Question #5 of our series of preseason questions for Georgia football in 2025 is one that I didn’t think we’d ever need to ask…
QUESTION 5: Can the Georgia Defense Be Elite?
Shockingly, they haven’t been for a couple of years. Part of that is DL recruiting and development, part of it has been injuries in key spots, but the vaunted Georgia defense has not been up to snuff of late. Some of the intermittent issues include: failure of the DL to push the pocket and shed blocks, linebackers taking poor angles on run fits, mediocre tackling in the secondary, the pass rush not getting home (47th in sacks in 2023, 18th in 2024), and a lack of turnovers (72nd in 2023, 54th in 2024).
The starting LBs are now in their 3rd years, so I suspect we’ll see nice improvement there, but the Edge position was gutted with portal departures and graduation. Modozie (the Army transfer) could be terrific out there, but he’s only started practicing with the team several weeks ago and reportedly doesn’t know the defense yet. We’ve got some talented youngsters, but they’re young and more slight of build. Gabe Harris looks terrific, but he’s more of a defensive end. Chris Cole might be good in that spot, but he’s still learning. That position is a huge question mark until Modozie gets up to speed.
The secondary is a year older and bigger, but can Ellis Robinson tackle better than Daniel Harris (low bar, I know)? Can Jacory Thomas be a winning safety opposite KJ Bolden? He hasn’t proven to be able to communicate or understand the system well enough in his first 3 years.
I suspect the answer to almost all of these questions will be yes, because Kirby is on the mother and likely doesn’t take kindly to his defense fading in performance. But the defense has a lot of new starters, and I do wonder if they can dial up that Texas game energy every week. Might need Nolan Smith to come do some motivational speeches for the other big games. How do you y’all think they’ll perform in 2025?
The lack of a proven pass rusher is concerning. I’ve commented multiple times the teams with the elite DTs win championships. Zero concern with ILB. There are enough DBs Kirby will sort the backfield out. OLB/ edge is a toss up, hoping the US Army sent a special forces level QB sniper.
I don’t care how good the DBs are, if we can’t pressure the QB then we’re not going to have success. We could replace our secondary with the top players in the NFL and still not win it all if our pass rush is like last year (minus the Texas games).
Very thin at effective pass rushers. About as bad as it was when Adam Anderson was suspended.
Understanding talent/development is crucial to depth and success, did “Boom” have that much input/impact on the roster/staff, during that UGA football stretch of 2020 thru 2023, where “ABC”, stacked stars on top of stars, combined with some locker room leadership, where student athletes stayed at UGA football for “one more year”…during CKS’s employment with satan (another time, another place), it always seemed as though they had multiple years of some really talented peeps roll thru there, with two/three peeps who were really flippin’ good, to the point of dominating at those moments when needed…when the Standard is soooooo high, a slight slip/dip appears as though we’ve fallen off the cliff…GO DAWGS!!
Having a fully open transfer portal is the bigger hurdle to accumulating depth.
Don’t let that lovely nil platform git in the way of serious roster management, CKS has the pulse of college football horizons, staying with his standard of managing UGA football program will/can’t compete with untethered nil program$ in recruitment…GO DAWGS!!
Brooks Austin said last night we have the best linebacker group in college football in his opinion. He also said we have four future NFL cornerbacks on the team. The defense is going to be good.
No question the inside LB group has a chance to be the best. Let’s see if Modozie and Cole can make the outside just as good. DB room has a really high ceiling too.
Not worried about the defense. They’ll be good enough to give the offense a reasonable number to exceed to get a W.
Not seeing a qb/wr group out there that’s frightening, yet…
That’s the only thing that really stresses a Kirby defense and makes us chase 40+ to get a win.
Bama, Auburn and Texas have great WRs, so if their QBs pan out, watch out. Old Maid has a good QB but only one remotely scary WR. Everyone else we should handle.
Yep. And if any of them do pan out, well, look at the 2021 SECCG.
We won’t have a better defensive roster/play in 2025, period.
Kirby just isn’t running a defense that has a chance to slow down a team that can consistently throw deep dimes.
Fortunately, you only get one of those opponents every three seasons or so IF you’re playing until the final.
So again, I ain’t worried about the defense.
Really want to see the tackling back to the standard. It seems like last season we missed a few. Physical, Disciplined & Composed – the lads match their energy to the Standard and the adversary doesn’t matter.
Theory/uninformed conjecture: Stipulate the equation Lanning+Boom+Monken > Schumann+Bobo. This creates more in game distractions for Kirby on decisions, coaching players, etc. Add drop-off in on field talent from injuries, portal, etc and it has looked and felt like we’ve been a lot more “vanilla” on both sides of the ball. Offense was clear lack of talent…healthier RBs and WRs who could catch would have helped tremendously. The D just seemed to lack aggressiveness. As noted, no interior push, no edge rush, suspect LB play. If our coordinators were stronger I think Kirby micromanages the D calls and substitutions better but I submit he didn’t have that luxury when too much else was not working. I feel better about this season as both coordinators should have the talent and scheme we need and Kirby can work more in game magic.
My head will explode if I see another running QB go through the middle for 300 yards or a pocket passer getting all day to pick the secondary apart from rushing only 3.
Kirby was on the mother last year and our defense was not elite. Certainly not by Georgia standards anyway. I am most concerned about the line and our ability to set the edge. The rest of the crew I’m not too worried about. But if we can’t win the line of scrimmage the rest of the defense can only do so much.
IMO, not setting the edge last year was almost as consistent as the drops on offense. It was so pronounced that when you saw the DE actually stay in position that you could turn it into a drinking game.
Offense doesn’t concern me as long as we can avoid injuries. Defense should be good, but it should’ve been good last year and we had those (to me) mysterious lulls in performance. Have to avoid those this year.
Yeah, they’re thin at QB, RB and OL. Can’t have more than one injury in those spots.
Seems like the DL last season was a mish mash of guys at different points. Wasn’t Christian Miller and Jordan Hall both hurt a large part of the season? Jonah-Ajonaye probably starts as a RS freshman, so to me that is a good sign that a youngster is competeting. I am not putting a lot on Elijah Griffin, but the talk I keep hearing about him is spooky good. AND X McLeod is going into his second year so he now knows the system and may be able to play faster and looser.
I might be on the Kool Aid here, but here is my logic; the DL seems more experienced than we think and it is much healthier than last year. Add that to Kirby seeming to push harder on the LOS this year, I just think the DL will be much improved.
Think McLeod starts over JJA, who will split time there and with Miller and even Gabe Harris. He’s slimmed down a bit. Just need to stay healthy, get reps and get better there.
We can be elite. The talent is there for sure. The bigger question IMO is whether Shumann is an elite coach or got credit for work Lanning and Boom did. Anyway, if Bobo can not do better this year than 50th nationally and 10th in the conference in total offense – as he did last year – it would not matter if we marched the purple people eaters out there. Some teams are going to score and you have to keep pace.
Lots of new faces this season. It’s going to be exciting. GO DAWGS!!
The simple answer to the defense is the D-line. Do we have double team demanding DTs and DEs? I would say possibly at DE, but not so much at DT, at least as of now. Can and will the D-line open holes allowing to LBs to rush freely? Can the front 4 routinely pressure the QB?
There are an awful lot of unknowns heading into this season. Sadly, I fear this will be the norm across college football in the new world of NIL and transfer portal. I am not sure that all of the questions will be answered to our satisfaction. Yes, I am primarily looking at you Bobo and Searels.
If they stay healthy they can be a very good defense. Kirby likes to say disrupting the passer getting him out of rhythm is key. If we can stop the run and that requires staying healthy. I believe there’s enough talent for Kirby to dial up plenty of pressure from non traditional sources. There’s plenty of LB and DB depth to allow him to do what others can’t.