Georgia safety Shawn WilliamsATHENS, Ga. — Georgia football players and coaches spent Tuesday answering questions about this week’s game against No. 3 Florida and about some candid comments Bulldogs safety Shawn Williams made following Monday’s practice.
“I think Shawn is just a real passionate guy and loves Georgia and loves his team,” coach Mark Richt said. “It’s more public than you would like, but I don’t think he meant any harm by it. I think his teammates know that, so it’s really not an issue.”
Williams, who leads the team with 51 tackles, said Monday night that the Bulldogs are playing “soft up front” and without any emotion. Asked whether he cared if teammates learned of his comments, the 6-foot-1, 217-pound senior from Damascus, Ga., said, “Hopefully this will get back to them and piss them off.”
The Bulldogs returned players with multiple starts at every position defensively this season, yet they rank just 10th in the SEC in run defense, ninth in total defense and eighth in scoring defense. Several players Tuesday had no problem with what Williams said.
“Shawn wants a physical defense and is trying to motivate everybody,” cornerback Sanders Commings said. “If you watch last year’s tape compared to this one, we definitely were more physical. We had eight tacklers around the ball, and this year we’ll have three or four guys around the ball. People didn’t expect much from us last year, and I think it made us hungrier.”