Kirby Smart issues a G-Day spring football game call for Georgia fan base

Following Georgia's 2017 season, which ended with an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship, the program received a prime television slot for its annual spring football game.

This year's G-Day game will take place on April 21 and will be broadcast at 4 p.m. on ESPN. Only Georgia and Alabama, the team that beat the Bulldogs in the national championship, earned ESPN spots for their spring games. But the fact that Georgia is on the "worldwide leader" isn't why head coach Kirby Smart wants to see Sanford Stadium packed for the intrasquad exhibition.

Following Georgia's stellar performance on National Signing Day by bringing in the top-ranked class in the nation, Smart wants recruits he will host for G-Day to see a packed house and an electric environment. Smart said that other SEC programs that hired new coaches will call for their fan bases to show up for spring games to impress recruits.

And in the SEC, quite a few new coaches were hired -- Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, Florida's Dan Mullen, Mississippi State's Joe Moorhead, Arkansas' Chad Morris and Tennessee's Jeremy Pruitt. Mississippi promoted Matt Luke from interim head coach to full-time head coach following the 2017 season.

"We went to Notre Dame and played, played at Vanderbilt, played a lot of games where our fan base turned out and did a tremendous job of supporting. I think that really helped us with recruiting," Smart said. "But now G-Day is on Saturday, April 21. As we all know, every team that gets a new head coach in the SEC — what is the mantra? What is the battle cry? For their fan base to turn out and really represent their teams."

This isn't the first time Smart has asked for Georgia's fans to turn out in large numbers for G-Day.

A little over a month after he was hired to lead Georgia, Smart made an appearance at a Georgia men's basketball game and called for 93,000 fans to show up for the spring game. The program followed with a social media campaign that included the #93KDay hashtag, which ended with Sanford Stadium filled to capacity for the exhibition.

Last year's G-Day game drew an attendance of 66,133 people, which was the second-most amount of fans to attend a Georgia spring football game.

"We need our fan base, who has done everything we've asked them to do, to turn out April 21st at 4 o'clock and be out there for G-Day in what we expect to be another sellout, packed opportunity to go out and represent University of Georgia, and show these kids in recruiting that it does matter and it is special here," Smart said.

This story was originally published February 9, 2018 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Kirby Smart issues a G-Day spring football game call for Georgia fan base."