On what he expects emotions to be like on Saturday…“I feel like the emotions are going to be crazy. Everybody is going to be excited. We’re ready to hit somebody else besides us, so I feel like as long as we control our emotion and put it out on the field, we’ll be great.”

On holding the younger guys on the team accountable…“Last year, I knew I had to step into a leadership position this year. That’s one thing I had to step up my game in, and I’ve just been pushing myself. Holding people accountable is the thing I’ve done since high school. Last year, I didn’t do it probably as much as I should, but I want them to hold me accountable, so I have to hold them accountable.”

On playing with Monty Rice…“Basically, I look at him on how to lead some people. Different people need to be led differently, and he knows how to do that. For me, I’ve just been looking up to him on how to do it. Quay [Walker], Rian [Davis], Trezmen [Marshall], Nate [McBride], Channing [Tindall] and I— we all just kind of look up to him and see him as the big dog. He’s just been great.”

On Arkansas’ offense and what they’ve done to prepare for it…“As far as us, I feel like we’ve just been focusing on ourselves, but we have been watching film on Arkansas. Not necessarily Arkansas’ [film] with its new offensive coordinator [Kendal Briles], basically how he does his thing. I feel like the coaches have set up a good game plan for us, [and] we just have to buy in and execute.”

On how hard is it to prepare for someone who they’ve already faced but at different school…“I mean it is truly difficult and all that, but we just going through and look at anything that could help us out in any type of way. We are constantly watching film and doing all this other stuff—like meeting extra just to see what type of thing that I know for a fact what type of thing that is going to hit us.”

On what his journey has been like since his freshman year…“For sure. It’s been a crazy journey—I remember freshman year like the back of my hand. It flew by, like really quick. It was just a crazy journey too. We had our high roads. We had our low roads and all this stuff. Everybody goes through things. But just to see us now and see the way [we’ve grown]. We leaders. We have watched them lead us and now us [are] doing the leading and stuff. It’s just tremendous growth that I’ve seen personally throughout everybody in our class.”

On how Georgia’s defense can be better than last year and what the defense can prove this season that it did not last season…“Easily, the finish. It’s all about the ball. We want the ball, the ball, the ball. We did not create as many turnovers as we knew and thought we should. So, everything is about the finish, the finish for us. We’re trying to do anything to get the ball out— rip at the ball, [and] if the ball is in the air, it’s our ball. The emphasis is on the ball, the ball, the ball. That’s the biggest thing we can work on as a defense.”