All things considered, Earnest Greene played pretty well in 2023.
He started all 14 games at left tackle as a redshirt freshman. His redshirt year in 2022 saw Greene miss a big chunk of the fall with a back injury that required surgery.
With all that factored in, Greene had a good showing in his first taste of collegiate action. But Kirby Smart knows there's more in the tank.
"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," 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.”
Compared to last spring, Greene's 2024 is already off to a much better start.
At this time last year, Greene found himself just dipping his toe back into the football waters. While he said he never doubted his ability to come back, he did admit the injury factored into the mental aspect of his game a bit last spring.
But with every rep, Greene's confidence in himself and his back continued to grow.
“I always said it takes football to get in football shape," Greene said. "You can do all the conditioning you want to, but for mental and physical, it takes football to get in football shape. You can take as many walkthrough reps as you want to, as much film as you need to be in, studying, but it takes reps on the field, live reps, to get comfortable with live reps.”
Greene's stamina improved as the spring rolled into the summer and then the fall. So too did his intensity on the field, playing more and more to and through the whistle.
That is something he is focused on improving this spring.
"I talked about it with Coach Searels (Stacy Searels, offensive line coach) recently, actually. Being good in the first four seconds, but being elite in the last five, six, seven seconds, finishing reps," Greene said. "That’s one of the bigger things I’m looking forward to going into next year, having the ability to finish beyond, not the play length, but until the play’s over with for sure.”
Smart still wants to see Greene continue to grow and improve. But as he goes through his first true regular spring, it's easy for Greene and his teammates to see how far he's come.
"Don't tell him I told you guys this but he's got some of the best feet I've ever seen in a tackle," guard Micah Morris said. "I know I mess with him a lot but it's awesome especially seeing him grow up. I was here before him and seeing develop from how he was when he first came in to now. It's still night and day now even seeing how much he's developed now."
