Georgia Football: Bulldogs Can Thrive Through Defense
When you hear about a college football team "hitting a wall" or not meeting expectations throughout the season, it's generally because the team's defense is underperforming.
That's not the case at all with the Georgia Bulldogs.
The team's total defense ranks 6th in the entire country, and 1st in the SEC. On top of that, Georgia's defense ranks ahead of Clemson, Alabama, Florida, and Auburn, who are all notorious for having elite defenses, year-in and year-out.
That's impressive in itself. But what stats determine how good Georgia's defense is?
For starters, this team is only giving up 12.3 PPG, and they haven't allowed a team to score more than 17 points all year long.
Georgia is only giving up 281.7 YPG, with only 73.3 of the yards coming from the run.
Tyson Campbell has shown tons of improvement from his freshman season.
While the passing defense stats are above average, they could always improve. An easy way to fix that will be by inserting sophomore, Tyson Campbell, back into the lineup, once he's healthy.
Remember the times when Georgia's run defense seemed like it would hold the team back from winning a championship?
Those days are over, as the Bulldogs have established themselves as one of the strongest run defense units in the entire country. Georgia is the only team in the nation who has not allowed a rushing touchdown.
That's impressive.
It all starts with Georgia's experienced front seven, which features five upperclassmen. When they retain guys like Tae Crowder and Tyler Clark for their senior year, it's no wonder why the Bulldogs are having so much success on defense.
On top of the experience up front, Georgia also has leadership from guys in the secondary like J.R. Reed and Richard LeCounte III.
Then, you factor in the guys who are stepping to play larger roles like Monty Rice and Azeez Ojulari from Dan Lanning and Glenn Schumann's "wolfpack", you start to understand why this defense ranks where it is.
Monty Rice making a tackle against Tennessee.
When you take a look at where past champions and playoff teams have ranked nationally, you start to feel a little bit better about Georgia's postseason chances.
Since the College Football Playoff era began, 10 of the 20 playoff-teams have ranked in the Top-10 in total team defense.
Only 3 of the 5 champions ranked outside of the Top-10.
Kirby Smart has established himself as one of the best defensive minds in all of college football.
The fanbase can thank no one else other than Kirby Smart, and the combination of co-defensive coordinators, Dan Lanning and Glenn Schumann. It may be a number of adjustments from last year that is helping Georgia in 2019, but the improved pass rush is definitely one of them.
After only posting 23.5 sacks as a team in 2018, the Bulldogs already have 15 sacks through 6 games this season. This number doesn't represent the unaccounted pressure the defense is applying on nearly every snap.
Just take a look at how true freshman, Nolan Smith Jr., saved the Bulldogs against Notre Dame:
While Georgia still faces a tough road ahead of them to the postseason, the defense won't come across an offense that is currently ranked in the Top-25, nationally. The Bulldogs shouldn't have much trouble in stopping these teams from scoring. Furthermore, it will be a matter of whether or not Georgia can find the endzone on offense.
