How Are They Doing It? Georgia's Defense Continues to Stack Insane Performances
"For the third week, we've had no overlap in our calls. We went Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi State. I don't want to minimize what our team is doing right now in terms of commitment to practice, toughness, and doing things the right way."
Zero overlap. Those were Kirby Smart's words Saturday night following yet another dominating performance from this 2022 version of the Georgia defense. A unit that replaced 8 NFL players from a year ago, 5 of those in the first round, is suddenly allowing just 11.6 points per game — 2nd fewest in the sport. Most programs would be decimated, relying on an offense that's scoring 40.6 PPG. But not Georgia.
So, how are they doing it? How are they managing to stack incredible performance after incredible performance against offenses that could not be any more different? Well, they've got great football players, as shown by the seven straight top-3 recruiting classes, but they've got really smart football players too.
How do we know this? No overlap. As Smart mentioned Saturday night, this football team has seen three very different offenses over the last three weeks. Florida was a tight-end heavy, pro-personnel, play-action football team predicated on the run. Tennessee was a spread you out, play rapid pace, take shots, and make you play one-on-one football on the outside type of football team. Then they finished this stretch of unique opponents off with an air raid team in Mississippi State that forces you to play everything underneath and live in zones most of the day.
Georgia faced three entirely different opponents and according to Kirby Smart, their defensive coordinators Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp had three different gameplans for all three opponents. Put it this way, the Georgia defense has allowed just 45 points in the last three football games combined — Florida, Tennesse, Mississippi State. Those three football teams are currently averaging 36.8 points per game on the season.
Smart said there were at least seven defensive play calls that were implemented this week alone that hadn't been called all season. Georgia is changing their fundamental and schematical identity week in and week out in a sport where players are only allowed to dedicate 20 hours of their time weekly to their craft. What you are watching and witnessing on Saturdays should not go unnoticed. This is watching Belicheck in his prime. This is watching Bill Walsh's offenses have every answer for their opponent. This is unprecedented defensive adjustments from week to week in a sport where most coaches at this point in the season are scrapping together game plans just to survive and keep young players from busting assignments.
Kirby Smart is asking his young players to start fresh every week, learning entirely new concepts amidst an undefeated season.
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