Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs Try to Answer Lingering Pass Rush Questions

Georgia coach Kirby Smart takes the field with his team before the start of the SEC championship game against Texas in Atlanta, on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

ATHENS - The falloff in sack production for Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs has been noticeable over the last few years.

Then came the low point - 2025. The Dawgs accounted for just 20 sacks last year. That number is the worst production in that statistical category UGA has ever had under the 11th-year head coach.

Georgia has gone from being a consistent top-three team in the SEC in terms of total sacks to last place in the 16-team league. UGA’s 20 sacks means the Dawgs averaged only 1.4 sacks a game a season ago, which is nearly half of what the Bulldogs’ defense averaged during back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. It is significantly lower than the 37 sacks recorded in 2024.

One Bulldog said looking at the number of sacks in a game or a season isn’t getting the entire picture of the way the Dawgs are playing.

“We don't necessarily go off stats in our defense,” Quintavious Johnson said when asked about having so few sacks a season ago. Johnson said the Dawgs’ goals do not explicitly include a number for sacks.

“We know that the four goals to being a championship defense are stopping the run, eliminate explosives, no scores in the red area and getting off the field on third down,” Johnson said.

Now Smart, Johnson and the rest of the Bulldogs have to figure out not just how to get pressure on signal callers, but also how to bring those quarterbacks to the ground.

“To say that we are where we need to be in the pass rush - I don't know that we are,” Smart confessed to reporters after the Bulldogs’ final scrimmage of the fall.

One issue could be pass rushers that are missing right now due to injuries. Georgia is eager to see the return of Gabe Harris, who missed the Sugar Bowl with an injury he sustained at the end of the regular season.

“We are not where we need to be in terms of pass rush because we are missing some guys,” Smart told reporters earlier this week. “We're having to do it in other ways. We'll have to do that probably all year in terms of the way we create pressure and how we go about it.”

The return of Harris will help the Bulldogs buttress the loss of defensive lineman Amaris Williams, who transferred to Georgia from Auburn earlier this season, but has been out since suffering an ACL injury this spring.

“With Amaris Williams being out we’ve got to find ways to rush the passer,” Smart admitted to reporters.