Everything Sylvain Yondjouen said at the ACC Kickoff

The veteran edge rusher spoke on the Jackets' expectations in 2023

CREDIT: Georgia Tech Athletics

Q. Sylvain, you are a player that obviously coming from Belgium you experienced football late and started playing late. How have you made the transition as rapidly as you have to become as good as you are at this sport that a lot of guys are playing from 4, 5 forward to be where you are today and to be seen as a leader on this team in a sport that, again, is fairly new to you by some people's standards?

SYLVAIN YONDJOUEN: I think personally it's just the coaches I've been around, listening to what they say. I've been told that I'm a very coachable person. I get coaching a lot because I don't know the game. They always know it better than me, so there's no point for me to argue what they tell me or something.

I really just are doing what they say, and it works out. For the past few years, I can see getting better at the stuff I didn't do right at the beginning. It's really practice on practice. It's doing it again. What Coach Coleman talks about it is fundamentals, and I think that's something that I didn't know at first. The basic stuff, you know, about football you keep it all your life.

Yeah, that's what I learned this past five years and just getting better at it.

Q. Just curious how much of an inspiration was seeing what Keion did last year and seeing him get drafted in the second round and seeing that potential because you did have games where you could even argue maybe you outplayed him a little bit in your role. Just kind of what kind of inspiration, I guess, is that for you to see that?

SYLVAIN YONDJOUEN: It gives me a lot of motivation to keep working hard because I saw Keion at the beginning of the season or even when he transferred, at first he didn't really play a lot, and then he played way more last year.

Just seeing him work every day, he would come in, get treatment, get in the hot tub, get stretched before everybody, after everybody, stayed longer after workouts, and it just shows that if you put your mind to it and you keep working for it, it will pay off.

That's what I'm trying to do just like him. Just keep working, head down, and we'll see where I get. Yeah, I'll put 100 every time.

Q. Coming from Belgium, how much or how has your teammates helped you adapt to the Atlanta culture, swag, food, all that?

SYLVAIN YONDJOUEN: A lot. My freshman year it was a different team. There was a bunch of different stuff I did and enjoyed my freshman year. It was just a year of discovering America for me, really just feeling what college was because you heard about it back overseas, but you don't really believe it until you see it.

Yeah, I mean, I went through a lot my freshman year seeing stuff. Yeah, I mean, you get used to it. I've been four years in Atlanta now. Four, five years. I think I got acclimated well to it, yeah.

Q. Having multiple stops in 8 of 12 contests demonstrates your consistency as a defensive end. How do you ensure that you maintain your level of play even in physically demanding games?

SYLVAIN YONDJOUEN: Sorry. Can you repeat that? I'm sorry.

Q. How do you ensure that you maintain your level of play even in physically demanding games?

SYLVAIN YONDJOUEN: Hydration. I think I have one right here. Recovery and hydration. It's something we really work on right now during the summer. It gets very hot and humid in Atlanta, so I think a lot of water, drinking water. I mean, that's what I do personally.

I have to drink way more water than usually because the heat really affects me. I think the recovery part is where you only get one body. That's what an old coach told me. You only get one body, so you have to take care of it as if it's your last one. You can't go nowhere without your own body.

That's recovering, stretching, water. So, yeah.