SEC Media Days: UF opponent Georgia

[Mark Wheeler]

Courtesy ASAP Transcripts...


KIRBY SMART: I appreciate Greg, what he does. He's got a really tough, demanding job, especially in these times, and he leads from the front. I appreciate people who are willing to lead from the front in difficult times.

Thanks, Greg, for that warm welcome.

Next, and first and foremost, would be my wife. Absolutely the best teammate anybody could ever ask for. 19 years we've been together, and this is the 19th anniversary, and here I am celebrating it in Atlanta with you guys and she's in Mississippi with our youngest son with a baseball tournament.

In the coaching profession you learn a lot of ways to celebrate things in different ways, and she and I have learned to appreciate the time we do have together. She spent a season with me at the Dolphins in the NFL, nine at Alabama, nine at Georgia, so there you go, nine and nine is 18, plus one is 19, getting ready to go into our 10th season at UGA and she's been the best teammate I could ever ask for.

10th season at UGA. I want to say a couple words about somebody that is kind of stepping down from our program, and he's been one of the biggest parts. People do not give athletic trainers enough credit. But for 30 years, the face of UGA athletic training, and in most cases the SEC athletic training, has been Dr. Ron Corson. He got his doctorate yesterday in athletic training, and I want to give a shout-out to Ron and all he's meant to our program at University of Georgia and what all he's done.

He is a selfless man that has given to multiple head coaches. He's been basically the primary care physician for every coach and their family and every former player at UGA. So thank you for what you do, Dr. Ron, and what you continue to do for our program.

Real quick, three football players we brought today. I know everybody likes to talk about their guys. I'm going to brag on mine. C.J. Allen is a rising junior and one of the best leaders we've had in our program at linebacker. He is from Barnesville, Georgia, right down the road, and is a tremendous leader.

Quick story about C.J.: My son needed to get treatment for the last couple months, and he would come in the office every morning around 6:50, 6:55 to get treatment at 7:00 so he could make it to school by 8:00, and there wasn't a morning that we got there that C.J. Allen was not already in the training room doing some kind of prehab, rehab, running, getting warmed up, taking care of injuries. He's just a relentless worker and a relentless competitor, who got to play in some big games as a freshman, probably even before he was ready, and that's paid off for us last year and this year with C.J.

Next would be Gunner Stockton from the great community of Raven county. He's with us today. Gunner is a kid that leads from the front. Gunner is a winner. He comes from an athletic family background, his dad played at Georgia Southern, and he's the kind of kid you want at the front of the line, and he leads from the front. So I appreciate what Gunner does. He's going to be a big part of our program this year in leadership and doing that with the offensive players. He's already begun to do that in his leadership groups that he runs right now.

The last one is Daylen Everette. Daylen is a senior. Daylen will graduate this next summer. Gunner just graduated this summer, and C.J. -- I'm sorry. Daylen will graduate this fall, and C.J. Allen will graduate next summer being a third-year player.

Daylen is from Norfolk, Virginia. Daylen has been part of our program for four years, really a two-year starter in my mind. Had a big year for us last year. He gives tremendous confidence to a secondary that's going to be young next year. Daylen is a kid that ever since we met him, no challenge is too big. He loves to practice. He loves to compete. He demands excellence, and he is here representing us today. I'm proud of Daylen.

Our team. Our team is going to be comprised of 54 percent first and second-year players. Very big change for us. I thought last year was probably one of the most veteran teams I've been a part of. You guys know the COVID class has kind of aged out, so we had multiple players that were in their fifth and sixth year last year, especially across the offensive and defensive lines. We had a tremendous group that all went out kind of at the same time, aged out at the same time, and so we're going to be really young, especially on the offensive and defensive lines.

But 54 percent of our players are coming into their first or second year.

What do you get with that? You get youthful exuberance. We've had practices that have been spirited. We had a great spring practice that we talked about the words fire, passion and energy.

I think the biggest thing that separates college football teams today is complacency among players versus fire, passion and energy among players. So we've tried to highlight those traits as much as possible with our players.

Our players need to bring juice and energy each and every day. If they don't, they'll be confronted by the players that do. And if the players continue to do that, we'll have a successful season and a successful football team.

In a day and age that, I think Sankey referenced it yesterday, times are changing. College athletics and college football is not broken. He used the word strained. I would say that it's in a time of change and influx, that you have to navigate better than your opponent. You have to navigate better than your competitor, whether that's conference to conference or within your own conference.

We continue to find ways to do that at the University of Georgia. We sell relationships over transactions. We think the relationship still wins out because the relationship allows you to push people and demand excellence, and we're going to continue to do that at Georgia.

We don't believe in just being transactional because when you're transactional, you cannot accomplish whatever your ultimate goal is, whatever your greatest reach is. Whatever the ceiling is for every player and every team we have, you don't reach that without relationships. So we're going to try to win 24-hour increments each and every day to make sure we still attain that.

Great example of what I think about in college athletics, I wanted to share, Leland in our sports information department has a young lady that just won a National Championship with our track team. Kaila is with us today. Kaila Jackson is from Detroit, Michigan, came all the way to Athens, Georgia, to run track. She won a National Championship with our women's track program, and she is kind of interning, kind of mirroring us in SID today, and that wouldn't be possible without college athletics. I don't think enough of those stories are told, and that is important to me.

I'm a traditionalist. I believe in the college athletic background and what it does for people, what it did for me and my family, what it did for my wife, being a female athlete at University of Georgia and playing basketball. That experience paves the way for future success, and I believe in that.

With that, I'm going to open it up in honor of the great Bob Hope, we'll call it the Bob Hope question because he used to have the first one every time.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

Q. You've continually been outspoken about walk-ons and their intrinsic value to your program. What is your message to the players that may not have those same opportunities that your previous walk-ons had with the new roster limits?

KIRBY SMART: Well, that's a great first question because I don't want to jump on a soapbox and tell you how I really, really, really feel. Opportunities are being lost all across college athletics. Unfortunately, that's part of it.

I can't really give a message to the next walk-on because I don't know that there's going to be an opportunity for that walk-on.

I think find value in what people want. We still really preach fire, passion and energy, so we want kids who love the game. We found it's not how fast you run the 40 or how talented you are, it's how fast you run the 40th 40 and how passionate you are in the third and fourth quarter when you're tired.

Sometimes those guys have more intrinsic value for your team than maybe a guy who is a scholarship player but is disinterested because he's not playing. So a lot of those stories have been lost.

But I think you can reward those by going out and finding kids to fit in your 105. Doesn't matter whether you call them a walk-on or just a scholarship player that may not get as much NIL that play with fire, passion and energy.

I'm looking forward to continuing that long kind of history we have of doing that by finding the right kind of players to come play at Georgia who love the university, who want to get a degree from there, and who want to be great football players.

But that's a story that's kind of untold, and I think it's really untold in terms of other sports, Olympic sports, let's call them, across college athletics.

Q. You beat Texas twice last year; now you get them at home. Do you have any special secret to beating Sark, and any insights from your days at Alabama that work well toward that end?

KIRBY SMART: No. I think if you're going to beat a good football team, you've got to be a sound football team yourself. I didn't overlap with Sark that I remember at Alabama, so we weren't there at the same time.

Tremendous respect for him and his program, the job they do. To beat good teams, you've got to be a good team. We had a good football team last year. So did they. It's not about us as coaches. It's really about the players and what you believe in.

We got a lot of really good football teams to play next year besides just Texas, so we're preparing for all of them.

Q. Coach, I know during the off-season you've talked about building depth. You were at Alabama nine years. You and Coach Saban built a lot of depth in the program. You've done that during the majority of your 10 years at Georgia. How have you changed within your organization to try to speed up somebody's development when you get to develop depth with the impact of the transfer portal and NIL?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, first of all, you don't speed up development. That's a misnomer. If you want to speed up development, then you're probably looking for shortcuts that don't exist. You want to develop somebody, it takes time. It takes reps. We can't replicate reps faster. We can't speed up a guy's transition.

The transition it takes to become a good football player is different for every kid, and I've been fortunate for the last 19 years of college football to learn that and learn that it takes what it takes, and it takes time to grow those players.

Now, I wish I could speed it up. I really wish I could speed it up this year. But there's no remedy or magic potion or we're going to go get this guy out of the portal or that guy out of the portal. It's all about continuity and what you're doing with each team.

You're seeing that across college football where there's beginning to be a little bit more parity, I think, and it's probably going to continue to go that way, so who does the best with what they have, which is what I enjoy about the game.

Q. Gunner's relief appearance against Texas, how did that benefit the locker room the way he came in for Carson, and how does that serve as a teaching tool for young players who may not be starting?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don't know that the benefit in the locker room is as great as the other parts you just said. What does it teach a young player that's sitting in the wings that you just don't ever know when your number is going to be called. The one thing that I really appreciate about Gunner and most quarterbacks is he prepared every game as if he was the starter.

People can say that and say that's coach-speak, but he actually did it. He went in, watched extra tape, and he knew that at any point in time, he could be called up to go into the game and play, and he didn't play in a normal environment where you've got a big lead, maybe you're beating an opponent; he went in against a top defense in the country in one of the biggest games of the season and performed well, for a guy that had not gotten a lot of reps with the ones. So I thought he handled that moment well, and he taught a lot of our young players that you've got to be prepared and ready.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

Q. You mentioned a little bit on character, football, personal character background and stuff, and everybody talks about the film evaluation side of things, and character, football stuff has always been important. It used to be a scholarship and cost-of-attendance check. Now we're putting real percentages money-wise revenue on these kids' heads. What are the cutting-edge things you guys are doing at Georgia to be ahead of that, be ahead of the curve in the character and personal development, bringing the right kids into your program?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don't know that I would say cutting edge. We're all trying to do it better than anybody else. If I share that with you, then I'm sharing it with everybody. If we're doing anything cutting edge, I'm not sharing it today; I can assure you of that.

What I do think is important or more important that you hit on is it's less about what the tape looks like, okay. For instance, if we're going to sign four corners or four DBs, there's going to be a thousand DBs that are good enough on the tape. Let's don't talk about the DBs that are above the line. The line is are they good enough to play winning football at Georgia. There's thousands. Let's just get the ones that care, the ones that are not transactional, that are relationship built. They want relationships. They want to be coached. They want to be pushed.

Yeah, they're going to get paid. No coach is going to stand up here and say they don't want players to get paid. We want them to get paid. I'm completely comfortable with that. What I want is them to get paid and that not change how they go about their business, that not change if they're sensitive to being demanded excellence of.

It's so ironic to me that you meet a parent and they're like, Coach, I really want my son to play where he's pushed and demanded of and he gets coached each and every day the hard way because I honestly don't think he can make it without that. We all needed it. I needed it at 17. A 17-year-old needs to be pushed. It doesn't preclude them from gaining monetary value. They can do both those two things.

But a lot of coaches aren't willing to do that. People don't want to confront and demand anymore for fear of losing a player. I would rather go get the right player that buys into that and then I've got something special when they do develop and get all those reps.

Q. Your '25 non-conference schedule is what it is, but going forward it's pretty robust, including 2030 you've got Georgia Tech, Clemson and Ohio State. What's the chances those games hold and then the scheduling philosophy you guys mapped out continues?

KIRBY SMART: Really no clue what the chances are. It's one of those things that I can only speculate on. I love big out-of-conference games. I love opportunities to play teams on a big stage, to open with big games. Everybody talks about it. I think that's where we're headed. To have that kind of schedule where you get to play out of conference and you play other -- the A4s. I love those kind of games because our kids get up for them.

I think the bigger decision is how many teams are going to be in the playoff, how we go about selecting those playoffs. You're going to motivate more teams to play schedules like that with a fix in the way we go about selecting the teams.

Q. You keep talking about how fire, passion and energy are huge pillars of the Georgia football program, actually added pillars to the foundation. Can you name a few specific players that have exhibited it thus far, and why add it in this particular off-season?

KIRBY SMART: Well, it's hard for me to pick one or two players. I actually want them to compete to separate themselves as guys that have fire, passion and energy. We've picked a few. I don't really choose to share them publicly today because that could change as soon as tomorrow, who's working out the hardest, who's leading and who's pushing. Why is it important to identify it now? Because the culture in college football is slowly changing.

You've got to remember I was part of a nine-year program and a nine-year run that was one of the greatest ever in college football and now I'm at a place that's doing it right and competing at a really high level.

I've seen what it looks like to have fire, passion and energy, and I've seen guys that were really hungry, and I go back to Dont'a Hightower or Rolando McClain or Julio Jones or Trent Richardson or Mark Ingram, all the way to Roquan Smith to Nolan Smith to Jordan Davis to George Pickens to Jake Fromm to guys that played in our program, D'Andre Swift. You know what they had? They had a love for the game and fire, passion and energy.

That's not the same as it used to be. You can say what you want, but there's people more in college football today, especially in the SEC, that are comfortable with where they are. This is a pretty good life. I'm earning 200K a year. I'm very comfortable. You don't reach your goals being comfortable. You don't attain great success -- none of those people I mentioned before were ever comfortable. They were aiming at something. They had a goal. They wanted to go achieve it.

What you see now is where's the drive and energy and enthusiasm.

Well, we want people that have it. We're going to seek it. We're going to try to go find it. If we can just do that 1 percent better than everybody else, it gives us an opportunity to be ahead.

Q. Just curious, Texas has got a lot of attention during this season. You talked about how underclassmen heavy your program is. Do you sense a level of eagerness from the underclassmen to prove hey we can be just as good as the Georgia teams of the fact and quite frankly we beat Texas twice last year?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, a lot of those kids didn't. They weren't the guys on the field. But yeah, I do sense in our practices, in our workouts and the things we've been able to be a part of in the spring, there is a youthful exuberance. That can be positive and negative. I can sit up here last year and tell you how experienced we were. We had all these guys coming back and they played a lot of football. But are they motivated and are they really wanting to be great as opposed to sometimes when it's new there's a lot more excitement. It's their first time getting a chance to start. It's their first time being a major player in the rotation.

There's good and bad about both. We've got to manage that. We've got to be patient with them and we've got to get them better.

Q. How much have your practices changed or how much do you plan to modify them from the time of the back-to-back titles and Bloody Tuesdays now with longer seasons and now roster limitations in effect?

KIRBY SMART: Well, demands on how limited our roster is because we're not all operating off of 105 right now. We have the ability because of the settlement to have some guys that were grandfathered in.

We will make changes and adaptations to how we do things based on our numbers, but right now I don't know what those numbers are going to look like for fall camp and how many people we're going to bring in.

The season ultimately we may have similar numbers to what we've had in past years. Eventually that's going to go down to 105 and you're going to have to change with each and every year, and I think you evolve as a coach. We've got to find more creative ways to get reps and grow players, and we all study NFL teams, the way they go about it. I just don't know if that's a perfect mirror because the kids we're trying to develop need more reps than an NFL player.

First thing a general manager tells us when they come see us is don't come to our league to develop. We can't develop you. We don't have the practices. If you actually want to get better at football where you can stay longer in the NFL, you have to go through the college regimen to grow and get better. They don't need the practices that we need.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

Q. The hot rumor yesterday was a second-hand rumor about Nick Saban possibly being interested in coming back to coaching. Lane Kiffin said he wouldn't be surprised. I was wondering if you could share your reaction as well as your relationship with Nick Saban since he's retired.

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I called and offered him Muschamp's job but he was overqualified, so he wasn't interested.

No, I heard all the scuttlebutt and everything about it. I almost laughed. It was like somebody needed something interesting to talk about yesterday, so they chose to go to Coach Saban to do it.

The game is better with him involved, and he is involved. He is passionate about it. He and I still talk and share ideas from time to time about defensive philosophies and the way to do things, and he's still watching tape and very, very involved in football. He loves it.

His brilliance, as brilliant as he is in many ways is around football. It's around scheming. It's around another way to do something to stay ahead of the offensive minds, and I think that's one of the elite talents he has, and he still loves that. He's still passionate about that.

But make no mistake about it. The boss at home is going to make that call for him, not him.

Q. John McDaid talked just before you did about all the rule changes in the game --

KIRBY SMART: Did y'all love that? Everybody loves McDaid's talk, man.

Q. I'm curious what your take on some of those rules are but specifically about the abrupt movement on defense, and people can contend that that was one of the reasons that you probably beat Texas was drew them offsides with your defense last season. Curious about all the rules but specifically the abrupt movement on defense, how that impacts your team.

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, you would need to define abrupt for me because we could talk for hours about what's abrupt and what's not. Was that movement abrupt or was that slow, you sitting down? You've got to define abrupt. He's got to define abrupt, and he's got to teach his guys that go out on the field, and I think they do a tremendous job of tape study and how to go about that.

It's one of those things that is very intricate among football and in football minds, and people try to manipulate and do things and change things. The game is ever evolving, so I think John McDaid and his staff do a tremendous job navigating that.

Q. You mentioned a young secondary a couple minutes ago. One position I wanted to ask you about was the strong safety. You have some young talented freshmen but you also have some familiar names on the roster. Give us some insight on how the position is heading into fall camp?

KIRBY SMART: Yeah, we've got great competition there. KJ Bolden played a lot of snaps last year. He's coming back. We need him to be a leader. We need him to help set the tone for how to go about things. We've got some older players there that are going to be in competition, and we've got a couple transfers in.

We do things a lot of times defensively by committee. We play a lot of players. I think we had third or fourth most players over 100 snaps. So if you come to Georgia, you expect to play, we want to give you an opportunity to play, so we get a lot of those guys reps and grow them and we'll see where we are in fall camp at that position.

Q. The last time that Alabama played Georgia in Athens you were a defensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide. What are your thoughts on that game? Last year's game was great. What are your thoughts on hosting Alabama this season?

KIRBY SMART: It's a great atmosphere, just like we went into last year to play them, a night game on the road. They'll come to our place and play. A tremendous atmosphere. I know a lot of people from Tuscaloosa are coming over to the game. Athens, the city of, loves it. We bring a great environment.

It's what college football is about. This game is about playing great match-ups like that. It's what the fan bases want. It's what the nation wants. It's what college football needs. It's what college football and the SEC is about. Georgia and Alabama at home, at our place, I wish it could happen more often. Seems like we've played over there three or four times since they've come to see us and play. So it's a great opportunity, and I look forward to it.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Gunner Stockton.

Q. Obviously you did the Manning Passing Academy with Lanorris Sellers. What's your take on LaNorris as a fellow SEC quarterback and what your evaluation of his talent is?

GUNNER STOCKTON: It was great. He could spin it. It was great to be around all the quarterbacks out there. That was the neat part just getting to know everybody because through high school you go to camps, but you aren't around most of them, but it was neat getting to meet everybody and getting to learn.

Q. We talk about being a full-time starter, expected full-time starter from the day one. Your thoughts going into the season, how excited you are?

GUNNER STOCKTON: Yeah, we're really excited about the season, just we've had a great offseason, just getting to know everybody and coming together and really connecting.

Q. Gunner, what have you kind of worked on this offseason, whether it's working individually with teammates or getting leadership tasks? What have you done to kind of earn this spot?

GUNNER STOCKTON: For me, just the way I handle myself, I feel like I've shown up since I've been to college and just the way I live my life. Showing up to work every day and trying to do the right thing. Not always being perfect, we're not going to be perfect. But just treating people the right way and biggest thing just showing up to work and doing the right thing.

Q. What have you seen from Noah Thomas this offseason as he's come in, just his strengths and how you guys have built rapport?

GUNNER STOCKTON: He's been great. He came in with a great attitude from Texas A&M and has done a great job. He's fun to be around. I'm really excited for the year with him.

Q. Seeing a lot of roster turnover from losing guys to the draft, transfer portal whatever it is, how are you helping guys buy into the culture you have at Georgia?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I think it's crazy nowadays with the portal and people leaving. I think that's what makes it special. This is like a new team, a bunch of new guys. Just having the standard at Georgia and setting it and trying to enforce it and it's been fun just being together and embracing it.

Q. How quickly were you able to build chemistry with the transfer wide receivers? Actually where do you feel like you're at in that process?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I think going through spring was a big deal and just having that time because it was about a month straight of work and practice, just getting a lot of banked reps. And having this offseason, throwing 7-on-7 and working out almost every day and spending a lot of time together has helped a lot.

Q. Earlier this summer, Kirby mentioned, I think it was down in Destiny, he told Paul Finebaum, he sent his criticisms of you to you. What was your reaction when Paul was critical of you this summer? And kind of how did you handle that, that your coach kind of egged it on?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I'm not a big social media guy. But seeing your coach kind of defend you makes you feel good. I'm not really worried about what people say. Just ready for the season. Can't wait.

Q. As a guy who's been in the system for some time, the progression you've seen yourself year to year and how you feel you've improved going into the season, as far as your overall progression, how you perfected the different part of your game?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I think this offseason always working on something and trying to get better at it. I can always get better at the little things. For me it's a bunch of footwork stuff and trying to clean it up and having -- creating good habits is the biggest thing for me.

Q. What was going through your mind when you were called upon in the middle of the SEC Championship game? And then how do you think an experience like that, being thrown into the fire in that game, in the playoff, can help prepare you for a full SEC season as a starter?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I think it was a great experience, just handling the emotions, the ebbs and flows, it was a great experience. I wouldn't change anything. But I'm excited for this new year with the SEC schedule. It's no joke.

I'm glad there's a bunch of home games. Can't wait for the first one against Marshall. I'm excited.

Q. Being able to be around some of the other quarterbacks in the league, how would you evaluate just right now how the quarterback play in the SEC is?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I think it will be really good. It's neat being at the Manning Passing Academy, getting to see a bunch of guys to throw and be around. It was neat seeing how they are outside of football too.

Q. One of those guys at the Manning Passing Academy Marcel Reed, what did you see from him, the kind of player he is?

GUNNER STOCKTON: He's big and physical and he can throw it really well. He was nice to be around and he was a cool guy.

Q. Were you surprised at the no-nonsense manner of the Manning Passing Academy is very well constructed just for football?

GUNNER STOCKTON: Yeah, it was football. I didn't know what to expect. It was my first time out there. I didn't know if we were just trying to throw the ball the farthest, saw Drew Milton do that a couple of years ago, but it was work being a counselor, putting guys through drills. It was a lot of fun, though.

Q. The tight end's a quarterback's best friend. Oscar may actually be that for you. Talk about your relationship with him, and how that strong position group can be an asset to you guys this year.

GUNNER STOCKTON: Absolutely. Oscar, we actually roomed together since our freshman year. He's a great guy. Tight ends, they can make your life easy. I'm glad I can call him a good friend.

Q. Obviously we mobbed you at the Sugar Bowl. You had all that attention. But what's this offseason been like being Georgia's quarterback? Have you noticed anything different? Is there more attention? Obviously, I think NIL deals are probably coming out. You're doing an EA Sports post on your Instagram. What's been different about now being "the guy" at Georgia?

GUNNER STOCKTON: I think it's just a different role. When you look back, I get more attention in Athens getting pictures and stuff like that. But that comes with the role, and just being more vocal with the team and just enjoying it. I've enjoyed the process so far, and I can't wait for the season. I'm really excited.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by CJ Allen.

Q. We talked about the progression of Georgia's defense. Guys Jalon Walker, Mykel Williams, now you coming into this role, being more of a leader this year. How do you hope to grow into that this season and really incorporate that, keep that dominance going?

CJ ALLEN: I think just focussing on this season. Not really too worried about the past, who was there last year, just being in tune with this season, just focusing on this process.

Q. You play for a school that's probably circled on a lot of opponents' schedules. How do you feel your team might be a target for others?

CJ ALLEN: We don't feel like we're a target. We approach every opponent the same way, no matter who we're playing. So no matter who line up versus, we're the Bulldogs, we're going to approach it the same way.

Q. What questions about Kirby Smart do you get from most people?

CJ ALLEN: I think how he is outside of being our coach is probably the biggest question I get asked.

Q. What have you seen from Gunner just basically since the end of last season that you feel like he's ready for this opportunity to be the Georgia starter?

CJ ALLEN: I think Gunner is just a great competitor. He wants to win. He comes in with his head down and working. There's just something about him.

Q. You mentioned something about him, he was up here earlier. I lost count how many "neats" he said, the word "neat," seems like he says it a lot. His "awe shucks" personality. What's it like in the locker room to have a player like that on the team?

CJ ALLEN: Having Gunner, he's a great personality to have in the locker room. He's coming in smiling, smile on his face each and every day. You know what you're going to get.

Q. What do you tell a young Georgia linebacker about the Georgia way of playing that position? I want to ask about Ellis Robinson IV. Will he contribute this season?

CJ ALLEN: I think being a linebacker at the University of Georgia, you get developed by the best, you get coached by the best, going to get pushed. You're going to know the game in and out, knowing ball and knowing your position, having to make guys around you better.

Q. You mentioned every game one at a time. But do you think that more teams consider Georgia to be rivals than you consider them to be your rival?

CJ ALLEN: That may be the case, but we just focus on who we're playing. We don't really worry about how other teams feel about us. We just focus on ourselves.

Q. C.J., mentioning rivalries, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Georgia is in a unique situation where they kind of have two. Which game means more to you?

CJ ALLEN: All of them. I think any chance you get to go out there, put your helmet on and play football, especially for Georgia, it means a lot. All the games are important to me.

Q. I know that all the teams are important, but is there one game on the schedule, or couple games, that you enjoy playing that opponent? I'm not disparaging any other opponent, of course, but some teams you like to play, maybe a former teammate on there, or you just like to play that school?

CJ ALLEN: I just like to play football. Anytime I get to go out there and play football, I enjoy that. We know these opportunities are limited. You don't get too many opportunities to go out there and play football. I think any chance you get just interests me.

Q. Is there a particular road stadium in the SEC you enjoy playing and why?

CJ ALLEN: I think anytime you go on the road in SEC, it's a good environment. Anytime you're on the road playing an SEC opponent, you're going to be in for a ride.

Q. Last year, defense had its ups and downs. What does this year's defense have to do to kind of reestablish itself as maybe one of the premier ones in the country? Can you speak to what Elo brings?

CJ ALLEN: Speaking of a defense, I think it really comes down to the little things. Our whole theme and this message this whole offseason for the whole team has been fire, passion, energy, playing with fire, passion, energy, being able to affect each other means a lot. Just coming out doing the little things.

I think Elo is just a great person. He wants to win. He wants to learn and come in and do his thing.

 

[Mark Wheeler]

Q. What have you tried to improve upon this summer with some of your skills? And can you describe Ellis Robinson in his role that he might play?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: I know what I've tried to improve on is just being more consistent and just really just trying to be more well-rounded, just trying to fix some weaknesses and even work on the strengths even more.

Ellis, he's a real good player. He brings a lot of juice to the position. I love being around him every day. He's, like, one of my best friends.

Q. We talk about it being another key returner coming back to this defense. You all have been the standard for quite some time now. What's it mean for you to be part of the defense and how you are hoping to really enforce the season?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: It means a lot. I'm really grateful just to be one of those guys on the defense that people see as a leader. Just really just trying to do a better job at that, just to see where I can grow as a leader, where I can help other people on the defense and just help bring everyone together, bring us up and stuff.

Q. We talked about the success you've had. Georgia's boasted a lot of guys, Mykel Williams and Jalon Walker. What does it mean to hopefully have your name called and be part of the legacy of Georgia to the NFL?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: That would mean a lot. Just really trying to focus on this year, just make sure we do the best we can and then that will come with it.

Q. What was the self-evaluation of the defense after the year? And kind of what are some of the improvements, things that you need to -- not you individually, as a collective defense -- need to do better?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: I would say personally just I've always been trying to work on doing a better job tracking the ball in the air. That's something I feel like, even if you're good at it that's something you can always work on.

As a defense, we don't really try to focus on too much like from last year. We just want to be -- because we don't really have the same type of guys. We have a lot of new faces. We just want to be the best we can be for this upcoming season. That's what we're focused on right now.

Q. What was it like playing alongside Julian Humphrey? And what kind of player is Texas A&M getting?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: Julian is a real good player. He was definitely a good person to be around, even off the field. Like I feel like when he was here, when he was at Georgia, we were probably hanging out like every day. He's definitely like a ball player, definitely athletic. A&M is definitely getting a good player out of him.

Q. Since you were a freshman, Kirby always seems to be loud at you. Like some quarterbacks he may put his arm around, but he's going to kind of, he's taken that in-your-face approach with you. How does that make you better? How do you respond to that? And how has it made you grow throughout the years?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: I think a big reason for it is just Coach Smart used to play DB, so he has different expectations, I would say. But at first I really didn't know how I would handle it, just like it would kind of overwhelm me when I was like freshman, back when I was a freshman and stuff.

But I feel over time, really just understanding you've got to hear the message he's saying and not the tone, and just really understanding what he wants from me and hearing that in like not really taking it as personal and just keep trying to improve.

Q. How does it feel to play for a school that's gunned at by a lot of opponents? There's a lot of times the teams will circle a certain team on a schedule, and your team is probably circled quite a bit.

DAYLEN EVERETTE: We know like we'll get a lot of people's best game, but that's not really something that we try to focus on. We try to focus on, as a team, where we can get better at and how we can keep improving week by week. That's pretty much that.

Q. Wanted to know about the SEC Championship game against Texas last year. That was a grind. What do you remember most about that game and what it took to eventually win it?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: You know, that game, we had to overcome some stuff with our starting quarterback going down and Gunner stepping up. I feel he did a tremendous job stepping up into that role and not letting it get, not letting it overwhelm him.

He stepped in, did a great job. There was a lot of stuff we had to overcome in that game. I feel we did a great job with that.

Q. You seemed to shine against Texas, both games last year. Excited to play them again this year? Is there something about that? Is it just playing your best when the lights are the brightest? It seemed like you stepped up in the biggest games last year.

DAYLEN EVERETTE: I try to play my best every game. Those might be two of the best I had last year. But they didn't really have anything to do with the team. Like this year, when that time comes, we just focus on whoever is next.

I wouldn't really say it's a certain team we're looking forward to. We're just looking forward to the next team we're playing. Right now we're looking to the first game.

Q. Gunner mentioned that he's worked on being more vocal. How have you seen him evolve as a leader?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: He's definitely done a good job at that. He tends to be kind of quiet, but how I've been hanging out with him over the summer and stuff, I've seen him try to make that effort to step up and speak up more. He's definitely like growing as a leader. We're definitely proud of him for doing that.

Q. What's it like being here representing Georgia at media days and being so close to Athens too in this event?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: Just being here means a lot. It is an honor to be picked to go to an event like this because we have a lot of great leaders on our team that could have been to an event like this.

Just being part of those people that are able to come out here is a big honor to me, and I just appreciate being here honestly.

Q. How has the game changed in trying to maintain culture with transfer portal, NIL, things like that? How do you all maintain your standard within the Georgia program?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: Honestly, with the transfer portal, if you don't want to be here anymore, that's like a personal decision, but for the new guys that come in, we try to all take them in. They've been there. We want to treat them as family and take them in as brothers because at the end of the day that's what we are now.

Instead of just trying to slowly build a bond, that's something we try to do off the rib just so they know they can be comfortable around us even though they're fairly new to the program, but we just try to make them feel as comfortable as they can around us.

Q. Last year's pass rush had its issues at times. What have you seen from Elo (phonetic) coming in and why is he a guy that can make a difference as a pass rusher?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: He's a type of guy that I feel like can definitely do that for us. He's definitely a good guy. He's definitely good to hang out with.

It's funny, me and him, we actually sit next to each other in the locker room. I get to talk to him a little bit. I like being around him. He's a real cool guy. I'm really excited for him to be on the team and really excited to see what he'll do for us this year.

Q. We know every year players try to elevate their game or progress something different. What has been your biggest progression from last year to now?

DAYLEN EVERETTE: I would say, really, just trying to learn the game more, learn the game, understand instead of just what I have to do, what everyone else has to do. Because I feel like that would help the position more, even help the defense more, because you really have a better understanding of who is doing what, where your help is, I would definitely say that part of the game.