As the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, and South Carolina Gamecocks get ready for their games today against lesser opponents, there’s something that I never quite understood.
All three teams play today at noon ET. 12 o’clock. As a player, it didn’t really matter what time we had to play, I was jacked up and ready to rock and roll whenever. However, I could sense that some guys were tired, sleep-walking through pregame warmups.
I was never sure if it was because we were playing cupcakes or if they really weren’t up and ready to go. The noon games did stink a little bit, because the day just seemed to be going in hyperdrive speed as soon as we had wakeup call at 8 a.m. For instance, whenever we played a night game, we had the whole day to watch other games in our hotel room, meet with our coaches and get a few more film sessions in, and take a nap.
I can’t ever remember playing against an FCS opponent at night. I feel like those games were always at noon for some reason. Well, obviously they aren’t prime-time games so they won’t get the prime-time slots.
I haven’t been to a noon game as a fan or observer yet, but I wonder what the tailgating scene is like for these early games. Do the fans get out extra early and crank it up or what? Do the fans prefer the later games like the players do?
As I mentioned earlier, I would be jacked up and ready to play at any time, but that was just me and my personality. While I did prefer the later games for the simple fact that we got to sneak in a little more meeting and film time, I just wanted to play. You can bet that these three teams today are going to be on their “A” game. The Gators, Bulldogs and Gamecocks all have a lot to play for and need this game today to fix whatever they need to fix and gain some major confidence heading into next week’s rivalry game.
Whatever they do, they better not sleep-walk today. Otherwise it could be a very embarrassing day for these guys.
The Man. The Myth. The Legend.
