Georgia's Ben Cleveland believes redshirt season proved to be valuable lesson

Ben Cleveland wanted to join in on the fun.

He saw the blast his teammates were having on Saturdays. Cleveland, however, redshirted his first year and didn't begin his second season as a starter.

It took some time before Cleveland could admit that he wasn't ready to play that first year. And early this season, Cleveland knew it was time to turn his play up a notch if he was going to get in the starting lineup.

"I’d seen how everyone enjoyed playing on Saturdays," Cleveland said. "There was a part of me that wanted that feeling as well. That was one of the things that pushed me every day. I came here to get a degree and play football. That’s what I wanted to do. That’s what I was working for."

Following Georgia's lone loss of the season to Auburn, Cleveland was inserted into the starting lineup against Kentucky. He's held the starting right guard spot over the past four games and is slated to start in the national championship against Alabama. Cleveland has been a big boost to an offensive line that leads the SEC in rushing offense with 267.4 rushing yards per game.

As for why Cleveland wasn't ready a year ago, offensive line coach Sam Pittman believes it was a simple case of maturity. Cleveland needed the time to prepare himself for college football. Pittman said he saw a talented lineman disinterested in the game during his first year on campus.

That's no longer the case now that Cleveland is reaching the end of his second season.

"There was no deer, rabbit, squirrel or duck out there so he wasn’t too interested in it, to be honest with you," Pittman said. "He’d tell you the same thing. But what he found out is that if he’ll put some time and his mind into this thing, then he can be a fine football player. It finally struck him as having some importance to him.

"Now that he put his mind to it, I think he’ll only get better.”

Cleveland didn't understand why he was redshirting last season as it was happening. He figured he would enroll at Georgia and be on pace to start sooner rather than later.

While there were some frustrating moments, Cleveland realized late in that first year that the redshirt could be beneficial n the long term. While it took some time to enter the starting lineup, Cleveland believes his path to a starting position was a lesson he needed to learn.

“It was definitely tough. At the beginning I didn’t really see the purpose of it," Cleveland said. "I was going out there every day to practice knowing there was no chance of playing Saturday. Then later in the season, I started to realize I’m going to have an opportunity next season to help this team out. I got to do everything I can. It was an awesome learning experience as far as a maturity level. It helped me grow and develop."

This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Georgia's Ben Cleveland believes redshirt season proved to be valuable lesson."