Kamari Lassiter tackles first career start with confidence in preparation
Coming into the 2022 season, the starting spot at cornerback opposite of Kelee Ringo was up for grabs. Kamari Lassiter, Nyland Green and the several freshmen defensive backs all found themselves in competition for the job. Ultimately, it was Lassiter who won and earned his way onto the field with the first team this past Saturday as Georgia took on Oregon in the season opener.
Lassiter, a native of Savannah, Ga. and product of American Christian Academy (Tuscaloosa, Ala.), totaled 11 tackles, two pass breakups and one interception against Vanderbilt in 2021. While his play was impressive, it all came in mop-up duty or on special teams. So, headed into his sophomore season, a big jump was expected out of Lassiter, and he answered the call in his first career start. Admittedly, Lassiter said that he felt all of the emotions that come with being a first-time starter in the SEC. But based on his play, you wouldn’t be able to tell that the former four-star was nervous at all.
“It was really fun,” Lassiter explained. “We had a lot of passion during that week. It was really fun because just knowing that you get to play against somebody other than yourself, so it was really fun. I’d say that I had some nerves but once we started playing, play on my guys, I just rely back on my training… I played okay. I could do a lot better though.”
Against the Ducks, Lassiter put up 3 tackles and looked comfortable in his role on the defense. Apart from a 15-yard penalty on a personal foul in the second quarter, Lassiter was very impressive in his first career start. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart kind of expected that based on the work that he put in during the preseason.
“He’s very mature, he’s very intelligent, and he was dialed in,” Smart claimed. “He sent me a text a couple nights before the game and said, ‘Coach, I’m really locked in,’ and I could see it in meetings by the questions he asked. You know when somebody’s ready to play because of the way they practice. He was very intentional about his practices. When you looked at him, his eyes were in the right spot. He asked the right questions. Kamari is a kid you’re gonna have to just beat, because he’s not going to beat himself. He’s a great kid.”
Looking back to earlier this fall, Lassiter recalled the moment where he felt like he was going to be able to make a push into the starting role.
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“It would go back to fall camp. Just starting out going into fall camp, I tried to flip the switch. I’d say that all the way from fall camp to last week I’d say myself and the team as a whole. We really just dialed in and bought into the plan that coaches have.”
While the Georgia defense has already impressed College Football fans all over the country, Lassiter still feels like they have more to do in order to get to where they want to be, and he’ll be a big part of doing just that.
“From here, we just gotta keep finding ways to get better. We can’t get complacent,” Lassiter said. “It was really a confidence booster because you know we’ve been putting in a lot of hard work all offseason, all summer. So to see it come to fruition, it’s a good feeling. But we can’t just sit on that. We gotta keep getting better.”
Georgia is back in action this week as the Bulldogs take on Samford in its home-opener at Sanford Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 4:00 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
