SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: GEORGIA VS ALABAMA

December 4, 2021

Jamaree Salyer

Georgia Bulldogs

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama 41, Georgia 24

Q. Jamaree, first of all, did you all see this coming tonight? The second part of my question is do you think this team is still deserving of a spot in the playoffs?

JAMAREE SALYER: No, I can't say we saw this coming. I think we had a good plan going into it. We had a right mindset. They had a great game plan. They ran the football and played a hell of a game.

I definitely didn't see this coming, but I do think we deserve a shot at the playoffs. We played a great season. We've been flawless up to this point, and that ain't easy. A lot of people will say, oh, we ain't played nobody and this and that. The SEC is the SEC. Kentucky was a top ten team, and we played them. Auburn was a hell of a team, and we played them. They just played the team we played very tough. I think we've earned a right to be in the College Football Playoffs, I believe that we have.

Q. Jamaree, what's the next step for you guys? How do you kind of approach this one and move on from it?

JAMAREE SALYER: I think more than anything we've just got to come together as a team. It's all about how you respond. I think for us, me looking at it personally, I think for our team it was a wakeup call. I think we needed one.

We got a wakeup call from a really good team. If we get a chance in the playoffs, I think that wakeup call will help propel us forward. It's all about how we respond at this point. To me, that's the biggest thing.

Q. Jamaree, you mentioned needing a wakeup call. Were you all like lulled at all into some complacency with the way you all basically performed all this season?

JAMAREE SALYER: I wouldn't say complacency. I would just say a sense of urgency. I would say a sense of urgency in a lot of different things. You can always have more sense of urgency in a lot of different things.

I don't think that we came out relaxed. We had the right mindset, to be honest. We played a really physical game. Just too many mistakes. Turnovers kill you. Explosive plays on their part kill us. So being able to limit those things is a different ball game, totally different ball game. They did us mostly on explosive plays on the offense.

So just limiting those things and having a sense of urgency about those things, and we'll be -- we are a really great team, but be able to play a team like that a lot better.

Q. You made a game effort trying to come back. Were you a little surprised you didn't go for that fourth and fifth -- did you want to go for it there? You had a fourth and ten and the movement. Were you a little surprised?

JAMAREE SALYER: I think Coach Smart made the best decision for us. I think he always does. Us as players, we always think we know what's best, but Coach Smart always knows what's best. Me personally, I didn't help the situation by jumping offsides. So I think Coach Smart had a plan.

Coach Smart's plan to me, most of the time, is right. So I trust him wholeheartedly. I wouldn't say that I would go against what he said. I trust him.

Q. Obviously, this was a kind of a downer, but you still got a lot in front of you. How do you all approach that, and what do you say in this moment to keep those goals in line?

JAMAREE SALYER: Like I said, just coming together. Coming together is the most important thing, coming together as one team. We said before we even came in we would come in as one team, and no matter the outcome, we would leave as one team. I think just keeping that the main thing is being one team throughout this.

A lot of guys have academics coming up, and it's bit us in the past. Being able to correct that and finish this semester strong and taking this time to prepare for whatever comes next, whether it's a Bowl game, whatever the committee decides to do. We come together, and we attack whatever it is. Like Coach Smart said, we get a chance to go and play somebody else, no matter what.

We get a chance to play somebody else. No matter who, what, where, when, how, and what capacity. But we get a chance to play somebody else, and we always want to put our best product on the field no matter what.

Q. What was the most surprising aspect to this game? Especially the way that second quarter was unfolding.

JAMAREE SALYER: Surprising? I don't know. I think just kind how it all played out honestly. I think we had a really good game plan. I felt they made great adjustments on both sides of the ball. Got a great coach. Felt like they made really good adjustments. So it's not really surprising. It's just a matter of making our adjustments back and executing.

I'm not sure there were a whole lot of surprises. For us on offense, they did what we thought they were going to do. And it was just about executing honestly. I don't think it was anything surprising. They just played a really great game, and we've got to play better.

Q. Following up on that, how shocked were you to see what Alabama was able to do to your defense considering the way it's played all year?

JAMAREE SALYER: They made some good plays. Great teams make great plays. I don't think that's a shocking thing. It's called football. Great teams make great plays. Great teams sometimes make great plays on great defenses. That's just the way it goes. We made great plays too on them.

I just think that's the game of football. Our defense will come back and fight back against it because they love the game of football. They'll fight back, and they'll practice hard. They always do. They prepared really hard for this game. I believe they did. They just out-executed us.

I don't think it's surprising. It's just a matter of our defense getting back on the drawing board and attacking this thing.

Q. I just wondered kind of when you knew you'd be able to go and how it went. You hadn't been able to play in four weeks or so.

JAMAREE SALYER: Yeah, it was a little dance. I had a great player. Conditioning-wise, it was kind of tough getting into the game, but we had a really great battle. We shook hands after the game. He said I was a hell of a player. I said he was a hell of a player. It kind of went from there.

I think it was a really great battle. I battled through this as long as I could. That was my plan is to go as long as I could and to give all I have to this team and this university, as I've done the past four years. That's always my objective, always my goal no matter what, to try to win every single game I play.

I fell a little short on this one. I rehabbed a crazy week for three or four weeks, and it was tough. Because I didn't get to play my last game at Sanford, but we had a really great win. It was tough, though. I'm glad I got a chance to play in this game.