On Coach Stacy Searels…
“Basically (Stacy Searles) just wanted to keep the tradition of the Georgia offensive line as being physical and tough, playing hard, and being the best unit on the field. That was his main message, he wanted to keep that going. He didn’t want there to be a drop-off from Coach (Matt) Luke to him.”
On becoming a leader…
“I’m definitely trying to be a leader. You know, going into my fourth year, it’s time for me to step up and try to be a leader and be more vocal. I’m not a very talkative guy, so just stepping up and being more talkative, leading by example, and helping out the younger guys.”
On the difference between this season and last…
“You’d like to say that you always prepare to be the guy and you always work the same that you would. We’re all human and you’re kind’ve like ‘jeez sometimes it seems like I’m not going to play at all,’ but now, as you said, somebody comes in that’s better than me they’re going to start, it’s the University of Georgia. There is a lot more of being hands-on with the routes and the way you want the guys to run the routes. How you feel comfortable with them, a lot more reps than we had last year. So I guess just individual conversations about what I’m seeing and what they’re seeing, so we get to know how to play football better together.”
On the period following the national championship…
“I mean it was a whirlwind. It seemed there for about two weeks, we hadn’t won one in 42 years, so, I mean the world exploded there for a second. We hadn’t experienced anything like that before. We got two weeks off because I think it’s NCAA rules, after you finish playing you have two weeks. So we were a little bit further behind, because usually, typically in the past, except for 2017, we would end on January 1st or December 31, so that two-week period would start before school started. This year it started right when school started. So we were what, 10 days, 11 days behind on like walkthroughs and football stuff? So, once we started back, there was a little bit more urgency because we had lost a week and a half from prior years between then and spring ball. We had like a week and a half less reps to get ready for spring ball. So, there was an urgency to get the new guys, the new enrollees, back in, and the old guys who hadn’t done anything for two weeks, get them back ready to go for spring ball.”
On William Poole and Christopher Smith returning…
“We had a pretty good secondary last year. And of course, as you were saying, those two players had a big impact on that. Having two older guys and two leaders being able to come back for the next year is something that’s going to help us.”
On the National Championship Pick-6…
“It was a pretty good feeling honestly. Going throughout the entire game, a lot of plays were made to put us in that situation. I’m just happy to be able to play with my team and just do great things at the right time when we’re able to. So, that helped us come out on top.”