From the Mailbag: One Day at a Time for Tripp

More questions from the Twitter mailbag, this time for defensive tackle Kiante Tripp...

@bgavingreen asks: "ask kiante what are his personal goals for the season? Land a starting job? Get X amount of sacks?"

As you might imagine from a guy who has played five different positions in the past two years, Tripp doesn't like to look too far ahead, and in this case, he's not looking ahead at all.

"Being back at my home position, I really want to succeed here, and I think you just need to take it one day at a time," Tripp said. "I'm not setting any long-term goals, but I just want to have a successful game each time out."

What was a big concern for Georgia this spring actually turned out to be a big advantage for Tripp's development. He said the loss of so many defensive ends to injury meant he got a lot of reps, and that's exactly what he needed to get into shape and get ready to make an impact -- whatever it might be -- in 2009.

"I just have to put some WD-40 on the rusty spots I had from my freshman year, but the spring, getting a lot of reps and just working on my skills, I'm getting a lot more comfortable doing a lot of pass rush stuff," Tripp said. "My run game was never too bad, but there's always things you can work on, and that's what I'm doing right now."

He's also been happy to have a chance to catch up with his old friends on the offensive line this spring, and said that working against guys like Clint Boling and Trinton Sturdivant has been another big asset in his transition back to defensive end.

"It's going to be a great preparation because right now, even during pass rush stuff, I get a chance to go against those guys and just talk to them," Tripp said. "Even though I've been on that side and know the ins and outs, but just to interact with those guys during the summer, we can talk and get each other better."

Oh, and this wasn't exactly a question, but @allyugadawg shared a sentiment I think a lot of fans would agree with: "Not a ? but a comment to KT-Wld u pls tell him how much we appreciate his constant hard wk & team 1st attitude."

I passed this along for you Ally, and Kiante was very appreciative. Although I think his big smile was due as much to the fact that the long team-first journey is finally over as anything.