Saturday night in Columbia, Mo., should be interesting for the Georgia football team.

It should be dynamic, dramatic and entertaining.

Just don’t try to convince me it will be intimidating or daunting.

The Bulldogs open their SEC schedule Saturday when they take on the Missouri Tigers, who are making their conference debut. It’s a new setting for the Bulldogs at a stadium the Georgia program has never played in, and it’s a game against a team that definitely will be motivated and ready to make a statement in its first conference game.

All that combined -- and Missouri is a good team -- should add up to a tough test for the Bulldogs, but it’s not an impossible one. Georgia might lose, but it won’t be because the stage is too big because of Missouri’s home-field advantage.

Faurot Field has a capacity of 71,004, and the stadium can hold a few thousand more than that at times. It’s a nice stadium and has a solid atmosphere, but it won’t offer something Georgia can’t handle or hasn’t seen before.

Through the years, Mark Richt’s program has played road games against LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina, etc. Those teams’ stadiums are large and loud and can be pretty intimidating for road teams, especially at night. Missouri’s stadium Saturday will have the added energy of the Tigers’ first SEC game, but Georgia will be able to fall back on past road conference games to handle anything it encounters in this game.

Plus, Georgia has a veteran in the position that is key to handling these kinds of situations -- quarterback. Aaron Murray has won big games in his Georgia career and has shown he can handle these kinds of contests. That will come up big for the Bulldogs on Saturday night as they make their first trip to Columbia.

It will be a new trip, one that should offer a difficult challenge all the way around. But it’s a test the Bulldogs should be able to pass.

Contact Daniel Shirley at 744-4227 or dshirley@macon.com