tight end, knows both well, as he grew up in Columbia. And as is White's custom, he provided a lot of insight.
First, he has been telling people that the timing of the reported trip should work for Georgia.
“I told them you definitely want to get to Missouri early, because it gets cold there,” White said.
Weather aside, Columbia and Athens have a lot of similarities, according to White. Columbia is bigger and perhaps a bit more “upscale,” but otherwise the towns are very alike.
“They’re both college towns, both centered around the university,” White said. “That’s one of the reasons I came here is because there are so many similarities between the two, and I felt like I was in a little Columbia when I came out here.”
Of course, Missouri has been in the Big 12 (and Big Eight before that), while Georgia is an SEC town. So the stadiums and atmosphere are vastly different. Missouri’s Faurot Field has a listed capacity of 71,004, and Sanford Stadium has 20,000 more than that.
“If Columbia is more big-time than Athens, then Stanford is more big-time than Faurot,” White said, before adding: “I love Faurot Field. I loved buying a general admission ticket and sitting on the hill … “They’ve done a lot for their program over the last 10 years as far as building it up and making their facilities top-notch.”
White recalls going to a Missouri-Nebraska game where he couldn’t find a place to sit down.
“They have some big games where a lot of people come, but I don’t think they’re gonna expect the amount of people that Georgia’s gonna bring,” he said. “I think a lot of people are gonna be excited for that matchup and want to see what the old SEC is going to do against the new SEC school. Georgia, I think, has a reputation of traveling very well to away games.
"I remember going to Colorado and seeing a lot of people in red lining the stadium. We definitely are a team that our fans love to come out and see us no matter where we are, and I think we’re gonna find it a unique experience to go up to Columbia, and I think there’ll be a lot of excitement and buzz and might find Columbia, Missourians off guard a little bit.”
And how about the matchup itself? White thinks Missouri will have an adjustment to the SEC in general.
“The SEC is known for its speed and its size. With that speed, I think that up front in the trenches is where they’re going to have to have the biggest adjustment, because I don’t think they’re gonna see a lot of guys that are running 4.6es that are 300 pounds,” White said. “But at the same time it’s gonna be an adjustment for us because they’re gonna spread it out, they’re gonna sling it, that’s what they do.
“You’re not gonna see a tight end with his hand on the ground, you’re gonna see a lot of five (receivers) wide all the time. Both teams are gonna have to adjust. But I definitely feel like week in and week out it might be a lot of time for Missouri to adjust to playing an SEC team.”
