April 16, 2009
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech will put closure to spring football practice and provide Yellow Jacket fans with a preview of the 2009 season with the annual T-Day Game Saturday at noon.
Following is key information for fans attending the game at Bobby Dodd Stadium:
– Admission to the game is free.
– Only three gates – 5, 7 and 9 – will be open, beginning at 11 a.m. Gates 5 and 7 are on Bobby Dodd Way behind the North end zone. Gate 9 is on Techwood Drive.
– With construction projects occurring in the West stands, fans are asked to sit in the East or North stands.
– There will be no charge for parking on campus in legal parking areas. Parking will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in the Student Center Lot, the North Avenue lots (E-45, E-46, E-47, E-49), Peters Parking Deck, and on Tech Parkway, Techwood Drive, and Fowler Street.
– Festivities begin outside the stadium, on Callaway Plaza, beginning at 10 a.m. Interactive games, face painters, music, Georgia Tech merchandise and more will all be in place.
The Yellow Jackets return 17 starters and 57 total letterwinners from a team that finished 9-4, earned a share of the ACC’s Coastal Division title and played in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Paul Johnson’s first season as Tech’s head coach. Headlining the list of returnees is the 2008 ACC Player of the Year, junior B-back Jonathan Dwyer, and All-ACC performers Cord Howard (OL), Morgan Burnett (S) and Derrick Morgan (DE).
Much of the attention on Saturday will be on the new faces. Fourteen scholarship players redshirted as true freshmen in 2008, including quarterback Tevin Washington. Tech fans will also get a look at transfers Anthony Allen (B-back), Kevin Cone (WR) and Preston Lyons (B-back), as well as true freshman defensive end Emmanuel Dieke, who enrolled in January.
At halftime of Saturday’s game, Johnson will be honored by the Atlanta Touchdown Club.
The game will not be televised, however Comcast Sports Southeast will air a special one-hour show on Georgia Tech football May 3 at 1 p.m. as well as other times this spring.
Georgia Tech, which finished 22nd in both national polls, opens the 2009 season Sept. 5 against Jacksonville State.