The congratulations started to pour in for Aaron Murray after Thursday’s release of the post-spring depth chart, which had him finally entrenched as No. 1 at quarterback.

But for Murray, the announcement was just another step in his path to fulfill his dream of becoming the starting quarterback at Georgia and means a lot of work awaits him.

“I’ve heard from family and friends who have said congratulations and continue to work hard. I’ve talked to my family and they had the same feelings that I had, it’s just one step. It’s not a done deal, so keep working. I’m No. 1 after spring, I’m not No. 1 for the season, I still have a lot of work to do,” Murray said in a Friday teleconference with the media. “But they’re just excited for me that I’m doing well right now.”

Murray actually found out the news a week prior during his spring exit meeting with offensive coordinator Mike Bobo but says the talk more centered around offseason plans in preparation for the fall.

“We really didn’t talk much about [the depth chart],” Murray said. “[Bobo] just talked mostly about the thing he felt I needed to improve on, things that he thought I needed to improve on to become a better leader, and a better football player, and stuff he was looking for in the offense in general.”

As only a redshirt freshman leading a veteran offense returning 10 starters, Murray knows the respect of the veterans will have to be earned.

His plan? Hard work.

“When you take that quarterback role, no matter what you’re looked at as a leader. Even though I’m a young guy, I have to work my way up to that leadership role,” Murray said. “All eyes are on the quarterback, so I’m going to have other guys on the team looking at me, seeing my every move, and I just got to work hard. I have to go out there and prove myself to these guys. Especially with a veteran offensive line, and veteran offense in general they’re going to be looking at me.

“I am a redshirt freshman and I just got to prove to those guys that I’m willing to go out there and work my butt off each day, go in there watch the extra film, do the extra drills and prove to them that even though I’m young I’m willing to work hard and make sure I know everything And I’m not going to let them down when the season comes.”

Coaches aren’t allowed to work with players during the summer, so Murray said the team’s offseason voluntary workouts will be critical towards building the rapport and confidence with his offense that he’ll need in the season.

“We’ll probably start throwing when we get back in June about 2 times a week. We’ll do some one on ones, a little seven on seven, run some routes and we’ll get the defense out there, and then come July, we’ll probably bump it up to three or four times a week to make sure we have everything installed and ready for camp,” Murray said. “We’ll get it down pretty good, we’ll get the defense out there and get some good work in, making sure the defense is continuing to learn their stuff out there since it’s brand new for them. I think it’s going to be a great summer.”

Despite being only a redshirt freshman, Murray said he feels he knows the offense “pretty well” and this summer he plans to make the film room his home, learning the offensive responsibilities of all his offensive counterparts to have a better grasp of the total offense heading into the season.

“I want to know the ins and outs [of the offense],” Murray said. “My goal this summer is to start learning the offensive linemen terminology, I want to learn what they’re doing, and know what their calls are, what they’re doing up front. The running backs and receivers, I think to really know the offense I think you have to know what all 11 guys are doing on offense, what their jobs are. By knowing what they’re doing and I’m able to be that leader, and be that quarterback that can make sure everyone is on the right page in the huddle.”

After a G-Day performance to forget, Murray admits he was probably “a little too jacked up” for his chance to audition in front of the Georgia faithful and was “thankful that it wasn’t the regular season.”

The poor G-Day performance was accompanied by a stellar performance from Zach Mettenberger, who was dismissed just a week later, a dismissal that cleared competition out for Murray but was by no means welcomed by him.

“Zach and I were pretty close. When I got the news, I was definitely upset for [Zach], because he’s really busted his butt this offseason making sure he improved on his fundamentals, and things coach bobo really wanted him to work on,” Murray said. “It’s definitely hard, and it was definitely hard on him, but he has a bright future. He’s a very talented kid, and he has all the intangibles to be a great quarterback. He has to find the right place, and I’m sure he will and he’ll continue to move on with his career and put this incident behind him. Hopefully it’ll just be one little speed bump in his path right now.”

The dismissal of Mettenberger emphasizes a larger issue for Murray, as he has to be constantly aware of the scrutiny and attention that comes with being the Georgia quarterback. Matthew Stafford learned this lesson the hard way after his freshman season in 2007 when he set the cyber world and message boards a fire with a picture of him holding a keg above his head.

“I think, as a UGA athlete, you definitely always have to be careful about how you act in public and when you’re around people because everyone around campus knows who you are, people around the state know who you are,” Murray said. “It’s something that comes with the territory. When you’re a football player at the university of Georgia, people are going to know you and people are going to look at your every move, so you always have to be careful.

“If you’re a starter, if you’re a back up, no matter what, you want to represent the school well, you want to represent your team well and you definitely don’t want to put any shame on the university of Georgia – or even your family. It’s tough, at the end of the day you want to go out there and have fun and be a kid and what not but in the end we are Georgia athletes, we’re Georgia football players, and we have to carry ourselves around campus a lot differently than other students. We just have to be more careful and more mindful of that.”