Will the G-Day Game survive college football’s latest change?

Spring games might be the next doomed college football tradition, even at UGA.

ESPN reported that 19 Power 4 programs have canceled their spring games this year, but with G-Day already announced for April 12, Georgia Bulldogs fans had figured Kirby Smart’s program would not be joining such schools as Ohio State, Southern Cal, Texas and Nebraska in deciding to cancel their spring games or replace them with some other player activity.

The reasons cited for dumping spring games have varied. Nebraska head coach Matt Ruhl said he was worried that the televised scrimmages allow competitors to check out which players they might want to poach from the Cornhuskers during the April transfer portal window, which opens April 16 and closes April 25.

Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, meanwhile, said his program had a lot of new players on its roster who needed to learn the system, and he also mentioned the increase in the number games being played these days with an expanded playoff. “Over the last two years, we’ve played 30 games. That’s a lot for college football.”

Some coaches just worry that, in an age when most major programs’ spring games are televised or streamed, they’re providing regular-season opponents with too good a look at their team in advance.

Thus, Alabama still will hold a scrimmage or game that is open to the public this year, but it won’t be televised.

Others, such as South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, feel that, because college football doesn’t have preseason games like the pros do, a spring game allows kids fresh out of high school the opportunity to “play in a game in front of tens of thousands of people” before it counts.

It’s a dilemma for coaches, Florida’s Billy Napier said recently. “I’m either going to have coaches tampering with my players, or I’m going to have a fanbase that’s pissed off at not having a spring game. It’s pick your poison.”

As for UGA, earlier in the winter Athletic Director Josh Brooks had said of G-Day: “I think it’s in the plans for this year,” although he added that “as everything goes, you take it day by day, month by month, year by year.”

Things seemed to firm up, though, with UGA’s announcement on Feb. 28 that spring practice would begin March 11 and that the G-Day Game was scheduled for April 12.

However, when speaking to reporters this week, Georgia’s head coach hedged on whether this year’s G-Day game actually will be played.

“We’re planning to have a spring game,” Smart said at his Tuesday press conference. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t change. Last year, I think Kentucky didn’t have any defensive linemen healthy; they weren’t able to have a spring game.

“So, we don’t know. I can’t forecast the future.”

Smart did note that Georgia spreads out its spring practices more than most programs, holding three practices a week over five weeks to try and “stay healthy.”

And, he said, “I like spring games. I want to have a spring game. I think it’s important, because you allow kids to play that don’t typically get to play. You sometimes allow fans to enjoy an experience in Athens that they normally wouldn’t get. But I’m not ready to say that it’s 100 percent.”

However, Smart downplayed the idea that the spring game might be canceled to discourage “tampering” with players by other programs.

“Everybody wants to … make it about the portal,” he said, and make “the decision to not have spring games based on the fluidity of players. I don’t know that that’s every coach’s reason. There’s a lot of coaches that didn’t like the spring game before the portal ever came about. Everybody has different approaches.

“My approach has been I like to have spring football games. But every year we make that decision based on where we are. We haven’t even practiced yet, so it would be remiss if I said 100 percent, I’m dead set, we’re having a spring game. I leave every option open. That’s my 15th practice. So, we can do what we want to do.”

Despite Smart’s downplaying of the threat of the transfer portal as a reason for not holding a spring game, there’s speculation to the contrary, with Seth Emerson of The Athletic reporting this week that he’s heard the theory that it’s to prevent players “from truly knowing where they stand. The spring game is a chance for the fans and the public at large to see the state of their team at the end of spring practice, including who is where on the depth chart.

“Most teams put the first-team offense and defense on opposing teams. Sometimes teams mix it up, but either way, there are starters on either team. … And if players don’t like their playing time in the spring game, they may take it as a sign that they should transfer.”

I’d hate to think that’s what’s really behind Smart’s waffling about whether there’ll be a G-Day game this year. And, going forward, I really hope this is one college football bandwagon UGA doesn’t clamber aboard.

As Brooks acknowledged when addressing UGA’s athletics board recently, G-Day is about more than holding spring practice’s third scrimmage. “It is an opportunity for some of our fans to come see Georgia play that may not be able to have season tickets,” he said.

Although Smart’s G-Day comments haven’t gotten a lot of social media discussion, once fans hear about them, their response tends to be similar to that of “DawgNation Daily” podcaster Brandon Adams, who said this week he was “so disappointed” to hear Smart’s “lukewarm” statement on holding G-Day.

Adams noted that the spring game was where he first saw the Bulldogs play when he was young and it’s where the football program begins to cultivate “that next generation of Georgia fan,” since it’s an affordable and enjoyable chance for parents to bring their kids along to see the Dawgs play Between the Hedges.

As Adams said, many fans first experience Georgia football through the G-Day game.

I remember how much fun I had as a kid attending Georgia’s spring games. You got to see your favorite players — as well as preview the up-and-coming new arrivals — in a low-stress environment, since it was an intrasquad game. When someone would ask afterward who won the game, a favorite joke was to reply: “Georgia.”

And, as Adams said, without developing that early attachment to the program, “where is the next generation of Georgia fans coming from?”

Indeed, as Adams pointed out in his podcast, “there is value in good will,” and with the loss in recent years of other opportunities for fans to interact with the program — including the coach’s tour of booster groups, the signing day gathering at Butts-Mehre and picture day in August — G-Day remains the main way the program can generate such good will.

That essentially is why G-Day started back in 1941, although it eventually evolved from laid-back affairs where sunbathing Dawgs fans could wander in whenever they wanted and stretch out, to today’s nationally televised games in a packed stadium that serve as a prime recruitment tool for the coaching staff.

During my years of attending G-Day, the contrasts sometimes were stark: I was one of 10,000 or so fans crammed into the bleachers at Clarke Central High School’s stadium in 1996 to watch a G-Day game transplanted because of Olympic preparations (future coach Smart had two interceptions), and I was at Sanford Stadium on the famed 93K Day (Smart’s debut as head coach).

Maybe it’s because I grew up in Athens, where we were pretty much immersed in all things UGA 365 days a year, but G-Day always was a big deal for me and my friends.

Granted, it’s a glorified scrimmage, though there’s been the occasional throwaway treat for the crowd that you’ll never see during the regular season — as when the Dawgs briefly trotted out the wishbone a few years back during a spring game.

Still, I love the G-Day game and always have. After all, it’s Georgia. Bulldogs. Football.

In the years when there were no tickets, you could sit wherever you wanted to, if you got there early enough! And while it helps if it’s a glorious spring day, even the cool, drizzly G-Days I’ve sat through (and there’ve been several) were mostly enjoyable outings.

Also, through the years various fan-friendly departures from the norm made it even more fun. Vince Dooley used to like to gimmick it up on G-Day, with the Dogs playing against alumni teams a couple of times, leading to the fun situation where you had father and son facing off on the field.

I remember Leroy Dukes, who had played on Dooley’s first team 20 years earlier, got into the 1984 G-Day game for one play to jump offsides and wrap-up his quarterback son, David. And, in the 1989 game, another Dooley-era player, Ray Rissmiller, played against lineman son Scott. When the elder Rissmiller got spun around by another player, his solicitous son asked, “Are you alright, Daddy?” So much for trash talking.

And from 1976 through 1992, popular media personalities served as honorary head coaches for the G-Day teams.

Plus, as non-team G-Day entertainment, I’ve seen fans involved in various punt-pass-kick challenges, races between silly costumed mascots, former Georgia quarterbacks competing in a passing contest and Frisbee-catching dogs (the four-legged variety). Unfortunately, I wasn’t yet 2 years old the year Andy Griffith regaled the G-Day crowd with his famed “What It Was Was Football” comedy routine, so that’s one treat I don’t recall.

I enjoyed those relaxed G-Days that drew a little over 20,000 or so, where you could park across from Reed Hall a couple of hours before kickoff and stroll casually into the stadium. And, like I said, early arrivals got their pick of where to sit (which is why you usually could find the King brothers in the shade under the overhang on the 50-yard-line). If the game was televised, it usually was on a regional sports channel.

But, after some schools that drew big spring game crowds started publicizing the numbers, getting a bigger crowd became more important. During the Mark Richt era, UGA doubled its usual G-Day attendance into the mid-40,000s (in part because an admission charge was dropped in favor of encouraging donation of canned goods for charity). They added the pregame flag football game featuring past Georgia lettermen as an added incentive, too.

The 2015 G-Day game, Richt’s last, had an announced attendance of 46,185, an amusingly specific (and probably somewhat fanciful) figure, since there was no counting of folks entering the stadium.

Then, Smart arrived from Alabama (one of those schools that routinely drew a nearly full house for its spring games). Recognizing the need to give the Georgia program a boost of national buzz, the new coach challenged Bulldog Nation to fill Sanford Stadium’s 92,746 seats for the 2016 spring game, which he smartly dubbed “93K Day.” He even had Ludacris give a pregame mini concert.

By the time the rapper finished performing, Smart had gotten his 93,000 fans (actually, it probably was closer to 100,000 before they finally started turning folks away) and made a big splash in his debut as coach.

Of course, another reason for Smart elevating G-Day — besides wanting to break the SEC spring game attendance record that Nick Saban had set at Alabama — was because a packed stadium for a spring game was seen as a way of impressing recruits who were visiting Sanford or watching on television.

G-Day is “a big part of our recruiting piece,” Smart told an Atlanta sports radio station at one point. “We need a huge G-Day … because that’s what carries over with these kids.”

Since that 93K Day, Georgia’s spring game has remained a popular draw, although attendance has varied because of changing circumstances, mostly involving ongoing stadium renovations that limited the areas where fans could sit.

(The 2020 G-Day game was canceled completely due to the pandemic, which was the fourth time G-Day hasn’t been held since it started. The previous times were 1943, when the World War II military draft had depleted the roster; 1945, because of too many injuries; and 2000, when a sewage leak had made the field unplayable.)

And, for fans, it isn’t just about providing an enthusiastic backdrop for recruiting, either. The fun extras have continued. In 2022, the Braves’ mascot, Blooper, joined the Spike Squad in the stands, and, when those players from the 2021 team who had moved on got their national championship rings between the first and second quarters, it drew a very loud ovation.

At the 2023 G-Day game, a pup named Boom took over as mascot Uga XI in a pregame collaring ceremony and shared the Dawghouse on the sideline with the retiring Que (Uga X).

Of course, while Smart has used G-Day as a recruiting tool, the actual intrasquad scrimmage between the Red team and the Black team has become increasingly irrelevant as an indicator of what to expect during the coming season.

Yes, fans still get to see the first-string offense go against the first-string defense and get a look at some key early enrollees, but in recent years what you see on G-Day isn’t necessarily what you’ll get, come fall.

The Dawgs pretty much run vanilla offensive and defensive schemes on G-Day, in order not to provide anything of use for scouts from upcoming opponents. Last year, Smart even had the Red team kick a PAT to end the game in a tie rather than go for 2 and a win, because he didn’t want any 2-point plays on video for early regular-season opponents to study.

Also, under Smart the offense at G-Day tends to be a lot more pass-happy than you’ll see in the regular season. There isn’t much emphasis on the running game.

“G-Days are built around a lot of 2-minute drives,” Smart once explained. “You want to hurry up, throw and catch the ball. That reduces the risk of injury.”

Additionally, while fans still wind up getting excited about relatively unknown players who show up big on that day, those players frequently end up having a minimal role in the actual season. Just last year, Southern Cal transfer Michael Jackson III was the leading receiver for the Black team, catching 5 passes for 42 yards, but come the regular season he played in only four games, mostly on special teams, and ended up entering the transfer portal again. (One case where a new player’s debut did prove prophetic was in the 2017 G-Day Game, where freshman Jake Fromm was impressive.)

However, even if letting your newer players compete on Dooley Field with cheering fans in the stands isn’t as important a development tool for coaches as it once was, I’m hoping Smart lets this year’s G-Day game proceed as planned.

I also hope that the spring game remains a part of the UGA sports calendar in years to come.

It’s a welcome point of interest in a long offseason.

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