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Dog defenders making ready for Huskers' powerful ground attack

Posted on Dec 28, 2012 by Murray Poole  | 

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ORLANDO – Unlike the chilly practice conditions the Georgia Bulldogs experienced Wednesday night and Thursday morning after arriving in this central Florida city, this morning’s workout in shells and shorts at Celebration High School was greeted by considerably warmer and almost picture-perfect weather conditions.

And, because of that, the 11-2 Bulldogs seemed to practice with a lot of vigor and much pep in their step as they continued to draw closer to Tuesday’s 1 p.m. kickoff against the 10-3 Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Capital One Bowl game.

With the team’s defensive players on tap for interviews this morning, here are some of the varied comments gleaned by Bulldawg Illustrated as the players, along with head coach Mark Richt and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, talked about the game in general and the prospect of stopping Nebraska’s 8th-ranked nationally rushing offense.

Senior defensive end Abry Jones on playing in Tuesday’s game after missing Georgia’s last six games due to an ankle injury: “I’m not 100 percent, probably about 75. This being my senior year, I’ve missed so much and I want to play one more game with the fellows. So if I feel confident enough and they let me play, I’m gonna play. That’s definitely what I want to do.”

All-America junior outside linebacker Jarvis Jones on defending Nebraska’s outstanding dual-threat quarterback, Taylor Martinez, who has rushed for 973 yards this season and passed for 2,667: “I think we’ve faced a couple of athletic quarterbacks. The guy is gifted with speed, he’s really explosive and he can go the distance. We’ve just got to execute our game plan. Our coaches have been doing a great job of putting us in great situations to make plays in the game and we’ve got to hone in in practice and make the best of it. We’ve got to make sure Martinez and the running backs they have (Ameer Abdullah, Rex Burkhead) won’t go the distance against us because they’re very capable of doing so. We’ve just got to continue to hone in and be ready for them.”

Jones on both the Bulldogs and Cornhuskers coming off disappointing losses in their conference championship games and being out to make a statement in the bowl game: “Absolutely, we’ve come here to win. We’re enjoying the Florida weather – it’s pretty cold in Georgia right now – but we’re enjoying it but at the same time, we’re focused and we’re coming to win. It’s a special challenge because Nebraska coming in here playing an SEC team, they’re really gonna challenge us so they’re really going to be up for the game. But we will too and like I said, we’ve just really got to execute and I think we’ve really had a great week of practice. We’re doing everything we can at practice right now, staying focused and when game time comes, we’re going to be ready to execute.”

Junior nose guard Kwame Geathers on getting the majority of snaps against Nebraska after senior starter John Jenkins was declared scholastically ineligible for this bowl game: “I’m excited, I wish he (Jenkins) could have been here as a teammate but I’m excited to be able to play more. Yeah, I’m very excited. Everything I’ve been doing this whole year, that’s what I’m going to bring to the game. Just to be a big impact for the team and help out anyway I can. I think I’m in good shape to be able to go most of the game if they need me to.”

Geathers on the Georgia defense attempting to slow Martinez and the Cornhuskers’ rushing game in Tuesday’s bowl game: “It presents a lot of challenge for us. When you’ve got a quarterback like that, you’ve got to be able to contain him, keep him in the pocket and don’t let him run as much. But I think we’ll be all right if we just go through the game plan. We’re working to stop the run first, that’s what we want to do and we’re just going to go from there.”

Freshman safety Josh Harvey-Clemons on whether he might play safety or, if he puts on more weight, outside linebacker next season: “I feel like with my body, it depends on how my body turns out. If I put on the weight I can play linebacker but, if not, I would just rather stay at safety. Watching Tree (Alec Ogletree), he’s a baller. They consider him to be a little undersized for linebacker too but he feels comfortable close to the ball and getting to the ball and that’s what I feel like I could do. I’m ready to be on the field fulltime next year. I miss being out there on the defense. I know special teams is a lot but just being out there on defense with the crowd loud and all, I miss that and I’m really looking forward to getting the opportunity to play next year. I really feel like it will be a challenge (for the defense) next year because usually when a (new) team comes in, the defense is ahead of the offense a lot of times so I feel with our offense already being loaded, that will be a motivation for the defense to work harder to get back to that level we are this year.”

Junior outside linebacker Alec Ogletree, on the possibility of jumping to the NFL after his junior season ends with the bowl game Tuesday: “Right now, I’m just focusing on this season. We’ve got the rest of this week still to go and then I’ll talk with my parents and stuff on what I want to do and then make a decision. I’ll just go back home (to Newnan) and talk with my family and get a sure answer what I want to do. But I’m here right now and that’s all I’m worried about.”

Ogletree on containing the Huskers’ powerful run game: “You got to be disciplined and keep gap control and just contain the rush and try to keep the quarterback from scrambling out and getting big yardage and getting big plays. I really couldn’t compare (Martinez) to anybody we’ve played this year. But he’s a good athlete. To me, he’s more like the dude from Texas A&M (Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel). He’s more like him to me so he’s a good athlete. It’ll be a great challenge for us, to play a team like Nebraska. We’ve just got to come out and play hard. We’re working just like we worked for Alabama, to stop the running game. But, you know, Alabama had a good team and they beat us with the run and this week, we’ve got to eliminate the big runs and just play as well as we can. Nebraska’s got strong backs too and if you don’t bring it they will break through tackles and gash you for big plays so we’ve just got to stop that.”

Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham on how his defensive front will execute minus senior nose and often times defensive end John Jenkins: “Well, he’s a good player, a guy who can make plays so the thing about it is, we’ll just have Cornelius (Washington) and Garrison (Smith) and Ray (Drew). Those guys will get some work and I’m looking forward to watching those guys play.”

Head coach Mark Richt on whether the Bulldogs’ excellent practice sessions the past three weeks will equate into a good bowl performance against the Cornhuskers on Tuesday: “I really like what happened back in Athens. There was one day I wasn’t too thrilled about but the rest I thought were really outstanding. We were probably wise to take a little bit of a break because it would have been 10 practices in a row and I don’t know if we really even do that in camp. But like you say, you don’t know. No matter how good you practice you’ve still got to get in that game and start playing. I was watching a game last night (Duke’s grueling loss to Cincinnati in last two minutes) and that was a great example. Duke really came out and looked like they were really jacked up and ready to play and I’m sure Cincinnati to a certain degree was ready to play. But when Duke kind of hit them in the mouth a little bit, you could see it kind of ignited Cincinnati and they got a couple of big plays going and the momentum all of a sudden swung in their direction. So it’s still a game of emotion and momentum so hopefully we’ll start out with the right type of emotion. But we’ve still got to play for 60 minutes.”

Richt, on Jenkins’ loss and several junior leaders – namely Jarvis Jones, Ogletree and Kwame Geathers – thinking about their NFL decisions, affecting the defensive team in a negative manner: “No, I don’t think so. I think Coach Grantham’s got everything under control along with the rest of the staff and I think our guys are going to want to finish in a real positive way, so I’m not worried about that. If there’s an issue, it’s because Nebraska rushes for 250 yards a game and has a very agile quarterback who’s a great passer as well, so if there’s problems it’s not going to be because somebody’s not ready. It’s going to be because they’re pretty darn good on offense.”

Tagged: murray poole, georgia football, nebraska cornhuskers, capital one bowl, abry jones, kwame geathers, jarvis jones, josh harveyclemons, alec ogletree, todd grantham, mark richt, taylor martinez, ameer abdullah, rex burkhead