For the first time in his young college football career, second-year linebacker out of Baltimore, Maryland, Jamon Dumas-Johnson was presented to the media to be interviewed after yesterday’s practice, the halfway point in Georgia’s annual Fall Camp.

The biggest thing surrounding the youthful star is the pressure on him to continue what the guys before him started. Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker, and Channing Tindall have all up and left Athens, leaving Dumas-Johnson or “Pop” to begin his own legacy. He still has to prove himself, but having only one year of college play under his belt doesn’t hurt Pop in the slightest explaining to reporters, “Once you get that one year under your belt, you should be good. As long as you’re locked in….” 

One would expect his development process to have to be sped up, so a player with his talent can be better prepped to take on a role as large as those three. But he says he never felt rushed to step up and take their place, “Like I said before, those guys (Dean, Walker, and Tindall) did a perfect job… preparing me and the other guys to step up….”

Learning behind Georgia greats like that, Pop was asked about what specifically he took from the likes of Nakobe and his style of play. The response was quick: IQ. He followed up by saying, “I didn’t just learn from Nakobe. I learned from Quay– I learned from all of them.” Pop said that he took teachings from all of them and used it to better himself as a player.

With the season opener against Oregon just around the corner, Jamon was asked how he thought the team was doing in terms of getting ready for the matchup. He grinned and answered, “It’s not about Oregon. It’s about us. We gotta keep building.” There was clearly some excitement behind his words, but he did well hiding it. 

He, alongside the rest of the team, is hungry for another opportunity to prove that they’re the best on the field. Another opportunity to, in the words of Pop, “…keep the same standard” as if the guys before them never left. 
This team is locked in. And they’re serious about it. It isn’t about Oregon right now. It’s just about what the Dawgs can manage to do for themselves. As they say, Let boys be boys. Right now, all we have to do is let the Dawgs be Dawgs.