ATHENS – Yes, Davin Bellamy heard Leonard Floyd’s bold proclamation this past spring. The Chicago Bears’ first-round draft pick predicted that Bellamy would be even better at Georgia than he was.

To this, Bellamy summarily scoffed. Not that he doesn’t think he can live up the standard. He just know how his pal “Flo” operates.

“I kind of know that he said it to get my juices going for this season,” Bellamy said following one of the Bulldogs’ practices this week. “I know for a fact he would have never said that while he was here.”

Actually, Bellamy said he has been in fairly regular communication with both Floyd and Jordan Jenkins since they’ve taken their skills to the NFL. They represent one-half of the outside linebacker group once known as “The Wolf Pack” at Georgia. And while separated by miles and several zeroes on their paychecks, they all remain close.

Now it’s up to Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter and their position mates to carry on an outside linebacker tradition that has been particularly rich the last decade or so. It’s not a small task, following in the footsteps of edge-rushers such as Jarvis Jones, Justin Houston, Marcus Howard, Quentin Moses, David Pollack and the like.

Bellamy knows the Bulldogs are looking at him and Carter to pick up where those guys left off this season.

“I told the guys that we’ve got to make sure that we bring it every day in practice because this position is a very sacred position at Georgia,” Bellamy said. “We have to kind of follow up behind that. But it’s not really any pressure. I’m going to go out there and basically play football. But we all know that the guys before us were great, even before Jordan and Flo. So it’s always there in the back of your mind.”

Here’s Bellamy’s answers to a quick five questions posed to him Thursday night after practice.

1. You were bothered by a knee injury in the spring. Anymore problems with that?

Bellamy: “There’s still some little dings during practice, but for the most part it’s fine now.”

2. What has been the feedback on the job you and Carter are doing so far?

Bellamy: “I think we’re doing pretty good. We know we want to be counted on heavily, a lot. So we’re trying to take advantage of all our reps. It’s very hot out there, so we’re getting conditioned to take on a bigger role than last year. But I think we’re both handling it well.”

3. How often do you hear from the Wolf Pack guys?

Bellamy: “Matter of fact, Flo just FaceTimed me the other night. And I just talked to Jordan. So, yeah, we still kind of keep in touch. … We’ve been talking.

4. What have been your observations of the young OLBs?

Bellamy: “Right now we only have one young guy and that’s Chauncey (Manac). He’s out there taking it one day at a time. He’s a big, strong, physical kid. He has natural strength and he has a very large upside. But, you know, freshmen are always having to get used to the playbook. But other than that all our guys are out there working hard.”

5. What about the other guys playing behind y’all?

Bellamy:Chuks (Amaechi) is a vet. He missed spring because of the shoulder but we know what Chuk’s going to bring. He’s a player that’s going to give 100 percent. D’Andre (Walker) goes out there and plays like his head’s cut off. He just runs around the field. … Keyon (Brown) has adjusted pretty good (to the position change). Everybody in that room, we’re going to come to work and always push each other.”