Sedrick Van Pran sees beauty in Georgia offensive line, on and off the field

Georgia’s offensive line is once again expected to be among the nation’s best. A finalist for the Joe Moore Award in each of the last two seasons, the Bulldogs have come up short – both times at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines. While UGA’s got a pair of national championships to show for their hard work, there’s no doubt that they want even more hardware in 2023.

You could argue it probably played a part in Sedrick Van Pran‘s decision to return to Georgia for another season. He’s been on the record before using the Moore Award snub as motivation, and this year’s Bulldog unit has as good of a chance as any before to take the title.

Van Pran, an art and design major, sees Georgia’s offensive line play as a thing of beauty.

“The beauty of the offensive line is that the more guys you have working, the more out comes you could possibly have. So what we try to do is we try to spend as much time together as possible, whether it be working out, eating or whatever it may be, we just try to spend a lot of time together so that whenever there’s a situation where different guys could possibly play or be plugged in or whatever the case may be, we don’t lose a beat,” Van Pran said as one of Georgia’s three player representatives at SEC Media Days. “That’s the hope, right? The hope is that you can have multiple guys play. So that’s kind of what we try to, you know, I guess pride ourselves on as far as players is being so connected that multiple guys can play and be synchronized together.”

Van Pran is the unquestioned leader of the offensive line – and without a doubt one of the team’s top leaders too. A returning captain from the 2022 squad, the New Orleans native admits that he’s not afraid to speak up when something doesn’t quite look right.

An example of that came in 2022 when Georgia arrived in Los Angeles for the National Championship Game against TCU. The Bulldogs suited up for their first practice at SoFi Stadium, and Kirby Smart thought things weren’t going the way that they should. He called the team out, and Van Pran took it personally.

“Quick story on Sed I’ve never told anybody. We were at SoFi having the first practice for TCU. I was frustrated. I was on the mic. We weren’t practicing well. We had a little bit of maybe jet lag. I felt like we weren’t practicing good and I said on the mic, ‘You’re practicing like you don’t want to be here. Nobody here is practicing like they want to be here,'” Smart shared. “After practice, of course I had forgotten I said it an hour earlier. I walked by and Sedrick tapped me on the shoulder and said, Coach Smart, you really hurt my feelings when you said that I didn’t want to practice and didn’t want to be here, and I thought, this dude is serious and he remembers everything you say and it matters to him. He cares about this team a lot and it means a lot to him, and he’s one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around.

“I think leadership has always been important to me for the simple fact of — it’s going to sound weird, but I’ve always just cared about the guys that I put in time with. I’m a firm believer that if you’re a friend, you’re family. I think that’s how I’ve always been,” Van Pran said. “I think that natural care makes you want to help people out when they may not be going in the right direction and I think that’s where it originated from is wanting to help out people that you love.”

Van Pran’s leadership has been especially important this offseason. On the field, Georgia is trying to accomplish history – winning a third straight National Championship. Off the field, it’s been a tough few months for the Bulldogs, and Van Pran has been more than happy to help keep guys accountable.

“My leadership style I would say usually is very calm. So I would try to build as best of a relationship as I can with people, and I try to be very good about it and the reason why is because, I’m not going to lie, sometimes I have a tendency to snap when necessary,” Van Pran added. “I think when you build those relationships, guys can take that because they understand that if I’m the guy that’s going out of your way to go eat lunch with a guy or take a guy here or do this with a guy, when you may raise your voice, they are not going to take it in the way of, ‘Oh, like, this guy is trying to attack me, they are trying to do something to me. He’s just passionate about what we are doing.'”

Van Pran and the Bulldogs get underway with fall camp late next week. Georgia kicks off its season September 2nd at Sanford Stadium against UT-Martin (6:00 p.m. ET, ESPN+/SECN+).