RELATED: Get to know Khalil Barnes from Clemson beat writer<\/a><\/p>\nThat\u2019s why coming out of the tunnel for Georgia\u2019s opening game was so special for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first game, we played Tennessee State,\u201d Barnes said, \u201cit was a little emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the field, it\u2019s been all business for Barnes, whose has more career starts (32) and interceptions (7) than any current Georgia football player.<\/p>\n
Barnes, who plays the \u201cstar\u201d defensive back position, played 43 defensive snaps through the first two games \u2014 in line with other UGA starters, as Smart has substituted liberally with large leads in each of the first two games.<\/p>\n
Football Instincts<\/p>\n
Barnes is eager to take the field and experience an SEC road game as a member of the Bulldogs, though he\u2019s played at South Carolina twice (2023, 2025) and at Texas (2024 CFP) as a member of Coach Dabo Swinney\u2019s Clemson Tigers. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be different there, but the way to win and the whole process, nothing about that changes for us,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cWe still have a defense where we have to stop the run, we\u2019ve got to be strong on the edges, and we\u2019ve got to communicate on the back end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes is known to have a nose for the ball, and he explained how defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann wants him to use it while carrying out his responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe challenges us to never let the scheme take you out of being a football player and what got you here,\u201d Barnes explained, \u201cSo it\u2019s understanding the balance of, if I do take this risk on this play \u2014 because of instincts or something I\u2019ve seen on tape \u2014 you better make a play, because if you don\u2019t, all that instinct talk is not going to save you on film.\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as Barnes has had to learn about Georgia\u2019s multiple defense, he believes his experience has prepared him for the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as big of a transition as people may think, because my freshman year at Clemson and the early part of my sophomore year I was repping mainly at nickel (star) \u2026. \u201c Barnes said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of carryover in language that the two coaches spoke, so it\u2019s been smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n
COMPARING CLEMSON TO GEORGIA<\/p>\n
Barnes said there\u2019s a lot of carryover between how Swinney and Smart run their programs, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest one is the true connection that we have with everyone on the team,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just for social media videos, it\u2019s true, we really do love each other and spend a lot of time with each other outside the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes said Smart and Swinney have a lot in common with their thorough approach to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust how much they put into their teams, like, it\u2019s no coincidence why they\u2019ve been so successful,\u201d Barnes said of the only two active coaches in college football to have won two national championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey focus on a lot of the little things; things that probably go over a lot of our heads, they are zeroing in on.\u201d<\/p>\n
One major difference, of course, is how Smart monitors and controls practice intensity by speaking to the team on a microphone throughout each practice.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it took one practice for that,\u201d Barnes said with a smile. \u201cI had good practices my first two days, a really good practice that second day, and we came back for a Saturday morning practice, I didn\u2019t stretch right, I guess, so he was on me during stretch line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smart has indeed been impressed, doling out the ultimate compliment by referencing Barnes as a leader when assessing his performance to this point of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh level of maturity, he was well-coached where he was, very scheme diverse, very intelligent picking things up,\u201d Smart said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a good leader and a constant for us and consistent in his performance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATHENS \u2014 Khalil Barnes is enjoying the \u201cfull circle\u201d moment of returning to his home community to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,681,398,396,397,69695,7702,99,9224],"class_list":["post-848695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-georgia","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sanford","tag-sec","tag-sports","tag-uga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}