Fromm, Swift, and Other Dawgs talk Preseason Camp
#11 Jake Fromm | Jr. | QB
On wide receiver group…
“The guys are ready to step up. They are ready to go out and make plays. It will be exciting to see what guys make certain plays this afternoon for our first practice. The freshmen are good football players. They are excited and just ready to figure stuff out in camp. Today will be kind of fast for them, it being their first practice. It was fast for me too. Hopefully we will get them lined up and running the right routes. We’ll see this afternoon.”
On camp …
“It is about coming together. It is about being mentally and physically tough. That’s what we want to be. We want to be a tough, physical, disciplined football team. That is when you figure out your identity of the football team. That is what we are trying to figure out.”
On coming in more as a veteran …
“I’m a lot more comfortable. There is a smoother transition going into things of what to expect, what not to expect, how practice is going to be ran, and the offense. There is a lot of things to be comfortable with and a lot of things that I have to push myself to do great and be a leader in. There are new things for me and we are excited for it and ready to practice.”
On D’Andre Swift…
“He is a great football player. Anytime we have him healthy – he’s ready to go today – he has all kinds of moves and brings great things to the team.”
#32 Monty Rice | Jr. | ILB
On depth at linebacker…
“It is very important to have depth. We have Jermaine [Johnson], Walter [Grant], Azeez [Ojulari], Adam [Anderson]. We have a bunch of different dudes that can do a bunch of different things. It is always great, because for our third down packages if we need this kind of guy to do what Lorenzo [Carter] used to do and spot the quarterback then that is an Adam [Anderson] type thing, but really all of them can do it. We have some elite guys this year.”
On personal expectations and development…
“Play fast, play hard, and no silly mistakes that I would have made last year as a sophomore…I’m a lot better as far as playbook. I know the ins and outs of it more so than last year.”
On team conditioning emphasis this summer…
“Oh yeah, that has always been an emphasis since I’ve been here. We had more guys stay up while we were doing it and we had less guys that were overweight. That is always a good thing especially when these SEC games are battles and you have to outlast your opponent.”
#7 D’Andre Swift | Jr. | RB
On what will be the identity of UGA’s offense this season/the type of offense...
“We’ve got to be physical, first and foremost. There are a lot of guys that can do great things with the ball in their hands, and we’ve got one of the best offenses in the nation…We want to be balanced. We want to run the ball and catch the ball. We want to do as much as we can do so we can be good at both sides."
On the expectations of this year’s team…
“Honestly, the sky is the limit for us. We’ll be as good as we want to be. Like I said, we’ve got a great group of guys here. We’ll find out a lot, and I can’t wait."
On how difficult it’s been to put last season/its outcome aside to focus on the 2019-20 season...
“Not hard at all. New season, people. So, I’m going to focus on 2019 Georgia. We’ve got a great team and a great group of guys here. Everything I’ve seen has been real great, so I feel we’re on the right path."
#98 Rodrigo Blankenship | Sr. | PK
On what the team motto “Do More” means to a kicker in the offseason…
“Well, doing more doesn't just apply to working on the field, doing more applies to everything that we do. It can apply to kicking and you can go out and maybe try and get a couple extra reps in and make sure that we're sharp and crisp, but can also apply to the weight room, get a few extra reps and in the weight room, stay afterwards, get some stretching time with the coaches do some work to try and maybe get more explosive and more flexible, things like that. It could be do more stuff to take care of your body, spend a little bit more time in the training room, trying to make sure that your body is healthy and ready to go. And it means doing more in the classroom, make sure that you do everything that you can to pass your classes and make sure that you're eligible and good to go for the season.”
On the routine of the summer and preparing for the upcoming season…
“Over the summer, just wake up, come to Butts-Mehre, eat some breakfast, spend a little time in the training room, like I said earlier, just take care of your body, make sure you're healthy, good to go. Workout, eat lunch, go home, do some homework, come back to Butts-Mehre, have some meetings with the coaches if it's the day for meetings. Seven-on-seven with the team if it's the day for that. Team runs in there, of course. Then after that go home, eat dinner, homework, and then wake up and rinse and repeat the next day.”
On how camp has changed since his first camp in 2015…
“I think it's been really special just to kind of see how the program has changed over the last few years. I was actually going back through some film earlier today and looked back at my first camp here and at the time I was punting as well, so just goes to show you kind of how much things have changed. Camp that year was 23 days and we had 22 practices so it was grueling. Now we're down to I think, eight or 10 practices, something like that, in 11 days, so it's definitely been cool to see how it's changed.”