Ben Cleveland "Pleasantly Surprised" With UGA Offensive Line
#74 Ben Cleveland | Senior | OL
On what his expectations are for the offensive line…
“I’m definitely very pleasantly surprised where we’ve ended up so far. It was kind of difficult not having a spring ball, and stuff like that. It put a lot of stress on all of us to learn this new offense, and pick up on everything in a lot shorter amount of time than what we would normally have. I think our guys have handled it extremely well. We’ve been progressing every single day. I think we’re way ahead of where most people think we should be.”
On what he makes of his time at Georgia…
“You know, that’s a good question. Parts of me sometimes wish I had taken school a little more serious and stuff like that. Obviously, it has taken me so long to get a degree. I should have had that a couple of years ago. But, the relationships and stuff that have been built—they will never be able to be replaced just with these guys from here. I appreciate all of these coaches and everything that they’ve done for [me] the last five years. It’s really just a lot of good relationships have been made over these last few years, and I’m sure they’ll continue to carry on after this next year is over.”
On incorporating a pass heavy offensive coordinator into a run heavy offense…
“I think it’s always a happy balance. You’ve got to be able to run the ball to throw the ball, and you have to be able to throw the ball to run the ball. That’s kind of been our philosophy since I’ve been here—do what we can in the run game, throw when we need to. Run it when we need to and all of that. I feel like that has served us pretty well over the last few years so I definitely think there is a happy medium and a good balance among that. I think we’re doing everything we can to balance that out and get us the best options.”
On what it has been like developing relationships with some of the younger guys…
“It’s been kind of tough hanging out with COVID[-19] going on, getting to develop that good relationship outside of football. It’s tough to get 30 guys together at somebody’s house or something like that. It’s been kind of tough. Really and truly, it has been just working away around every body, being on the field whenever we have that chance to be around one another in the same area. Try and develop relationships like that, and I know it’s not the best situation to be in or anything of that nature, but we kind of have to do what we can. At the end of the day, these guys are family. We’ve got to do what we can to make them feel like family even though they have only been here a few months.”