Brice Ramsey: No nervousness, just a desire to play
FIVE QUESTIONS WITH BRICE RAMSEY
ATHENS — There is a fervor within the Bulldog Nation over Georgia’s quarterback competition. But for Brice Ramsey, it’s just another day at the office.
Since the day he arrived on campus — and in some respects even before then — Ramsey has been in some sort of competition or another for the quarterback job at UGA. First he was competing with others just to get a scholarship offer from the Bulldogs, then he has been in some level of competition, whether it be as a backup or a starter, ever since.
So you’ll have forgive him if he’s not consumed with anxiety over the current three-man battle he finds himself in with Faton Bauta and Greyson Lambert for this year’s starting job. At this point, it’s old hat.
“I don’t know, I don’t really feel nervousness when I play football anymore,” said Ramsey, a redshirt sophomore out of Kingsland. “It’s just another thing every single day. It’s football at the end of the day. We’ve been doing it for a long time, all of us. So nervousness is just kind of gone.”
Though coaches and teammates will say only that it’s an open competition for the starting job, Ramsey looks to be the odds-on favorite to win the job. In fact, BookMaker Sportsbook HAS put odds on it, and they favor Ramsey (-160) over Lambert (+175) and Bauta (+1300). [Ask them if you don’t know what that means].
In any case, here’s five thoughts from Ramsey from his interview session with reporters from earlier this week:
Q: What were your thoughts when you learned that Lambert was transferring in from Virginia to join the competition?
A: “I didn’t really think anything of it. I’ve competed with Grayson since we were in high school. We were going to all these camps and he lived in a town just 40 minutes from me. So I’ve known him for a while. But I was excited. We needed another quarterback. Jacob had just left and he was a good fit, a good quarterback. He’s going to push us and that’s what we need at the end of the day, competition.”
Q: You arrived here with a reputation as kind of a gamer. Has it been frustrating not to just get four quarters to go out there and show what you can do against a major opponent?
A: “That’s the thing, I haven’t had that opportunity. I’m just trying to take the opportunities I have out there on the practice field and prove that I can do what they need me do. The rest of it will take care of itself.”
Q: Has fans’ need to know spilled over into your personal life where you’re getting asked about it everywhere you go?
A: “From time to time. But at the same time, I don’t do much. I go golf here and there, something like that, or go to dinner. But I’m not usually doing too much out in the public. Sometimes I get that. It just depends on who’s out there and if they recognize me or not.”
Q: What’s your early impressions of the receiving corps you’ll be working with this season?
A: “Our receivers have looked good. Malcolm (Mitchell) looked great all summer, Reggie Davis, Isaiah McKenzie. And some of the freshmen that I saw looked good. … A lot of the young guys came in June and we got them for all of the 7-on-7s and what-not and they picked it up very quickly. We were able to install some stuff and get them adapted to the playbook instead of them just having to learn the playbook, they were actually out there running routes against defenders and stuff, so it was huge for them.”
Q: Anybody stand out among the newbies?
A: “I think Terry Godwin is probably our best freshman receiver right now. He just snags the ball out of the air like no other and he’s got good quickness and he’s a good route runner. And he picked it up very quickly, too. This camp will just polish him more for the fall. I feel like you could put him anywhere. He was running slot and flanker for us.”
