If you’ve followed Kirby Smart’s Georgia career, he’s often hardest on the players he holds in the highest esteem.

Remember Richard LeCounte?

Smart would challenge the former safety every day. Tough love, tough coaching; call it what you will.

Being “coached-up” in this manner can be challenging for some. Fortunately, LeCounte took it well and became one of the better players at his position during Smart’s 10-year tenure in Athens.

Sophomore outside linebacker Quintavius Johnson is being coached similarly.

A former high school quarterback, Johnson has the physical attributes, intangibles, and football IQ to be one of the best at his position in the SEC.

Smart just wants to draw that potential out of him as quickly as he can.

“I mean, I want him to be ahead of where he is, and he’s not. It’s not his fault. Again, he hadn’t been here; he’s been here a year and, like, what, two months? A year and three months?” Smart said. “When you’re thrust out there into action against experienced tackles, an offense that moves and motions and you have to adjust. I’m proud of Q. I want to be clear on that. But he has to get better to be at the level of where Chaz (Chambliss) was, or Azeez (Ojulari) was, or Nolan (Smith) was. He’s not there. He has the ability to be there, but he is not there yet.”

Johnson has been in a unique position this spring to make his coach proud.

With Gabe Harris out for the spring recovering from offseason surgery, Johnson has been getting a ton of reps and extra looks at Jack, one of the positions where the depth is a bit sketchy.

Johnson feels progress is being made.

“I feel like I’ve had a good spring. The guys that's coming up behind me had a great spring,” Johnson said. “I’ve just been coming in every day, having the mentality to get better at whatever I do. Whether it’s special teams, defense, it’s all about coming in and getting better every day.”

Johnson said he welcomes the expectations placed on him by Smart and Georgia’s defensive coaching staff.

“I like when expectations are high for me. It makes me want to play harder,” Johnson said. “It’s basically just living up to the standard here.”

At 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, Johnson was a staple on Georgia’s special teams as a true freshman.

The graduate of Mays High – the same school that produced former Bulldog linebacker Natrez Patrick – Johnson played in 12 of Georgia’s 14 games.

“I enjoyed it,” Johnson said of his work on the Bulldogs’ kickoff and punt coverage teams. “It was a couple of us, like four of us, true freshmen on special teams last year. I feel like we enjoyed it. I feel like it gave me experience, playing in front of people, things of that nature. I feel like it impacted me in a good way.”

Teammate Justin Williams said Johnson impacts the program in other ways as well.

“Q's an all-around dawg, a high-effort energy guy,” Williams said. “Anytime I'm down, he's picking me up. In the weight room, outside of the weight room, in the locker room, he's always picking me up.”

Inside linebacker CJ Allen said Johnson’s desire to be great is easy to see.

“He just wants to do the right thing,” Allen said. “He just wants to be in the right spot and to do to his best ability. Whether it's special teams, defense, no matter what, he just wants to come in and do the right thing.”

Johnson said there’s never a shortage of opportunities to do just that, including the work he gets daily going against right tackle Earnest Greene III.

“I got against him every day,” Johnson said. “Iron, sharpening iron. I’m just trying to get better, whether it’s going against Earnest or whoever I face.”