Georgia HC Kirby Smart shares critical injury updates and highlights 1 key to team growth that should help in SEC play

The Georgia Bulldogs of 2025 have been imperfect, but still find themselves at 4-1 heading into the heart their SEC schedule in a good spot to make a push toward the College Football Playoff.

Yes, the roster is clearly not as deep as it once was in the trenches now that the Transfer Portal and NIL landscape have more evenly distributed some of the top talent on both sides of the ball around the country. However, Kirby Smart has surprisingly found a way to build up the depth and experience necessary this season with the players he does have.

When asked about some key injury updates this week, coach Smart touched on offensive tackle Monroe Freeling and defensive lineman Jordan Thomas, but highlighted just how deep this roster is running early in the season. These early opportunities for depth along both lines might be the difference for late season success.

2025 Facts & Stats on Georgia OL and DL Depth

• 11 Georgia offensive linemen have played over 40 total snaps in just five games this season.
• 12 Georgia defensive front players have logged over 40 total snaps so far this season too.
• Against Kentucky ten different offensive linemen played at least nine or more snaps. 15 different defensive front players logged at least 10 ore more snaps.
• Only one true full-time defensive front player has logged a sack so far this season for Georgia.
• Only one offensive lineman has been credited with a true "at fault" sack allowed according to multiple professional charting services.

Georgia's surprising depth along OL and DL could help Bulldogs succeed late in the season

Georgia's defensive front has struggled this season as only one true defensive line or edge player has logged a sack through five games. However, that might not be as bad as one might think when accounting for the intentional rotation Kirby Smart has been implementing to find the right mix of playmakers along the defensive front.

Conversely, the offensive line play has seen a wild rotation of players (partly due to injury) as well, but they've been one of the most elite units in the country, giving up virtually zero sacks (only one attributed to the offensive line's fault).

When asked about some key injuries and the depth developing on both lines it became quite clear that Georgia might just be in a much better spot in both trenches than many expected entering the season. One SEC media member noted that several (it turned out to be 15) defensive front players logged at least 10 snaps this past week against Kentucky. Coach Smart actually seemed a bit frustrated by that reality as it was slightly linked to lengthy drives, but was hopeful on the team's key injuries that should help alleviate any further depth issues.

"I'm not sure about the snaps," Kirby said, "but that sounds about right. Obviously we got to play more guys in that game because of the fourth quarter, and we helped them because we had some long drives to get to those snaps. If we'd got off the field, it probably wouldn't have been that many. Monroe [Freeling]'s been able to do a little bit. He's been able to run and work out and do some things. But it's still going to be more like today, tomorrow, we find more out. He has been moving around on it and running on it and doing some on air things. But obviously, the requirement it takes to be able to strain and play at this level, we got to find out if he's able to do that...[Jordan Thomas]'s taking his reps. He's good. He's been out there practicing."

It's good to hear that both Monroe Freeling (on offense) and Jordan Thomas (on defense) should be back soon to help their respective Bulldogs trenches, but it's even more promising to see how many Georgia players have been good enough to rotate in for significant snaps this season.

It wasn't just this last week that several players jumped into the fold. 11 offensive lineman and 12 defensive front players have logged over 40 snaps in the first five games alone. Seven offensive linemen have logged over 130 snaps (due to some injuries), and yet the play there has been near perfect.

The defensive line rotation running deep isn't new for Georgia, but this year it's going deeper than almost ever. Unfortunately it seems that likely might be because none of them are proving themselves to be star players just yet. Hopefully that changes for Georgia. However, with all of these early snaps and work coming for the Bulldogs' trenches, that might just make them extremely tough to beat once most every other team in the country is beat up later in the year.

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