If you live in or around Athens and dropped in on Heyward Allen Toyota over the last few summers, you might have noticed a particularly large greeter welcoming customers onto the property.

Georgia senior John Atkins said he loved his job.

“They don’t really think I play football until I have to tell them,” Atkins joked after Day 4 of Fall camp on Thursday. “They say, ‘you have to play something around here.’ That’s when I tell them.”

Atkins has been at the job for a little while.

This marked the fourth summer he’s worked at the local dealership. And while he laughed that he doesn’t sell cars, the former Thomson standout boasted that after four years, he’s got his line to customers down pat.

“I say the standard line – a service advisor will be with you shortly,” he smiled. “After that, I just walk off.”

Atkins’ story is one of the more inspiring on the entire Georgia team.

Although academics forced him to spend a season at Hargrave Military Academy, Atkins got to Georgia and forced himself to become a better student, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology last Fall.

Now, the father of a one-year-old son (John Jr.), Atkins is focused on making his senior season one he will never forget.

“I think everybody is thinking that way,” Atkins said. “We’re working on this being a real special year.”

For the Bulldogs to have the kind of success they’re expecting on the defensive line, Atkins will need to be at his best.

Physically, he certainly looks the part.

After weighing as much as 330 earlier in his career, Atkins has trimmed down to 308, which he claims has enhanced his endurance while remaining one of the strongest players on the team.

Middle linebacker Natrez Patrick, who has a bird’s eye view, says Atkins’ work doesn’t often get noticed perhaps the way that it should.

“The defensive line, they’re the ones at the point of attack, holding the front, so we can roam free, so we can get to the gaps and get to the holes that we need to,” Patrick said. “John does a great job. I play behind him a lot and I’m usually free a lot.”

As one of nine returning lettermen under new position coach Tray Scott, the Bulldogs’ defensive line is expected to be one of the team’s strengths.

But you know what Bulldog coaches say about that.

“It’s like what Coach Smart says, you can’t get complacent,” Atkins said. “Everybody says we’re the best defense, but we’ve still got to come to practice and act like it.”

More from Atkins:

...On the freshmen offensive linemen: “They’re huge. I went up against Justin Shaffer and you can tell. When they hit you, you get a little numb. He’s got it. All of them are getting better, Netori (Johnson), too.”

...If Trenton Thompson appears 100 percent after sitting out spring semester: “He’s back like he never left. He just goes. He’s always had a high motor.”