There’s a journey every player takes when he signs up to compete for Georgia.

None are quite the same.

For left tackle Earnest Greene III, his journey from Los Angeles to Athens has been one of growth on and off the field.

“Football aside, I’ve grown just as a man and as a person off the field,” Greene said. “I've just grown so much more, and I can help you attack stuff on the field. As far as just mindset and how to approach things, how to live and attack everything like a pro.”

After starting all 14 games for the Bulldogs last season at left tackle, Greene’s is charging into the 2024 opener in two weeks against Clemson feeling like a better player than he was in 2023.

He feels his footwork has improved; he’s learning how to be elite in the final six, or seven seconds of a given play; he’s finishing reps, everything an offensive lineman needs to be successful.

"In our league, he played pretty good considering he held up and did good things at probably the hardest position to play in all of college football," head coach Kirby Smart said. "I want him to be better this year. I want him to be even better than he was last year with how he leads and practices.”

Greene’s growth has coincided with the rest of Georgia’s offensive line, where four starters return from last year.

“I feel like we have a hell of a unit and really connected off the field. You know, we're really coming together,” Greene said. “It's like we're trying to take this brotherhood to the field approach for us, so I just feel like we're trying to improve on every aspect of the game and be the best line that we can be.”

Not only is there talent, but there’s depth.

Greene says guards Dylan Fairchild and Micah Morris have picked right up from where they were last season. So have right tackle Xavier Truss and Tate Ratledge, who has been repping at center while Jared Wilson has been slowed by Achilles tendinitis.

“You know, Tate's been playing guard his whole career, so he's doing a good job there, too,” Greene said. “I mean, he’s still building chemistry, getting more snaps in together.”

With so many offensive weapons, Greene feels that if the offensive line simply does its job the Bulldogs could be one of the more high-scoring teams in college football.

“The sky’s the limit, you know. Not just the running back room, but the receiver room, too, and the tight end,” he said. “We have a lot of dynamic guys and explosive guys that can make a lot of stuff happen, so it's just a matter of us up front making sure that those guys can do that, protecting Carson (Beck), letting him get the ball where he needs to get it to, run the ball wherever we need to go. The ceiling's really high for this offense, so we just have to make sure that we do everything we need to so we can reach that ceiling.”