We’re now beginning to see why Georgia coaches didn’t give up recruiting cornerback DJ Daniel while he was still committed to South Carolina.

Four days before Saturday’s opener at Vanderbilt, the transfer from Georgia Military is competing for a starting role.

Daniel has been seen repping with the first team opposite Eric Stokes, ahead of Tyson Campbell. Although Kirby Smart wasn’t ready to announce his decision publicly, Georgia’s head coach had plenty of positive words to say.

“They all three rotate, so everybody came up today making a big deal, but Eric Stokes runs with the twos just as much as DJ Daniel, just as much as Tyson Campbell. Those three guys have all rolled. Tyrique Stevenson has done a good job. Ameer Speed’s had a good camp,” Smart said after practice Tuesday. “So those five guys have really worked hard, they’ve grown. We’re not really settled on who the starters are going to be in terms of that, because those guys will rotate and play. We haven’t decided who’s going to be out there. I’ve got to go look at this practice to figure some of that out, because we don’t have many practices left to decide that.”

Stokes has certainly been impressed.

“DJ is a total Dawg,” he said. “He’s going to come in and fight for every little thing he’s got. I respect DJ, because he comes in and gives all he can, and when he’s on the other side of me, he’s going to give me everything he has.”

An early enrollee, Daniel picked off two passes last season for GMC after picking off three as a freshman. He also blocked three kicks.

As one of two junior college transfers (Jermaine Johnson is the other) on the team, Smart said it was always hoped that Daniel would be able to make a quick impact.

“We want those guys to be able to play right away, but we’re not always right. Sometimes they have an extra year they can redshirt and still play two. I don’t think anybody in the country will tell you they’re going to take a junior college player to not play him. That’s no intent in that,” Smart said. “You’re able to see what you’re getting better, because he goes against better quality competition and also, they can come work out at your camp. When you get a kid that can come work out at camp, you have to be careful, because you’re comparing him to high school kids, but he has to look like your current players, and he has to be able to perform at a high level.”

Job 1 Saturday in Nashville is obviously for the Bulldogs to win their season opener.

No. 2? Establishing the kind of identity that Smart hopes will carry the team throughout the rest of the year.

“I think that you always want to establish who you are and create that identity, and you do it through camp, really, and you do it through scrimmages, and you do it through practices and meetings,” Smart said. “It’s starting to take on a personality as a unit on both sides of the ball and special teams. But nobody in the country knows what they’ve got until they go out there and play. There are so many kids that haven’t had to respond the lights. It’s going to be really fun to see some of these kids grow up and play.”

Stokes said the Bulldogs are anxious to show what they're all about.

"Personally, I know it's very, very very important," Stokes said. "We're trying to create a team that's fast, physical and one that's going to run to the ball. We're all out there trying to create this kind of identity."

● On what the offense will look like under James Coley:

“We did a lot of things with Jim here that we didn’t necessarily always do. You have more offense than you always show, and you try to use what you need. And what you don’t need you don’t use. So, there’s things that we had in games that we didn’t use in the past. And I’m sure it’ll be that way now,” Smart said. “We want to be explosive. We want to score points. I think in college football nowadays you’ve gotta be able to score points. You look at the best teams in the country they can do that. So, we’ve got to be able to score points, and whatever it takes to do that, whether it’s wearing people down, or throwing the ball, we’ve got to be flexible enough to do it.”

● On Walter Grant’s ability to play in space:

“It depends on who you are matched up on, if you’re out there on Mecole (Hardman) it’s different than if you’re out there on Charlie Woerner,” Smart said. “What we’re asking him to do, hopefully, is like bodies, and the difficulty increases based on what personnel they’re in, and the difficult increases based on what we ask him to do. But we try not to put him into doing things that he can’t do that Mark (Webb) and Divaad (Wilson) maybe can do. There’s a role for him there, and he does a good job playing it.”

● On how the linebacker rotation will work

“Outside is really a fresh thing, because I look at the outside linebackers as part of the defensive front, so you don’t play any of those guys every single snap, they roll in by series, they roll in by circumstances. Inside backer is based on if they have two tight ends in the game, do they have one tight end in the game, do they have no tight ends in the game, (or) is it third down? There’s a lot of decisions,” Smart said. “Some guys play better in space, some guys play better in the box. Some guys just play better altogether. And each guy has his strength, and we try to put our strength on the field based on what the other team is doing, so being that I don’t know Vanderbilt’s game plan, I can’t tell you the rotation of the linebackers. But, should it be a bunch of box it will be these guys, should it be a bunch of open it will be these guys, if we get them to third down, which I hope we do, it will be this guy, but that’s basically how it’s going to work out.”

● On the special teams focus:

“We talked about defensively, we’ve got to create more negative plays. That’s been a big focus for us. In the red area, we’re not where we need to be in the country. Turnover ratio. Anywhere we didn’t make our goal is an area of improvement. And our goals are pretty lofty goals when it comes to offensive and defensive and special teams. We didn’t make many of them,” Smart said. “That’s always an area that we try to concern ourselves with. To be honest with you, special teams is always in the forefront. Every game you watch, there are critical areas that are made in that game and our intent is to try to put pressure on our opponent in every phase of the game. That’s what special teams is, a chance to put pressure on somebody.”

● On the difference Monty Rice would have made last year had he been healthy:

“He’s smart, he’s bright. He plays with toughness. He probably plays better in the games than he does in practices because he plays so hard, with such good effort,” Smart said. “He’s a difference maker for us because we don’t have a ton of speed at the position. He’s lightning fast when. You compare it to Roquan (Smith) and some of the guys in the past. He runs well and does a good job for us. His future is bright as a leader for our defense and we need to him to play well.”

…Smart said that offensive coordinator James Coley is expected to coach the game from the field.

…Former Bulldog linebacker Jaden Hunter was granted a waiver this year to play for Western Kentucky, which he transferred to earlier this year.