One of the great things about the postseason and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, in particular, is the tremendous access given to the coaches and players participating.
Over the first two days, 10 players from Georgia and 10 from Ohio State have been available to answer reporters’ questions. We’ve also heard from the offensive and defensive coordinators from both teams.
Thursday morning, every player and coach from each squad will conduct its respective “media day” at the College Football Hall of Fame.
As the old adage goes, it’s like needing a glass of water and standing under a waterfall.
Following are some of the more interesting and/or enlightening remarks offered up Wednesday:
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken on still being at Georgia …
“Well, first off, no one wants my old ass; that’s usually why that’s the case. I’m joking, in general. First of all, I have a great job. I’ve said that many times. I fell into this job, and the culture was already set. I landed here with good players.”
Ohio State linebacker Tommy Eichenberg on where the Buckeyes have any advantages …
“Everywhere. I think it just comes down to all of us just doing our job. And if we do that, we have a really good chance.”
Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer on those advantages …
“I think we got advantages across the board on both sides of the ball. We’ve just got to go out there and execute.”
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett on if Ohio State’s defense has some advantages …
“Yeah, certainly. Yeah. I don’t really want to get into the particulars right now, but obviously they were undefeated until the last game of the season. It’s hard to do that. And we were, too, last year until we lost to Alabama, and then we ended up winning it all. So we certainly are not taking Ohio State lightly. Like they said, they’ve got advantages all over the board. So we’re going to have to go play football.”
Monken on Ohio State saying it has advantages ‘across the board’ …
“Well, I mean, they should have confidence. They have a good football team. I’m not going to sit here and say ‘we think in terms of X, Y and Z, we have advantages.’ We have a good football team. Our tape proves that. Their tape proves it. So, at the end of the day, we got good football players; they got good football players. At this point, it’s going to come down to execution.”
Georgia running back Kenny McIntosh on playing offense under Monken …
“Cool dude. He’s funny. He loves the game of football, and you can see his passion for it up under him. He takes it serious, and that locks us in as a team and dial in and listen. He can open up a lot of different things in the offense. He might use a few curse words. But, like, he’s just got so much emotion for it, it doesn’t come off as negative.”
Georgia left tackle Broderick Jones on what he’s seen from right tackle Amarius Mims …
“He’s grown tremendously. I can see him in me, just because of how he had to come in and grow up and learn more about football schemes and the way we play and just learn how to play, right? Literally, he’s playing big-boy football now, because he’s already huge. So, he already had the size, he already had the athleticism, you know. He just had to learn more about football and more about how to play the game without all of the emotion.”
Ohio State’s Sawyer on the Buckeyes’ attitude coming in Saturday’s game …
“We feel like it’s always been Ohio against the world. We feel like that’s never going to change. So throughout this whole month of bowl prep, our defense has been playing very pissed off in practice. I think the whole team as a whole has been. And I think that’s where we need to be.”
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