"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 #17. The first few entries in this series were not paywalled, but we are nearing the spot in the list where 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?
#17 - Daylen Everette
Georgia CB Daylen Everette almost never ended up in Athens. He committed to Clemson in July of 2021, and at the time it appeared the Tigers had won the type of big boy recruiting battle that separate playoff contenders from title contenders. A native of Norfolk, VA, Everette was a five-star’s kind of five-star. He had verified 4.4 forty times and 33-inch arms to go with a big frame that measured in at 6’1” and 190 pounds. Everette attended IMG Academy for his last two years of high-school. Winning games, competing for titles, and playing with other talented prospects was always important to Everette, and he never made any effort to hide that fact.
Like many heralded prospects today, Everette planned a summer commitment ceremony so he could make a college decision and put recruiting behind him before the start of his senior season. At that July commitment ceremony, Everette chose between finalists of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Florida State, North Carolina and Oregon. The Bulldogs and Crimson Tide never gave up on recruiting him though. At that point in time, it was Clemson and Alabama who were seen as the sport’s two most accomplished programs. Kirby Smart’s UGA program was still considered ascendant, but 2021 would mark four years since UGA’s national title game appearance in the 2017 season. That 13-2 season had helped the Dawgs sell title dreams to blue-chip recruits, and Kirby Smart had put together top three ranked classes every year since. Now some were beginning to ask if those dreams were ever going to become reality. Georgia scored a 10-3 neutral site win over Clemson on the opening weekend of the 2021 season. That victory gave the Bulldogs a win over a program that had made six straight appearances in the College Football Playoff, and it also provided Georgia with a new leg to stand on in its pursuit of Everette. Their recruiting position grew stronger as a suffocating defense propelled them to a 12-0 regular season record and a CFP berth.
In the end, Everette’s recruitment turned into a battle between Clemson, Georgia and Alabama. The five-star decommitted from Clemson on December 10th and committed to the Bulldogs four days later. One day after that, he signed with Georgia on Early Signing Day. In many ways, the recruiting win for Georgia was emblematic of what was to come a few weeks later when it won the 2021 national title in Indianapolis. Prior to the 2021 season, Clemson and Alabama had won five of the sport’s last six national titles. Georgia has won two since then, and the Tigers and Crimson Tide have won zero. In the case of Clemson, UGA’s flip of Everette happened at the moment in time where the trajectories of the two programs crossed each other. The Dawgs were on the way up, and the Tigers were on the way down.
Everette Started Turning Heads Upon Arrival
Going back to his high-school days, everyone who encountered Everette was impressed by his maturity. He came to Athens with a reputation as a tough-minded kid who took coaching well. There is a learning curve for any player who shows up on UGA’s campus, but Everette’s curve was shorter than most.
Sources close to the Bulldogs program raved about Everette during his first fall camp and throughout the 2022 season. Everette had a bigger role on the 2022 Georgia team than most were aware of. His play in practices was strong enough for to push starters Kelee Ringo and Kamari Lassiter, and Smart used his emergence to help ensure those two were focused during every rep. If his starters made a mental error or played poorly for a stretch in practice then Smart would put Everette in with the first-team defense.
That same pattern played out late in the second quarter of the 2022 Vanderbilt game. Ringo was almost always lined up as the right boundary CB that season, but on this drive he and Lassiter were flipped from their usual spots in the formation. Lassiter made errors in coverage that led to consecutive receptions by Vandy WR Will Sheppard. Displeased, Smart inserted Everette in for Lassiter in the middle of the drive. The true freshman was playing the role that is usually reserved for UGA’s #1 corner. On the next play, Vandy would look to Sheppard again. Everette knocked him off his route and forced him inside. Sheppard made a tough contested catch for a 3-yard gain, but Everette had disrupted the wideout. On the very next play, the Commodores tried to target Sheppard once again. The WR ran down the boundary, but Everette was in his hip pocket all the way and broke up the pass as it arrived. It served notice to all that Everette was ready to play when needed.
Everette would end up playing a total of 141 snaps across 11 games during his freshman season of 2022. Most came late in wins that the Bulldogs had long since secured, but Everette established himself as the first man off the bench at corner. The work he did that year gave him the inside track for a starting job that would open when Ringo departed for the NFL Draft.
Examining Everette’s Debut Season as a Starter
Daylen would compete with fellow sophomore Julian Humphrey throughout the offseason, but he was named the starter opposite Lassiter when the Bulldogs opened 2023. It was immediately clear that he had a strong grasp of Georgia’s defensive scheme. That helped him win the job. Understanding coverage switches and zone rules are important if you want to start for Kirby Smart. So is getting off blocks and making tackles against the run and perimeter screens. Everette used his long frame to achieve those tasks last season, and the trust he earned as a tackler was a big reason for his playing time. Everette had 34 total tackles in 2023. Impressively, 29 of those were solo. Georgia trusts Everette to tackle in space on the edge, and that stops explosive plays from happening. You could be the best cover corner on Earth, but if you don’t tackle on the perimeter then you’re never going to get playing time at Georgia.
The 2023 Bulldogs returned more defensive production than any national champion in a long time. Georgia’s secondary featured a pair of safeties who had already accomplished plenty at the college level. Malaki Starks was a finalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award after leading UGA with 7 pass breakups and racking up 68 tackles. Javon Bullard had played UGA’s “STAR” position prior to last year, but he finished the 2022 season by forcing three turnovers and winning Defensive MVP in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Bullard went 58th overall in the second-round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Kamari Lassiter was coming off an excellent first season as a starter, and would be taken 42nd overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. Finally healthy after having multiple seasons derailed by injuries, former All-American Tykee Smith slid into Bullard’s former position at STAR. He was taken 89th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.
On any given play, the football has to go somewhere. If you were an offensive coordinator drawing up a plan to attack the 2023 Georgia defense, what would you do? Are you throwing at the two future NFL safeties? Are you throwing at the future NFL corner? How about the future NFL slot defender? I think I’d pick on the sophomore who had yet to prove himself at the college level, wouldn’t you?
It is interesting to reexamine Everette’s 2023 season through this lens. He was tested early and often in SEC play, and there were times where he struggled. South Carolina targeted him 8 times and he allowed 7 receptions on those plays. Future first-round receiver Xavier Legette beat Everette a couple of times in the on plays that helped the Gamecocks build a 14-3 halftime lead. After the half, UGA had Everette and Lassiter switch sides when Legette lined up on Everette’s side of the formation.
Everette played well in his first SEC road start at Auburn. He gave up just one reception for 11 yards and followed that up by not allowing a reception against Kentucky or Vanderbilt. He struggled at times in Jacksonville while facing star Florida freshman Eugene Wilson. The Gators picked on Everette with in-breaking routes on short throws underneath, and Wilson was able to create enough separation early in his routes to keep Everette from tackling him when the ball arrived. Wilson had 4 catches for 38 yards and 1 TD on 4 targets vs Everette, and 27 of those yards came after the catch. UGA quickly adjusted after Wilson made some big plays early. He went on to have 11 receptions for 72 yards in the game, but UGA was able to limit his yards after the catch after his early receptions against Everette.
Everette again got off to a slow start against Missouri the next week. Mizzou star Luther Burden got behind Everette for a 39-yard TD catch on the first drive of the game, and Georgia again quickly adjusted. Daylen would face off with Theo Wease for the next three-and-a-half quarters, and gave up 3 catches for on 6 targets for 58 yards against him. Late in the game, Mizzou converted a fourth-and-10 and a third-and-long by throwing back shoulder fades to Wease with Everette in coverage. That sequence highlighted an ongoing issue with Everette in 2023, in that he was often in position but struggled to turn and find the football at times. Malaki Starks eventually came down from his safety spot to guard Wease and the Bulldogs were able to force a game seals in interception a couple plays later.
That Mizzou game was probably the low point for Everette. He gave up 45 yards in on 4 targets/3 receptions in consecutive games against Ole Miss and Tennessee, but he allowed just 7 yards against Georgia Tech. He only gave up 37 yards in coverage against Alabama, but some of that came on a 15-yard TD pass that Jermaine Burton caught.
As the season wore along, Everette was clearly the weak link in coverage for UGA. That made him a target for criticism from both fans and pundits, but it’s interesting to look back on his stats for the season. In total, Everette allowed 367 yards on 54 targets/29 receptions (12.7 YDS per catch) with a 53.7% reception percentage allowed. 69 of those yards came after the catch. He also gave up 3 TD’s while pulling in 1 INT and having 4 pass breakups.
367 yards allowed across 14 games is hardly getting torched. In Kamari Lassiter’s first season as a starter he allowed 419 yards on 55 TGT/32 REC (13.1 YDS per catch) with a 58.2% reception percentage allowed. Lassiter gave up 175 yards after the catch and allowed 2 TD’s with 0 INT’s and 2 pass breakups. In Tyson Campbell’s first season as a starter at Georgia he allowed 411 yards on 51 TGT/31 REC (13.3 YDS per catch) with a 60.8% reception percentage. Campbell gave up 138 yards after the catch and allowed 2 TD’s with 0 INT’s and 1 PBU. ‘
Time For a Leap?
Those numbers show us that Everette’s first season as a starter produced numbers that were similar to, if not a little better than, both Lassiter and Campbell. Lassiter’s first season as a starter came opposite of Kelee Ringo, who went to Philadelphia in the 4th round of the 2023 draft. Campbell played across from DeAndre Baker, who won the Thorpe Award for college football’s best defensive back before being drafted 30th overall in the 2019 draft. of those players went early in the second round of the NFL Draft (33rd for Campbell in 2021 and 42nd for Lassiter in 2024). Campbell has become a high level CB in Jacksonville and received a 4-year extension worth $76.5 million this offseason. Lassiter’s impressive play has been turning heads in Houston since he arrived.
Playing cornerback in the SEC is hard. You have future NFL wideouts littered throughout the schedule, and you face the best coaches and coordinators in college football on a weekly basis. Any corner who is young is going to be tested. That’s especially true if they’re lined up across from a more proven commodity.
Everette took his lumps at times in 2023, but so have many of those who walked in his shoes before him. A lot of those players used what they learned in their first seasons as starters and honed their games to become lockdown cornerbacks at the college level. Now we’ll have to find out if Everette can make a leap like Campbell, Lassiter and other Georgia corners of the Kirby Smart era.
Through the first 10 days of Georgia’s fall camp, the signs seem to be pointing to yes. “I think Daylen Everette will prove to a lot of people that he’s not the same guy from last year. He’s trying to be a pro and he looks like a corner who will be NFL ready by the end of this year,” said one source to DawgsCentral. Another source said that Everette might be the most improved player on Georgia’s entire defense. “He’s getting better everyday and is clearly our best (cornerback). He’s developed the confidence to flip his hips and turn his head instead of playing the receiver. The way he plays the ball is entirely different than last year.”
It could have a major impact on UGA’s 2024 defense if Everette becomes the shutdown corner that many think he can. The Dawgs will be breaking in a new starter at Safety. Everette will also start across from one of Daniel Harris or Julian Humphrey. Everette taking away his side of the field would allow the Bulldogs to shade more help to the other boundary if needed. A strong secondary could also help a defensive line that saw a 16.1% drop-off in QB pressures from 2022 to 2023.
UGA’s schedule will include dates with QB’s like Quinn Ewers, Jaxson Dart, Nico Iamaleava and Jalen Milroe this season. Having a lockdown corner to stick on each opponent’s top receiver would go a long way towards limiting big plays. It could also help UGA return to the top of the sport for the third time in four years. Everette came to Georgia to win championships. With the way things are trending, this might be his last season in a red and black uniform.
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