Stetson Bennett
"Yeah, I mean, I knew that once I fumbled the ball I was not going to be the reason we lost this game. Coach Monk dialed up awesome play action. We had been running the ball a lot, and I think we went three straight play action and then one deep ball, then we got them to jump offsides, because they'd been timing up the snap a lot. But it's the thing that Coach Smart and the whole team have been preaching all year—resiliency, toughness, composure, connection. I knew those guys beside me had my back, and I had their back, too." - Bennett on the drive to retake the lead following his fumble.
"Well, I think we had, what, six minutes left? So the goal was to score a touchdown, because in our minds, we figured they were going to go down and score, and we were preparing for that. We didn't think one point was enough. But it was also to bleed the clock out while we're doing it. You saw our offensive line. We mashed on them on that drive. Coach Smart is over there doing this. We played Georgia football that drive. Running backs ran hard. We weren't going to be stopped on that drive, I don't think. It felt great handing the ball off and watching those dudes lead us down the field." - Bennett on the drive to go up by eight late in the game.
Nakobe Dean
"We talked about putting it on our shoulders and it being on us. We knew when we took the lead, we knew that if they don't score no more, they don't win. That's the only thing that was going through our mind. We took the challenge, just like every time they got to the red area, we knew we were going to bow our necks, do what we had to do." - Dean on the defense protecting the lead in the fourth quarter.
"Yeah, for me, probably one of the things for me was a lot of sweet moments after seeing that clock hit zero. We were victorious. One of the most sweet moments was when I came across Julian, Julian Rochester, being along with any of us on this team, and I could just see the emotion in his face. Just seeing him just like, was a representation of everything that I'd done it for, all the fans, all my brothers that I love, my family, everybody from back at home, all the kids looking up to us. Just seeing it—yeah, go Dawgs." - Dean on the moment he remembers from the postgame celebration.
Jordan Davis
"UGA adopted me even though I'm not a hometown kid, just coming from Charlotte, but they've shown me love. That's what we owe it to. We owe it to the G, we owe it to the fans, we owe it to Dawg Nation, because we work so hard for them, they cheer so hard for us, and being adopted by this great team and this great family, it just means something special. It doesn't matter where you're from. Football is the great equalizer. You've got different people from different backgrounds coming together in one locker room, all working for a common goal, which is to win. We're working at just winning the National Championship. That was the only thing that was on our mind. That's just how I look at it." - Davis on what the title means to him, being from out of state.
"We had a vision of today what we wanted, way back when we were making our decisions to come back. We took a gamble, and we cashed out. That's all I can say. We took a gamble and cashed out, and it was a big decision on the seniors' part. We wanted to lead this team the right way. We knew that we had something special brewing, and to see this and to see this season come to fruition and see all of our goals and achieve everything that we wanted, it makes it super special. I wouldn't change my decision for anything. I just hope that the younger players, when their time comes, they look up to see how we did it right and came back. It's a different situation and different factors, but at the end of the day, we wanted to make sure that we lead the right way." - Davis on winning the title as a senior.
Zamir White
"I personally feel like we were built for it, like camp and just like the workouts we've been through, and just all the things like we're just grinding for, just everything. Like the workouts, like camp, we really worked for this. Yeah, man, that's about it." - White on the drive to go up by eight in the fourth quarter.
"The one thing that stood out to me was Stetson. Like just seeing him have all this pressure on him, all the crowd noise and him going through that and fighting it out and just seeing him just cry, just tears of joy, man. It was really priceless, man, like just seeing him and just seeing all of my teammates just happy and crying. Yeah, like it was all great. I loved it." - White on the moment that sticks out to him from the postgame celebration.
Jamaree Salyer
"We just kind of understood that we needed to re-center our focus. We understood how big turnovers were in that game, and we understood that in their previous losses, they lost the turnover battle, and in our losses to them, we lost the turnover battle. We kind of recentered ourselves, understood that turning the ball over was a no-no in this game if we wanted to be successful, and got back on the same page. As an offensive line, we wanted to take over the game to make it easier on Stetson, and we wanted to do that in the second half." - Salyer on the team refocusing after falling behind in the fourth quarter.
"What stands out? So many. I haven't really had time to sit down and process all the memories yet. I mean, just watching that clock hit triple zeroes and just all the emotions. Part of me wanted to cry, part of me wanted to get excited, part of me wanted to feel a lot of different things. So just that rush of emotion when that clock hit triple zeroes and just kind of processing, Wow, we're national champions. That's what guys kept saying. Wow, we just won a national championship for the first time in 40-something years. It was a special moment for me and a lot of my teammates. Me and Coach Luke shared some special moments. I can't really compare anything to that feeling. Maybe I'll feel it again at some point in the future when I have a child or something like that, but for now, that'll do." - Salyer on the moment that stands out from the celebration.