Georgia's offense has been receiving a majority of the praise throughout the spring from head coach Kirby Smart but on Saturday at G-Day, the defense earned most of the love from the boss.
"I thought the defense played much better today than they did in previous scrimmages in terms of energy, enthusiasm, running to the ball," Smart said after the game. "We rushed the passer better today, offense probably didn't have as good a day as maybe they've had in the two scrimmages. But some of that was dictated by the terms by which we scrimmaged which was passing loose plays. And they did a nice job of handling that in the second half."
The first-team defense (Black) gave up a total of 390 yards to Carson Beck and the (Red) first-team offense on G-Day, which ended in a 20-20 tie.
While Smart noted that he couldn't use the annual G-Day scrimmage to overall evaluate the defense (or offense), he was very pleased with certain position groups and key players.
Smart Has Seen Growth from LBs
"CJ and Raylen got better," Smart said. "They’re going to be really good leaders for us. I think the fact Smael was out was good for them, and Jalon missed a lot of time this spring with an ankle injury. Today was his first day back. It doesn’t say enough about our team that kids are trying to get out of spring games all around the country. This guy was mad that we were thinking about not playing him. He wanted to play. He wanted to go out there and compete and get better. Really appreciate Jalon’s leadership and the way he handles things.”
Mykel Williams Setting Leadership Tone on D-Line
Smart also acknowledged Mykel Williams who made his presence known after he intercepted his own tipped pass from Beck.
"I thought that he had a really good spring from a standpoint of leadership, toughness. He didn’t get a ton of reps," Smart said. "The guy’s been a two-year starter. But it’ll be a chance to get Ty more reps when we come back in the fall, continue to increase Joseph Jonah-Ajonye, and then Justin Greene. We’ve got some defensive ends that can spell him. He was a factor today."
Georgia's Young Defenders Are Having Fun
A handful of the younger defenders also caught Smart's attention on Saturday, including five-star recruits K.J. Bolden and Ellis Robinson.
"I'd feel better watching the tape than commenting on it. I did think they had fun out there and it was a lot of mid-year defensive players out there, kind of running around," Smart said. "You see the athleticism on a Justin Williams, Kris Jones, Chris Cole, Ellis, KJ. Like so many of them they just got here. And that’s going to pay off for us when they have to go play.”
Always Room for Improvement
Of course, there's always room for improvement and Smart hopes to see that from every position -- but especially from the secondary.
"We’ve got a long way to go," Smart said on the secondary. "We lost three really good football players there. We’re thin. David Daniel wasn’t able to go today, Malaki was out, Justyn Rhett was out, Demello was dealing with a little bit of a hamstring. We got better in the secondary, but we’re not where we need to be in terms of being able to make plays on the ball down the field and be able to affect the quarterback.”
The good news is that it's only April, which means there is plenty of time for improvement before the Bulldogs take the field for their home opener against the Clemson Tigers on August 31.
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