12 TAKEAWAYS - GEORGIA VS CLEMSON: You're (still) Either Elite or You're Not

1) What a difference three years makes... I remember going to the 2021 Georgia-Clemson opener in Charlotte. The hotel I booked that weekend happened to be the same one that UGA’s players and their parents were staying in. Georgia fans were packed into every room and every floor. You could feel the tension from the moment we checked in on Friday afternoon. The Bulldogs had recruited at an elite level, but they were entering the fourth season since the 2017 national title game appearance. It was a put-up or shut-up game, where Georgia was either going to start cashing in its talent or start struggling to sell visions of future titles on the recruiting trail. Kirby Smart phrased that conundrum as, “You’re either elite or you’re not.” Georgia wanted to go where Clemson had been, and the anxiety about getting there was palpable. You could feel it on every red and black clad man, woman and child walking around downtown Charlotte that weekend. You could feel it on every elevator and in every bar. Georgia broke through that night. It was their 5th straight regular season victory. The Bulldogs haven’t lost one since. 

2) I bring that night up for a couple of reasons- A) Kirby Smart was hired at Georgia in December of 2015. That was the first season that Clemson appeared in the College Football Playoff. They made six consecutive CFP appearances in total, and then opened the 2021 season against UGA and have been 30-10 since the start of that season. For years, Georgia fans looked 80 miles up the road to Clemson and saw a program that was competing for titles with Georgia born players. Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence grew up in the Peach State. So did DB’s AJ Terrell and Andrew Booth. The same was true for OT Mitch Hyatt. The Tigers didn’t solely build their roster with Georgia kids, but there were key cornerstones that came out of the Bulldogs’ backyard. Smart was tasked with getting Georgia to the places where Clemson was going, and he has done exactly that. In fact, he’s taken UGA to heights that Clemson never reached. While doing so, he’s made it much harder for Clemson to recruit kids that UGA wants. The two don’t play every year, but they certainly affect one another’s existence on the trail. Five years ago, Jalon Walker might have been wearing a Clemson jersey. On Saturday, he was sacking Cade Klubnik. B) The build up to this game couldn’t have felt anymore different than that one back in 2021. This time around it was Georgia fans who strode into the neutral site stadium with an air of relaxed confidence. Smart said in his postgame that he loves playing these types of games because they feel like CFP environments. Well, that’s old hat for the Dawgs now. I was in the tunnel as UGA came on and off the field for warmups, and there was no need for fake juice. They looked focused, but they also looked relaxed and confident. Georgia’s coaches weren’t scrambling or repeating any last minute instructions to their players. They had prepared for this game and there was nothing left to do but go play and execute… Seeing how comfortable Georgia felt, and everything that ensued over the following four quarters, was a reminder of just how high the Bulldogs have ascended. They passed Clemson a long time ago, this was just a confirmation of what we all knew before. The Bulldogs are the sport’s alpha now. They know it. You know it. I know it. Hell, everyone knows it, and Georgia seems entirely comfortable living in that spotlight. There was not a single face in that tunnel that lacked confidence in itself on Saturday. 

3) Once Georgia got onto the field, it was about as ho-hum of a performance as you could ever see in a 31-point win in Week 1. The score was 6-0 at halftime, but UGA felt in control throughout and finished the game with a massive +3.8 yards per play differential. Let’s start on offense… I saw a lot of people who seemed unhappy with the game plan and play calling in the first-half, but I wasn’t surprised by it. In my preview piece I mentioned that I expected a lot of screens, swing passes, jet sweeps and other plays out wide. It made sense with the style of defense Clemson plays. The Tigers like to bring extra pass rushers and load the box. Georgia putting the ball on the perimeter sends the message to Clemson that they’re going to have to tackle one-on-one in space if they want to continue to load the box. It made sense in a vacuum, but I really felt like it looked smarter as the game went along. The stuff we saw on the opening drives kind of chummed the water for other concepts that were built on top of things the defense saw on the outside. To be frank, I thought there was some bad execution early on. There were times WR’s missed blocks on the perimeter, and there were times where the OL missed blocks early. There were also guys in space who didn’t make a man miss one-on-one. The play-action throw to Luckie for 31 yards midway through the 2nd quarter was really nicely designed. Then Georgia ran the swing pass to Robinson on the very next play, and Truss literally just kind of dove onto the ground in a poor attempt to cut-block Peter Woods at the snap. Georgia did throw downfield a bit more in the 2nd half, but they also started executing the East/West stuff. Georgia picked its personnel better after halftime, which was a credit to both Bobo and the position coaches he works with. They realized Frazier was the hot RB and they also recognized how well Delp was working in the trenches. Game one of the season is probably the hardest to write an opening script for as an OC. There’s no sample size to work off of when looking at the opponent’s defense. Georgia ran something early that was based off of Clemson’s historical identity and then they used in-game data to adjust that and continue to identify better matchups. What was really impressive to me is that Bobo was able to do that while still building off of the concepts he had already shown the Tigers. That tells me that Bobo spent a lot of time building the pyramid of his offense and understanding what the solves and counters are for things that aren’t popping. He had his base concepts in the first half, and then he went to the connected concepts on level two and level three in the second half. None of these guys are perfect, but the best coordinators are ones who can take in data and adjust. Bobo did some of that on Saturday, and Georgia’s players settled in too. 

UGA had just a 27% Success Rate** in the first quarter. Then they had a 42% SR in the 2nd and a 53% SR in the 3rd. The 4th quarter was 40% but that number includes the clock killing snaps late in the game with backups. In total, UGA had a 42% Offensive Success Rate for the game, which is more than respectable against a Clemson defense that is well coached and strong up front. Georgia really shifted the game in the 2nd half with its performance on Passing Downs***. UGA had just a 20% SR on Passing Downs in the 1st quarter and a 17% SR in the 2nd quarter. That jumped to 40% in the 3rd quarter and 67% in the 4th quarter. For the game the Dawgs had a 32% Passing Downs Success Rate. Simply put, UGA had less plays from behind the chains after halftime, but they were better at converting the ones they faced. All told, UGA had just a 36% 3rd Down Success Rate. Not horrible, but not great. It’s worth remembering this was a top ten defense in almost every major category last year. This was a very solid performance considering the opponent. 

**Success Rate is an efficiency metric that determines the success of a play. Successful plays meet one of the following criteria: 

• The offense scored
• 1st downs which gain at least 50% of the yards to go
• 2nd downs which gain at least 70% of the yards to go
• 3rd and 4th downs which gain at least 100% of the yards to go

***Passing Downs for our purposes are not actually defined as passing plays. It’s just advanced stat lingo for 2nd downs with 7 or more yards to go or 3rd and 4th downs with 5 or more yards to go.

4) Georgia used motion on 40% of its plays on Saturday, which was almost twice as much as anyone else in the SEC in Week 1. They used Jet motions on 14 snaps (running a WR from one side of the formation to the other while having them pass in front of the QB where they could potentially take a handoff on a jet sweep. An orbit motion is the same, but the player goes behind the QB instead of in front of them). The Bulldogs passed off 7 of those jet motions and averaged 10.6 yards per play on those 7 passes. The usage of Arian Smith specifically was really nice, and it hopefully can help illustrate my point about Bobo building onto what he laid down in the first half. How Georgia used Smith to start the 3rd quarter was at the core of how they jolted the offense into gear to start the 2nd half. Bobo worked Arian as the motion man a lot in this game. He got him on jet motions that led to WR Screens, end-arounds and pop passes. The first drive of the second half started with a jet sweep to Smith for 7 yards. The very next play was the explosive pass to him down the right boundary for 32 yards. It came on a fake orbit motion where Smith came towards Beck and then reversed field at the snap and slid up the sideline as Dillon Bell ran off the Clemson safety. This was a really good sequence/play design. It forced the Clemson slot corner, #7 Khalil Barnes, to leverage really far inside because he was expecting to follow Smith across the formation and didn’t want to be behind if UGA ran another jet sweep. Two plays later, UGA got into a 2 TE set and ran a jet sweep to Bell for 27 yards that set them up in the red zone. It was perfectly designed for a defense that was playing a 300 pound Peter Woods on the edge. UGA left him unblocked and let Bell run past him, and that let Georgia’s left side climb up and start sealing for Bell at the second level. Punch, counterpunch, punch, etc… 

5) Bobo’s entire plan for Smith was coherent and cohesive. Everything built onto itself to show the Clemson defense something, and then trick them into thinking they were about to see it again. For years now I have typed things like, “If Arian Smith could put some short to intermediate routes on tape…” I’ve always believed he would be a monster if DB’s started having to respect his ability to catch an 8-12 yard curl or a deep comeback. It can open up all sorts of double moves, and vertical shots. He was open at one point on Saturday on a deep over where Beck elected to throw a shorter completion, but the respect for Arian’s speed helped open things up behind him after he ran defenders off deep. Arian got the start and was featured heavily in last year’s opener against UT-Martin, but he was targeted 5 times and had 0 catches. On Saturday, he had 5 catches on 5 targets for 56 yards. This was the first time we’ve seen him have real consistent value instead of being just a deep ball receiver plugged into the game to try and get behind somebody. His 30 snaps as a receiver were the most on the team, and he played 11 of them in the slot (34.4%). He averaged 11.2 yards per catch while having an Average Depth of Target of just 3.6 yards. Remember what we always talk about… Healthy offenses have a lot of YAC. Arian created 38 yards of YAC in this game, which was 7.6 yards after the catch per reception. This game was a great indicator of future success for him, and this tape should also set up a lot of double moves for big games down the road. Above all, this was the most physical he has ever looked to me. I commented to somebody in the press box that it seemed like he was blocking his butt off on the perimeter every play, and he actually graded out with the 2nd highest PFF Run Block Grade on the team (79.0). Smith had a block in front of Frazier on his 24-yard catch, and he had the key seal block that let Frazier break his long run on the toss play to the left side in the 4th quarter. Perhaps most importantly, Smith was fighting through contact at the top of his routes instead of looking for PI flags. This was a man’s game on the outside. Officials kept the flags in their pockets, and he was totally comfortable in that environment. Seeing him develop into this type of player AND continue to have his speed is a huge win for UGA’s culture and development. It’s also an interesting case study in retention in the portal era. He didn’t want to leave, and Georgia didn’t want him to leave. That decision is paying off for both parties so far. Mark my words, if he puts together a full year of this type of tape and turns all of these things into habits he will have a big 2024 season before sticking in the NFL for a while.

6) The run game on Saturday was kind of fascinating to watch. We heard all through camp about how great Branson Robinson looked post-surgery, and I don’t doubt that intel. We also saw him look tentative at times on Saturday. UGA’s outside run game was where it found yardage in the end, but it was also its Gap Scheme concepts that ended up being its big hitters in the run game. Georgia was a more Zone Scheme heavy team last year, and they started the game running more zone with Robinson. There was a play or two where I thought he had blocking setup and good lanes if he bounced things outside, but he looked hesitant to do that. There were others where the blocking wasn’t good for him. Robinson averaged just 1.29 Yards After Contact per an Attempt (YCO/A) on Saturday, but 5 of his 7 carries came on zone runs. Georgia ran Inside Zone Read 10 times against Clemson while running Inside Zone on another 3 plays. The Dawgs had just 3.1 yards per carry on those plays. They also had just a 23% Success Rate on those 13 Inside Zone plays. I say all of that to say that Robinson looked like a guy coming off a major knee injury who hadn’t played in a football game since January of 2023, but he also didn’t have great space to work with most of the time. Georgia ended up with 150 rush yards at 6.3 yards a pop, but that was very rooted in a few explosive runs. The Success Rate was just 37.5%. The play that Frazier popped on the left side was an Outside Zone toss, but UGA ran it just twice on the day. Inside Power (gap scheme) was more successful than Inside Zone. Georgia ran it 6 times and got 30 yards out of it for a 40% Success Rate. 

What all that means is hard to totally say considering the sample size, but the simple analysis is that UGA was not able to move Clemson up front by sheer force. It needed its OL to use leverage and numbers to bust some productive runs. That’s totally fine if you know it. Any OL is going to look better with a RB who breaks tackles. Frazier broke 4 tackles on Saturday and he had 10 YCO/A because of it. Cash Jones had one rush attempt but it went for 15 yards and a TD because he broke a tackle when he stiff-armed Clemson’s DB through the Earth’s crust. Etienne and Frazier are going to break tackles, so I wouldn’t be concerned about the run game moving forward. What was clear in this game was that outside runs were the recipe for success. Oscar Delp was absolutely superb with his run blocking in this game. He pinned down defenders on multiple occasions. He is really good on pulls and UGA should lean into that more. To my eyes, the combination of Delp and Greene on the left side was the driver behind the lion’s share of UGA’s best runs. The stats agreed too. The Dawgs had 5 carries for 53 yards behind the Delp/Greene combo and another 4 carries for 22 yards when running off the LT side with just Greene. Yurosek looked a bit lost as a receiver, but not as a blocker. He can play in this offense, at least as an extra run blocker. I thought Wilson got better as the game went along, but it took him sometime to settle in as a run blocker. Ratledge was strong. Georgia’s run game got its first real momentum when Frazier came in late in the first half and got downhill behind Ratledge. If Truss could have held his blocks a bit longer on Frazier’s first two carries he may have busted into the third level of the defense. 

In the end, UGA’s top RB didn’t play against one of the best front sevens they will face and they still put together a productive day on the ground. In Frazier they have another dude on the level of some of Georgia’s greats. He has the juice. The feet are insanely quick, the vision is next level, and the contact balance is exceptional. Just wait until he gets involved in the downfield passing game too. The way he cut and moved was visibly different than everyone on that field, and his little lateral shimmy cuts that he uses to bounce outside and in are going to be really tricky to tackle. That move actually reminds me a bit of Fred Taylor. With Etienne and Frazier this team will have two RB’s who can break a tackle at anytime and crease a defense for a long run. The things that will do to the play-action pass game will be significant. It’s going to be something to watch. 

7) The added bonus of the motion usage was that it forced defenders to betray whether they were in man or zone. If a man in motion is followed across the field then he’s in man coverage. If a man in motion is passed off at the middle of the field and a defender on the other side of the formation then picks him up, we can safely assume those defenders are probably playing zone coverage. There are a lot of times where safeties are going to be in Cover 1 or Cover 2 (zone coverage with half or whole field responsibilities up top) while more shallow defenders are in zone or man, but the motion still tips off a lot. So, Bobo was basically pulling defenders out of the box, and giving Beck and the rest of the unit the chance to see the defense’s hand. Carson Beck’s average time to throw in this game was just 2.38 seconds, which was really impressive considering the fact UGA’s receivers weren’t getting a ton of separation early on. In my opinion, the motions Bobo worked into the game plan were key to letting Beck get the ball out quickly. He’s a quick processor already, but if you give him hints pre-snap he’s going to be even quicker. It was good game planning by UGA. Beck was 0/3 on 20+ yard attempts in this game, but he was humming on every other level. The plays behind the line of scrimmage combined to be 9/10 for 6.1 yards per an attempt, which is efficient but not explosive. Beck was 8/11 on 0-9 yard throws despite two drops and got an average of 5 yards after the catch per reception out of this WR’s. That put his ADOT at just 3.2 yards, which basically translates to a lot of short throws. On 10-19 yard throws he was lethal. Beck went 6/9 for 127 yards (14.1 YPA) and he did it despite not having a ton of large windows to throw into. The motion had the added bonus of helping UGA in play-action. There were some fake jet sweeps built into the pass game in addition to traditional play-action. Beck was 10/14 for 138 YDS (9.9 YPA) on his play-action throws. The game really started to open up after UGA got Frazier going and then came back to play-action. The first play of the 2nd drive of the 2nd half was a play-action fake to Frazier where the LB bit so hard that Frazier leaked out into the flat and then got 24 easy yards running upfield behind vertical routes that Clemson had cleared back to cover. 

Everyone wants the sexy deep ball, and hey, I get it. The counter to that is that Clemson respected UGA’s vertical routes all day and it let Beck feed balls in behind the defense once they got going downfield. He only threw one uncatchable pass all day. Beck deserves a ton of credit for valuing possession of the ball in this game. He understood the value of field position and the way UGA’s defense was dominating, and he played a very efficient game without Georgia doing anything exotic or throwing an interceptable pass. He never pressed or got greedy and he let the game come to him. He also was very timely with his legs and used them without taking hits. I continue to be impressed with the ways he improves as he gets more game reps and experience. He’s not just talented physically, but he has also become a very savvy player.

😎 I said in our preview that blitzing Beck and leaving the secondary in man was a great way for Clemson to get lit up, and Clemson seemed to agree. They only blitzed him on 8 of his dropbacks, and he had 4 completions for 64 yards. Part of that was UGA’s play calling forcing them out of those blitzes, and part of that was Clemson getting pressure with four rushers. They didn’t really get to Beck much, but they were moving him and forcing him to be uncomfortable, which is really just as effective in some ways. The saving grace for Georgia and Beck was that the middle three of the offensive line was borderline dominant in pass protection. Fairchild, Wilson and Beck had 108 combined pass block snaps and Fairchild gave up the lone pressure between the three. The other 5 pressures that UGA allowed came at the tackle spots. Truss allowed 2 in 29 snaps, Freeling allowed the sack of Beck in the red zone and then no other pressures across 12 snaps, and Greene allowed 2 pressures in 35 pass block snaps… I saw some of the offensive linemen struggling to get their cleats planted at times. On one of Beck’s better throws Truss was literally sliding backwards with his feet just slipping under him. He ended up doing a split on the play, but he hung in long enough for Carson to get the ball out. 

Speaking frankly, the tackle situation is something to monitor. Greene is a stud and he handled Woods pretty damn well throughout the day in my opinion. I had thought we might see a better performance from Truss, but he was just a half step slow on some things. Freeling got fooled by a simulated pressure and was caught leaning by Woods on the sack in the red zone, but he was seeing his first action with the starters against a veteran DL. The play that made me scratch my head was when Truss just sort of dropped onto the ground at Woods’s feet on the swing pass to Robinson. It was poorly executed and it got the play blown up for a five yard loss after an explosive pass. He also got bull rushed a couple times in key situations. All told, Truss was UGA’s lowest graded OL (and second lowest graded player overall) in run block and its second lowest graded OL in pass block. I think he’s a good presence and a leader on the team, but I do believe Freeling’s ceiling to be higher. If UGA comes up against a future NFL pass rusher on the left edge then that player could blow a game up playing against Truss. This was why we saw the play calling shift so dramatically in the SEC Championship last year after Mims was hurt. I don’t want to pick on the kid, but I think UGA would be smart to give Freeling a long look before it has to go to Tuscaloosa. 

9) The wideouts did a good job of creating productive offense on the boundaries in UGA’s first game without Bowers and McConkey. Georgia lived on Bowers a ton the last few years, and a lot of that yardage came working safeties and linebackers and nickel corners. The young boundary corners were supposed to be a question mark and Georgia hit them like they were. CB #10 Jeadyn Lukas was targeted 8 times for 7 REC’s and 57 yards plus a TD. CB #20 Aveion Terrell was targeted 10 times for 6 REC’s and 81 YDS. After that, UGA did a good job of picking out matchups it liked. One of those was Frazier on substitute LB #21 Kobe McCloud. Another one was Humphreys in man coverage against S #24 Tyler Venables. 

On the whole, I still have some concerns about UGA’s wideouts and their ability to get separation. Young is a player who should use his size more than his speed, so he isn’t really included in that. Dillon Bell is so dynamic with the ball in his hands, and I’ve started workshopping a pinball related nickname for him because of how he just bounces off tackles. I also thought he struggled to get space on a younger cornerback. The longest pass he had came in extremely tight coverage where Beck had to thread a throw into a tiny space. One of the first half drives ended when he was asked to run all the way across the field on a shallow drag route on 3rd & 4. That should be a play where a WR gets some space out of man coverage, but Bell was tackled right as he caught the ball and UGA was forced into 4th down. Bell had just 4 Yards After the Catch per Reception (16 yards of YAC total) in this game, and Humphreys busted two massive catches after coming in and playing a similar role. London had 42 yards after the catch on 2 receptions when he entered. He made that impact on just 5 receiving snaps. Smart said his catch on the first 3rd down crossing route might have been the play of the game, and it says a ton about his development in Georgia’s system that he made the right read and cut his route properly in front of two defenders on that play. Beck had to trust him to be there before he threw it and it was a live read with no pre-snap communication. 

Bell has a ton of value for sure, but it might look different than him being an every down WR at X. Or, maybe that was a symptom of UGA not taking many vertical shots in this game. It seems clear that Lovett is an elite athlete who can make plays in space, but I would like to see him go downfield more as the season runs on. We know Arian can move as well. It’s only week one though, and UGA seemed determined to get the ball out quickly. It will be interesting to see how the WR rotation evolves as the season goes on. It seems like Humphreys and his 12.6 Yards per Route Run earned more playing time. No other UGA WR eclipsed the 2.00 YRR mark that is our historical benchmark for high level WR play.

10) The defensive performance was so dominant that it almost took on a routine feeling, but looking back at the game I was struck by the waves of front seven players coming in and executing properly whenever they were put into the game. This was an absolute smothering on all levels. Clemson’s explosive play rate was just 2%, which was in the 2nd percentile amongst all Week 0 and Week 1 performances in college football so far this year. Clemson had just 2 scoring opportunities (trips inside the 40 yardline) and managed just 1.5 points per opportunity. The Tigers had a 23% Success Rate in the 1st quarter and that dropped to 14% in the 2nd. It bumped to 33% in the 3rd before being 40% thanks to substitutions in the 4th, but Clemson got nothing explosive besides the one long pass to Williams over Everette’s outstretched arm. Georgia missed just 2 tackles all game long. 

Nowhere did things seem more night and day from last year than at the LB position. Clemson had clearly done its homework and watched its tape on the outside runs that UGA was giving up towards the end of last year. It got one 7 yard gain on a toss sweep to the left side early on during a play where Damon Wilson was held. After that, it was like UGA’s backers were teleporting to the ball on the perimeter. The Tigers ball carriers forced 2 missed tackles, but that was all. Clemson had 4 outside runs off the right side for a total of -1 yard. They had 3 other attempts off the left side for a total of 3 yards. All told, 8 outside runs for 12 yards was all they could muster. The longest run of the day for Clemson was 9 yards and that came when Jalon Walker got caught coming on an A-Gap blitz from the ILB spot. Georgia had 38 tackles in this game for 22 STOP plays (failures for the offense). The UGA inside backers read everything on the ground like a group that was auto programmed to fill run lanes. From up in the press box, there were times where I confused one LB with another because the level of play was so high amongst all 3. Mondon looks like Mondon again, back healthy and moving exceptionally well. For Allen and Raylen Wilson, this was just so different than what we saw late last season. We have known they are very talented players, but this was the first time they just saw ball and hit ball. Last November we watched them stutter and hesitate and take false moves or bite on fakes. This game you saw them glide around the field and read plays before they had a chance to develop. The only gripe you could have would be Allen missing 2 tackles. They allowed virtually nothing in the passing game. Combined, the three allowed 3 catches for 4 yards, and This trio of linebackers is special. You will talk about them for years to come, and you may talk about them on a level that reaches or surpasses the trio from 2021. 

 

11) On the defensive line, the story was the same. Maybe not flawless execution at every moment, but waves of depth coming in and playing tough. They played physical and unselfishly. They played Georgia defense. They were beating Clemson defenders on pass rush a lot, but Klubnik was spitting the ball out on most of his attempts just to avoid getting hit. Georgia’s front seven had a havoc rate (TFL, Sack, Turnover, PBU) of 15%, which is high. Last year’s team had a 9.7% front seven havoc rate for the full season. Georgia didn’t have to blitz its ILB’s much at all. It brought Starks from the STAR spot four times and it brought Bolden twice, but UGA affected Klubnik with four a whole lot in this game. 

The OLB/Edge group is ridiculously talented, and they set the edge all afternoon. Mykel is still Mykel, and the play he made solo on the backside to beat two blockers with his speed when Klubnik kept the ball in the red zone was something guys who are 260 shouldn't be able to do. That eye discipline and then jumping in front of the blockers saved a TD. That was a play that lots of guys can’t make, but talented guys don’t make those plays if they’re not well coached and taking that coaching. We knew Williams was good, but we didn't know exactly how the rest of the guys would look. Chambliss was extremely steady in run defense. Damon Wilson beat the RT on the first 3rd down of the game and showed his athleticism in pursuit. He was really good in the run game for a guy with his speed rushing skills, and I was impressed with his maturation. He led UGA with 3 pressures and got 21 snaps total. Gabe Harris was extremely physical in his 15 snaps. He blew up blockers and knocked run plays off their paths. He held his space at times when two blockers converged on him. I absolutely love his game, and he may have been the biggest stand out of the game on defense in terms of showing us something we didn’t know before. He is a dude I want in the trenches on 3rd and short. He punches up out of his stance and strikes the offensive lineman across from him. And then of course there was Jalon Walker. He isn’t a full-time EDGE, but he’s damn good when he’s there. He had 2 pressures and a sack on 6 pass rush snaps, but what was jarring to me was the 3rd & 1 play he made in the 2nd half after getting the TFL on 2nd down the play before. He held his space despite getting held and then made the tackle to force a punt. If he’s going to defend the run like that then he’s never coming off the field again. He tied Raylen Wilson for the team lead in STOP plays, but he made at least 2 of those from the DL instead of as an ILB. He played 26 snaps, and 14 of them were on the defensive line while 12 were at inside linebacker. Walker is a total chess piece and he can cover better than anyone talks about as well. Kirby said after the game that UGA needs to get him and Mykel on the field together more. That is a recipe for mayhem waiting to happen, and I bet we see it a whole lot in Tuscaloosa a few weeks from now. 

On the interior, I thought Georgia got really gritty performances from Stackhouse, Miller and Ingram-Dawkins. Those guys played a lot more snaps than UGA’s interior linemen normally play and they two-gapped all day while holding their space inside. Miller’s motor was really high and he turned in 2 STOP plays from the inside. Ingram-Dawkins has always been known more for his pass rush, but he was strong for UGA while playing unselfish team defense and taking up blockers. Stackhouse looked a bit quicker than last year and he played a good if not great game. Interested to see if he gets better as UGA’s rotation gets deeper and he can go all out on more snaps. Brinson flashed a nice pass rush move before he went out too. UGA needs him healthy to get pass rush from the DT spot. Once this group gets Hall and McLeod back it can be really highly functioning. It feels like it’s going to be extremely hard to run on them, but they’ll have to find a bit more interior pass rush. It was encouraging to see them get enough pressure with 4 to hurry Klubnik. The inside backers didn’t have to blitz as much, and that will make the defense hard to beat on the back end.
 

12) It’s hard to translate just how impressive UGA’s secondary was on Saturday. It’s not just the skills of playing coverage and blanketing Clemson and tackling on the back end. Not having Aguero threw everyone’s positions into flux, and they rotated throughout the game. Every time one moves another guy moves. The dance that went on between Starks, Bolden, Jackson and Thomas showed a really impressive knowledge of the defense. Those guys communicated really well with one another and the rest of the team, and they allowed almost nothing all day. Thomas gave up 1 REC for 3 yards on that stage in his first career start. Starks played out of position for half the game and gave up 1 catch for 12 yards while making the most athletic interception I have seen in person in my entire life. Jackson gave up 1 catch on 2 targets for 12 yards and showed why he’s been impossible to knock out of the picture. And then there was KJ Bolden- That was a case study in why recruiting matters. He played more snaps on Saturday than anyone on the team, and he was tough as hell. He slammed into Clemson’s big TE in the open field. He chopped down Mafah in the flat on the first third down of the season. He almost tracked down the long deep ball that I think Klubnik was trying to throw away as well. His range is insane, and he is like Starks in that I think he could play CB if he wanted too. He and Malaki just became the best safety tandem in college football. He will have a freshman moment or a tough game at some point, but you can tell with how he plays and the way Smart talks about him that he will likely have the mental and physical toughness to be made better by it. In his first college game he played 28 coverage snaps and had 8 yards receiving. 

The corner tandem ended up being Everette and Humphrey after a long offseason of speculating on who would win the #2 job. To be frank, I thought Humphrey out played Everette by a little bit. He gave up just 1 catch for 10 yards and Clemson only tried him once. Everette drew some tougher matchups at times though. He gave up 3 REC’s on 3 targets for 61 yards. The big play was the long ball fading to the sideline for Williams. It was a fantastic catch, but Everette needs to develop the confidence to start playing more balls in the air. UGA will face much better outside receivers as the season goes along. I still think Daniel Harris will have a role to play in this season too. We should find out more about this CB group when Georgia goes up against Kentucky’s group of wideouts in a couple weeks. It’s hard to find much to gripe about in a performance where the Bulldogs allowed just 4.9 yards per attempt to Clemson in the passing game. Especially when you add in the way Georgia’s secondary tackled all day. There is nobody in the sport who tackles like Georgia does year after year.