A noticeably beefed-up Kamari Lassiter was as confident and relaxed as ever meeting with Houston media after a recent rookie mini-camp workout.
“The standard is the standard here,” Lassiter said, sharing his first impressions of a Texans’ franchise that made him the 42nd overall pick by selecting him early in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
“You have a bunch of guys who want to get better and just want to win.”
Lassiter, a team captain at Georgia who Kirby Smart chose to represent the program at SEC Media Days last summer, shared how UGA was similar.
“The standard that was set at Georgia was super high, it doesn’t matter how old you are or how many years you play,” Lassiter said.
“Coach Smart does a really good job of making sure everyone buys in, and I think Coach (DeMeco) Ryans does a great job of doing that, as well.”
Lassiter drew laughter at the press conference when asked about the similarities between Alabama and Georgia, revealing that he was unaware his new head coach played for the Crimson Tide.
“Coach went to Bama?” Lassiter said. “No, I didn’t know that.”
Ryans played at Alabama from 2002-2005 under Mike Shula, who preceded Nick Saban’s arrival in 2007.
“Those two programs (Alabama and Georgia), very high-profile programs,” Lassiter said, “have a lot of similarities.”
Lassiter did note a difference in the weather, with Houston’s relatively high humidity index — it’s one of the 10 most humid cities in the nation, per a Beumont Enterprise story citing weather.com — making temperatures feel warmer than expected.
“I looked at the weather before I went out to practice and it said 80 degrees, and I said, ‘OK, bet, it’s only 80,’ and I walked out on the field,” Lassiter said.
“I was practicing, and I was like ‘this is not like 80, this is like 90 or something else,’ so it’s a little bit different.”
Perhaps, but it sounds like the same Lassiter Georgia knew when it comes to bringing a lunch pail to work, albeit, a more bulked up and physical version ready to take on the challenges in the NFL.
