ATHENS — Ben Cleveland had no idea he’d been named the SEC’s offensive lineman of the week until he about to enter Georgia football’s second-floor studio to take questions from reporters on a Zoom call Monday.
“Thank ya,” he said when congratulated for the honor. “I actually didn’t see that until about two minutes before I walked in here.”
Cleveland said he definitely didn’t see it coming as he walked off of Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium at the end of Georgia’s 27-6 win over Auburn on Saturday.
“Honestly, walking off the field, I didn’t feel like I played very well. I thought I left some things out there on the field, to tell you the truth," the 6-foot-6, 340-pound senior said. "But, you know, after going back and watching it, I realized that I played better than I thought I did. Obviously, I was pleased with that, but there’s always room for improvement.”
Not a lot, though.
Cleveland’s effort nearly was flawless, at least as the highly scrutinized offensive-line positions go. Cleveland graded out at 83%, and had five knockdown blocks against Auburn. His effort anchored a Georgia O-line that paved the way 202 yards and two touchdowns rushing, 442 total yards and allowed only one sack of quarterback Stetson Bennett.
Credit: Georgia Bulldogs
That’s a decidedly different picture than what the Bulldogs painted when they went to Arkansas the previous week. Georgia allowed three sacks and averaged just 2.9 yards rushing in the opener.
Coach Kirby Smart had some fun with that when asked right after the Auburn game how the line improved so dramatically from one week to the next.
“I don’t know, something must’ve just happened,” Smart said sarcastically. “The Wizard of Oz came and saw them and gave them all courage and ability, and they played better. They’re the same guys.”
Indeed, the same seven Georgia linemen played against the Tigers as did against Arkansas, with only Warren McClendon starting instead of Owen Condon at right tackle, but both sharing reps. But all of them definitely played better, which says something both about them and the Auburn defense they were facing. It also helped that Georgia didn’t commit a dozen penalties as a team as it did in Fayetteville, though there were still too many flags against Auburn as well (8).
Mainly, the Bulldogs said. it was just another week’s worth of work.
“There wasn’t a come-to-Jesus meeting or anything like that,” Cleveland said. “I think it was just a bunch of guys on the team recognizing we’ve got a bunch to improve on and really need to make an effort to make sure we’ve got that covered. But I don’t think there was any big moment or anything like that.”
It wasn’t the first SEC weekly honor for Cleveland. He also was named lineman of the week in November of last season following the 27-0 home win over Missouri. He received an 86 grade for that performance, with seven knock-down blocks and Jake Fromm encountering just one measly pressure the whole game. Cleveland also got a national honor after a 49-7 win over Middle Tennessee in 2018.
So, his dominance is obvious when he’s healthy. Injuries are what has limited Cleveland to only 16 starts the past three seasons and had him sharing time with Cade Mays, who’s now at Tennessee.
Clearly, Cleveland’s feeling pretty good at the moment.
“Coach (Matt) Luke told us something last week that kind of stuck with us: Nobody on the outside looking in has a right to have an opinion about us or what we are inside this organization,” Cleveland said. “It’s really about what we do from week and week. And we wanted to go out there and make a statement with how we run the football. How we feel about ourselves is all that matters, and that’s not listening to what others are saying.”
So credit Luke for the wizardry in Georgia’s O-line. Or maybe Cleveland himself.
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