University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Jamaree Salyer
April 05, 2019 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
As Jamaree Salyer plops down in a chair inside an office at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall after practice Thursday, the 6-foot-4 and 325-pound Georgia offensive lineman from Atlanta grabs an empty folder and begins fanning himself.
It's not at all hot in the room but he's a big man and he'd worked up quite a sweat during practice, and though practice had ended more than 30 minutes before and he'd had a quick shower, the sweat was still coming. Big guys sweat, he said during our Quick Chat, and he sweats more than most.
During a delightful conversation, Salyer, who played in 13 games as a freshman last season, also talked about playing with two former Pace Academy teammates, how wrestling helped him be a better football player and much more.Â
Here's some of what he had to say:Â
Frierson: After a long day of practice and school and everything else you've got going on, what would you most like to sit down to a plate full of right now?
Salyer: Ooh, my granddad, rest his soul, his country-fried steak, over rice. Him and my grandma, they know how to do it; they're some Mississippi folks. Yeah, some country-fried steak over rice sounds really good.
Frierson: What is it like being here with Andrew Thomas and Trey Blount, two guys you played with in high school? That's a pretty unlikely thing, being back together again at a program of this stature.
Salyer: It settles you down; when I first got here I was still nervous that first practice. I didn't have the luxury of having a spring ball so I got here in the fall and I had to learn everything real fast and the season went by fast.
I live with those guys and Andrew helped me, being the closest to my position, and Trey helped me. We all have a good time and they welcomed me to campus and showed me around — they made it pretty easy for me, eased my nerves pretty well.
Frierson: What's the most creative thing you do? Or something creative you wish you could do?
Salyer: I guess my senior year of high school I made some OK paintings. I could paint a little bit — I never finished them, I wouldn't say I have the artist's touch, but for an offensive lineman I can do a little something with a paint brush.
Frierson: But you know as well as I do that there are a lot of really smart and interesting offensive lineman, maybe more than at any other position. That's a group that thinks and always seems to have Academic All-Americans. Why do you think that is?
Salyer: It's because it's a position of critical thinking; everything goes by so fast. I don't want to pick on DBs, but they have time to adjust. Their time to adjust and our time to adjust (snaps his fingers) is a little different. That's not to knock on DBs, their position is hard too, but the distance from me to you is the time we have to make an adjustment.
That critical thinking goes a long way and just being able to react to our play calls and the defense's play calls, it's something special we do.
Frierson: Is that part of why you enjoy the sport, facing that challenge of immediately having to process a good amount of information?
Salyer: Definitely. I know for me if I'm doing something and it's not challenging mentally or even physically, I'm going to get bored with it. When something's challenging me, like my first year, it was rough, I had a rough time, but it challenged me and I got better, so it was fun for me.
Frierson: If you could travel anywhere in the world on somebody else's dime, where would you go and who would you take with you?
Salyer: Montana, I heard Montana is very beautiful, very peaceful and very quiet. ... It's a very peaceful place, there's a lot of open land and mountains. That's the type of guy I am, that's how my family is, we're country people, so I just want to go out and see what Montana's like.
Frierson: Who would you take with you?
Salyer: A wife if I had one, a girlfriend if I had one, I'd love to take my mom and my grandma, the whole family if I can.
Frierson: You're a really big guy, so what don't those of us that are more average sized understand about everyday life when you're 6-4 and 325 pounds?
Salyer: I would say the biggest thing, especially this time of year, is sweating. Oh my gosh, I wish I did not sweat so much. I think I sweat abnormally even for a big guy. But sweating in the summertime, everybody loves the summer sun and going outside and wearing shorts, and I'm sitting there the whole time, dang!
Spring is perfect: it's not too hot, it's not too cold, I can walk to class — I'll break a little sweat but I'll be fine. Summer, there's no hiding it. I'll be sweating through my shirt walking to class; I try to wear black so it's not noticeable.
I feel like everything is catered to average-sized people or smaller people. My English class, my desk is so small.
Frierson: Are you able to request a desk that fits you a bit better?
Salyer: They're nice and sometimes people will scoot up and give me a little leg space.Â
Frierson: If you could be great at anything for a day, just to experience what it's like, what would it be?
Salyer: I would say probably reading people's tells. You know how poker players are really good at picking up on people's tells like that (snaps his fingers)? My uncle's really good at that; he's in the military and I guess that's part of his training. I've always been interested in that.
Frierson: When it comes to football, when did you first realize that you were good and that you had a future beyond playing in high school?
Salyer: I didn't realize that I was actually good at football until I was about 12, that's when I really came into, like, I know what I can do on the field and I know my potential as a player. I didn't think as far ahead as college, I was just playing for fun. ... Football's taken me a lot of places and I'm really blessed.
Frierson: I know you did the shot put and discus ...
Salyer: Oh, gosh (laughs).
Frierson: That may answer my question. How good were you at those two?
Salyer: I was average at best at the shot put and I was horrible at discus. Andrew's really good at discus because he's got those long arms. Discus wasn't my thing at all and shot put, the little twirling you do, I couldn't get it down pat. I used to throw it as hard as I could and I used to get OK numbers, too. I'd normally place second or third, but I was no top dog.
Frierson: What other sports did you play growing up and what were you good at?
Salyer: I started out playing baseball, I started when I was three and played up until I was about 14 years old. I stopped playing when I got into high school, but baseball was my first love. My mom tells stories all the time about how I'd be out in the outfield just picking grass.Â
I played AAU basketball ... and I was terrible. It's the kind of thing where if I knew then what I know now, I would have been such a better player.
When I got in high school, my dad made me wrestle. He made me wrestle my 10th-grade year and I did not want to do it, but it made me such a better athlete, being light on your feet and understanding body control. Wrestling's probably one of the best things that ever happened to me, from the standpoint of a thing that translates directly to football. ...
It took me like five or six matches to actually learn stuff. Wrestling's such a technical sport and it's not very often that a guy gets on a mat and is just stronger than me, but those guys they would get me the first couple of matches. Toward the end of the season, I qualified for regionals and sectionals and then went to state, but I didn't do very well. That's where the competition got above me.
Frierson: What's the best live performance you've ever seen — concert, sporting event, whatever?
Salyer: When I was younger, I went to a Braves game and I saw Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones play. I was sitting in center field, dead center, and Chipper hit a home run — pow! Andruw came to the plate and hit another one — pow!
They go around the rotation again, I don't think Chipper did well but here comes Andruw — pow! There were like three or four home runs hit that day and I remember that to this day even though I was like five years old. That was amazing for me to see.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
