WATCH Georgia football CB Deandre Baker says ‘young guys settled in’

ATHENS _ There’s an old saying “the players always know” when it comes to the essence of a team, and that pertained proved true where Georgia football redshirt freshman cornerback Eric Stokes is concerned.

Stokes emerged against Auburn on Saturday night, coming off the bench to provide lockdown coverage as the No. 5-ranked Bulldogs overcame a first half deficit en route to the 27-10 victory over the Tigers at Sanford Stadium.

The highest-graded Bulldogs on defense from Saturday pic.twitter.com/SiQj4JwHo6
— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) November 12, 2018

Lockdown corner and All-American candidate Deandre Baker gave major props to Stokes, who he said has been showing his skills on practice all season.

Those intense Georgia football practices, Baker indicated, are the reason why players like Stokes can come off the bench and perform.

“It isn’t hard, he does it every day in practice, (and) him and Tyson (Campbell) were close for who was going to play, there was a good battle, Tyson won it, but then Stokes came in, picked up where he left off (at Missouri), and great players make great plays,” Baker said. “Eric is like me, he loves to compete, he’s not scared of the moment, he loves big-time plays.”

Georgia (9-1, 7-1 SEC) has clinched a spot in the SEC Championship Game where it will meet No. 1-ranked Alabama (10-0, 7-0) at 4 p.m. on Dec. 1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (TV: CBS, Radio: WSB 750 AM, 95.5 FM).

The Bulldogs closed the league portion of their schedule win three consecutive wins over ranked opponents, and now must take care of business in non-coherence games against UMass and Georgia Tech the next two Saturdays.

Georgia plays the Minutemen (4-7) at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Sanford Stadium before closing the regular season at home with the Yellow Jackets (6-4) at noon on Nov. 24.