Thursday, September 19, 2013

More relaxed Matthews ready to pull the Trigga

Tray Matthews was available for the media yesterday for the first time since Signing Day. He spoke of his development, his expectations, the fans' expectations, the new targeting rule, speaking to some former safeties from UGA, and what the future holds. There's a lot there to digest from Georgia's starting safety. But what was most important was what he said about the adjustment to the speed of the game while also playing tentative.
"The world is gonna see. My time is coming, that's all I can say," Matthew said.
So far the world has seen a player who by his own admission has been tentative. It goes back to the preseason when Matthews was limited by injuries, first a shoulder and then a hamstring. He missed about two weeks' worth of practices, and was limited in several more.
Matthews was still able to make the start at Clemson, making four tackles and assisting on four more. But he didn't feel like himself, saying he was playing "scared," both because of the injury and the first-game jitters.
"Going out there I was hyped, I was tensing up. I was like, it's my first game I don't wanna mess up on TV. That's kind of the reason I don't think I played as fast as I can," Matthews said. "I don't want to mess up. I'm on the big screen, if I mess up they'll be like: Dang, Tray Matthews did this, he did that. But now I've made my mistakes, I'm ready to go out and play my game."
I don't think any of that is a real surprise. Everyone expected the learning curve to be steep, even for a player of Matthews' caliber. As long as he (and his teammates) stay healthy, we're going to see improvement in the secondary each week.