Earnest Greene makes it clear what he wants from his final year at Georgia

ATHENS — Earnest Greene is one of the few remaining members on the Georgia football team who knows what it is like to win a national championship.

He, center Drew Bobo and quarterback Gunner Stockton were all freshmen on Georgia’s 2022 national title-winning team. None contributed in a meaningful way that season; Greene was sidelined because of back surgery.

But the Georgia offensive tackle saw what it took to win a national title. He knows what it’s like for hard work to pay off.

It’s a feeling, a joy, he still chases. Which is why he put off moving on to the NFL to return to Georgia for a fifth year of college football.

“What it came down to for me, honestly, was my first year, my first year when I was a recruit and my first year when I was actually here, we ended up winning the big dance, made it to the big dance,” Greene said when asked why he came back to Georgia. “I just feel like the way we ended things the last two seasons definitely played an impact.”

Greene has helped get Georgia back to the proverbial big dance in each of the last two seasons. But both College Football Playoff trips have ended in disappointment in New Orleans.

The first came against Notre Dame, a game Greene didn’t start as he was dealing with a shoulder injury.

Injuries have been a recurring part of Greene’s story. In addition to being sidelined during the 2022 and 2024 seasons, Greene struggled to stay on the field in the early parts of 2025 because of a back injury. He started against Marshall and Tennessee but couldn’t finish those games.

It wasn’t until Georgia’s seventh game of the season against Ole Miss that Greene played a snap in the second half of a football game.

From the first Ole Miss game on, Greene became a consistent presence at right tackle for Georgia.

In 2026, Greene expects to move back to the left side of the line. He played there for his first three seasons in Athens, only to move to the right side for Monroe Freeling in 2025.

“I think Earnest, coming off of a little bit of injuries, he’s going to have a lot of development, especially with our new O-line coach (Phil Rauscher) and all the stuff that I think we’re changing around here,” Freeling said of Greene.

Freeling is set to be a first-round pick in next month’s NFL draft, thanks in part to all the work he put in with Greene. He played at an All-SEC level for the Bulldogs.

Greene hopes to provide Stockton the same level of protection.

“You try not to do anything differently,” Greene said on moving between right and left tackle. “Just because I’ve been playing left tackle a little bit longer, all my life, you know, it just feels a little more natural — instinctual, like my feet and getting a certain depth to my pass sets, stuff like that. So, it feels a little bit more comfortable, but you know, it’s really — you play football on both sides of the line, so it’s really just mastering technique on both sides.”

With Freeling and Micah Morris moving on, Greene becomes the most experienced member of Georgia’s offensive line. He was recruited to the Bulldogs when Matt Luke was still the team’s offensive line coach.

Rauscher will be Greene’s third offensive line coach during his college career.

Greene got a chance to work with Rauscher last season when he was an analyst with the team. That familiarity, paired with Greene’s veteran expertise, should help ease concerns about the Georgia offensive line in 2026.

“Coach Phil, he’s introducing a little bit more, you know, schematic things, stuff like running back angles and tracks and safety rotation and stuff like that,” Greene said on the difference between Rauscher and Stacy Searels. “Stuff you’ll be expected to know at the next level. So just giving us a little early introduction to that right now, I feel like it’s definitely helping us a lot in the run game and declarations and stuff like that.”

In each of the last two off-seasons, Greene faced a decision regarding his NFL future. He won’t have that ability after the 2026 season, as it will definitively be his final season in Athens.

He’s already a grown man, giving Georgia the type of left tackle most college teams would love to have. Even though he’s changing positions this offseason, he’s made 23 career starts at left tackle.

Greene wants to win a national title he can call his own. He wants to be able to share it with Stockton and Bobo, his fellow 2022 classmates. And with Dontrell Glover, Juan Gaston and the rest of Georgia’s young offensive line, as well.