On the Florida game….
“That Florida game was definitely a challenging week for us. Offensively, for Florida, they run a lot of schemes, kind of like I-violators. That’s what we call them. So like, we just had to buckle down and look at those types of things. We just focused on what we had to do for our job. And so like once we paid attention to what we had to do for our job and just executed that everything took care of itself after that. So, yeah now we’re headed for Missouri.”
On Georgia’s defense and linebacker core…
“In the inside linebacker group, we don’t have a name, something we’re probably gonna have to talk about. Probably going to talk about it tonight actually or at the end of the season. We aren’t really worried about a name right now. But we are just trying to improve each week, we are focused on getting better. So we don’t really try to focus on the past. Last week, we looked at our mistakes, right now we’re just trying to get better and better and better. I feel like that’s what makes our room so special because we’re all competitive. So we’re trying to do better than the other ones. So like when you’re trying to do better than the other one, you focus on everything – the keys, the alignments, you gotta do everything. Outdoing each other actually making us better. So like that’s the number one thing that’s kind of got us to the point that we are now.”
On Nolan Smith….
“Yeah, definitely. In practice, what you see in practice is what you’re going to see in the game. We’re a firm believer that what you do in practice is what’s going to show up in the game. And Nolan’s very passionate, very vocal, and he’s going to make plays. What he does in practice shows up on the field. So all his hard work, he earns it. All those plays you see, aren’t just lucky plays like he actually worked for those.”
On being ranked No.1 in the first CFP ranking…
“It’s a great feeling, to be honest, but I feel just continuing to just come out every single day and work like you’re in last place in college football could definitely help us to continue where we’ve been going. I feel like that’s a great start to be putting ourselves in right now.”
On the interaction with Coach Smart during the Florida game…
“With our defense we have a certain standard going from teammate to teammate, and coach to coach. As we saw later throughout the game, there were a few passes that I didn’t meet, and I got a little bit frustrated. But the process, it’s a lot of emotion – it’s the type of emotion that wasn’t in the right place at the time which is why I acted the way that I did. We got through that situation, and we solved it.”
On what he can improve on…
“All aspects of the game, to be honest. Coverage each and every single day. We come into meetings and look at what we can work on, telling us about ourselves and how we came out. I feel like just continuing to work on the little things like coming out of the breaks, slowing down on tempos, bailing but also staying close to the receivers during their breaks.”