Chicken fingers, soda fuel cornerbacks

If you thought that cornerbacks Bryan Evans and Prince Miller got their energy by eating broccoli and drinking orange juice, you’re wrong.
Fortunately for them, these two good friends and roommates can get away without eating the recommended three to five servings of vegetables per day.
“For an athlete Prince sure does drink a lot of sodas,” Evans said, shaking his head. “He really likes Vault. He drinks about two or three of those a day . I’ve never seen him drink a Vault before a game but I have seen him down one before practice.”
While Evans was quick to expose and joke about Miller’s soda indulgence, he wasn’t in the clear very long. Miller made sure to say where Evans gets most of his nutritious intake from.
“He eats at Raising Cane’s just about every day,” Miller said, laughing. “He’s a fried food junkie.”
Safety C.J. Byrd backed up the claim that Evans eats way too many chicken fingers.
“They always say Bryan is going to turn into a chicken,” Byrd said.
While Evans admitted that Raising Cane’s was one of his favorite places to eat, he had to clear the air that he does not visit the fast food restaurant daily.
“Man, I don’t go everyday,” Evans said. “That’s a lie.”
Cornerback Asher Allen said that Evans and Miller are comedic at heart, which helps soften the mood when practice gets too intense.
“Bryan’s just a funny guy and Prince is like him,” Allen said. “They can mimic each other. Both are funny and they can lighten up practice.”
For instance, Miller joked with reporters about Demarcus Dobbs’ 78 yard interception return for a touchdown against Central Michigan, saying that Dobbs was gracious for the gift he was given since Miller deflected the pass that Dobbs ended up catching.
“Nah, he was thankful,” Miller joked. “He was thankful for the pass breakup.”
Then he added that it seemed like a lot longer than the 12 seconds Dobbs said it took him to get down the field.
“It took him like 20 seconds,” Miller said, laughing.
It’s something freshman receiver Tavarres King said makes him smile, that both Evans and Miller can make anyone laugh at anytime.
“They’re just really funny guys,” King said. “They’re jokesters, for real jokesters. They’re awesome, just thinking about it makes me laugh. They say a bunch of funny things and always keep you smiling.”
Both players’ personalities have translated into a strong friendship that has developed off the field as well as on.
“Bryan and I are great friends,” Miller said. “It just worked out that we happened to turn into being roommates. I think we push each other real hard on the field and I think it works well for the defense. I’m pushing him and he’s pushing me and we’re constantly getting better.”
***
With a lot of SEC teams running a spread offense, there will be a lot of opportunities for Evans and Miller to see playing time together. The more spread offenses the Bulldogs face, the more nickel packages Georgia will play on defense, which gets Evans and Miller on the field at the same time.
“They’ve done a great job, holding everyone down in the nickel,” Allen said. “That and we’ve all developed chemistry together, and that really is a hard thing to produce.”
When the Bulldogs start games in the nickel package, Evans starts at corner and Miller starts at the nickel back position. This has allowed for both of these players to play opposite of Allen instead of the two friends competing against each other for the other starting spot.
“I guess both of them got the best end of the stick right there with Prince playing nickel and Bryan playing corner,” Byrd said. “It’s tough to say who’s best. It’s up and down every day.”
One thing lacking, though, between Evans and Miller is that neither player has an interception this year. In fact, no defensive back for Georgia has one yet.
“It’s either we’re playing games where they aren’t throwing it out there or people are dropping them,” Miller said. “I don’t know what it is right now, we’re in a drought.”
But it’s not like the secondary doesn’t have an incentive to grab the pigskin out of the air. Evans said that a few defensive backs have a bet as to who can get the first interception of the season.
“Individually, a couple of the cornerbacks, we’ll probably say the first person to get an interception gets 20 bucks,” Evans said. “You know, it’s always a competition, like whoever gets an interception gets 20 bucks or something like that.”
Although Evans enjoys the competition, he said he wouldn’t mind joining in a team effort with Miller to help get that first interception of the season. But of course, he wants to be the one to catch it.
“I hope Prince tips the ball to me so I can get the interception, but that we can split the 20 bucks and get 10 each,” Evans said.
