One of the most intriguing aspects of this year’s Georgia team that isn’t being talked about enough is the new energy and talent that has been injected into the Georgia defense. Former Defensive Coordinator, Mel Tucker left the University of Georgia after the SEC Championship game a year ago, to become the newest Head Coach of Colorado.
Coach Kirby Smart made it known that he would be handing the keys to his talented linebacker coaches to handle the game preparation for the upcoming Sugar Bowl. It was also announced that Coach Smart would be returning to his position coaching spot that he held for nine years at the University of Alabama. It was an audition for Outside Linebacker Coach Dan Lanning to put himself in the driver seat of the defense for the next few years. Lanning came to Georgia before the start of the 2018 season after former Outside Linebackers Coach Kevin Sherrer left to become the Defensive Coordinator at Tennessee. Lanning spent time with Coach Smart and Coach Tucker at Alabama, as Lanning was an analyst on that staff until 2016. He then went on to coach the linebackers at Memphis for two years. All the hype was coming out about Georgia and how it would prove the committee wrong for not putting them in the Playoffs. Then the game was played, and it was the most uninspired performance from the Dawgs under Kirby Smart. Smart went into the offseason and announced a new offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator both being in-house hires. Dan Lanning was announced as Defensive Coordinator, with Glenn Schuman taking a role as Co-Defensive Coordinator. Lanning, a first-time Defensive Coordinator is coming into the 2019 season with a lot of talent at every position. Georgia was able to play a lot of youth last season after the loss of many key starters from the SEC Championship team. The youth got a lot of snaps and game time, which could only mean good things for the future. Georgia is bringing back key leaders in Richard LeCounte, JR Reed, Tae Crowder, and Tyler Clark. All four of those guys are returning for their senior years, three of the four were starters last season for Georgia. Not only is leadership coming back but Georgia brought in more freshman to come and make an immediate impact on defense. Georgia brought in the number overall recruit from the 2019 class in Nolan Smith, an edge rusher. Along with number one rated JUCO, who also is an edge rusher, Jermaine Johnson. Georgia will be bringing in a highly rated defensive tackle in Travon Walker, who is impressing in camp so far. With the flush of talent that has come into Athens after this past offseason, Georgia has some very big holes to fill. Georgia showed a very big weakness in the run game, as the Dawgs were unable to effectively stop the run without nose guard, Jordan Davis who is returning for his sophomore season after ending his freshman year with an injury. Sam Ehlinger and Jalen Hurts both lit up the Georgia defense like a Christmas tree as both are powerful runners who can hit the holes like a fullback. The loss of dominant inside linebacker, Roquan Smith was felt by the Georgia defense last season. So what’s the solution? Well as I mentioned Georgia has a flush of talent returning and coming in as freshman and JUCO transfers. Georgia brought in talented defensive tackle Travon Walker, who is impressing the coaches so far. Walker was apart of the first team on defense for their first scrimmage of the fall. Walker is expected to help out in stopping the run as he is a bigger body for Georgia up front who has some extreme power. Georgia is also returning its third-leading tackler from a season ago in Monty Rice, who is only a junior this season. Rice has shown the ability to be the open field, do it all linebacker that Roquan was in his time at Georgia. Rice was a key component in stopping the run when he was available. Senior defensive tackle Julian Rochester is returning from knee surgery from this past offseason and has been preparing well to come back from injury. Rochester is another guy that can clog up the middle of the line and force the backs to go outside where they have trouble getting around the edge. The last thing that I want to highlight, that needs to be dealt with is defending through the air. It is no secret that Georgia is losing one of their best defensive backs of all-time in Deandre Baker. But it is also no secret that Georgia was very young and inexperienced in the secondary last season. Having Baker go on a tear for two years without giving up a touchdown was crucial for the Dawgs in the back seven. Now with Baker gone, Georgia will be looking to 2018 standout and now redshirt sophomore Eric Stokes to lead the way in the secondary as their lockdown corner. Stokes broke out in the middle of last season after the struggles of highly-rated freshman Tyson Campbell. Stokes, a lockdown man coverage corner, has the height and speed that Georgia needs in the secondary. Georgia will also be returning sophomore cornerback Tyson Campbell, a highly rated recruit out of high school who struggled in the beginning of the season for Georgia. During bowl preparation Coach Smart was able to get his hands on Campbell and put him back on track. Campbell went on to perform well in coverage in the Sugar Bowl. But one of the things that I have been beginning to notice is how the Big 12 has been able to shut down SEC Offenses. Now I don’t care about conferences at all. I only care about what Georgia is doing. It doesn’t to me whether or not we have a team from the SEC in the Playoffs. But looking back at the Sugar Bowl game, Texas and their Defensive Coordinator Todd Orlando prepared very well for a dominant running offense who would slaughter teams at the line of scrimmage. It is well known that the Texas defense was nothing special, as it was struggling last season to keep teams off the board. But Todd Orlando did very well preparing a gameplan to stop the Georgia offense. One of Fromm’s best attributes is being able to read defenses and make checks and audibles at the line. Todd Orlando took that away from Fromm, by hiding his coverages in the secondary. In football terms, this is called base alignment. That is something the Texas defense was known for going into the game, as their ability to throw off quarterbacks with their disguised coverages. Fromm was unable to read the defense as well as he usually does, and the game was left in the hands of Jim Chaney. Texas hid their blitzes very well and forced mistakes at the line of scrimmage something nobody could do. Georgia needs to adopt this method of play in this defense. It is known that Georgia finally has its players in the secondary that Smart believes can run the system that he used at Alabama for nine years. If the secondary can hold up, then the Georgia staff can start employing more complex coverages and fronts into their defense. Using base alignment in the secondary would throw off many quarterbacks in their initial read, especially the average ones that Georgia will play this season. We saw against Alabama that when Georgia brought pressure, Tua was quick to make a decision and it often was a mistake. Base aligning coverages and bringing more pressure up front would create the “havoc” plays that Coach Smart wants. We don’t need to overhaul our defensive system, because why fix something that isn’t broke. Simply making changes in your concepts that you are teaching and the formations that you install will make a huge difference rather than changing the whole playbook. Georgia needs to “Do More” and that means doing more concepts that are complex and installing better gameplans. Let’s work smarter, not harder on both sides of the ball.
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Harrison Reno
Is the founder and author of Top Dawg Blogging. Harrison has been blogging for the past 4 years Archives
April 2020
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