Bulldogs fired up for road trip

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A September nonconference game on the campus of a team that went 4-8 the previous season has surely never before drawn this amount of interest from Georgia fans.

Such is the power of Notre Dame. No matter the condition of Fighting Irish, the chance to see Touchdown Jesus signal a score in person will always be a big deal for college football fans.

The first-regular season meeting between Georgia and Notre Dame tonight is the most-anticipated road trip the Bulldogs have made in decades.

“This has been the most difficult ticket I have seen during my years at UGA,” said associated athletic director Claude Felton, who has been with the University of Georgia sports information department since 1979.

“There are large numbers of Bulldog supporters heading to South Bend with no tickets. They just want to be part of the experience.”

Georgia received — and quickly sold — 8,000 tickets for the game at Notre Dame Stadium.

Secondary market ticket prices were in the $1,600 range during August, though fans that waited it out could have snagged a nose-bleed seat Thursday for $500 on StubHub.

The red and black of Georgia started pouring into South Bend on Thursday, and Bulldogs fans were making their presence felt.

At the restaurant in which Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly does his weekly radio show, he was greeted by dozens of Georgia fans, Calling the Dawgs.

“We know there's going be some black and some red in the stands; we get that,” Kelly said.

Some of the out-oftowners were trying to turn the weekend into a sports bucket-list marathon, catching a Cubs game at Wrigley on Friday and the Atlanta Falcons — fortuitously enough — at Soldier Field against the Bears on Sunday. South Bend is about 95 miles from Chicago.