2006 Chick-fil-A Bowl: Dawgs at home in Dome

ATHENS – Both teams have sold their allotment of 18,500 tickets, but that doesn’t mean all things will be equal when Georgia and Virginia Tech meet in the Peach Bowl.

The Dec. 30 game will be played in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, a home away from home for the Bulldogs in the Mark Richt era.

“They have to come all the way from Virginia, and it’s just right down the road for us so I think a lot of the tickets that are up for grabs will be taken up by Georgia people,” Bulldog senior Ray Gant said, “and plus we’ve played there nine times in three years or something like that.”

Actually, the Bulldogs have played in the Georgia Dome four times in the last four years, three SEC championship games and one displaced Sugar Bowl.

“I hope there’s an advantage,” Richt said. “I hope they’re a lot more Georgia fans than Virginia Tech fans, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

The Bulldogs are 2-2 in their last four games in the Dome. They lost 38-35 to West Virginia in their last appearance in the building, but Gant doesn’t think that had anything to do with location.

“I think we were a step slow last year,” he said. “I don’t know if it was because of the time off or us looking over West Virginia. We hadn’t seen them play on TV a lot. We hadn’t heard anything about them, Conference USA, I mean Big East, whatnot. I think it was more an underestimation of them.”