"Who would you rank as the coaches most important to UGA's success?"
A DawgsCentral user posting under the name PiousMonken posed that question to me in the spring of 2023, and I quickly realized that a good answer would require quite a bit of consideration.
When thinking about the question, I kept coming back to an old football cliche, "It's not the X's and the O's, but the Jimmys and the Joes that make the difference." I found myself considering the players who suit up on Saturdays. Good gameplans and great play calls are key to the success of any college football program, but they are usually only as good as the personnel executing them. With that in mind, I decided to broaden the scope of the rankings beyond members of the coaching staff.
It sparked a series of longform articles called 23 For 2023. The premise was simple- Profile the 23 people who were most important to Georgia’s success on the gridiron in 2023. To create such a list, one must make value judgments on what on and off-field assets are most important to a modern college football program.
It focused on players and coaches within the UGA program. Collectively, the series served as a giant preview for the season ahead. It became a favorite of subscribers, and it forced me to ask questions that I hadn’t before.
This year, I am bringing the list back once again. Naturally, it will be called 24 for 2024.
With his former mentor now manning a microphone on ESPN, Kirby Smart is college football’s most accomplished coach. In 2024, Smart will have to navigate significant staff turnover and seismic changes within the sport itself. Georgia came up short of a third straight national championship in 2023, but winning it all this season would give the Bulldogs three titles in four years. That achievement would cement the program as a modern dynasty.
Whether or not Georgia can reach that lofty pedestal, and how they go about trying to do it, will be largely influenced by the roles these 24 individuals play.
Today we continue the rankings with #18. The first few entries in this series will not be paywalled, but as we get further down the list it will become a subscriber’s only feature. Let’s get after it…
Previous Entries
#23 - Will a True Nose Tackle emerge for the Dawgs?
#18 - Chidera Uzo-Diribe
Success breeds turnover in many industries. There are few businesses where it happens as rapidly as it does in college football. Dan Lanning’s meteoric rise from 28 year-old Alabama graduate assistant to 35 year-old Oregon head coach is a perfect example. He left the Tide after a national championship season and joined Memphis as the ILB coach for two years. After a 10-3 record in 2017, Lanning got a call from Kirby Smart to come to Athens. After 4 years as a position coach and 3 years as a coordinator, Lanning was running a high level program of his own.
Lanning left for Oregon following Georgia’s 2021 national championship season. When he left, the Bulldogs had to replace its defensive play caller and its outside linebackers coach. Georgia recruited and developed stars at the Edge/OLB position under Lanning.
Look back on the 2020 roster and you’ll find a nuclear absurdity of talent at the OLB position…
- Azeez Ojulari’s talent was focused and honed by Lanning before he became the 50th overall pick in the 2nd round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
- Former 5* Adam Anderson went from a skinny pass rush specialist to a defender who could set the edge and play gap sound football under Lanning’s watch. Off-field trouble would derail his chances of going pro.
- Jermaine Johnson came to UGA and was coached into a guy who became a first-round pick and the ACC Defensive Player of the Year after one season at FSU. People close to the Seminoles’ program said he was the best player on the team the moment he stepped foot on campus.
- Nolan Smith was a 5* true freshman in 2020. Lanning helped him develop pass rush moves and learn to two-gap against the run. He became a key starter for the 2021 Bulldogs and went onto be drafted #30 overall by the Eagles in the 2023 NFL Draft.
- Robert Beal Jr. was a reserve on that 2020 team, but he began to shine late in the 2021 season and became a key starter for UGA’s 2022 team that went 15-0. He was drafted in the 5th round of the 2023 NFL Draft by the 49ers.
Lanning didn’t just develop stars. He signed them too. He was the primary recruiter for Nolan Smith when he was the #1 overall player in his recruiting class. Lanning also had a hand in landing highly rated players at other positions. Five-star prospects like Malaki Starks, Brock Vandagriff, Nakobe Dean, and Marvin Jones Jr. were all close to Lanning before signing with the Bulldogs.
Kirby Smart took his time finding Lanning’s replacement. The hire was an important one for his program, and the coach he brought in needed to be the right fit. Do you want to coach OLB’s at Georgia for Kirby Smart? Here are some of the boxes you’ll have to check…
- Enough skill and charisma as a recruiter to ensure that UGA lands the most talented players in the country. Kirby Smart has explained his philosophy many times in the past- You can’t out-scheme talent, so you better have the best players and you better have them at every position.
- A coach who is confident enough to find their voice amongst sharp defensive minds like Smart, Glenn Schumann, Will Muschamp, and now Travaris Robinson, while also being humble enough to be collaborative with experienced coaches who have a proven track record of success.
- After all of that, you’ve got to teach the players in the OLB room how to play in UGA’s defense. The Bulldogs ask a lot out of their edge defenders. They have to be able to “two-gap.” That means the OLB has to control the run lane to the outside of the offensive tackle as well as stopping any carries that try to come between the tackle and the guard.
Do you remember Nolan Smith’s consecutive forced turnovers against Florida in 2021? He lined up with his hand in the dirt on the end of the line and played both gaps on the first play. UF quarterback Anthony Richardson took off downhill towards Smith’s edge. Nolan pushed off his blocker and met Richardson in the hole before ripping the ball out of hands as he fought for more yards. On the next drive, Smith lined up outside the box in front of a Bunch Set of UF wideouts. Richardson dropped back to pass, and Smith backpedaled 12 yards deep while moving towards the middle of the field. It was there where he caught an interception that DE Travon Walker had tipped into the air from his own spot in UGA’s zone coverage scheme.
Being able to make both of those plays requires versatility, strength, and a great deal of intelligence out of one position. That level of play is the standard that Georgia has come to expect from its OLB’s, and the position is a key part of how Georgia creates havoc for opposing offenses.
The Hire
After an extensive search, Smart hired Chidera Uzo-Diribe from TCU as Georgia’s new OLB coach on February 6, 2022. Not yet 30 years old, his name was previously unknown to many fans. Uzo-Diribe had no previous connections to the Georgia staff prior to 2022. A phone call with Glenn Schumann turned into a video call with other members of UGA’s staff. Pretty soon, it became clear that Uzo-Diribe was a fit for what Smart, Schumann and Muschamp wanted on the defensive staff.
Uzo-Diribe starred as a player at Colorado, and his 17 sacks are the sixth most in school history. In 2013, he was on the final watch list for the Ted Hendricks Award, given annually to college football’s best defensive end.
Sources said that Uzo-Diribe fit in well at UGA right off the bat. Veteran returning OLB’s like Nolan Smith and Robert Beal Jr. took to him almost instantly. As a younger coach, Uzo-Diribe related to his players well, and his success as a player gave him instant credibility among the players already in the room. Smith and Beal both had many years of experience in the room. In some ways, Uzo-Diribe learned from them early on. He empowered both to be vocal leaders in the position room, and those roles eventually carried over to the rest of the team. Throughout 2022, Smith and Beal were two of UGA’s core leaders, and both players were key to a 15-0 season and a national championship.
His own playing experience gave Uzo-Diribe a leg up on understanding the challenges of playing OLB at Georgia. Some of the players who line up on the edge for the Bulldogs also line up at other spots on the defensive front depending on down and distance. Chidera had coached the defensive line at SMU and TCU after spending two years as the OLB coach at Kansas. That experience was valuable for someone who has to coach a position that is sometimes asked to play like a linebacker while being a defensive lineman at other moments.
On the recruiting trail, Uzo-Diribe’s first class spoke for itself. He got off to as good of a start as you could imagine in the 2023 cycle, signing what could be the best OLB/EDGE class in program history. Those players were…
• 5-Star Damon Wilson
• 5-Star Samuel M’Pemba
• 4-Star Gabe Harris
Uzo-Diribe was the primary recruiter for all three of those signees, and all three of them were among the top 12 ranked edge defenders in the cycle. Wilson, M’Pemba and Harris were ranked among the top 65 overall players in the 2023 class as well.
With those promising young edge players already in the program, Georgia didn’t sign as many true OLB’s in the 2024 cycle. Chidera helped UGA land 275-pound 5* defensive lineman Joseph Jonah-Ajonye out of Texas. He also snagged 260-pound 4* DL Quintavius Johnson out of Mays high-school in Atlanta. For the 2025 cycle, Uzo-Diribe has already gotten commitments from 5* EDGE Isaiah Gibson and 4* Darren Ikinnagbon. He is the primary recruiter for both players.
UGA’s Defense Needs a New Group of Stars at EDGE
Nolan Smith was one of the unquestioned leaders of the UGA defense during Uzo-Diribe’s first season in 2022. He was also the best edge defender that the Bulldogs had. The Dawgs often use two OLB/Edge players on obvious passing downs, but on a lot of plays they have just one on the field. When the chips were down, Smith was the guy who Georgia put in the game at their “Jack” position (the Jack is a standup Edge/OLB who plays the end of the line, ideally as both a primary pass rush threat and a stout run defender). When Smith wasn’t in the game, Robert Beal often was.
Georgia lost Smith for the season in the first quarter of the Florida game. Suddenly the luxury of having two experienced OLB’s to split snaps among was gone. Uzo-Diribe took backup Chaz Chambliss and made him a productive piece for the Bulldogs. His play improved throughout the season. True freshman Jalon Walker started fall camp as an ILB but UGA felt his skillset could help the team at OLB. By January, he was coming up with key pressures in the College Football Playoff.
There were times where it felt like UGA might run out of bodies at OLB, but Uzo-Diribe and the rest of Georgia’s defensive staff continued to come up with solutions. The first rule of the Kirby Smart philosophy of football is that nobody runs the ball on Georgia. Despite injuries and depth issues, the dam never broke in 2022.
In 2023, things never really materialized at the position. Marvin Jones Jr. was a five-star recruit that Lanning secured before leaving for Oregon, but he started the year battling injuries and never really found his footing during his sophomore campaign in Athens. He only amassed 5 total pressures and he struggled with gap control against the run. When he did arrive at the ball on time, he sometimes missed tackles. Jones Jr. was supposed to be the immediate future of the position, but he left for FSU this offseason after a 2023 season that made it clear he wasn’t a fit for the array of responsibilities that UGA puts on its edge defenders.
Georgia came into the year thinking the depth at edge would allow Walker to move back to ILB, but he ended up playing more OLB in 2023. Veteran Chaz Chambliss did an admirable job playing the run, and ended the year with 10 pressures. He drew the ire of some UGA fans because he doesn’t have the obvious physical makeup of a 5* future NFL draft pick, but he got the most out of his talent with good technique and a consistent motor. The freshmen trio of Wilson, M’Pemba and Harris also flashed in limited roles, but they were not yet ready to contribute on a regular basis.
In general, Georgia struggled to set edges in the run game at times last season. Kirby Smart has said he’d rather see runs go out towards the boundaries than up the middle, but the truth is that not seeing any chunk runs is his real preference. The 2023 Dawgs didn’t seem to control the edges against the run like they had in the two years prior.
On the opposite side of the Jack position, Mykel Williams played DE at a high level despite dealing with injuries throughout the year. Williams was very good against the run, but his gap responsibilities on the inside often kept him from pinning his ears back and rushing the passer.
That changed in Georgia’s 63-3 Orange Bowl victory against Florida State. In the lead up to the game, Williams practiced in more of a true OLB role. It let him hunt the QB more often as a stand-up pass rusher, and the results was 6 pressures and 2 sacks in just 17 pass rush snaps against the Seminoles.
When talking about the 2024 team, the conversation starts right there. Williams has shown he can be a high level SEC run defender in the interior gaps. He has also flashed the raw pass rush skills of a 10+ sack OLB. Georgia plans to let him do both this year, and that should add some oomph to its pass rush. Williams will probably handle the edge opposite of Uzo-Diribe’s Jack linebackers when he isn’t being used as a true 7-tech rusher.
Uzo-Diribe is also working some of the time with ILB Jalon Walker. He will once again be used in pass rush packages off the edge after he and Williams tied for the team lead in pressures last season.
It is possible that two of UGA’s best pass rushers at OLB won’t even be full-time OLB’s. That’s more of a luxury though. Sacks matter, and they kill drives, but Georgia has shown it doesn’t have to have them in large numbers to be an elite defense. What the Bulldogs do require to be elite on defense is gap control and edge setting against the run.
The aforementioned trio of blue-chip recruits are now sophomores, and getting contributions from them will go a long way towards UGA becoming as good as it wants to be on defense this season. Wilson displayed an impressive get off last season and he coupled it with the type of bend you can’t teach. We know he can get after the quarterback. He had a 29.3% win rate against pass blocking on 43 pass rush snaps last year. Significant offseason weight gain that has Wilson up near 240 pounds makes him really intriguing coming into 2024. He could be ready to play the run at a high level, and he would become an every down option if that’s the case.
Harris has shown a toughness against the run that has made him into more of a DE than an OLB this offseason, but he could certainly play either role depending on the personnel package. M’Pemba has impressed in the weight room and can fly to the football, and he may be the freakiest athlete in the room. Is his technique good enough to contribute this year?
The trio of sophomores are joined by the 2024 enrollees mentioned above. Both Johnson and Jonah-Ajonye are bigger DL type bodies, but they are both good enough athletes to challenge those positional definitions.
Leading the room once again is the veteran Chambliss. He will be the safest option in situations where UGA values execution over upside. The question now is whether or not he has been able to instill some of his knowledge of UGA’s system onto the young up and comers on the depth chart.
How to manage the sophomores as well as Williams and Walker is a legitimate question. Can UGA teach some of the talented pass rushing talent how to two-gap well enough to play up to the standards it established in 2021 and 2022? Can those explosive pass rushers defend the run well enough to be trusted to play in big road games in Tuscaloosa, Austin and Oxford? Where should the snaps go in key moments? All of that, as well as the in-season development of the position, will be up to Uzo-Diribe.
How those questions are answered will go a long way towards determining how good this Georgia defense can be in 2024. If the edges answer the bell the Bulldogs may return to the top of college football’s mountain.
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