On the Defensive

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Coach Schumann, on where the defense needs to get better this year to control the line of scrimmage:

On factors contributing to the change in run defense stats the last two seasons compared to seasons prior… 

“Stats always tell you something. Stats are what they are. You start rationalizing stats, then you’re just making excuses for a performance that wasn’t up to our standard. The number one thing we need to do better in run defense is tackle better. In fact, we did not tackle to our standard last year. If you tackle better, you eliminate yards after contact, and we need to leverage football better, specifically, on the perimeter, where the ball bounced out too much. That goes back to trust and playing together as a unit. So one thing we’ve just been really harping on is the right way to tackle, which we always do. That’s not like this is some unique thing, but our guys are very aware of where we need to improve. They know to play Georgia football on both sides of the ball, we need to run the ball and stop the run. They’ve taken great pride in trying to improve in those areas. But we need to tackle better, leverage the football better, and then ultimately, we talk about changing the math. Like on an offensive playbook page, everybody’s blocked except for the middle field safety. Let’s not act like there’s no blocked guys, no matter what you do on defense. Every once in a while, you might trick them. The way to change the math is to either take two blockers or beat your blocker. So that goes back to striking blockers, getting off block, technique, tech blocks, technique and fundamentals. And the more guys we have that don’t trade, we call trading one for one. Like, if you block me and I stay in my gap, but I don’t do anything else to affect the play, I trade one for one. The offense won on that play. So, tackling and leveraging the football. And then we had got to do a great job of not going one for one in terms of dealing with blockers, and that’s what it is. We don’t do that well, at least the results we saw. So we’re not worried about that. We’re just worried about the future. The guys are taking pride in doing those things every day.” 

You can see the full interviews with the coaches from Wednesday, along with transcripts, here:

I’ve heard a number of us saying that we have to set the edge and the outside linebackers need to play better, as well. Likewise, another issue was tackling. Both were very uncharacteristic traits of the Georgia DNA last year, like the lack of a run game on the offensive side of the ball.

We say it time and time again…we trust that Kirby’s on the mother. Let’s hope the players are on it by game 3, as well.

11 thoughts on “On the Defensive”

  1. Funny how teams that block and tackle well win a lot of football games.

  2. Something isn’t right when you’re struggling to hold the edge with players like Mykel Williams and Javon Walker.

    Hopefully we can improve using their 4-star & 5-star backups.

  3. Tackling was the problem last year, period. In my eyes, it was the worst tackling defense of the Smart era.

    Fix tackling, and everything else takes care of itself.

    Setting the edge is about playing your assignment. What we think of as the guy with responsibility for the edge … a defensive end or OLB isn’t necessarily the player responsible for setting the edge on a particular play. That can be a slot corner/star, the boundary corner, or a strong safety. Many times it is the guys lined up outside the 2 offensive tackles.

  4. First half of the bama game notwithstanding, I don’t think our biggest issues in 2024 were on d.

    • While the defense was nothing special last year, specifically the D-line, I tend you agree with Derek. In my uneducated football eye, our O-line was the largest issue/weakness. Will we be better at both tackle spots? What will the center position look like? We are replacing 3 starters off of an underperforming 2024 offensive line. If the O-line and D-line are equal to or worse than the 2024 groups, well, we will be in for a rough season.

      • I know he had a rough game against ND. but Freeling was playing hurt in the Sugar Bowl. He is much better than that and I think he will be solid this season when healthy.

      • If memory serves, we replaced a lot on the o-line after ’20, and were better for it. Some times it’s addition due to subtraction.

    • Georgia 2024 1st half points:
      6 – Clemson
      3 – Kentucky
      7 – Alabama
      6 – Florida
      7 – Ole Miss
      0 – Ga. Tech
      3 – Texas
      3 – Notre Dame
      That’s 35 first-half points in 8 games this season (142 points in the 2nd half of those 8 games)

  5. You missed all the “Heys” in the Schuman transcript. Dude will drop a “hey” on you like Saban will an “ahight”.

  6. With Muschamp focused on family in Vandy , at times, it caused the Dawgs D to uncharacteristically tackle like a bunch of pansy ass dandies. That is fine and dandy if you play for Vandy but not if you follow the precedent set by the previous Dawg D’s modus operandi

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