FanSided college football writer Josh Yourish knows that Georgia’s roster is practically flawless, but he suspects that Kirby Smart may rearrange the depth chart at these two critical defensive positions.
It’s difficult to find problems on the Georgia Bulldogs’ roster. Georgia fell to Alabama in the SEC Championship game, ending a 29-game winning streak, an unprecedented level of supremacy in modern times. You might easily argue that the Dawgs were one of the four best teams in 2023, and they will undoubtedly be one of the 12 best in 2024, securing a position in the College Football Playoff.
However, there are still a few positions that Kirby Smart has indicated that he’d like to improve upon this offseason. When a national championship is the expectation, perfection is mandatory, and a few changes to the depth chart could get Georgia a bit closer to perfection.
Here are the two players who I have identified as potential chinks in Georgia’s impenetrable armor.
The Bulldogs weren’t immune to the roster churn that is becoming the new normal in college football. This offseason, they’ve had 20 outgoing transfers and have just brought six to Athens. However, Kirby doesn’t build through the portal and he already locked up the No. 1 high school class in the country again. Maybe some of those young players could see snaps right away on one of the best teams in the nation.
Georgia lost the SEC Championship in the trenches to a big Alabama offensive line and a quarterback with running back feet and linebacker physique. The Bulldogs only allowed 114 running yards, but the loss highlighted the razor-thin margins between an undefeated national champion and a one-loss Orange Bowl champion.
In 2022, Jalen Carter led the Georgia defense, which allowed only 77.1 running yards per game. The 2023 edition did not include a huge superstar on the defensive line to instill fear in the rest of the country. That defense was led by the secondary, and the passing
The defense improved from 54th to ninth, while the run defense dropped from first to 20th in the country, allowing 113.6 rushing yards per game.
It was still an elite defense capable of winning it all, but the Crimson Tide took advantage of its weakness. Nazir Stackhouse led Georgia defensive lineman in snaps with 409, although he only recorded two total quarterback pressures and 24 tackles. Both pressures resulted in sacks, but he was not a reliable disruptor in the center of the defensive line.
Stackhouse returned for his fifth year at Georgia, maybe because the NFL was not interested. The Bulldogs need to better up front, and it may begin by taking snaps away from a recognized commodity like Stackhouse in favor of unproven talent like Jordan Hall, who will be entering his true sophomore season and recorded eight pressures in his 177 snaps last year.
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