NEW ORLEANS – There were a couple of funny moments during Wednesday’s late-night press conference with head coach Kirby Smart, who sat at the interview table alongside quarterback Jake Fromm and wide receiver George Pickens, the MVP of Georgia’s 26-14 Sugar Bowl win over Baylor.
Smart, as you know, doesn’t allow his freshmen to speak with the media during the regular season, so Pickens’ availability in such a formal post-game session qualified as a first for the former five-star performer since signing with the Bulldogs a year ago.
Thus, when Pickens was asked by a media member to expound on his first season in college football, Smart quickly spoke up.
“Careful, George,” Smart said.
Pickens smiled. “I mean, it was a great season to me. You win some; you lose some,” Pickens said. “But I feel like every day, every practice, every walk‑through, we just fought. I like winning that way instead of winning the easy way out. I like fighting for the win.”
Not only did Pickens answer the question to Smart’s satisfaction, but he showed he’s pretty good at this game they call football, too.
Pickens earned MVP honors after catching a Georgia bowl-record 12 passes for 175 yards and a 27-yard touchdown catch, including a string that saw him catch the game’s first eight passes by quarterback Jake Fromm and nine out of the first 10.
“Yeah. I love George. George is a great teammate, a great football player. What I love about George is he loves football. He loves going out, competing. I can say for him showing up at practice, he's the same guy, same competitor every single day,” Fromm said. “And I know I love it. I know Coach loves it. But he's a competitor. He goes out and competes. Seeing him do something like he did today, it was no surprise to us.”
Pickens credited Fromm for putting him in the right spots against the Bears.
“It's really just him,” Pickens said. “He pushed me every day. Coach Smart pushed me every day to be the player I am today. So just me connecting with him at practice all the time is really just the best thing.”
Eleven of Pickens’ receptions came in the first half after Baylor head coach Matt Rhule allowed his secondary to attempt to cover the Alabama native one-on-one.
That plan obviously failed.
“He's a really good player. When we left him one‑on‑one, he made the plays. When we played off him a little bit, they threw it out there and he made guys miss,” Rhule said. “That had been their MO coming into it, was to get the ball to him.”
Bulldog receiver Matt Landers – who accounted for Fromm’s other passing touchdown with a 16-yard scoring catch in the second quarter – figured Pickens was about to have a big day.
“We watched a lot of film and we saw that they liked to play a lot of man on man, so we knew we were going to get some opportunities,” Landers said. “We just attacked, attacked, attacked and made the most of our opportunities.”
It was a positive way to send the season for Pickens, who was forced to miss the first half of SEC Championship against LSU after being kicked out in the second quarter against Georgia Tech for fighting.
Pickens was asked if he felt he’s grown up over the past four months.
“Yes,” Fromm said.
Yeah,” said Pickens.
“He’s still got some growing up to do,” Smart said seriously.
Pickens didn’t disagree.
“I've still got growing to do, but I can kind of tell myself that I'm improving every day,” he said. “I just play football. When I see that guy running full speed, I try literally every option to avoid him. I know it looks crazy when I'm trying to leap over people and risking injury, but I mean I'm just playing football.”
