Georgia’s Tripp plays line numbers game

Athens — Kiante Tripp says it’s all about the numbers.

Specifically, 47, 92, 94, 64, 75.

Enlarge this image

Brant Sanderlin/ bsanderlin@ajc.com

Kiante Tripp is the new left tackle for the Bulldogs after starter Trinton Sturdivant injured his knee.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Those are the jersey numbers Tripp has worn — or in one case, wanted to wear — in the three years he has been on Georgia’s football team. In the process, he’s switched from defense to offense, and moved down the line, finally and unexpectedly landing at left tackle, where he will guard quarterback Matthew Stafford’s blind side.

He explains: “When I first got here I’m thinking, ‘I want to be like [David] Pollack. I’m a defensive end. I want number 47.’ I ended up not getting 47. I’m like, ‘92? OK, I can make 92 work. I’ll just be like Q-Moses [Quentin Moses] then.’ So I wore 92 and first chance I got I changed to 94. I got 94 and then we ended up going to camp [the next season] and they switched me to 64. ‘What’s that mean? I’m on the offensive line now? OK, I can make my position offensive line. I can make my home there.’

“Then, this year, Dough Boy (Fernando Velasco) leaves, so I get my old high school number back. ‘OK, I’m back in 75 and on the offensive line.’ And in high school I played on the left side, so it really feels natural to me. It feels good.”

The excitable, rapid-fire delivery offers a glimpse into Tripp’s personality since he arrived in Athens from Atlanta’s Westlake High in 2006. Teammates describe him as easy-going. Some players grouse and complain about position switches. Tripp eventually handled his more like a change of clothes.

“He had a great shot of being a great end,” said senior defensive end Jeremy Lomax, a friend who once played beside Tripp but now goes against him daily in practice. “But they needed him and he made the switch. He sucked it up and did what he had to do for the team. That right there makes him a great player.”

Which is not to say Tripp’s transition from defensive line to offensive line was easy to accept. He resisted overtures from offensive line coach Stacy Searels for a year a half, before finally giving in.

“He’s a good recruitin’ coach,” Tripp said with a laugh. “Every day, as soon as he got here, he was saying to me, ‘You need to be on the O-line, you need to be on the O-line.’ Once I made the move over, he congratulated me.”

That came during the 2007 preseason camp. A year later, Georgia’s polite congratulations to Tripp have morphed into get-down-on-your-knees gratitude.

“We’re thankful we’ve got him over there now,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “Without him here right now, we’d be spinning pretty hard.”

Tripp ended up being the best solution when starting left tackle Trinton Sturdivant was lost for the season to a knee injury in the first preseason scrimmage on Aug. 11. Sturdivant earned first-team freshman All-America honors after starting every game at left tackle in 2007. The coaches thought they were set at the position for at least the next two seasons.

When Sturdivant went down, Tripp was entrenched as the starter at right tackle, which says something about the pedigree Searels recognized in him. But after a couple of days of experimentation on the other side of the line, Tripp emerged as the man.

“He’s done a good job,” Stafford said. “He’s a super athletic guy. He’s real fast and quick. He’s just got to learn to harness that to play left tackle. He’s working hard at it and doing good. We’ve got to keep plugging away because it’s kind of a new deal for him. I think he’ll be fine.”

In his book, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” author Michael Lewis writes that since the advent of specialized pass rushers such as Lawrence Taylor, left tackle has become the most important line position in the NFL. Since 2004, Lewis reports, left tackles have commanded an average of $3 million more per season than their counterparts to the right. So scouting directors and general managers frantically search for similar “athletic freaks” to play left tackle. Namely, a player with inordinate size and strength that is also quick and agile.

Sturdivant was such a tackle. By all accounts, Tripp is too.

At 6 feet 6 inches tall and 275 pounds, Tripp established weight-room records this summer for 40-yard dash (4.82 seconds), back-squat and power-clean (the latter two were later broken by lineman Tanner Strickland). So it seems Tripp has the raw tools.

“He’s got the athleticism,” Richt said. “He’s a prototype, a very good prototype for that position, as was Trinton.”

Tripp does not seem intimidated.

“Left side should be held down fine this year,” Tripp said.

It’s all in the numbers.