Georgia football found themselves in a very sticky situation during their win over Georgia Tech on Friday night. The Bulldogs were down 17-0 coming out of the halftime locker room, but the bright side was that they got the ball first to start the second half. But Georgia went three and out on their first drive of the half and punted the ball back to the Yellow Jackets.
It was at this moment that the TV cameras panned to offensive lineman Tate Ratledge who was seen having a very animated conversation with QB Carson Beck on the sideline.
In the moment this looked like two teammates starting to turn on each other when things on the field were going so horribly, but as Ratledge explained to the media, the exact opposite was happening.
"I can kind of approach him the way other people can't, I feel like, and get a better reaction out of him," Ratledge shared via uga.rivals.com. "I kind of know how I can talk to Carson, things like that, certain situations. But that I remember was just telling him to control what he can control. And we need him in games to win them. So just keeping his head level and just try to keep him pushing through.”
Ratledge details perfect relationship with Beck
This is the exact relationship you should want players to have on Georgia. UGA needs guys who aren't afraid to hold others accountable and say what's on their mind, especially when things aren't going so well on the field. And that is the exact relationship Ratledge and Beck appear to have.
At the end of the day they know that they have each other's back no matter what. They also know that anything they say to each other is coming from a good place, and not a place of hatred.
And it appears this interaction worked as Georgia went on to score their first touchdown of the game on their very next drive.
So while some saw this interaction and thought it was a bad sign for Georgia and their team chemistry, it turned out to be the exact opposite. It turned out to be an opportunity for us to witness what makes Georgia so great and why they have been so dominant the last few years in college football.