On his experience with the Georgia-Auburn rivalry…“I definitely watched a couple of games. Came here as a recruit actually to some of the games too. The SEC Championship [2017], that was a big one for sure. It’s always been a good rivalry.”

On whether not seeing his name on any pre-season awards lists gives him motivation…“I really don’t look at those, but you could say it’s motivation to just keep going hard and motivate myself to keep proving everybody wrong.” 

On what he has seen from Nolan Smith…“Nolan just comes out here and works hard every day. He’s relentless in his pursuit. He just works on different moves and continues to get better.”

On getting in at linebacker against Arkansas and how he feels he has improved since last season…“I had fun going into the Arkansas game. It’s always fun getting in on defense, made two tackles. Coming from last season, my weight has dropped a little bit. I don’t think it’s a huge deal. I’m still fast, still physical. That’s how I was raised up and how the coaches teach us here. I would say from last year to this year, I think that mentally I am more prepared for the game or more prepared for practice. I think things are a little bit easier to see and I think that comes with maturity of the game and getting reps. I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen in myself from last year to this year.”

On his decision to stay at Georgia…“I love it here. I love the guys here. The coaches are awesome. I believe they’re the best coaches in the conference and in the Nation. Who better to learn from? I also look past football because I know football doesn’t last forever and the connections here that I would get, the networking that I would get would set me up for a great job afterwards and the education here is really good. So that’s the biggest reason I’ve stayed besides being who I’m with.”

On what special teams have been like with the addition of Coach Scott Cochran…“Since Coach [Scott] Cochran has gotten here, special teams have always been a huge deal to Coach [Kirby] Smart. Having Coach Cochran here and then Coach [Todd] Hartley as well doing the special teams. They bring that juice every day. That makes us want to get better at special teams because special teams is also a very big avenue that can lead you to the pros. You might not start on offense or defense but if you can get into the league and you can play on special teams, that’s $600,000 a year. That sounds pretty nice.”