The faculty soccer highway night time recreation dynamic: Actual or imagined?

ATHENS, Ga. — Aaron Murray and his teammates by no means preferred to take a seat round their lodge room, ready for hours to depart for the stadium. That was the worst half. Then they might get there, kickoff would method, the sky was darkish, and the lights have been on. That ambiance was one thing else.

“We might really feel the distinction within the night time video games from the followers,” stated Murray, Georgia’s beginning quarterback from 2010-13. “Simply the power, the joy, the extra drunk they have been, most likely, the livelier they have been going to be within the stadium.”

Murray by no means misplaced a house recreation that began below the lights, a domination that hasn’t stopped: Georgia is 20-0 in prime-time video games at dwelling since 2010, the final night time loss at Sanford Stadium coming to Kentucky on Nov. 21, 2009.

That’s a giant cause for hope for No. 12 Georgia on Saturday because it hosts No. 7 Tennessee in a win-or-else recreation for the Bulldogs’ School Soccer Playoff hopes. Additionally, pretty much as good as Josh Heupel has been as Tennessee’s coach, he’s solely 7-8 in highway video games, together with 2-4 the previous two seasons. The Vols’ lone loss this season, at Arkansas, was an evening recreation.

However is internet hosting an evening recreation an actual benefit, or anecdotal? It relies on who you ask.

Lane Kiffin was adamant a number of weeks in the past that taking part in an evening recreation at dwelling was advantageous when the Ole Miss coach complained about not having any night time dwelling video games in SEC play, whereas LSU bought two.

“I feel that’s confirmed over time – each in NFL and faculty – that taking part in at night time in electrical atmospheres is a home-field benefit and hard whenever you bought to try this as an opposing workforce,” Kiffin stated. “That’s been confirmed for a very long time.”

Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss workforce has no dwelling night time SEC video games scheduled this season. (Petre Thomas / Imagn Pictures)

Ole Miss overcame solely getting a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff to beat Georgia final Saturday. And the coach he beat in that recreation, Kirby Sensible, is skeptical that night time kickoffs make that a lot of a distinction, saying that among the greatest atmospheres he has had at Georgia have been afternoon video games. That features a win over Tennessee two years in the past, which kicked off at 3:30 p.m.

“I simply assume a house recreation basically within the SEC is hell on the highway workforce. I feel it’s actually laborious, man,” Sensible stated.

However not at all times. Alabama simply went into Demise Valley at night time and routed LSU. Sensible’s personal Georgia workforce, whereas it misplaced at Alabama and eked out a one-point win at Kentucky, gained comfortably at Texas below the lights.

Within the Sensible period, Georgia has misplaced 4 dwelling video games, and three began at midday: Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech in 2016 and South Carolina in 2019. The opposite was 3:30 p.m. to Tennessee in 2016, a recreation the Vols gained on a Hail Mary.

In Murray’s case, he compares the ambiance in his two video games at South Carolina: The 2010 recreation was at midday, whereas the 2012 recreation at night time. Georgia misplaced each, and the ambiance for the guests was daunting in each, however it was worse in 2012.

“You went to extra of a enjoyable power (in 2010) to, ‘Oh my God, this place is on prime of us, swarming us alive’ kind of ambiance,” Murray stated. “As an opponent, getting into someplace at night time, you’re feeling the power extra too. I don’t know what it’s. It’s a totally totally different really feel. It’s louder.”

There’s information to again up the night-game impact. However some information gives nuance.

TruMedia seemed on the final decade of SEC video games that began at 6 p.m. or later and solely these when the house workforce, both ranked or unranked, performed a customer that was ranked within the AP ballot. The aim was to attempt to gauge the night-game impact in greater video games. The outcomes present that, in comparison with all different video games involving a visiting ranked workforce, the house workforce did higher at night time, each in successful the sport and overlaying the purpose unfold.

What’s extra, when the house workforce was the underdog, it fared higher at night time than in different video games.

Apparently, TruMedia discovered a distinct story in video games when the house workforce was favored in opposition to a ranked visiting workforce. The house groups fared worse in these night time video games.

Digging deeper, in video games that have been nearer than anticipated — that means, the house favourite didn’t cowl the unfold — these groups went 3-8 outright, in comparison with 11-9 in non-night video games of the identical kind (dwelling workforce favored over a ranked customer). The lesson? Perhaps the house favourite will get wound up in nearer video games in huge atmospheres, or the visiting workforce able to preserving it shut on the highway is best at ending off the sport.

That’s the fear for Georgia, which is favored this week by as many as 10 factors, in a fluid line with Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s standing unsure.

One principle on visiting groups’ struggles facilities on the group noise affecting the offense’s means to speak and make modifications on the line of scrimmage. However Murray identified that wouldn’t apply as a lot to Tennessee, which performs at a quick tempo and doesn’t make many checks on the line.

And as a lot as Murray respects Georgia followers, he thinks the workforce’s unbeaten report since 2009 has extra to do with regular dwelling dynamics and having the higher workforce, relatively than something particular about Sanford Stadium. The explanation: the acoustics. The stadium is in a extra open, spread-out setting, in comparison with another SEC stadiums.

“The ambiance is nice. It can get loud, it’ll get tough,” Murray stated. “However we’re not Knoxville the place it’s 100,000 folks enclosed and coming down on you. It’s not Baton Rouge. These stadiums are constructed to maintain sound in, and it’s hell. Georgia’s going to be loud, it’s going to be tough, however it’ll by no means be a type of locations due to the best way it’s constructed.”

Nonetheless, Murray might see Georgia followers taking it up a notch this week. Sensible referred to as them out for not sufficient crowd noise after the Auburn recreation. They’ve solely had three dwelling video games, they usually haven’t been huge video games. This one is totally different.

That’s why it’s at night time.

“An evening recreation alerts that it’s an elite matchup, that it’s a extremely vital recreation. Everybody places extra into it,” Murray stated. “We will all say we put together the identical method each single week, clearly the coachspeak, the playerspeak. However I feel everyone knows — and I feel the followers are the identical method too — you recognize when “School GameDay” is in your campus, and it’s an evening recreation, and it’s a big-time matchup.

“So I feel everybody takes it somewhat bit extra critically, everybody prepares somewhat bit extra, everybody brings somewhat extra juice. That’s everybody: Gamers, coaches, followers, the entire shebang.”

Picture: Todd Kirkland / Getty Pictures