CFP SEMIFINAL CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL: GEORGIA VS OHIO STATE

December 29, 2022

Kelee Ringo

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Georgia Bulldogs

Press Conference

Q. How did it feel when you picked here (inaudible)?

KELEE RINGO: All the time. All the time. Just trying to recruit for Georgia, it's something I take pride in being one of the commits to actually commit in January of 2020.

Honestly, every single recruit, they're going to go where it best fits for them. Yes, I could recruit somebody to come here, but I'm not going to be in their shoes every single day. When you lay down your head at night, what are you thinking about? Is this really the place for me?

As a recruitment, you've got to think about those things, not only the good times, but what are you going to do when you face adversity. Of course you are going to be by yourself. You're not going to have your family there, so you've got to know that's a home for you and the coaching staff and players are really your family. I feel like that's a huge thing in the recruiting process.

Q. Has he been as good a quarterback as you thought he'd become?

KELEE RINGO: 100 percent. I went against him in All-American bowl. Just how he places the ball, how calm he is, and when things are really fast tempo and also going up against adversity in tough situations. I have a lot of respect for a guy like that and just the way he carries himself.

Q. Kelee, you've got to play (inaudible), but you want to make plays. You want to be physical and make plays on the ball. What's it like trying to find the right balance of I want to be aggressive, but I don't want to set myself up to get beat. I'm sure it's something you think about all the time and you're great at striking the balance, but is it hard to strike that balance?

KELEE RINGO: 100 percent. Especially as a corner that wants to be one of the main factors, making more plays myself. I would say there's been a lot of opportunities throughout the entire season that I've missed myself as well, but honestly just being able to have that self-discipline and knowing that doing your job all the time at the right time can definitely -- plays will come to you.

Just doing the right thing even if you don't want to. We trust our coaches. We trust Coach Schumann, Coach Smart, all the defensive coaches that we're going to be put in a good position. So just being able to trust that and your technique, I feel like more plays will come to you instead of trying to chase them.

I feel like, when you try to find things, you'll miss one minor detail, and that could ultimately burst the play.

Q. That sounds like a hard balance because we've seen it, what it looks like when it works, right? You can change games, but I guess you can't try to make a game changing play like 70 times.

KELEE RINGO: Exactly.

Q. There's a certain mentality. How would you describe what the right approach is, the mentality as a corner that you have to have to be out there one-on-one a lot of times? You want to make the play, but everybody gets beat sometimes. How do you approach that?

KELEE RINGO: Extreme confidence and discipline, man. Of course there's a lot of great players in the league in the NCAA as well. I mean, like just continuing to have confidence in yourself and knowing that you're in the best position your coach is going to put you in and believe in your athletic ability and the technique that you're taught.

Honestly, I feel like when things go wrong, a lot of people try to play street ball. Oh, man, this happened. This coach told me to do this, so I'm going to try this. I feel like it's one of the worst situations you can put yourself in. Honestly trying to stay disciplined and know what you're doing every single play and just do your job.

I feel like, if all 11 players on the field at once can do their job, I feel like not everything can go right every single play, but I feel like you'll be better off for sure.

Q. How did you figure out you're a corner, like that was the position for you? In high school? When did you feel like this is my spot?

KELEE RINGO: I feel like it was more high school. When I was a sophomore, guys that were seniors, they were like, man, you're pretty fast. You're a big, physical guy. You want to get hands on people. One thing I had to continue to work on and still to this day that I continue to work on is get my feet at the line when I'm getting physical receivers.