Tate Ratledge, Dan Jackson and Dominic Lovett all share something in common. They were Georgia Bulldogs and now they’re Detroit Lions.

But it goes deeper than that — all three 2025 NFL Draft picks approach the game with the same tenacious attitude.

They’re intense, ferocious, resilient and, most of all, gritty — just like the team they’re joining.

“Never going to quit,” Lovett, a slot receiver, said. “Never gonna give up until the clock strikes zero. We just really got that ‘dog’ mindset and really just want to compete every play, day in and day out.”

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That relentless spirit was cultivated at one of college football’s premier programs, which has suddenly become a go-to talent source for this revived NFL franchise. Lions general manager Brad Holmes has developed an affinity for the SEC stronghold, which is seen as the closest facsimile to the Alabama juggernaut that Nick Saban lorded over until his retirement in January 2024.

There is a reason for that; Saban’s one-time protégé, Kirby Smart, runs the Georgia machine. He has powered it to two national championships this decade and made it a hotbed for NFL prospects. In Athens, Holmes sees a lot of what he once saw during his visits to Tuscaloosa.

“The physicality. The detail. The tempo … the energy,” he said.

It was all right there before his eyes as he watched Smart’s team train, just as it was evident when he observed Saban leading his rugged Alabama squads through drills.

The players who endure that kind of grueling regimen are “ready,” as Holmes put it, to play on Sundays.

Lovett, a seventh-round pick, can attest to that.

He said the experience during his two seasons at Georgia (after transferring from Missouri) hardened him. He called it a “grind,” where fortitude and camaraderie were forged in practices he described as “hard.”

“I feel like what you go through at Georgia will ultimately help you for the next level,” he said.

It should make for a seamless transition to the Lions, a franchise that, under coach Dan Campbell, has fostered a culture that parallels the one Smart has developed over his nine-plus years at Georgia.

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“I see a lot of similarities,” said Ratledge, a mauler of a right guard who was taken in the second round following a five-year stint in Athens. “As far as what coach Smart and what coach Campbell believe in, I think they’re right (in) line with each other. I think they both believe in physical football players, tough football players, smart football players, and I think they both have a lot of those on their teams.”

But until this weekend, the pipeline between Smart’s Bulldogs and Campbell’s Lions wasn’t active. Holmes instead spent the past three seasons tapping Alabama for its best and brightest. In 2022, he drafted the Crimson Tide’s star receiver, Jameson Williams, with the 12^th overall pick. A year later, he made an aggressive move to take their electrifying running back, Jahmyr Gibbs, in that same slot before selecting Alabama’s dependable defensive back, Brian Branch, in the ensuing round. Then, last April, he traded up to snatch Tide cover man Terrion Arnold.

But the budding stars Saban coached and developed will soon start to phase out, which is why Holmes has Georgia on his mind as the next best place to go get quality football players. That makes perfect sense to Jackson, a safety and a former walk-on who was plucked by Detroit in the seventh round.

“Georgia has really shaped me,” Jackson said, “into the player I am today.”

In essence, his college program made him, Ratledge and Lovett fits for the Lions.

Speaking of Georgia, Holmes said, “I think the proof’s in the pudding in terms of what they put out.”

And now the Lions have made sure to get their hands on some of it.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin on X