Following practice, Georgia takes in Disneyland
Sony Michel was in the middle of rattling off his favorite Disney movies to reporters when head coach Kirby Smart barked a zinger at him from behind his interview.
"Tell them about Guardians of the Galaxy!" Smart said.
Michel didn't change his train of thought to talk about the Disneyland ride named after the movie. and apparently there was nothing really to tell. Some of Georgia's football players got on the ride. Left tackle Isaiah Wynn said he got a thrill from it, which includes a moment where you free fall from high off the ground.
"It woke me up," Wynn said. "A little caffeine shock."
But Michel said he didn't want to experience the fall on that particular ride with such sudden speed. That surprised Wynn, who thinks Michel would have been a fan of the ride had he decided to go through with it.
"Yes, I was (surprised) because in the beginning he sounded like he was going to go," Wynn said. "I thought Nick was going to be the one to stay out. But Sony, as soon as we got up there, he said, 'No, I'm not going.' That definitely was a surprise. I think he would have liked it though."
Nick Chubb didn't get the same adrenaline rush Wynn got. While he isn't afraid of heights, Chubb prefers his rides not to begin off the ground and end in a vertical drop.
"I just don't like going straight down," Chubb said. "I need a little angle or something."
The rest of the team also got to take in Disneyland as players were seen walking around the theme park in various groups. This came after Georgia went through its first on-site practice at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, which was closed to the media. Oklahoma's team was on hand, too, as both the Bulldogs and the Sooners participated in a ceremony welcoming them to the theme park.
Smart said the time at Disneyland provides his team with some quality downtime in the midst of an ever-important preparation schedule.
"I think the big thing and the focus for us is that each day we re-center," Smart said. "Remember what your purpose is. You almost have to beat that into their head because it is easy to forget. They knew coming out here, they knew today. But day two, three, four, I've always thought it's easy to grow tired of a setting, a place, a hotel room. You've got to be careful. You got to make sure they have a little time to laugh and break away, but at the same time, know what they got to get done."
This story was originally published December 27, 2017 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Following practice, Georgia takes in Disneyland."