Georgia fans answer Kirby Smart's call for a packed Sanford Stadium
ATHENS -- It was a Saturday in Athens, so fans wanted to see the Georgia football team.
They set up tailgates in and around the Georgia campus. Fans arrived early to see the players go through pregame activities. Many posed for pictures around outside the stadium, decked out in Georgia red. Some parents brought their children to the G-Day game so they could get their first taste of Georgia football.
The crowd was a sellout, as 93,000 fans showed up to watch the Bulldogs. With perfect weather, it felt like a picturesque fall Saturday.
It just happened to be in the middle of April.
"Opening remarks would be wow," first-year head coach Kirby Smart said. "For the fan base to come out like they did really touches my heart."
Smart first unveiled his plan to the fans at a Georgia basketball game in January. He began pushing for fans to show up to what would be called 93K Day.
The question always seemed to be, would fans show up? Before Saturday, the highest attendance for a Georgia spring game was 46,815.
Smart remained confident that 93,000 would fill Sanford Stadium, and the day before the game, Smart went door-to-door to some of Georgia's fraternity and sorority houses to get them to come to the game.
He even drew a large crowd from his hometown of Bainbridge, which is four-and-a-half hours from Athens.
"That's my heart and soul. It's a special place, and to have a lot of fans come from there, it means a lot," Smart said. "You look up into the stands and think, 'Did I really touch this many lives in the state? There's no way I touched this many lives in the state.' "
Some fans first entered the Sanford Stadium gates at 1 p.m. when the G-Day festivities began with an alumni football game. Most fans waited for the team to walk from the buses through the stadium in the pregame to enter the stadium.
It was standing room only, as fans hoped to get a look at true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason and Smart.
The entire stadium -- upper deck included -- was filled. Fans were standing in the stairwells overlooking the field. The PA announcer twice asked fans to squeeze in to make room for more fans.
On Eason's first series, the Georgia fans gave a standing ovation as the freshman quarterback came onto and left the field. Beyond the cheers for Eason, the players took notice of the fans who packed the stadium.
"I wasn't expecting that at all. That was awesome to see, and we have the best fans in the country," guard Greg Pyke said.
Most of the fans didn't stay, as the crowd dissipated after halftime. But it didn't change the fact that Smart got his wish and fans got theirs.
They got to see what Georgia football with Smart looked like in full Sanford Stadium.
"I wasn't surprised by it," Lorenzo Carter said. "Kirby kind of gets what he wants."
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This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 8:23 PM with the headline "Georgia fans answer Kirby Smart's call for a packed Sanford Stadium ."