Dawgs tired of all the doubters
Jonathan Ledbetter is sick and tired of the doubters.
Whether it’s the media, players on other teams, or even classmates on campus — Georgia’s senior defensive end said Monday it’s about time the Bulldogs (8-1, 6-1 SEC, #5 in CFP) started getting more respect.
“If you say something about anyone, if you doubt them or anything like that, they’re going to want to come back and respond,” Ledbetter said. “We’re just kind of tired of everybody having their own opinions of us, when we work hard at what we do. We deserve that respect. We’re just kind of sick and tired of it.”
Georgia’s defense, particular its run-stopping, has been a popular topic of conversation. That was certainly the case last week as much of the focus was on Kentucky running back Benny Snell, the leading rusher in the SEC.
Safety J.R. Reed heard the chatter.
“We understood that Benny Snell was maybe the next Herschel Walker or something like that,” Reed said. “We wanted to come out and prove there’s only one Herschel.”
The Bulldogs did just that, holding Snell to 73 yards on 20 carries in Saturday’s 34-17 win to clinch the SEC East.
According to Ledbetter, coaches are apparently very good about relaying what’s being said outside the walls of the Butts-Mehre Building.
“We just come in, and coaches tell us there’s a lot of stuff going on,” he said.
“There’s always stuff in the air. You’re always getting tagged occasionally in this and that. People do what they do. We try not to focus on it, but sometimes it crosses your face. You try not to read it, but you see it, you read it.”
Reed says bring it on.
“It’s something we feed off. A lot of times, teams will talk trash and say things about us, so we like to go out, slap them in the face and prove them wrong,” Reed said. “It’s the thing for the past few years. We’ve been doubted; it’s whatever.”
Ledbetter agreed.
“I think it’s like that every year; I don’t know why, but yeah, there’s always going to be people who don’t believe in you and you use them as your motivators,” he said.
“You get the best out of it. We don’t necessarily want to prove anything to anybody, but if anybody says you can’t do something, you want to prove them wrong.”
No doubt, head coach Kirby Smart hopes his team will be able to use this kind of fuel the rest of the year, although the fact is, Georgia will be favored in its three remaining regular season games.
That includes Saturday night’s game against Auburn (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), a contest Smart said his players won’t need any extra motivation to play.
“It’s a rivalry game. I mean, so many of our kids were recruited by them and so many vice-versa. It’s always a rivalry game, and I think a big part of that is being at your best when your best is needed, and that’s the challenge for our guys,” Smart said.
“We’re playing at home, at night, in our stadium, which I think is really important to our fans, important to our players to protect our home turf, and we want to put our best effort forward. And certainly, we’re going to have to with the challenge they present, because they’ve got a lot of good football players.”
