University of Georgia Athletics
A Quick Chat With ... Jake Ganus
September 02, 2015 | Football
Sept. 2, 2015
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
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Jake Ganus can't wait to play some football. The inside linebacker will get his wish soon enough.
A 6-foot-2, 227-pound senior from the Birmingham suburb of Chelsea, Ala., Ganus transferred to Georgia in January after UAB disbanded its program (and then brought it back months later). He's settled right in with the Bulldogs, with UGA and with Athens.
Following Tuesday's practice in preparation for Saturday's season opener against ULM, Ganus, who led the Blazers in tackles the past two seasons, took a few minutes for a quick chat. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: Do you have a favorite football movie? And has a football movie ever really captured what it's like to play the game?
Gains: My think my all-time favorite is "Remember The Titans." It's all about high school football and coming together as a team. And I don't know if any movies have really captured what it's really like.
I think "Junction Boys" was a good one, because that captures the grind through camp. ... That kind of captures it and gives you a sense of it. Camp's tough; it's meetings, practice, meetings, practice. It's tough, for sure.
Frierson: Because camp is such a grind, how ready are you for Saturday, when you actually get to play football again?
Ganus: I'm just so excited to hit somebody else, instead of my team. We've been killing each other for four or five weeks now, it feels like, and I'm just ready to hit somebody wearing another jersey.
Frierson: What's it like for you coming from UAB, where you're in the heart of Alabama football country and Auburn football country and your school doesn't get a lot of attention for football, to Georgia, which may be the biggest, most important thing going in the state for the next few months?
Ganus: It's awesome. I tell people all the time, I love walking through campus and seeing every single person in a Georgia shirt, and having people come up to me like, hey, you play football. They're just really engaging because they genuinely care.
At UAB you definitely had the diehard fans and stuff like that, but like you said, it is definitely an Alabama and Auburn state. I tell people this all the time: every person I know is either an Auburn, Georgia or Alabama fan. Every single person that I think I know. And I've had so many people tell me, I'm pulling for you in 11 games (but not when my team plays your team).
If I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me, I'd be a wealthy man.
Frierson: We can't mention Birmingham, at least I can't, and every sportswriter in the SEC is probably the same way, without talking about barbecue. There's a lot of good barbecue in Birmingham, so what was your preferred spot? Obviously Dreamland gets a lot of love from people.
Ganus: Oh, yeah! Saw's is my favorite. I ate there once a week, if not more. It's the best. That's one thing I miss so much. ... Dreamland's good, but Saw's BBQ is undoubtedly the best. I love it.
Frierson: Along those lines, say it's after a game and you can pig out on anything you want -- what are you eating?
Ganus: I like wings and I like a good thing of wings. My favorite thing in town is Amici boneless wings. I don't know if my family, if we're going to be able to get in there after the game. I hear downtown's pretty crazy.
I like wings after a game, I like pizza -- just chow-down food.
Frierson: Growing up, was there a defining moment or event when you realized it was time to make a serious commitment to football and put in all the work that's required to play at a high level?
Ganus: I actually wanted to be a college basketball player. I was in the AAU circuit in Atlanta when we moved to Birmingham when I was 14. I was playing basketball and football and I ended up starting as a sophomore in football (at Chelsea High School). That's when I realized that maybe I need to switch my attention to this.
Frierson: That may answer my answer my next question, which is, if you could play any other sport for the Bulldogs, what would it be?
Ganus: Oh, basketball for sure. I love basketball. It's still one of my passions. I love watching it and I go to a bunch of Georgia games. When I was at UAB, I went to a bunch of UAB games. I'm a huge supporter of basketball.
I like the control you have in basketball. You have the ball and ultimately it's just five one-on-ones. You've got help defense and things like that, too, of course. I just love basketball. I played all the way through my senior year in high school and was a 1,000-point scorer, so I had a good career.
Frierson: Last one. Thinking about your situation, most new players get here in the summer, go through the preseason and then get the payoff of playing when the season starts. You arrived in January and it's had to have been a really long wait to finally run out in front of more than 90,000 people at Sanford Stadium.
Ganus: It's been long, for sure. I got here, I found a house on Craigslist on like Dec. 27, and I moved in on New Year's Day. I started school on the fourth, I think, and I've been here since then.
It's been hard. Before spring practice we had tough winter workouts, we really got after it, and then spring was a grind. Then summer was a grind and fall camp was a grind. I literally can't even describe how happy and excited I am to get on the field and play and perform for Georgia.
John Frierson is a staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Hall of Fame at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Follow him on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
