Georgia’s defense still seeking chemistry

ATHENS (TNS) — Georgia had one of the nation’s best defenses last season.

Statistically, the Bulldogs ranked sixth overall (294.9 yards per game) and eighth against the pass (168.9). Given head coach Kirby Smart’s track record on the defensive side of the ball, conventional wisdom would suggest more of the same in 2018.

But with the spring season concluding more than a week ago, Georgia’s players themselves aren’t sold that the defense is in that position just yet.

Sure, that’s a familiar talking point for anyone four months away from the start of the regular season. Then again, what the players had to say made sense.

Take, for instance, cornerback Deandre Baker’s opinion of the secondary. At the G-Day spring game, the defensive backs recorded four interceptions. They flew around the football field and made things difficult for both Jake Fromm and Justin Fields at quarterback.

This was apparently not the norm during most of the spring practices, however. And Baker said the rising starters in the secondary — Georgia is replacing Dominick Sanders, Aaron Davis and Malkom Parrish — still have a lot of ground to make up in the back end.

“We got the same amount of talent, if not more,” Baker said. “We just got to get the plays and have the mental focus like last year’s group had.”

What made Georgia’s defense so good last season was its ability for each player to perform his role in accordance to everyone else.

But with nine key contributors on defense leaving, forging the kind of congruence the Georgia defense enjoyed in 2017 has been a challenge.

“You really want to build that chemistry,” defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter said. “At the end of the day, when you’re late in a season, you have teams going against other great teams. You have to have that little bit of an edge. You’re out there playing for that man next to you. You just want to feel like you’re not playing for yourself. You don’t want to let that man down.”

One area Smart would like to see improve is at defensive tackle and inside linebacker. He said the Bulldogs are better at rushing the passer than stopping the run for now. In the SEC, slowing the run is an important part of what a defense needs to do. That’s why Smart is a tad concerned.

Of course, Georgia had Roquan Smith, Reggie Carter, John Atkins and Trenton Thompson to help in this area last season. It will be on the new starters to fill the large voids those former Georgia players are leaving behind.

“We just got to go get a little more stout on the defense, especially at linebacker,” inside linebacker Monty Rice said. “We’re all going to have to play a high level for us to be successful. We just got to work as one unit. For it to happen, we have to take the offseason to get better and have a good fall camp.”

And that will ultimately be the goal. Judging by each individual player’s recruiting ranking, it would seem Georgia could field as good, or better, defense in 2018. But until the unit feels like it has jelled, it will continue to be a work in progress.

“When you start to see coaches not have to police (mistakes) and you have players getting on other players, and those players are accepting it and being like, ‘All right, I’m going to do it here. I’m going to fix it,’” Ledbetter said. “That’s when you start to see change — and that you have a great football team.”