Brock Bowers gives telling response on repeatedly hearing 'Sandstorm' in preparation for South Carolina matchup

“Sandstorm” by Darude is a staple at Williams-Brice Stadium during South Carolina games. As Georgia prepares for the raucous atmosphere this weekend, the Bulldogs are playing the song over and over in practice.

Brock Bowers isn’t sick of it, though.

“Not yet,” he said. “They play it every day, though.”

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It’s all part of the excitement leading into the Bulldogs’ SEC opener, which is set for Saturday at noon ET. Bowers said conference play adds to the energy in practice, but the players have to be ready for the loud atmosphere.

That’s where the speakers come into play — not just for playing music, though.

“We do crowd noise over the loud speaker,” Bowers said. “It gets hard to hear sometimes, just working on things on offense without being able to hear. Just trying to imitate the game as best we can here during practice.”

To offset the hearing difficulties in those games, Georgia uses hand signals to relay plays. Bowers also recalled a game last year where the crowd was deafening, and that showed him how loud it can get on the road in the SEC.

“Most of our stuff on offense is all like hand signals and stuff,” Bowers said. “That’s pretty much how we handle it. What helps, too, is just trying to process before the play what could be checked where, so that helps a lot too. I remember Auburn last year, we couldn’t hear a thing. It was kind of surprising to me because that was one of our first actual road games in the SEC.”

Kirby Smart embracing the challenge of playing in ‘unique’ environment at South Carolina

Heading into the game, Kirby Smart said his Georgia team is “excited” to play on the road. He thinks last season’s schedule will help Georgia against South Carolina, citing Auburn and Tennessee‘s home crowd as two of the better the Bulldogs faced last season.

Now going up against the Gamecocks, Smart knows they will have quite an environment to go up against.

“The guys are excited,” Smart said. “Anytime you get an SEC road opponent — something about going on the road. You embrace that environment. Most of our kids love going into the SEC and playing on the road. Last year, Tennessee and Auburn stick out as pretty unique environments and I think South Carolina is in line of that as far as their fan base.”