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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 17
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Catching up with David Greene
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Joining founders Matt and Jon Stinchcomb in hosting the third annual Countdown to Kickoff fan charity event in Athens this weekend is the man who put the hobnail boot to the Vols in Knoxville, launched the pass at Auburn that put UGA in the 2002 SEC Championship game and went on to become the winningest quarterback in NCAA Division 1 history … David Greene.
I had a chance to talk with the very personable Greenie, as his teammates call him, this week, and he said the Stinchcombs approached him when they were first getting the event off the ground two years ago and he would have loved to have been there “but I was getting married at that time.” Last year, he was in a friend’s wedding when Countdown was held, but he’s available this year “so I kind of jumped in head first” and helped line up sponsors for the event. “I was surprised at how much work it is and how dedicated Matt and Jon are to it. Matt treats it almost like a 9 to 5 job.”
As for Greene, he’s still trying to make it as a backup QB in the NFL. After stints at Seattle and New England, he spent some time on the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice squad last year, getting brought up to the 53-man roster for the last game, but has never taken a regular season snap. He has signed with the Chiefs and hopes to make the team. “Playing quarterback in the NFL is like a process,” he said of his progress so far. The problem with being on teams like Seattle and New England, Greene said, is “the starter gets most of the reps and the backup is basically hung out to dry. You spend a lot of time sitting around on the sideline, and when you’re sitting around you’re not getting better.”
Since leaving UGA, he has only attended a couple of regular season games. “I saw the Florida game that was Joe T.’s first start and I saw the Tennessee game in Athens where we led at halftime and then got beat. So they’re probably going to try and keep me out of Athens!”
He was at this year’s G-Day game, though, and was impressed. “There’s no doubt they have a lot of ability and a lot of talent. If the team gels well and they can avoid injuries and play really well when they need to, they’ve got a good shot” at the national championship. “But there’s always three or four close games” that can spell the difference. And while a two-loss team might make it into the championship game, you can’t count on it, he said, noting that the 2002 Dawgs were 13-1 and SEC champs and weren’t even part of the national championship conversation.
Which opponent looks most dangerous on this year’s murderous schedule? “They play LSU at LSU, don’t they? I think that’s the toughest one. LSU is always really talented and that’s one of the best football environments there is.”
Greene doesn’t think dealing with high pre-season expectations will be a problem for the Bulldogs. “For the past five or six years I don’t think it’s ever really been acceptable for Georgia to lose. Losing to anybody isn’t acceptable. So it’s not really a change this year.”
Dealing with the spotlight is always tough for players on high-profile college teams, Greene noted, as has been brought home by recent off-season arrests. “Every year that I started, I think we started the first game with at least three or four players suspended. It’s not new. But what is true nowadays is that there’s no privacy. Everyone has camera phones.” But, he said, as a UGA player “you’ve got to understand you’ve got a huge responsibility to your school and your teammates.” Still, he said, “these are 18- to 22-year-old kids and sometimes they’re gonna act like 18-year-olds.”
As for the “new,” more emotional Mark Richt that fans were wowed by last season, Greene said “even when I was there he would get fired up at times. But you gotta remember, Coach Richt was a quarterback and he sees the game from a quarterback’s perspective. As a quarterback you’ve got to be calm, and when he was [calling the plays], he had to stay calm, too. Now [that he’s no longer calling the plays] he’s free. He’s able to step back a little bit and watch the flow of the game and analyze the psyche of the team” and what it needs in terms of motivation.
I couldn’t resist asking Greene about some of the highlights of his UGA career, and he seemed to enjoy reliving them. His favorite game as a Bulldog? “One of the most gratifying was beating Florida my senior year after all that ‘curse’ talk,” he said. Another was the 45-16 licking the Dawgs gave LSU in Athens that year. “After losing to them twice in one year [2003], it was fun!”
Greene’s favorite play? “I would say the pass to Michael Johnson at Auburn [in 2002], just because there was so much at stake with the SEC championship riding on it and it was fourth and 15 and [time running out]. When Coach called that play, it really wasn’t one we had practiced much. We kinda drew it up in the dirt. But as soon as I pumped it and the defender left Michael with one-on-one coverage, I knew he’d go up and make the catch. I just tried to give him a chance.” What does he think of his pass? “Looking back, it was a little low.”
Toughest place to play? “LSU. Or Auburn. I thought that was a great atmosphere, too.”
We closed out talking about the play Greene was the absolute master of, faking a handoff to the tailback, hiding the ball with his back to the line and then throwing to a wide-open receiver. It’s called “44-flatback-rooskie.” “We only ran it three or four times,” he said, “and we scored with it every time except once against Tech, when it was a 50-yard completion.” I told Greene I’ve never seen anyone do a better job selling the fake than he did. “The key is the shoulders,” he said. “You’ve got to slump your shoulders and make the defenders think you’ve quit on the play and don’t have it. If you do that, you’ve got it. If it doesn’t work, you get killed.”
Countdown to Kickoff, benefitting the Georgia Transplant Foundation, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Children’s Tumor Foundation and UGA’s Pediatric Exercise Motor Development Clinic, begins Friday with a golf tournament at the UGA course and culminates Saturday at the Woodruff Practice Fields, where fans will be able to meet past and current Georgia players for autographs and pictures, let their kids get their faces painted, see Hairy Dawg and the UGA cheerleaders and hear the Redcoat Band perform. Tickets are $30 for admission plus lunch or $100 for a family package of four.
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