What Was Said: Glenn Schumann and Bulldog defenders discuss Ohio State

ATLANTA — It’s the first day of in-person Peach Bowl press conferences at the media hotel in Atlanta, and after hearing from the Ohio State offense, those in attendance were joined by Georgia’s defensive contingent. Among those that reporters heard from were Georgia co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann as well as a pair of players Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Zion Logue. Here’s what was said.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Continuing with the Georgia defense, we now have co defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson and nose guard Zion Logue.

Coach, an opening statement from you.

GLENN SCHUMANN: Yeah. I just first want to say that I appreciate the Peach Bowl and the College Football Playoffs for the opportunity to be here. Appreciate all you guys in the media for your coverage, and just have been really pleased with our guys’ approach in this post-season practice, and they’ve embraced everything we’ve asked them to do, and I’m excited to get to see them play.

THE MODERATOR: Jamon, your thoughts on bowl week and what that experience has been like so far.

JAMON DUMAS-JOHNSON: Pretty good. Had a chance to really bond with my teammates and experience the College Football Playoffs for the first time in my career. So it’s been fun. It’s been cool.

THE MODERATOR: Zion, you guys started off strong winning the Football Feud last night, but then dropped the second one. How do you feel for the rest of the competitions?

ZION LOGUE: I feel very confident. We really shouldn’t have lost the second one, but things happen sometimes. It’s been very fun being around my teammates and being around those guys last night. It was good to see that.

THE MODERATOR: You feel confident. Are you guys taking home the belt at the end of the week?

ZION LOGUE: Definitely.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Let’s get going. Questions for these question.

Q. Glenn and Jamon, one, what allows Georgia to be so successful at that inside linebacker position year in and year out, and Glenn, how much have you seen Jamon and Smael really grow this year stepping into such a bigger role?

GLENN SCHUMANN: I think that anybody who comes to play linebacker at the University of Georgia accepts the responsibility of what that entails, and I think there’s a high standard for anybody who comes into that room, and I think those guys have been successful because they’ve held themselves to that standard. They’re their own harshest critics a lot of the time, and they’ve remained humble despite having success, and I think that goes for everybody in that room. They’ve prepared the right way, and preparation is ultimately what leads to success, and those guys have done that the right way.

Q. Talking to the other group, and they told me it’s Bloody Tuesday for the players. What does that mean, and why does that help build the culture at Georgia? What would we see if we were at practice today?

ZION LOGUE: You see a lot of flying around, a very physical day from everybody, from offense to defense, even in the special teams. High tempo. It’s going to be very fun.

THE MODERATOR: Jamon, please explain Bloody Tuesday.

JAMON DUMAS-JOHNSON: Bloody Tuesday is a day where we go after it. Just like Zio said, final round, getting to it, a very physical day for us. Sometimes you see blood. Sometimes you don’t, depending on how the players go at it. But that’s one of the days we get after it, play the game before the game. Tuesdays is just different in Athens.

GLENN SCHUMANN: Bloody Tuesday is really about there’s a lot of first and second down in terms of what the plan is. There’s a lot of team run. There’s a lot of good on good. And ultimately, I just made this statement in there with the print media, but when you look at it, it’s what these guys put into it. So they embrace the fact that today has to be a physical day. There’s gotta be a lot of contact, and that they really set the tone for what a bloody Tuesday is.

Q. Coach Schumann, this is for you. With so many great defensive minds on the staff, how do you guys handle the defensive play calls in game?

GLENN SCHUMANN: Yeah. I think a lot of the decisions are made throughout the course of the week, and so there’s a plan in terms of what the situation is in the game, in terms of where they are on the field, what they’re doing offensively. And we make our decisions collectively about how we want to answer that. And there’s a lot of conversation between drives about where do we go from there, and then we just follow that plan the next time we’re on the field.

Obviously there’s some situations where decisions have to be made rapidly at that point, and there’s not a lot of conversation there, but that’s where you go back to your preparation and your discussions ahead of time, and you just kind of follow that blueprint. But it’s done collaboratively. It’s something that everybody shares a piece in terms of what part of the game plan it is. And then we just try to enact that as a staff when it’s going.

Q. Just curious, at what point in your career did you think you had like full retention of this defense where you were completely confident in everything that you were calling?

JAMON DUMAS-JOHNSON: I say spring, you know. Like I said in my first interview, as long as you pay attention to your first year and not lollygag, and I came here to do what I’m doing now, and possibly make it in a year or two. So that first year I took it seriously, paid attention to a lot of things, took letting that Nakobe take me under his wing and teach me certain things. He really just took me in and learned the defense hand to hand. And I’m here now, and it paid off, and I give a lot of credit to him for taking me under his wing and teaching me the things he taught me.

Q. Getting ready for this game, you take a look at C.J., was there one play, one game, one moment where you’re like, all right, he’s different?

GLENN SCHUMANN: I think in general when you have an extremely talented player like he is, it’s never one play. Consistency is what makes somebody different, and he’s consistently accurate. He has great touch. He’s a good decisionmaker, and he trusts his play makers around him. So I think that all those traits sound easy, but they’re tough to have on a consistent basis. So he’s consistently accurate. He consistently has good touch and decision making, and he trusts the people around him. And I think his consistency is what makes him different.

Q. Glenn and either player, you saw how the loss last year to Alabama sort of helped motivate you guys, and I thinking Coach Smart’s comment was recenter you guys after the loss going into the playoffs. Do you think that’s any sort of concern with Ohio State, that after losing their last game out, that you might be getting their best? Does that constitute any sort of edge at all that they might have?

GLENN SCHUMANN: I think that we get everybody’s best shot, and I would expect in a College Football Playoff that we get our opponent’s best shot regardless of what’s happened in their season to this point. And we’re really focused on making sure that we bring our best, and regardless of who we’re playing, and that’s kind of how we’ve gotten to where we are, and I know that our guys are preparing to play their best. And they’ve been motivated internally throughout. So our guys, they’re motivated. I’ll let them speak, but that’s what we’re focused on is our motivation, our performance.

ZION LOGUE: I think I answered this question over in that room. I don’t think it’s a big thing. Last year it was a wake up call for us because we knew that it was a one-game season from that point on. So I think it was everybody stepped up on their conditioning. If they needed to hydrate better, they got hydrated better. It was just the little things because we knew we had to step up in Miami to go handle business in Indianapolis. So I think that loss really woke some guys up and put things in perspective for us.

Q. Glenn, I know you mentioned C.J. trusting his play makers. What stands out to you about the weapons that he has around him, from Marvin to Emeka, to all the different weapons around him?

GLENN SCHUMANN: I think it’s a really well-rounded offense across the board. It’s obviously certain guys get more of the accolades, but the receiver room is deep, whether it’s both guys outside. It’s the play makers in the slot, the tight end has done a really good job on vertical balls, and as a blocker, the running back has been — running back room has been by committee, and it’s been productive throughout. Everybody who’s been in there has run the ball well.

And I think when you look at that, you have a talented offensive line with great size. So it’s a really well-rounded offense. And that makes it easy to trust the guys around you. But they each have their own skill set, but I just think it’s a really well-rounded offense.

Q. Zion, I’m curious, you play a position here at Georgia that rotates a lot. How do you make sure you’re ready to go when your number is called and when your package is called?

And conversely, Coach, how do you get guys to be ready to go right now when their number is called to get on the field?

ZION LOGUE: I think we do a great job of that throughout practice. We get guys — a lot of schools really probably don’t practice the way we do. We even get walk-ones ready, so at any time in the game, you’re ready to go. But just the way we rotate, we gotta get guys on and off the field. We try to make practice harder than the game. Like we try to make game situations in practice all the time. So when the time comes in the game and we need it, we can just revert back to our training.

GLENN SCHUMANN: I think there’s an understanding in the room that if you’re on the field, you’re a starter and that we view everybody that way. And if we’re willing to put you in the game, or if we’re willing to prepare you to play in the game, then we’re willing to put you in the game. And how much you play is based on your preparation, but we don’t shy away from having strength in numbers and playing our depth and staying fresh. And I think the players embrace the fact that if a D line makes a play, he makes the play for the whole defense, but also for the whole unit.

Same in the linebacker and the secondary, there’s a lot of selfless guys that appreciate their teammates and they’re willing to share some of the success with each other. And I think that element, that helps with their preparation because they know we’ll put them in and play them and they support each other.

Q. Coach Schumann, C.J. talked a little bit about being recruited by Georgia last year. And he said they probably finished second to Ohio State. Coach, or any of the players, remember getting acquainted with him through the recruiting process, if you guys thought Georgia had a shot?

GLENN SCHUMANN: You know, I didn’t have a lot — I didn’t really have any interactions with him because that would be something Coach Monken and the offensive staff would have been recruiting him. So I don’t really have a comment on that.

THE MODERATOR: This is for all of you. Obviously you guys are deep into film study on Ohio State’s offense. What team do they remind you of in the SEC that you guys are familiar with? What style of play do you think they are?

ZION LOGUE: I’ll tell you two teams, Tennessee and LSU, just because those guys, they run it a little bit too, but they can sit back in the pocket and let it fly around the field a little bit. I think we respect their quarterback, just like we did those two teams. And college football respects their quarterbacks as well. So I think those are the two teams that I would stack them up against.

JAMON DUMAS-JOHNSON: I agree with Zion. Just the depth both of them teams had, Tennessee and LSU, compared to Ohio State, definitely wide receiver room. Plus the good quarterbacks they had, at the time, the quarterbacks they had, arm length, vision, and the legs, and them — not shooting picks on their running backs, but they had good backs, too, but not able to show them up because of the wide receiver room that them three teams have in common.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, what about you? Who do they remind you of?

GLENN SCHUMANN: I think it’s fair because of the passing success to make reference to those two teams. I also think they run the ball at a high level. They’re running the ball for almost 200 yards a game, which Tennessee runs the ball well. I think there’s some carryover to Florida in terms of the type of sets and run game they have as well and some of the passing game concepts that show up there. So I think there’s little pieces. I mean, guys, football is — you can watch six different teams and see carryover from each team, so there’s a little piece of what they do offensively in everybody we’ve played to an extent.

Q. For the players, Coach is saying Tuesday’s practice is good on good and one versus ones, et cetera. Does Stetson talk trash? Is he a good trash talker or does he make you guys laugh like, really, that’s what you’re going to go with today?

ZION LOGUE: Honestly, I haven’t ever gotten Stetson mad enough for him to talk to me, but you definitely see it on the field. I think that showed when we played Tennessee because that whole week he was getting phone calls. I think he got literally 800 phone calls the night before the game. You see him during the celebration when he was talking about calling me. He’s definitely got some moxy in him, but it doesn’t come out a lot in practice.

JAMON DUMAS-JOHNSON: For me when I’m looking at Stet, it’s strictly business throughout the week. We’re not trash talking against them. They’re not talking against us. Both sides are strictly business leading up to the game. So, no, I haven’t seen Stet. We don’t talk trash in practice.