Georgia sees players keeping each other in check as “showing love.” This has been said many times by quite a few players and head coach Kirby Smart in reference to the on-the-field dispute between senior D’Andre Walker and freshman Brenton Cox during the Middle Tennessee game this past Saturday.

Safety Richard LeCounte said he receives “love” every day at practice not from his fellow players, but from someone else.

“He wears a red hat, a little visor,” said LeCounte referring to the head coach. “Oh yeah, I get shown plenty of love.”

The sophomore has made a smooth transition from backup to starter this season and is only projected to get better.

“He [LeCounte] continues to grow,” said coach Smart. “I think he is gaining confidence in the system. Our defense requires a lot of calls for the safeties to make and he’s gotten a better command of that. I see him in a lot of meetings and watching tape. He’s growing up.”

As far as his mentality going into this weekend, it is team oriented and not selfish.

“My mentality has been doing my job first. Coaches say that if I do my job, everything will come to me. As far as me, I focus on what I have to do in the game plan to make the team better. That is what I do. If interceptions come they come. I am not really focused on how many interceptions I can get on my own,” said LeCounte. “It is more like: ‘What can I do to make sure I do my job so that it helps the team and everyone be on the same page?’”

When asked about how the defense is preparing to go up against a pass-heavy quarterback like Missouri’s Drew Lock, LeCounte said, “We are making sure we get back to the fundamentals and basics, get back to doing what we are used to doing. Nothing new. Everything that we were doing before but making sure we focus in on it and tweaking the little things. Making sure we are on point.”