Dell McGee Previews what Georgia is Expecting from TCU's Defense

Players and coaches from TCU and Georgia met with media on Saturday ahead of Monday's College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

Dell McGee, Georgia's run game coordinator and running backs coach, took to the stage to answer questions. The Bulldogs, who average 201.9 yards on the ground per game, are facing a unique challenge in TCU's 3-3-5 Stack defense. McGee spoke about what the Horned Frogs do so well.

"TCU presents a different and a unique style of defense for us as an offense. They're a 3-3-5, where they have very athletic, rangy defensive ends. They got basically two seniors on the edges. They got one true freshman, that's their anchor, that has done a tremendous job coming in and playing as a true freshman. The second level of their defense, their linebackers and their nickel, are all veteran guys." said McGee.

"They're very fast on the second level. [Devin] Winters really sticks out as being one of the leaders and one of their defensive players that really you got to know where he is and be aware of where his locations are on the defense. Then on the back end you got [Tre'vius Hodges-Tomlinson]. Then they got several transfers portal guys that have kind of filled in. They have basically eight seniors and then you add those three transfer portal guys and Hodges I think the outside linebacker, 57, that came from Navy adds to that. So they got a very veteran group. A lot of defensive guys that played a lot of football."

"You can see that they gelled very well. You got to credit Coach [Gary] Patterson for kind of recruiting those younger guys and that development. But then just Coach Dykes and Coach Gillespie, the DC, their new culture and just getting that buy-in for that defense and just an overall team philosophy. So they present a lot of unique issues that we don't see in our league. It's been a lot of hard work for our scout team to try to emulate and give us a picture to help us be successful on Monday night, hopefully."

Running backs Kenny McIntosh, Daijun Edwards, and Kendall Milton will all see time against TCU, playing different roles in Georgia's offense. McGee spoke about how important the depth at that position has been for Georgia.

"I think it's important. Just the depth that we have. We've had a couple of injuries that we have kind of had to withstand and we have a next man up mentality. And I think our guys have really stepped up when guys have went down. In particular Kendall went down and Branson had to play a little bit more than expected early on in the season."

"We got to make sure anyone that's on the trip is prepared, because our standard is: it doesn't matter. If you're old enough, you're good enough and next man up mentality. But all three of those guys are going to be instrumental in us being successful on Monday night. It's not just running the football, it's going to be playing special teams and adding value there. Because TCU does an outstanding job in their teams. Just like I mentioned previously, their style of defense is very unique. They fly around to the ball and they're gang tacklers. So trying to keep our guys fresh is the goal."

If Georgia is to repeat as National Champs, the running back room will be a big reason why. The Bulldogs will need strong performances from their backs on Monday night.

You May Also Like: