Following a redshirt season in 2020, Tate Ratledge appeared to be ready to settle in at right guard for Georgia in 2021.

But things took a bad turn in the season opener against Clemson in Charlotte. Ratledge, who started the game, exited not long into the contest after suffering a Lisfranc injury. He wouldn’t return for the rest of the season.

In 2022, despite being slowed during preseason camp by a bout of turf toe, Ratledge is ready to hit the reset button heading into the Bulldogs’ opening game against Oregon in Atlanta on Sept. 3. He called the opportunity to start last year a “top-of-the-world” moment before his injury.

“I kind of took it as a growing experience,” he said on Tuesday, according to the Athens Banner-Herald’s Marc Weiszer. “It kind of messed with me a little bit. You live and you learn. It ended up being a good thing for me. I got my head in the right spot. It really put things in perspective for me to don’t take things for granted.”

Of course, Ratledge’s mullet was a topic of discussion. The Darlington School (Rome, Ga.) graduate had to stick to a dress code in high school, and that included keeping his hair cut to a permissible length.

“It couldn’t touch the collar. Then got to college and I said, ‘I’m going to do something with this,'” he recounted. “Had like a six-month awkward phase. Here it is now. I see it as I’m too far into it to cut it now.”