Patience, they say, is a virtue.

If so, Brian Herrien is blessed beyond most. In his three previous years at Georgia, Herrien has always been that “other back,” the player about whom you always wondered if his opportunity would ever come.

Of course, there are not a lot of players who would have many opportunities playing behind the likes of Nick Chubb and Sony Michel for two years, and last season when he worked behind both D’Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield.

Not Herrien.

When asked about his ability to stay patient, the Douglasville native shrugged. This is nothing new for him.

“That’s just the type of player I am,” he said. “I keep my head up, go to work every day, and make sure I’m doing everything I can.”

Now a senior, Herrien’s hard work is paying off.

With Zamir White still battling back from a pair of torn ACLs and James Cook still a sophomore, Herrien saw more opportunities all spring as Georgia’s No. 2 back, and in Saturday’s G-Day game showed why he might just be up for job.

Along with rushing seven times for 25 yards, he also caught three passes for 50 yards and a score, showing the kind of versatility that Kirby Smart has always said that he’s had.

“Brian’s a good back. Brian’s gotten better. I’ve seen Brian, not necessarily this spring, but you’ve got to remember he’s been here for several springs, and one of those springs he carried the ball 20-30 times when Nick and Sony were coming back as seniors,” Smart said. “So, I’ve seen a lot of body of work from Brian. He’s got a really good skill set in catching the ball. He’s got a lot of understanding of our offense. And I thought he was really productive today.”

Versatility is certainly an area that Herrien takes a lot of pride in.

“I feel like I’ve done everything I’ve needed to do,” he said. “I just keep grinding at practice; do whatever I’m asked to do.”

The Bulldogs made it through the game without any injuries, although wide receiver Demetris Robertson did not attend G-Day due to an illness.

“It was unfortunate Demetris Robertson wasn’t able to scrimmage,” Smart said. “He got sick last night and wasn’t able to come out there, but he’s had a really good spring.”

Smart did offer an update on running back Zamir White after the game.

"He's fine. He's doing well. We're expecting him to come back. He's right where he needs to be, according to Ron Courson's schedule of knee injury,” Smart said. “He does individual. He goes out and does blitz pickup and walk-throughs. He catches balls, but he doesn't do competitive contact."

● Smart on quarterbacks D’Wan Mathis and Stetson Bennett:

“They did a nice job managing the game. D’Wan had a couple sloppy snaps, a dropped snap there. Stetson did a good job. Stetson’s played in that game before. So, both those guys did a nice job of managing it. A lot of throwing situations. Not a lot of defenses out there as far as number of volume of defense,” Smart said. “We called back that package. We scaled back a lot of the offense. A lot of the new things we’re doing weren’t in that package today. But I was pleased with the way Stetson and D’Wan managed—not the huddle, because we don’t really huddle, but managed the game on the field. And that’s important. That’s important for their growth. They’re only going to get better through practicing and repping and playing in that kind of environment.”

● On fans who have low expectations of Stetson Bennett:

“We had a lot of confidence in Stetson. I don’t look at things from the perspective of what you can’t do or what somebody says about you or whether you’re on scholarship or not. We recruit walk-ons around here as hard as anybody in the country. I think it’s important. I think our state provides us a great ability to go get good football players,” Smart said. “Some of those players develop into scholarship players. We’ve had several players do that here. Stetson is one of those guys. He played good. He walked out of here with a scholarship in hand. He came back with one. I thought he played good today.”

● What Smart wants on special teams:

“Consistency. We have to find some returners. We really don’t get to evaluate that today. I thought catching the ball, that was the objective—to catch it and possess it. We didn’t do live special teams,” Smart said. “We’ll probably have to do some of that in the fall. Punt return and kickoff return. I thought (Jake) Camarda hit some good punts. And I thought the field goal he hit was great. Rod’s been really consistent. So, I mean we’re looking for consistency, and we’re looking to improve in some areas that we weren’t great statistically in. But the No. 1 thing we’ve gotta do is find some return men.”

● Thoughts on J.J. Holloman:

“J. J.’s had a very consistent spring. He’s physical, competitive. He runs the stop routes really well. He’s made some really good plays with the deep balls in other practices,” Smart said. “Today, he had a little slow start getting started with the offense, but he’s a model of consistency. He’s got really strong hands. He does some nice things. As far as playmakers, we’re looking for all those guys to step up and play and do a good job.”

● On Matt Landers:

“Matt’s had a good spring. Matt’s level of consistency has to improve. Matt has to play to Matt’s standard all the time. We’ve seen flashes of really good things from Matt. We’re seeing more of those flashes,” Smart said. “With those flashes, we’ve got to see him come down with some 50-50 balls. There were a couple of balls I thought he should have pulled down early and gotten going. He’s become a better special player, too. He’s able to contribute and been more competitive. We need Matt to really step up for us.”

● On the Red team offensive line; will that be the starting five?

“Here we go. Guys, we could have put any lineup out there. Those guys can’t switch teams within games. That was the No. 1 O-line for that scrimmage. What they do in the offseason, what they work out like, how they do in school, how they compete in the fall, there are still two springs left before the first game,” Smart said. “There’s two more versions of what we just did before we play a game. There’s some guys that aren’t here right now on the offensive line. To say, who’s going to be out there—you guys will predict all that. It’s going to be what happens on the field for us.”

● Did you accomplish everything you wanted this spring?

"I don't think you ever accomplish all you want. There's so much you want to do, simply you run out of time. But I do think the advent of NCAA rules allowing you to have walk-throughs between practices, that's just so invaluable,” Smart said. “It's like a practice within a practice. We are able to get a lot of things done from a special teams standpoint, stay relatively healthy. But we are still in need of some depth."

● On Ben Cleveland’s progression:

"I can't really assess his spring game until I watch it. It would be hard for me to say. I wouldn't be a good coach if I came up here and commented on how he played in the spring game,” Smart said. “But he had a good spring. I think if you ask Ben, he has grown. He's gotten more comfortable with the bullets flying, because everybody thinks, 'Well, you snap your fingers and you're right back to being the Ben Cleveland of old.' He missed a lot of time where he had not been going both ways, not dealing with checks and calls. He's back in the action, and he certainly looks 100 percent.”

● How was James Cook coming off his injury? "I think James got more confident in his protection. I think he has an understanding of the offense even better. He's more confident in his ball security. James has improved, and we need James to step up,” Smart said. “I thought the second scrimmage last week, he really flashed his quickness. Coming off of that ankle surgery, you worry that he'd have a step back. He didn't get a chance to do much today, but I thought he flashed last scrimmage."

●On the G-Day crowd

"Excited. When we were walking in, I was a lot more worried about it, because I'm asking myself would if I would have came out in that weather. I doubt it. To have the crowd that we had, I was very pleased,” Smart said. “What was amazing to me was the Dawg Walk. Those folks are as loyal as they come, because they're out there in the rain and the weather and wanting to get a handshake. It just says a lot about our fan base, our state of football here, and the love for football in this state. I can't thank the fans enough for braving some of those conditions and getting out there and doing it."

● What do you want to see this summer?

"I want to see some strength gains. I want to see some guys coming in and rehabbing injuries that maybe weren't (healthy) in the spring. We've got some really valuable players that we feel could really impact our season who didn't go through spring,” Smart said. “I think it's critical that they get the right mental makeup to go have a great fall camp, because when you miss that body of work they just missed, it puts them behind. And summer workouts, we're looking for guys with some leadership to go out there, they have to do seven-on-sevens out there without us, so they have to go out there and handle it."

●You talked all spring about havoc plays on defense, what did you see today?

"We didn't have a lot of opportunities for havoc because we only had one five-man pressure, one blitz, one call that you could do it. We want to find out what the players can execute. That's not the purpose of the spring game, to go throw everything at the kids. We want to let, especially the guys who don't have game experience, execute the call and find out what they can do,” Smart said. “There was not a lot of opportunity for havoc, and there were probably some missed sacks out there too that could have been blown, and called several times that would have created more havoc. We don't measure it based on the officials and their numbers. We do when we watch the tape and say, 'would that have been a sack? Would that not have been a sack?' But we continue to work on havoc and it's going to be a big word for us all year."