Georgia News and Notes leading up to G-Day

At long last, G-Day is almost here.

Georgia will take the field for the annual spring game this Saturday afternoon. After several weeks of spring practice, the Bulldogs are ready for the marquee event of the spring.

"At the end of the day, I want my team to win no matter what side I'm on, red or black," receiver Cole Speer said. "Whatever I can contribute to that winning, I'll make it happen."

Here's what else the Bulldogs had to say with G-Day fast approaching.

Even though he hasn't been on the field himself this spring, safety Malaki Starks likes what he's seen with Georgia's new safeties.

His relationship with Alabama transfer Jake Pope dates back to high school. Now that Pope is in red and black, Starks has wasted no time in learning from him.

"Just the knowledge he has from Bama coming to here, we kind of pick back and forth off each other, like, 'Hey, what'd y'all do there? How was it there?'" Starks said. "Whatever the case is, just trying to pick his brain and see the differences."

Five-star freshman KJ Bolden, meanwhile, has caught Starks' attention in the meeting room.

"He's very athletic, very smart, just like all the young guys that came in with him," Starks said. "They all have talents that they possess. He's like a sponge. He just wants to soak up all the knowledge and information. You see him in meetings, he's always writing stuff down."

Georgia's search for a quarterback in the transfer portal this offseason didn't rankle Gunner Stockton.

The Bulldogs briefly held a commitment from UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava. Ultimately, Maiava spurned the Bulldogs and transferred to USC instead. Other quarterbacks in the transfer portal reported contact from Georgia as well.

Still, Stockton took that in stride as he looks to make his own mark in Athens.

"Coach Smart has always said he wants four quarterbacks," Stockton said. "Four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster and that's probably what it should be at the University of Georgia. As a quarterback, why would you not want to come here? It should be a battle, a competition and everything. It's awesome."

Stockton understands what Ryan Puglisi is going through.

Puglisi, a true freshman going through his first spring in Athens, is doing a "great job" according to Stockton. But there are also things that a freshman just doesn't know. Stockton referred to it as "not knowing what you don't know."

Even now as a redshirt sophomore, Stockton remembers how that feels.

"I think it was the first scrimmage I came to, it was in the spring," Stockton said. "We ran out there, the quarterbacks and the specialties. I was like, oh crap, I don’t know where to go. I found Stetson (Bennett) and he was on the 50-yard line. I was like, hey, what are we doing? He was like, I’m getting my wrist taped. I was like, OK, that’s the wrong guy. Then I found Jackson Muschamp and I ran to him, and he was doing something else. I was like, oh gosh, I’ve got to find Carson (Beck) and Brock (Vandagriff). I finally found them."

Glenn Schumann's immense football IQ is just a daily fact of life for inside linebacker Terrell Foster.

"It’s more like it’s constant learning," Foster said. "I could have a million meetings with Coach Schumann and I’d learn something new every time. I feel like that’s something you learn really quick, especially being a linebacker here at UGA. You have to know a lot, especially when you have a linebackers coach like Coach Schu who’s always going to teach you each level of the defense."

Foster is a redshirt sophomore entering his third year in the program. He said he didn't really start to truly understand the defensive concepts until last year.

Foster doesn't expect the learning to stop any time soon.

"I don’t think you ever really fully get it until you’re just constantly able to get those reps," Foster said. "You’re constantly learning more and more about the defense day in and day out. I feel like, even though I’ve learned what my job is, I feel like my job’s not, I still haven’t learned everything there is to know about the defense until I learn what everyone else is doing."

Foster had his hands full earlier this spring.

He ran for Georgia's Student Government Association as the treasurer on the Action ticket. Bulldog running back Miles Thornton ran as the president. Their ticket placed second.

"It was actually really fun," Foster said. "Being, I feel like, in a football bubble, we’re not exposed to a lot of things around campus. We’re not able to see just the way certain things go down. It allowed me to meet a lot of new people, experience a lot of things that I wouldn’t be able to experience just doing what I do. It was really fun, too. I enjoyed being able to do that. Plus, we plan on running again."