Ross 'Locked In' and 'Mad' After Georgia Loss

Wide receiver Justyn Ross' return to the football field was not what he had expected. In fact, he probably could not have dreamed of a worse start to his return to college football in the Tigers' 10-3 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday night.

It was Ross' decision to go to slant instead of turning out that led to a pick-six and the difference in the game.

“All he’s got to do is just turn out like he’s supposed to do, and he’s going to catch that ball and he might break a tackle and score or get inside the 20,” head coach Dabo Swinney said. “But at least he’s at the 21 or 22 and a first down. And instead it’s points the other way. That’s basic, simple stuff. He just made a bad decision.”

Swinney continued to say that Ross did not just make that one mistake, but a "couple of critical mistakes".

"It was a combination of things. And again, not what we've seen in practice. Justyn hadn't played in quite a while and we can only imagine where he was as far as that moment," Swinney said. "He's been awesome in practice but he had some critical errors in the game. We had some miss-throws, misreads, miscommunication." 

After arguably his worst game of his career, Ross could have sulked and buried his head in the sand. Instead he did what makes great players great—he got mad.

"He's locked in. He's mad. He was locked in before. He was just very disappointed in himself," Swinney said."But complete ownership of what he has to do. You'll see it. He'll be just fine. Mentally, he just made some mistakes he hasn't made. He hasn't done that in practice. Just one of those days. It happens. But he'll have a great year. We have an outstanding group."

Even though Ross debut game back from injury did not go as he would have liked, Swinney was thrilled that he was even able to be on the field making those mistakes.

"Like I told him after the game, I was glad to watch him have a couple critical mistakes," Swinney said.