LOS ANGELES — Thousands of Georgia fans living in the Los Angeles area are excited to see the Bulldogs play for a championship in their back yard.
Nichole Pryor moved to Los Angeles after graduating from the University of Georgia. She was in Athens in the late '90s when Kirby Smart was on the field as a player. Now she’s more than 2,000 miles from home, and yet there are moments when it seems she never left.
“You’ll see them on the freeway, someone with a Georgia tag and you’re sitting in traffic and yell, ‘Go Dawgs,’” Pryor said.
Every football season, Nichole gets together with other Bulldog fans living in Southern California for game watch parties. There are 2,000 to 3,000 members of the UGA Alumni Association living in southern California.
There’s a lot of us out here,” Pryor said. “We’re on the West Coast where football isn’t followed as passionately, so when this happens it brings it home.”
The number of Bulldogs in Los Angeles is now growing as the team arrived in California on Friday for the national title game.
Those fans have followed Nichole to the West Coast with history in mind -- winning back-to-back championships.
“That doesn’t happen too often and it’s energizing for West Coast Bulldog fans,” Pryor said.
For other Bulldog fans heading this way, Nichole has a warning. The stories you’ve heard about LA traffic is true.
“Just prepare and not be overwhelmed or stressed about it,” Pryor said. “Just realize the traffic is real.”
As real as Georgia’s chances of winning another championship in a place far from home, but full of Bulldogs.