Written by Ell
| 29 August 2008
It is well past midnight here in Atlanta, which makes it game day!
If you were wondering why Alabama felt the need to play this game try and find a copy of Friday's USA Today. Not only is there a small image of John Parker Wilson in the top right hand corner of the front page of the sports page, but ABC purchased a full page ad for the game that prominently features John Parker.
Julio Jones also gets a special mention as a "player to watch" in the sports section. This type of publicity is virtually impossible to come by unless you are playing in a game like this.
And that is not to mention the fact that ESPN has talked about this game during the half time show of their Thursday and Friday night shows. If you didn't see Friday night's, Mark May predicted Alabama to win, and to win by more than a TD.
This was all before we even got to game day. And by game day I mean "Game Day". ESPN will spend a great deal of time Saturday morning promoting this game with Fowler, Corso and Herbstreit. Oh, and then there's the national television audience for the actual game.
The game has had a huge prescence here in Atlanta as well. There has been local television, newspaper, and radio coverage of the game, as well as thousand of Alabama and Clemson fans. For a sports fan in Atlanta, this has been the game getting all of the coverage. With the way that Bama has been recruiting the Atlanta area, this is a huge, huge deal.
A reminder for those of you coming in to Atlanta on Saturday, I-75/85 will be down to one lane in each direction at the junction with I-20. So avoid that part of downtown if you can.
I love the atmosphere of a night game, but the wait tomorrow will be brutal. Thankfully there will be lots of football on television to try to serve as a distraction, but that is all preamble.
It's only a matter of hours at this point, and that in and of iteself is enough to have me excited.
