ATHENS — There was some trash-talk going on last Saturday between Vanderbilt fans and Georgia linebacker Jordan Jenkins. So what did those dastardly Commodore fans say to start it?

“I started it,” Jenkins said.

Oh.

“I like the hostility,” he said.

And Jenkins went out and had perhaps the best game of his four-year Georgia career. He racked up 11 tackles, 5.5 of them for a loss, and two sacks.

So as Jenkins – known heretefore as the jovial Terry College of Business student – seeks to elevate his game, look for more of the pregame trash-talking.

“I feel like the type of guy I am, the more angry I get, the better I play,” Jenkins said. “And I’ve really been sort of working on controlling that. Playing angry, but smart at the same time.”

Such extracurriculars were something Jenkins engaged in during his high school career, and at Missouri in 2012. Apparently he wasn’t the only defensive player to do so in that game; Jenkins said a Missouri fan threw a cup of ice at Ray Drew while the Georgia players were celebrating in the stands afterwards.

So as soon as he entered Vanderbilt’s stadium, Jenkins sought out the home fans – there weren’t that many of them – and said, “This is my house! This is our house!” Or at least that’s what Jenkins claimed he said.

“That got them fired up and they kept talking trash at me the whole game,” Jenkins said. “I was getting excited, getting fueled off that, getting hyped with the music they were playing. I was locked in that game. …

“I just love away games so much, because that hostility just fuels me even more. And I like practicing in a way to where I want somebody getting mad and wanting to fight me, because that’s gonna make me get mad, and just practice harder.”

But Saturday is a home game. So does Jenkins need to go over to the visiting section and talk trash?

“Knowing South Carolina I’m pretty sure one of the linemen will talk enough trash to get me going,” Jenkins said, laughing.