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"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 #19. 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
#24 - David Hill
#23 - Will a True Nose Tackle emerge for the Dawgs?
#22 - Benjamin Yurosek
#21 - Will Muschamp
#20 - Dominic Lovett
#19 - Jalon Walker
When Jalon Walker arrived in Athens, he did so to considerable hype. He was yet another name in a long string of five-star inside linebackers who had come to play for LB coach Glenn Schumann. Like many others with his blue-chip pedigree, he came with hopes of picking up the mantle that names like Roquan Smith, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker had carried while ushering in a new era of Bulldog glory. The play of those individuals had been good enough to turn them into first-round draft picks, and turn UGA into college football's modern version of "LBU."
As a high-school senior, Walker already had the physical build of an 8-year NFL starter. The obvious college readiness of his frame and the departure of Dean and Walker only created more talk of Walker playing early at Georgia. Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson, two other names in that string of heralded linebackers, would ascend to the starting roles instead. In his first 5 games at Georgia, Walker played just 22 total snaps. All of those came in garbage time with victory well secured. 
I was sitting in the press box of a fairly sleepy Sanford Stadium when Walker came into the game against an overmatched Vanderbilt team in the fall of 2022. These weren't high stakes reps in a heated battle, but it was still the first-half and the first-team defense was still in the game. Interested to see Walker in action, I scanned the ILB positions to find him before the snap. That's when I realized he wasn't lined up there.
Walker was in the wrong spot... I mean, he wasn't lined up in the wrong spot per say, but he also was not lined up at linebacker. Freshman linebacker Jalon Walker was in the game, but he wasn't playing linebacker. Walker was lined up on the edge of Georgia's defensive line at the Bulldogs' "JACK" position. The snap came, and Walker came outside the tackle's shoulder to set the edge. More snaps came, and Walker started making tackles. Then more snaps came after that, but this time Walker was lined up at his traditional LB position. Once again, he made a tackle. 
When that day was done, Walker had played 19 snaps. He took 10 of those as an edge defender and 8 of them as a LB. He played in coverage and he rushed the quarterback, he dropped back into coverage a few times too. He made 4 tackles for the Bulldogs in that game, and all of them resulted in unsuccessful plays for the opposing offense. I have never seen Jalon Walker on a football field and thought he was in the wrong position again. 
Walker didn't have a single QB pressure that day against Vanderbilt, which is a bit ironic when you consider the player he has become since then. Those 19 snaps were the most he played in a single game in 2022, but that season might not have ended with a 15-0 Georgia team hoisting a trophy in Los Angeles if he hadn't been a Bulldog. 
A week earlier, Georgia's defense was being torn to pieces by CJ Stroud and an array of future NFL receivers in the CFP Semifinal against Ohio State. The desperate Dawgs finally realized that Stroud would pick them apart all night if they let him sit back and scan the field. Georgia started throwing the kitchen sink at Stroud, sending rushers from all levels of the defense in the hopes of confusing him. With injuries across the front seven, Walker pitched in 3 pressures that night. One of them forced a throwaway by Stroud on 3rd down with under 5 minutes to play. It forced OSU into a FG that made the score 41-35, and it got Stetson Bennett the ball back for the game winning drive. 
Another one of Walker's pressures came after the TD that put Georgia ahead. Walker came screaming off the left side of the defensive line and flew past a TE. He was in Stroud’s face before he could finish his drop or set his feet to throw. Stroud spun away, but he was forced to run backwards in order to throw the ball out of bounds. 
That final third-down pressure by Walker kept Ohio State from getting the yards it desperately needed. Buckeyes kicker Noah Ruggles had never made a 50-yard FG before that night, and he still hasn't to this day. 
How do you use a guy who can do everything? 
Walker's turn at EDGE certainly didn't happen by mistake, but he was cross-trained there at least in part due to UGA's exceptional LB depth his freshman year. Those Dawgs had veterans Rian Davis and Trezmen Marshall to rotate in and spell Mondon and Dumas-Johnson. Today's college football landscape is filled with turnstiles- A heralded recruit whose not starting is likely departing.
Walker wasn't just physically talented when he got to Athens his freshman year. He also came in and picked up UGA's defense right away. His demeanor and work ethic was more akin to an upperclassman than a lost freshman. In short, Walker was a guy who deserved some playing time, but he was in a position where there was none to be had. 
Everyone thought his longterm future was at LB, and many still do, but the experiment at edge was too successful to abandon. He finished 2022 with 13 pressures on just 64 pass rush snaps. The sample size was small and the competition varied, but Walker's pass-rush productivity rate was a smidge higher than Nolan Smith's (102 pass rush snaps/19 pressures) in 2022.
Walker's workload increased last season despite missing spring practice due to offseason labrum surgery. He saw most of his snaps with Georgia's first-team, and he played in all 14 contests, but he didn't become an every down player for the Bulldogs. It's hard to interpret exactly why because last season made it even harder to define what position Walker plays. 

When looking at Walker's 2023 snap counts, the Missouri game immediately pops out. The 32 snaps that Walker played in Georgia's hard fought win over the Tigers were the most that he has had in any game as a Bulldog. The immediate reaction to seeing that was to remember that Jamon Dumas-Johnson suffered a broken arm against the Tigers, and assume that Walker played increased snaps after Dumas-Johnson left the game. That assumption is wrong. 
If you go back and watch the Missouri tape you'll see Walker on the field for Mizzou's very first drive of the game, but he's lined up on the defensive line instead of as an inside linebacker. In reality, Walker played over two-thirds of his snaps at defensive line that day. Even after the injury to Dumas-Johnson, he was playing as an edge defender much more than a LB.
Walker is still treated as a linebacker, and he often trains with Georgia's linebackers. There is a belief by some that his NFL future is brightest at there, and it is possible that Georgia feels keeping him in the mix at LB is the best thing for him. I would argue that the opposite may be true
Embracing The Pass Rush
When you think of a prototypical pass rusher, you usually think of guys with length. they are 6'4 or 6'5" and they have long arms and athletic frames. Walker arrived at UGA at 6'2" and roughly 225 pounds. The normal person's wingspan is equal to their height. Walker's 76-inch wingspan is plus-sized for his 74-inch frame, but guys like JJ Watt and Myles Garrett have wingspans that are approaching 7-feet. Walker's is nowhere near there.
I'm telling you all of that to tell you why the argument exists for Walker's home to be at linebacker. Now I'm going to tell you why none of that should matter, at least not right now.
Trivia question for you... Who led 2023 UGA in QB pressures? 
It's a bit of a trick question because there are two answers. Both Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams had 26 pressures for the Bulldogs last year. It's impressive that Walker tied a surefire future first-round draft pick like Williams for team lead, but it's really impressive when you realize that Williams did that despite having just 124 pass rush snaps to Mykel's 236. 
It'd be unfair to not point out that Williams was shaded further inside and had interior gap responsibilities in the run game that slowed his get off at times. It should also be mentioned that Walker rushed from the LB position at certain junctures as well. Still, even after accounting for all of that, Georgia has a pressure machine in Walker. When you look at his production in 2023, it could be argued that he was underutilized last season. Here are a few numbers that pop out...
Walker's PFF Pass Rush Grade of 85.4 led all players on the 2023 Georgia roster. Walker's win percentage on pass rush snaps was 21.5%. The next highest win percentage among Bulldogs with 100+ pass rush opportunities last year was Warren Brinson's 12.8. That win percentage jumped to a whopping 24.5% when Walker faced true pass sets* *True pass sets are plays where a QB drops back into the pocket without play-action, rollouts or screens. It is a way of measuring a rushers true value as a rusher. 
The statistical arguments for Walker not being a linebacker anymore are strong. His body has also changed significantly since he enrolled in Athens. He is now a stout 245 pounds, which is around the size where UGA edge defenders like Nolan Smith, Azeez Ojulari and Robert Beal Jr. played. The tape might speak most loudly of all though. 
When you watch Walker play off the edge you don't see a LB taking a vacation from his normal duties. His burst at the snap is fantastic, and he bends extremely well when coming around the outside of an opposing offensive tackle as a speed rusher.
Walker has also shown he can get home against some of the best offensive lines in the SEC. He had 4 pressures on 17 pass rush snaps against Missouri's Javon Foster, who was taken 114th overall in this year's NFL Draft. Walker isn't padding stats against FCS schools and the bottom feeders of the SEC. He had a career high 5 pressures and 2 sacks against Alabama in the SEC Championship. Ironically, that game does present an argument for using Walker in some creative ways that don't involve him putting his hand in the dirt at the end of the line of scrimmage. 
One of his sacks came early in the game on a simulated pressure on a third-down. Georgia ran a three-down linemen look where Walker stood over the A-Gap* before the snap and threatened to blitz. When the play began he stayed disengaged from the offensive line but walked upfield as a spy on Bama QB Jalen Milroe. When Milroe tried to step up and to the left and escape the pocket, Walker mirrored his movements and came upfield and wrapped him up for a sack without ever letting an offensive linemen touch him. Later in the same quarter, Bama faced a 3rd & 9 from the UGA 25 yard-line. Walker lined up on the edge and speed rushed his way past LT Kadyn Proctor, flushing Milroe out of the pocket at the top of his drop. 
*The "A-Gaps" are between the Center and the Guards. The B-Gaps are between the Guards and Tackles.
If Georgia wants to use Walker to contain an athletic quarterback that makes sense, but the Bulldogs should rarely need him to play a traditional LB role or drop into pass coverage. They have recruited loads of linebacking talent, but the current UGA roster is not deep on proven pass rushers.
Walker played just 12 snaps against the Crimson Tide. Only 7 of those were in pass rush. He had 5 pressures and 2 sacks in those 7 pass rush snaps. Considering Georgia's struggles getting to Jalen Milroe in that game, it is fair to wonder why that number wasn't higher. There were times in that Alabama game where Walker was asked to play LB and drop into coverage in third-and-long. His athleticism made him effective in that role, but you can also keep an explosive pass play from happening by forcing the QB to get the ball out before deep routes can develop. 
In truth, it's fair to wonder why Walker's usage rate wasn't higher throughout the 2023 season. 
Last year's UGA team took a big step back in pass rush production. Their 222 total pressures were 61 fewer than they amassed in 2022, and 70 less than they created in 2021. The Dawgs do like to use their ILB's in pass rush packages where they crash upfield into the A-Gaps at the snap, but Walker has shown he can beat people off the edge.
When it was all said and done, Georgia's 2023 leader in pressures had just the 7th most pass rush opportunities on the team. 58 of his 224 total snaps were spent in pass coverage, far away from the QB. His rush percentage on passing downs was only 68.4%, which seems low for a guy with the ability to get to the passer. 
The ability of an edge defender to set the edge on first and second down is obviously crucial to a defense's success. Walker has shown flashes of both good and bad as a run defender at the EDGE/OLB position, and that is probably the biggest area of growth for him if he wants to be more of an every down player next season. Still though, Walker's value is immense. If it's second-and-long or third-and-long, then he should probably be chasing the QB. Georgia's usage of him last season was creative, but it might have been a little too creative at times. 
As for Walker's NFL future, it's worth noting that there is precedent for a player of his size to be drafted highly.
Haason Reddick came out of Temple at 6'1" and 230 pounds with a 4.52 forty-yard dash time (Walker has run in the 4.50 range in the past). He had racked up sacks at Temple under Matt Rhule, but at the Senior Bowl he was encouraged to switch to LB because he was seen as too small to be an NFL edge defender. His instincts were solid, and he shot up draft boards with good measurements.
He was picked 13th overall by the Arizona Cardinals, but Reddick struggled early in his career because they weren't exactly sure how to use him. He started just 20 of his first 48 career games. In 2018, he played 79.8% of his snaps as a linebacker and produced 4 sacks and 18 pressures. The next season, he was at linebacker for 68.4% of his snaps and he had just 1 sack and 23 pressures. Reddick's career was on the rocks.
In Week 6 of that season, Reddick came into the game at EDGE after starter Chandler Jones was injured. He had 2 sacks in that game against the Cowboys, and then finished the season on a tear. By the end of the year, he was 4th in the league in sacks. He signed with the Panthers that offseason and reunited with Rhule, putting up 11 sacks and 62 total tackles.
The next year, Reddick went to Philadelphia and became the lynchpin of a defense that made a run to the Super Bowl. In the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship, Reddick sacked 49ers QB Brock Purdy twice, forcing a fumble on one of those plays. It helped seal a Super Bowl trip for Philadelphia, and was the cherry on top of a 16 sack season. His LB skills allowed him to be crucial to Philly's run, following RB's out of the backfield and being physical against the run. Reddick was a good LB who also happened to be a great pass rusher, and he became a weapon that the Eagles could move to create pass rush mismatches or have an extra man in coverage.
Reddick's LB skills have value, but they don't have as much value as getting to the quarterback. All 10 of the NFL's highest paid defensive players in 2024 are linemen. Two of them are DT's Chris Jones and Christen Wilkins. The other eight are edge rushers. There is nothing more valuable to a defense than sacks, and that might be informative when it comes to Jalon Walker. 
The 2024 Bulldogs have a DE/EDGE player in Mykel Williams who could be one of the top players taken in the next NFL Draft. They also have a trio of heralded young edge defenders who are coming into their second year- Gabe Harris, Samuel M'Pemba and Damon Wilson. They also have a veteran OLB in Chaz Chambliss.
Yes, the Bulldogs are long on promise and also have some strong experience in the OLB room. No, you can never have too many guys effecting the quarterback. Walker can have value to Georgia playing in pass coverage or crashing into a RB as a linebacker, but it won't be as great as the value he can have if set loose to attack the QB. If it's a passing down and Jalon Walker is on the field, he should probably be chasing the quarterback down. 
Georgia's march for a three-peat was derailed in Atlanta last December for many reasons. There were injuries that piled up and controversial calls. There were mental miscues on offense. The interior of UGA's defensive line struggled to plug its run lanes at times. All those things hurt. So did the inability to get to Jalon Milroe with four pass rushers. Georgia was forced to either put numbers in coverage or numbers in pass rush, but it didn't have the ability to be balanced. In the end, it cost them a chance at history. 
The 2024 Dawgs have their own chance to do something historic by winning the program's third title in four years. To do it, they'll have to find more ways to bother the quarterback than they did last season. In Walker, they have a player who symbolizes the riches of talent that Kirby Smart has acquired for his program. Yes, he could be an NFL linebacker. He could also be a 10+ sack pass rusher in the SEC. Choosing which of those he should be, and when, could have an outsized effect on the Georgia defense's ability to create havoc. 

“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 #22. 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…
24 For 2024 - #22 Benjamn Yurosek
There are two types of transfer portal additions in modern college football. 
The first are those borne out of necessity. Numbers are often thinned by early draft entries or players exiting through the portal, and the program has to find enough depth to endure a college football season.
Sometimes a position has the proper numbers, but the staff knows it has a position that is in need of a talent upgrade. At Georgia, almost any player who is transferring out is doing so because they don’t see a path to the field. 
Anyone with good info on the UGA program could have told you that the Bulldogs were likely to add some experienced receivers this past offseason. Kirby Smart signed three portal wideouts. Yes, the Bulldogs needed to fill numbers that had dwindled due to graduations and underclassmen transfers, but they also lacked big bodies with the size and length of a prototypical outside receiver. 
Almost everything that happens in college football’s transfer portal happens because of the first reason, but occasionally there is another- The player is too good to pass up. 
That was the case at the tight-end position for Georgia this offseason.
We all knew that Brock Bowers was going to be heading to the NFL after the 2023 season, but TE coach Todd Hartley has spent the last few years stacking blue-chip recruits behind Bowers. It seemed like Brock’s exit from the program would be an opportunity for talented players who had waited their turn to step into the spotlight. 
•    4* Oscar Delp, 6’4” 245 lbs - #2 TE Class of 2022
•    4* Pearce Spurlin, 6’7” 230 lbs - #2 TE Class of 2023
•    4* Lawson Luckie, 6’3” 230 lbs - #8 TE Class of 2023
•    4* Jaden Reddell, 6’4” 235 lbs - #5 TE Class of 2024
•    3* Colton Heinrich, 6’3” 230 lbs - #40 TE Class of 2024
Nobody would look at that list of names and see an obvious need that UGA would want to fill from the portal, but that changed when Stanford TE Benjamin Yurosek came available. A grad transfer with three years of starting experience, Yurosek was widely regarded as one of the nation’s top returning TE’s. Yurosek took some recruiting visits this winter before announcing he would play his final year of college football at UGA. Suddenly, the West Coast kid out of Bakersfield, CA was bound for the Classic City. 
With the exception of Heinrich, all of the players listed above were national recruits who could have gone to almost any program in the country. This spring, the program announced that Spurlin would be forced to retire from football due to a congenital heart condition. Spurlin was a promising player who flashed a lot of potential when he saw the field in 2023. His absence in the room meant UGA would have one less body. Even with the loss of Spurlin, the Bulldogs had the experienced Delp and the ascendant Luckie to pair with blue-chip 2024 recruit Jaden Reddell. 
Delp was originally viewed as a receiving TE, but he has put on muscle every year and turned himself into an excellent inline blocker. Luckie was one of the breakout players of Georgia’s 2023 spring practices, and his explosiveness after the catch made an immediate impression. An injury in last year’s fall camp slowed his rise, but he improved as a blocker last fall and appears ready to contribute on a regular basis in 2024. 
With Bowers now gone, many are predicting a breakout year for the WR position at Georgia. While I don’t think a TE is going to be Georgia’s #1 receiving option in 2024, I do think it’d be a mistake to assume that the Dawgs will abandon their roots. 
Most UGA fans understand that the Bulldogs have a TE on the field on almost every play. What some might be overlooking is the fact that 12 Personnel sets (2 TE’s) have become a staple of Georgia’s offense. 

Most people envision smash mouth football when they hear two tight-end sets brought up, but the Bulldogs have been extremely effective passing the ball out of them. The 2022 team created headaches for opposing secondaries by working Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington into man-to-man situations versus linebackers and safeties. 
Most people envision smash mouth football when they hear two tight-end sets brought up, but the Bulldogs have been extremely effective passing the ball out of them. The 2022 team created headaches for opposing secondaries by working Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington into man-to-man situations versus linebackers and safeties. 
So, what is Yurosek doing in Athens?
Yurosek’s commitment to UGA raised my eyebrows for a moment, but I must admit that I gave the former Stanford TE very little thought as the Bulldogs moved through the offseason. When spring practice was over, I began talking to more sources about the specifics of the 2024 team. One thing became very clear during those conversations… Georgia brought Benjamin Yurosek to Athens to be a major piece of its offense. 
Delp is a very different player now than he was back in 2022 when he joined Georgia. He has added 25-30 pounds since he enrolled in Athens, and it has turned him into a strong inline blocker. Oscar filled in admirably in the passing game when Bowers was out of the lineup in 2023, but he is a bit stiffer through the hips and is probably going to be most effective running routes up the seams and into the flat. With Bowers, the Bulldogs had a TE who could run a full route tree to every level of the field. 
It goes without saying that there is no replacing Brock Bowers. He was an extremely unique player who could hold up as a blocker in the SEC while also racking up an average of 8.5 yards after the catch per reception during his career. The ability that Brock had once the ball was in his hands created incredible value for Georgia. If the Bulldogs flipped Bowers the ball in the flat on 1st & 10 then the average result was going to put them into 2nd & 1. Delp is not likely to do that. 
Yurosek stood out when healthy at Stanford despite having inconsistent QB play and few other high-end skill players around him. A big reason why is his ability to create his own yardage. At 6’4” and 243 pounds, Yurosek is actually a bit taller than Bowers and about a dozen pounds heavier. He and Delp are almost identically sized on paper, but Yurosek is a more dynamic runner. 
Yurosek battled injuries in 2023, and they ended his season just halfway through the year. Back in 2021, he led Stanford pass catchers with 653 YDS and was second on the team with 42 catches. Yurosek’s average of 15.5 YDS per catch was also the highest on the 2021 Stanford roster.  
In 2022, his per reception average slid down to 9.1 yards, but he actually pulled down more passes. His 49 receptions were second on the team, but Yurosek had just 445 yards to show for it. He battled through a knee injury between the 2021 and 2022 seasons, and the rehab stretched into fall camp. He was held out of spring practice and wasn’t seen in full pads until only a couple weeks prior to the season. It seemed to rob him of some of his explosiveness after the catch, but his decreased yards per catch could also be contributed to Stanford using him underneath more in 2022. The Average Depth of Target (ADOT) was 9.3 yards downfield when Yurosek was thrown to in 2021, but that ADOT fell to just 6.5 YDS past the line of scrimmage the next year. 
The decreased ADOT was in some ways a compliment to Yurosek’s skillset. Back in 2022, Bowers and Yurosek had a unique thing in common. They were both seeing significant amounts of targets on screens or behind the line of scrimmage. Bowers averaged 8.7 yards after the catch on 18 catches off screens. Yurosek was right behind him with 8.5 YAC/rec on 13 screen passes. 
There were only two other TE’s in the country who had 13+ targets on screens that season. One was South Carolina’s dynamic Swiss Army knife of a player, Jaheim Bell. The other was Mackey Award finalist Michael Mayer. We are talking about unique, highly skilled TE’s here. Like Bowers, Yurosek was also used as a rusher at Stanford. He had 11 carries last year before the season ending injury. He averaged 4.8 YPA on those rushes, but he did force a few missed tackles and 64.1% of his yardage came after contact. The implication would be that he didn’t get great blocking help. In 2022, Yurosek had just one carry, an end-around for 50 yards off the right side. 
What’s interesting for UGA’s purposes is that Yurosek is probably a better blocker than most realize. He was targeted 65 times in that 2022 season, but only 30 of those targets (46.2%) came out of the slot. Bowers saw 50 of his 82 targets (61.2%) come as a stand-up receiver. Working out of the slot should be an advantage for a TE with fluid hips and the ability to run in and out-breaking routes. It allows them to get upfield faster and with less resistance, and it opens up a more varied route tree. 
For all his skills, Yurosek played 64.3% of his snaps as an inline TE in 2022, and that number bumped up to 67.8% in 2023. Stanford’s porous offensive line is likely a big reason why he played with his hand in the dirt so often. In many ways, he became an H-Back at times. He just happened to be an H-Back with some of the best receiving skills of any TE in college football. 
Georgia has had the luxury of running a lot of deeper passing routes with its TE’s in recent years. Sometimes those were delayed releases, and at other moments they came off play-action fakes that helped freeze opposing linebackers. The Cardinal’s weaknesses up front often forced Yurosek to stay in the box to help chip pass rushers and provide extra blocking numbers in the run game. 
When he did go out for a pass, Yurosek was dealing with extremely limited play from the QB position. Stanford passers had just 11 passing TD’s last year while throwing 10 INT’s. Looking at where his targets came in 2023, it seems like Yurosek was asked to run mostly underneath routes over the middle as his career wore on at Stanford. I went back and pulled tape from each year of Yurosek’s college career, and it was wild to see the amount of throws where he would be wide open downfield and the QB would just miss him. I am guessing that Stanford’s coaches grew tired of trying to run things their players couldn’t execute, and stopped sending him downfield as much.
Back in 2021, Yurosek was on a team with slightly better pieces around him. It freed him up to do more things downfield. He worked depths of 10-19 yards with consistency, and he caught 14 passes in that range while averaging over 23 YDS per catch on those receptions. What’s really intriguing is that 2021 Yurosek had 9 yards of YAC per reception on those intermediate routes in the same season where he averaged 10.9 yards of YAC/rec on throws behind the line of scrimmage. In plain terms, he created separation from defenders downfield but also read blocking and forced missed tackles in space on the perimeter.  
Yurosek has been stuck in a system that needed him to play around the line of scrimmage. Because of that, he’s had a limited number of downfield opportunities. In his career, he has been targeted only 14 times on throws of 20+ yards.
Despite the limited sample, he has an impressive track record of pulling in contested catches. In his career, he has caught 5 of 7 contested catch opportunities on throws of 20+ yards downfield. He almost never lined up out wide at Stanford, but there were 3 times in his career where he was thrown a deep ball outside the numbers. All of those came on the left boundary, and he caught all three of them. Two of those were contested. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Georgia try to use Yurosek on the boundaries some in 2024. 
There are two things that make QB’s comfortable. The first is YAC. We have already established that Yurosek has shown he can chew up extra yardage after the catch when he gets the ball. The second thing QB’s love is feeling like a receiver is never covered.
2024 Georgia struggled against Alabama because it was without Rara Thomas and it didn’t have other big targets to pull down 50/50 balls. Yurosek’s size makes him part of that solution. He comes to UGA with a career Contested Catch Rate of 56.3%. He’s pulled down 18 contested receptions on 32 targets. That’s a good number, and it’s informative on a certain level, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the real story of his catch radius. He makes spinning catches over his head, pulls in one-handed catches with a defender on his other shoulder, and snags the ball in a hole in the zone between three defenders. There are a lot of plays in his career that should have gone for long yardage. Oftentimes, a bad throw turned 3-5 yards of separation into a catch where he had to jump for the ball or come to a stop and wait for it. 
**Bowers finished his UGA career with a Contested Catch Rate of 59% (23 catches on 39 contested targets)**
How Yurosek could be used in Georgia’s offense
Brock Bowers was the most dynamic receiving TE in college football throughout his career in Athens. Despite that, we saw him do plenty of dirty work in the run game. Tight-ends often get classified as a “Y-TE” or an “F-TE.” The Y is a stand-up receiving TE, and the F is a blocking TE who is asked to function like an extra blocker. A true F is basically modern football’s version of a fullback. 
Analyzing Georgia in recent years has taught us that the boxes aren’t drawn quite so neatly in the Bulldogs’ offense. Bowers was a phenomenal receiving TE who was asked to block the backside of many a run play. Darnell Washington had the blocking skills of an extra offensive tackle, but we saw him line up out wide at times as the solo receiver on his side of the play.
Looking at the tape of both players, I think Delp is a bit better run blocker than Yurosek, but I believe the Stanford transfer will be better in the trenches than most people expect. As for pass blocking, neither player has been asked to block snap to whistle a ton in their careers, but Yurosek ran a good number of delayed routes where he helped chip a pass rusher before going out for a pass. His feet are a bit more natural than Delp’s when dealing with an edge rusher, but I don’t think that is what he came to Athens to do.
Yurosek is a luxury for Georgia, and that is precisely what makes him so interesting to consider. Is he a fantastic receiving tight-end? Yes, but lining him up next to the offensive tackle, and motioning him as an H-Back should not be abandoned. UGA loves to run Levels Concepts (multiple players running out routes towards the sideline at different depths on the same side of the field) while rolling their QB right. The Bulldogs made a lot of easy first downs in 2022 when they flipped the ball out to an uncovered Darnell Washington in the flat. Yurosek’s usage in presnap motion at Stanford was intriguing. He often got outside leverage on a defender off orbit motions. That can be deployed in the flat at Georgia. 
The advantage of the 2 TE sets that UGA runs out of 12 Personnel is that they are incredibly versatile. With athletic receivers liked Yurosek and Delp, defenses are stuck with poor choices. If they stay with lighter/faster defensive backs then the two TE’s could road grade them and bust big runs. If the defense decides to go heavy, then UGA can ask Yurosek and Delp to simply slip past them on a play-action pass as the LB is breaking down to take on what they expect to be a block. 
Stanford also used Yurosek off motion as a run blocker. He would slide from one side of the formation to the other to try and seal off one side of the formation from a crashing edge defender. The Cardinal ran some beautiful fakes off of that action, and Yurosek would blow past a linebacker on a Wheel Route towards the sideline. Georgia should be able to run these same types of fakes if they deploy him properly. The diagram I made below is an example of the type of motions I’m referring to. 
As you can see, the same motions can be used in pass and run situations. For a player working out of the backfield, the motion options are extremely varied. He can be isolated on almost any back seven defender that the offense wants to test. The possibilities get even greater when you remember that Yurosek has shown he can be an effective ball carrier too. Yurosek can run a pre-snap orbit motion into an end-around. The next drive, he can fake that end-around and continue out for a pass. It can become dizzying for LB’s to deal with. Especially when he has the speed to make defenders pay dearly for any hesitation. 
The blocking work Yurosek did over the last few years was part of what made him dangerous. It helped put defenses into conflict, and heavy/tight personnel sets were deeply ingrained in Stanford’s offensive identity under David Shaw. What’s tantalizing is the snaps Yurosek put on tape where he gets downfield quickly. There was a snap against Notre Dame a couple years ago where he lined up next to the offensive tackle and took off upfield before cutting on a deep slant. He left the Notre Dame safety in the dust and then outran two other Fighting Irish defenders to the far pylon of the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown.
That type of skillset could bring UGA’s 12 Personnel sets back to the level of effectiveness we saw in 2022. UGA can play out of tight formations with these TE’s and pound the ball on the ground. What’s intriguing to think about is the hurry-up potential. Georgia can hit a pass play out of a spread 12 Personnel formation, and then immediately go into a condensed set like the diagram below. 

Back in 2021, Stanford had a 3rd ranked Oregon team in a close game in Palo Alto. The Cardinal got the ball back down 24-17 with a little over a minute to go. At that point, it was imperative that Stanford do anything it could to hit chunk pass plays and get in the end zone. Yurosek was moved out to the slot in four-wide and five-wide formations. He made two key catches on a TD drive that forced overtime. Looking at Yurosek’s body of work, it was clear that there were times that Stanford considered him their most reliable pass catcher. 
The problem for Yurosek was that he was never on a team that won more than 3 games in a season. He was often a focal point of the opposing defense’s gameplan. He managed to be productive anyways, but the versatility he possesses probably hasn’t been put on full display. There are routes on tape where he beats an opponent’s #1 CB off the line of scrimmage and gets behind them on a deep ball. He has the size and skills to do the dirty work in the run game. I also believe he can work out wide in the red zone and high point the football on a Fade Route like an X-Receiver. Nobody will replace Bowers in a one for one scenario, but Yurosek’s comfort playing as an inline TE makes him schematically versatile in ways similar to Bowers. 
Those skills make him a possible every down player for Georgia. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sees a lot of snaps in 2024 as the only UGA TE on the field. That’s not intended to write off Delp. Either could be the best choice depending on the opposition and the play call. There is no bad way to use Yurosek’s talent, but he is now surrounded by dynamic skill players that also demand attention. He is a chess piece that Bobo and the rest of Georgia’s offensive staff can get creative with. I expect him to be particularly effective in the Red Zone and on 3rd & 3 to 3rd & 7 type situations. We know Beck is comfortable throwing up the hash marks. He also excels at quick game throws inbetween holes in a zone defense. At the absolute least, Yurosek will be a security blanket in those areas. He has the talent to be used in many other ways though. 
As the season wears on, Yurosek could represent a breaking point of sorts for opposing defenses. Can an opponent control Etienne and the other RB’s without putting extra numbers in the box? Maybe. Can an opponent’s defensive backs handle Lovett, Bell, Thomas, Young, Evans, Smith and all the other receivers? Maybe. Can they hold all of that force back and still get away with an extra defender playing Yurosek in man coverage? I don’t know. Can that extra defender hold up against him in both run and pass scenarios if UGA goes hurry-up? It feels unlikely.
UGA’s 2024 offense already felt like a pick your poison proposition for opposing coordinators. After doing a deep dive into Yurosek, it feels like there’s another prong to the Georgia attack. Football is about matchups, and Yurosek is a walking matchup problem. I don’t know if Yurosek will make big plays every week. I am not sure if he will rack up eye popping numbers either. What I do know is that games will come where he represents the piece that causes the dam to break. He’s another thing that defenses will have to take away, and taking him away is going to lead to water working its way through the cracks somewhere else. 

I really like doing this series and I'm glad it led to a good discussion. I love that DC/TPL is a place where we don't even have to ask for folks to keep things civil when disagreeing, it's just that way naturally.
Some of you disagreed with Arch Manning pushing Texas to the #1 spot over UGA due to me having him as the top backup over Jaden Rashada and Gunner Stockton. Some agreed, but that's the fun in this. We don't all have to agree on everything, except the FACT that The University of Georgia is the greatest school in the universe!
Let's move on to the running backs and see where they stand in the SEC as fall practice nears:
1. GEORGIA BULLDOGS
This is again a battle at the top for me between Georgia and Texas. With the Dawgs pulling in Trevor Etienne, I just don’t see a RB room better than this one. Especially with the way Roderick Robinson has been looking in workouts. With Branson Robinson coming off of a big injury, the Dawgs look towards three scholarship freshmen to round out the group.That could be the critique here, but there aren’t any freshmen running backs like Nate Frazier.
2. TEXAS LONGHORNS
Texas has seen a lot of success lately from the running back position, especially with the Falcons drafting Bijan Robinson so high. This room may not be quite as talented as the past couple of years, but it’s strong enough to help them in the SEC. CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue were pretty highly ranked coming out of high school and will now be counted on more. They’ll also look to freshmen Jerrick Gibson and Christian Clark to round out the group..
3. AUBURN TIGERS
This is one I may have higher than others and pretty much everyone knows by now how much I hate Auburn, but I’m very high on Jarquez Hunter. He’s their workhorse back and I have them over Alabama mostly because of him and his experience. Damari Alston is no slouch behind him and I was also high on Jeremiah Cobb. I also looked at production and I see Auburn running the ball A LOT with Payton Thorne still in as QB1.
4. ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE
Two things are in play here. You can’t deny the talent in the room. Jam Miller leads the room with former five stars Justice Haynes and Richard Young in the mix. You also have to consider Jalen Milroe as a factor. But you also have to consider the fact that this is a new offense that is known to air it out a lot. Will they do the same in Tuscaloosa? How long will it take for the players to hit their stride in the new offense? How much will they run the ball? As talented as the room is, they’re also unproven. The Crimson Tide don’t have a running back with more than 200 yards rushing. This factor added to the questions above puts them a little down the line for me.
5. FLORIDA GATORS
I think some underestimate the talent of Montrell Johsnon. He’s been a pretty productive running back for the Gators, running for over 800 yards the past two seasons. I also have them this high because of the offense they run needing production from the running back room. They can try to spin it all they want, but losing Etienne to UGA hurt BAD. Treyaun Webb is one of their top backups and Georgia fans should be familiar with the former Bulldog commit.
6. OLE MISS REBELS
Quinshod Judkins transfer to Ohio State should hurt way worse than what I think it actually will. The good thing for the Rebels is that they look to Ulysses Bentley and LSU transfer Logan Diggs to take over. Bentley split time with Judkins last season and ran for over 500 yards. Diggs ran for just over 650 yards for the Tigers. They also have Henry Parrish back.
7. TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS
Dylan Sampson has rushed for over 1000 yards for the Vols in his two years as a backup to Jaylen Wright and Jabari Smith. Cameron Seldon is also a talented back who should get a lot of carries this season. Many people don;t realize how much Tennessee actually runs the ball in their fast paced offense.I have them over Texas A&M because of this factor and the experience of Sampson.
8. SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS
It’s hard to put a team this low when they have a running back coming in who rushed for almost 1500 yards two years ago, but Rocket Sanders had an injured knee before tearing his labrum last season. If he comes back and looks like the old Rocket Sanders then I’d probably move South Carolina at least to #5 and maybe over Alabama also. Behind Sanders are Oscar Adaway and Djay Braswell, who are decent backup options.
9. OKLAHOMA SOONERS
Gavin Sawchuk is the returning starter for the Sooners, rushing for over 700 yards and 9 touchdowns last season as an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention. There are two questions you have to ask here. 1. Can he put up that same production week in and week out against SEC defenses? 2. Can he do the same thing with a new starter at quarterback? Former five star Jackson Arnold is talented, but they’re playing GROWN MAN FOOTBALL now.
10. TEXAS A&M AGGIES
This one was a hard one because the Aggies’ RB room is composed of some very talented players. They just don’t have the experience of being the lead back that everyone has to count on. Coupled with the coaching changes, I have more questions about this group than answers. With all of the teams above you can point to someone being THE GUY, even if they’re going to rotate some. You just can’t here yet.
11. MISSOURI TIGERS
Cody Schrader and his 1600 yards rushing kind of shocked everyone last season, but he is in the NFL now. Can the Tigers pull a rabbit out of a hat again and get anywhere near that kind of production from transfers Marcus Carroll (Georgia State) and Nate Noel (Appalachian State)? If so, they’ll be a tough out again.
12. LSU TIGERS
Before researching for this write up, I did not realize the LSU running back room was this inexperienced. Josh Williams ran for over 500 yards in 2022, but regressed to 284 yards last season. He did average over five yards a carry both years though. Kaleb Williams is probably his top backup in his second year, while John Emery is also an option. It’s just a coin toss every week whether the former five star will be in the doghouse or not.
13. ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS
Make no mistake about it…………even though his season ended early last year due to injury, losing Rahem Sanders to South Carolina is a massive loss for a team that needed some good news.That came in the form of Ja’Quinden Jackson transferring in from Utah. He ran for 797 yards and 4 touchdowns for the Utes last season. They also have Rashod Dubinion returning. More good news came in the hiring of Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator (I can’t believe I just typed that). The bad news is that although their schedule is not terrible, Arkansas is still Arkansas. Can Sam Pittman survive the season with a new OC, new QB, and new RB? Things will have to come together FAST.
14. KENTUCKY WILDCATS
I’d have the Wildcats lower if Vanderbilt and Mississippi State weren’t in the SEC. Ray Davis had 199 carries last year for 1129 yards and 14 touchdowns. They’re replacing him with a running back who’s never had over four carries in a college football game and four year backup for Arizona State and Ohio State whose best game was 20 rushes for 61 yards and a touchdown for the Buckeyes in their game against Maryland last season. I have A LOT of questions if these are going to be the two main guys former Georgia quarterback Brock Vandagriff is going to be handing the ball to.
15. VANDERBILT COMMODORES
Celler dweller Vanderbilt has Sedrick Alexander returning from his 371 yard performance last season and he is the only reason I have them ranked above Mississippi State. That and this might be the only chance I have to not have the Commodores ranked dead last.I do like Chase Gillespie and think he could step up and have a bigger role this season.
16. MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS
The cowbell people have a new coach who is known for his offensive prowess in Jeff Lebby. The problem is he has one of the least talented rosters in the SEC. I do think Lebby can and will call an offensive according to what he has on his roster, so he’s not just going to air it out no matter what. The Bulldogs have Jeffery Pittman returning, after rushing for 268 yards last season. The big question here for me is Keyvone Lee. He rushed for 438 and 530 yards in his first two seasons at Penn State, then took a back seat in his third year with the Nittany Lions after only appearing in five games due to an injury. After rushing only 25 times for 94 yards in 2022, he transferred to Mississippi State. His stats got worse, as he only registered 12 carries for 75 yards. If he can get back to the old Keyvone Lee, I’d move State above at least Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

This is something I've been wanting to do, but it's not as much fun if you guys don't participate and give us your rankings/lists also.
I want to go every couple of days and rank the position groups in the SEC. Who do you think has the best QB room? RB? Will Vandy not be 16th in some category?
Let's start with the quarterback rooms in the SEC and I'll put a quick snippet as to why I'm ranking them that way. You can do the same if you choose:
RANKING THE QUARTERBACK ROOMS IN THE SEC
1. Texas - Ewers is very good and Manning is the best QB2 in the SEC.
2. Georgia - Beck might be the best QB in the country. I have Texas ahead due to QB2 isn't proven enough for me to put Rashada and Stockton over Arch.
3. Ole Miss - I like Jaxson Dart in the Ole Miss system........unless they're playing UGA!
4. Alabama - Jalen Milroe proved last season that he can play the position. Interested to see him under a new system.
5. Missouri - I went back and forth between Missouri, LSU, and Tennessee here. Stuck with Cook because of experience and the receivers he has at his disposal.
6. LSU - This one was VERY CLOSE for me. I honestly went with Nussmeier because of what he did in the SEC Championship game against us.
7. Tennessee - The SEC is pretty loaded this year at the position if Nico Iamaleava is at number seven. He's talented and can throw the ball. Would probably have him higher if he had more experience under his belt.
8. Texas A&M - Another I kept lower just due to experience. Connor Weigman was having a really good season last year before getting injured. Now he'll be in a new offense under Mike Elko.
9. Florida - Graham Mertz is an above average quarterback on a not so good Florida team. He had the fifth best passer rating last season behind Daniels, Beck, Milroe, and Dart.
10. Mississippi State - Blake Shapen had good stats last season with Baylor. I like him here simply because of the air raid offense he'll be playing in.
11. Oklahoma - This was another CLOSE one for me. I went back and forth between Jackson Arnold of Oklahoma and former UGA QB Brock Vandagriff at Kentucky. Both are former five stars, but Arnold has a little more meaningful minutes.
11. Kentucky - But Vandagriff has more time in college football in general. Plus the UGA defenses he practiced against every day are going to be better than most teams he plays against this season. For these reasons, I had to make it a tie!
13. Arkansas - They have Taylen Green from Boise State as the projected starter. He's 6'6 225ish pounds and should be decent under Bobby Petrino. They also have Jacolby Criswell from UNC, but I actually really like Georgia native Malachi Singleton as the backup. He's talented.
14. Auburn - Payton Thorne is still there at Auburn and he's honestly just not that great of a quarterback. Average QB play in the SEC isn't going to get you anywhere, especially when your main rivals are Alabama and Georgia. The overall talent on the roster has hurt him a good bit also. They need to pay Juju Lewis whatever NIL it takes to get him on campus.
15, South Carolina – This is another one I couldn't quite decide on. I do believe LaNorris Sellers has a higher upside than Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia. But the redshirt-freshman Sellers only threw four passes last season. He did put up ridiculous numbers in high school though. They also had Robby Ashford transfer in from Auburn and signed 4* QB Dante Reno.Again, I'll put them over Vanderbilt because of the depth chart.
16. Vanderbilt – Diego Pavia did lead New Mexico State to 10 wins last season, including an upset win over Auburn at Jordan Hare Stadium. No trees were rolled that night! But this isn't Conference USA and Vandy has to play six SEC teams this year that will be significantly better than Auburn (Alabama, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas). They also had pretty much every one of their best players transfer out, including star receiver London Humphreys to UGA.

“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 #21. 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…
 
#21 - Will Muschamp
A countless number of articles have been written on Georgia’s defensive brain trust as the Bulldogs have risen to the top of the sport. Many of them have focused on Kirby Smart’s scheme. Other pieces have discussed Smart’s refusal to concede that a defense has to give up handfuls of points in college football’s modern era. 
Many of those articles have centered around UGA co-DC Glenn Schumann, who has become one of the coaching industry’s brightest young stars. The praise for Schumann is certainly warranted, but it’s also worthwhile to remember that Will Muschamp deserves loads of credit for helping guide and design the defenses that helped UGA win back-to-back national titles and navigate three consecutive regular seasons without a loss…
The national attention given to the UGA defense over the last two years has been rightfully earned.
The 2021 unit might be the best college defense we’ve seen since modern Spread, RPO and Zone-Read concepts found their way into almost every program’s offensive playbook. UGA suffocated some of the best offenses in college football back in 2021, and capped off a national championship season by holding Alabama to 18 points in Indianapolis.
Muschamp joined UGA as a defensive analyst in the offseason prior to the 2021 season. When Scott Cochran stepped away from the program, Muschamp became UGA’s Special Teams Coordinator. As a former head coach, Muschamp was uniquely qualified to run Special Teams. That role works with every position group on the roster, and it is imperative that they understand how the skill sets of different players will translate to Special Teams.
After that season, Muschamp took over the Co-DC position that was left open by Dan Lanning’s departure. He also became UGA’s safeties coach when DB coach Jahmile Addae left for Miami.
The 2022 Georgia defense came into the season with question marks across the board after 8 starters departed for the NFL. It wasn’t just the talent of those players that was gone. What was maybe more concerning was the leadership vacuum that could be created by losing so many veteran defenders. Guys like Nakobe Dean and Lewis Cine had known UGA’s scheme so well that they functioned like coaches on the field.
Many wondered how the Bulldogs would replace all that experience and talent. The answer? Just fine. Georgia’s 2022 unit was the best scoring defense in the FBS during the regular season, allowing just 12.4 points per game. 

The 2023 Georgia defense is looked at as a unit that took a step back in the eyes of many. In reality, the Bulldogs had better numbers against the pass than they did in 2021 or 2022. The 179.1 pass yards that UGA allowed per a game was 20 less than they allowed in 2021, and 48.5 YDS less than they gave up in 2022. Muschamp’s safeties were a huge part of that success. Malaki Starks and Javon Bullard were the nation’s best pair of safeties, and Bullard was picked 58th overall in the NFL Draft. UGA also considers its STAR position as part of the safety group. Tykee Smith’s ability as a slot defender was one of the strengths of Georgia’s defense. He was picked 89th overall after being the MVP of the Senior Bowl.
The flip side of the coin was UGA’s run defense. The Bulldogs gave up 112.2 YPG, which was the most since UGA allowed 137.3 YPG on the ground in 2018. While that was a regression, UGA’s biggest problem was its red zone defense. Georgia gave up a TD or FG on 91.18% of opponent’s trips inside the 20. That was a big step back from the two years before.
Even with those issues, UGA still fielded one of the nation’s best defenses. UGA allowed just 16.3 points per game, which was 7th best in the FBS. They did it despite injuries to key players and the lack of a dominant defensive lineman. In the end, the coordinator duo of Muschamp and Schumann went 28-1 over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. It’s hard to poke many holes in that record.
Back-to-back seasons like that is the type of thing that turns young coordinators into head coaches. That is why there was a certain irony to the fact that Will Muschamp and Glenn Schumann were Georgia’s Co-DC’s during that run. Schumann is still on the front end of a career that seems to be heading towards a head coaching job at a major program. Muschamp has already climbed that mountain, but his trip to the top and back gave him an eye for the big picture that has brought tremendous value to his alma mater…
Thin Margins & Inaccurate Narratives
20 years ago, Muschamp was a 32 year-old national championship winning coordinator at LSU. His boss was a man named Nick Saban, a guy who many considered the best defensive coach in college football at the time.
Muschamp followed Saban to the NFL and spent a year as the assistant head coach of the Dolphins before coming back to college football as the Auburn DC in 2006. There he coordinated two straight defenses that ranked in the top ten nationally in scoring defense.
In January of 2008, Muschamp became the highest paid assistant in the Big 12 when he was hired at Texas. Just 10 months later, the Longhorns announced that Texas would be Mack Brown’s successor as head coach whenever he retired. Prior to that announcement, Muschamp had been connected to job openings at Tennessee, Auburn and Clemson. He had planned to interview with the Tigers during an upcoming bye week, but Texas didn’t want to see him leave town. Muschamp was one of the coaching industry’s fastest risers, and Texas doubled his salary and named him the head coach in waiting to keep him in Austin.
If you look back on the articles that were published about Muschamp in the 2000’s you will read effusive praise for the man who had built dominant units at LSU, Auburn and Texas over the prior years. You will see him labeled as a “defensive guru” quite often.
Muschamp became a head coach for the first time at Florida (2011-2014) and then for a second time at South Carolina (2016-2020). Neither tenure ended with the type of sustained success that many thought they would. He did lead a Gators team that went 11-2 in 2012. That is the best record that a UF team has had since Tim Tebow was there. He also went 9-4 in 2017 at South Carolina. Historically speaking, it is really damn hard to go 9-4 in Columbia.
The media found new young coaches to laud during the decade between Muschamp being hired at Florida and the end of his tenure at South Carolina. During that time, Muschamp became a punching bag for some. There is a box that defensive coaches sometimes get put in. While offensive coaches get portrayed as savvy tacticians, defensive coaches are often made out to be somehow less sophisticated. Perhaps his fiery persona on the sidelines contributed to it, but somewhere along the way many began to paint Muschamp as a clumsy man who lacked intelligence.
Talk to anyone who has worked with or for Will Muschamp and they will tell you that portrayal of Muschamp is way off-base. When he was fired at South Carolina there were people in the football offices who cried as if they had lost a family member. Secretaries and equipment staff spoke about the kind and thoughtful man who they would miss seeing at work everyday. In reality, Muschamp the person was the farthest thing from the labels that some people put on him.
The coaching profession isn’t as simple as many make it out to be. Margins are thin. A play or two costs a team a game. That loss demoralizes the team and causes a season to spiral away. A penalty at one crucial juncture or a missed block at another can sometimes be the thing that a whole season turns on.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t things Muschamp could have done differently or better. It is an acknowledgement of the fact that a career is filled with a great deal of minutiae, and the difference between 4-8 and 8-4 at a place like South Carolina isn’t nearly as big as it seems. A coach’s tenure almost always ends poorly. Suddenly, that tenure must be eulogized in 280 characters on Twitter and 600 words on a dozen different websites. Somewhere in that process things get distilled to a type of black-and-white thinking where coaches become either smart/successful or dumb/unsuccessful.
Despite all that has been said or written about him, Will Muschamp still has a brilliant football mind. It is the same one that he had when he was the 37 year-old defensive coordinator of the Texas Longhorns. It is the same mind that had him labeled a “defensive guru” by media members who sometimes serves as kingmakers.
“Alike Thinkers”
Flashback to where Georgia was when Smart hired Muschamp after the 2020 season. The program was seen as one that couldn’t quite get over the hump. The media painted Kirby Smart as a guy who could recruit talent but not win with it. Many felt his commitment to defense was holding his offenses back.
To make matters worse, UGA had just suffered a bad loss to Dan Mullen’s best Florida team in Jacksonville. UGA recruited blue-chip players all over its defense, b had been carved up by Mullen’s offense. There was a large segment of the media who believed Smart wasn’t the best coach in his own division.
Smart had taken UGA to within a play of the national title in 2017. He had also been minutes from beating Alabama in the 2018 SEC Championship, but his defense faltered down the stretch when Jalen Hurts was inserted for an injured Tua Tagovailoa. Smart called a fake punt that ended in disaster, and moments later Alabama took the lead. Smart’s 2019 team possessed the nation’s best defense and an anemic offense. That campaign was sunk by a loss at home to Muschamp’s South Carolina team when the Bulldogs were 21.5-point favorites.
On the heels of that, Smart hired Muschamp as a defensive analyst in January of 2021. Remember what I said earlier? The margins are thin in this sport. Will Muschamp arrived in Athens armed with the experience of coaching against Smart’s football teams and the rest of the SEC for nearly a decade.
The two first met as teammates at Georgia. Muschamp, an upperclassmen and a starter, encouraged the freshman from Valdosta to keep working and believe that he could see the field at UGA. Smart then coached the secondary at Valdosta State when Muschamp was the defensive coordinator in 2000. The two had the same job titles again at LSU in 2004. That past experience has given Smart and Muschamp a tight bond. They shared information for years while both were at different coaching stops, and Muschamp described the two as “alike thinkers where football is concerned,” back in 2016 during Smart’s first SEC Media Days as the UGA head coach.
Sparking UGA’s Defensive Evolution
When Muschamp came aboard he immediately had Smart’s trust. Analysts are often charged with self-scouting the team they work for. Muschamp told Smart that Georgia needed to simplify its scheme. Will looked across the roster and saw blue-chip talent everywhere. He recognized that Smart’s machine had recruited superior talent across the board, but felt like those athletes weren’t always being put into positions where they could use their physical gifts without hesitation. That moment represented a philosophical shift in how Kirby Smart’s program played defense.
Prior to that, Georgia’s defense was heavy on pre-snap checks, and matchups could be exploited depending on where a receiver, tight-end or running back might line up. Those checks confused UGA’s defenders at times, and it could leave players scrambling to get into position as the offense snapped the ball. The Bulldogs were also caught between wanting to bring extra pass rushers at times, but struggling to deal with the loss of a back end defender. Exploiting those pre-snap issues and running routes into the spaces UGA blitzers rushed from helped Florida put up 38 first-half points during their 2020 win in Jacksonville.
Georgia implemented the concept of “creepers” into its defense. Those creepers are usually second level defenders who would wait until the snap to rush towards the line of scrimmage instead of coming up to the line before the play. By bringing creepers from their regular pre-snap positions, it let UGA bring extra rushers without giving away the blitzer pre-snap. It also allowed players to react to run vs pass plays in real time. The pre-snap blitz looks where UGA brought five, six or even seven players up to the line of scrimmage didn’t totally disappear, but the philosophy allowed UGA to keep two safeties over the top at the same time. This created a system where an opponent’s QB could be staring at two safety shell at the same time UGA was showing an all-out blitz to the offensive line. That’s a lot to process, and the post-snap rotations allowed UGA to run virtually anything.  
Modern offense is all about putting the ball into space. Georgia evolved its defense by taking away the offense’s ability to dictate where space was pre-snap. Then they let superior athletes in the back end play the man across from them. Those scheme changes were coupled with a greater emphasis on getting opponents into obvious passing situations on third downs. Georgia simplified and shrunk its call sheet on early downs, stripping things down and letting players react with less hesitation.
Since that moment, UGA is 43-2 and has won two national titles. It might not have happened without Muschamp coming into the fold. Smart and the entire defensive staff worked together to perfect those solutions, but many believe Muschamp’s voice was the first to start talking about the problem.
The impact of those changes were immediate. In the 2021 Florida game, UGA shellacked the Gators and ended Dan Mullen’s tenure in Gainesville. It was a full circle moment that showed just how much had changed in one season.
The legacy of the 2021 Florida game might have been Smart’s comments after the game, where he chose to be mum about any schematic changes. "There’s no coach out there that you can out-coach recruiting. No coaching is going to out-coach players. Anybody will tell you our defense is good because we have good players."
Georgia always had good players, but the brain trust of Smart, Schumann and Muschamp found new ways to maximize their talent.  
Fiery as Ever
Many thought 2023 could be Schumann’s last as a UGA assistant. Instead it was Muschamp who chose to make a change. Multiple sources have said that Muschamp approached Smart after the regular season and told him he was considering retiring from coaching. Kirby encouraged him to take time to think about it, and offered the idea of an analyst role where Will could continue being part of the program while stepping away from the day-to-day grind.
While figuring out his future, Muschamp helped Smart complete a flip of 5-star safety KJ Bolden. At 52 years old, Muschamp is still relatively young, but coaches age in dog years. He has developed the type of big picture wisdom that only comes with decades of experience in college football’s toughest conference. That wisdom is also the product of a lot of long hours and plenty of scar tissue. His years as a head coach made him plenty of money, and he could retire comfortable at anytime. For now, he has chosen to stay with UGA as a defensive analyst.
Georgia hiring Travaris Robinson to replace Muschamp as Co-DC/Safeties Coach speaks to Smart’s respect for Will. Robinson’s first coaching gig came as a graduate assistant under Muschamp at Auburn from 2006-2007. Robinson then coached DB’s at Florida for Muschamp’s entire tenure in Gainesville before serving as his defensive coordinator at South Carolina from 2016-2020. Nobody has a better understanding of Muschamp’s defensive philosophies and techniques than Robinson.
An NCAA rule change that was passed this week put an end to restrictions on the amount of time that analysts can spend coaching student-athletes. Muschamp, and other analysts like him, can now provide, “technical and tactical instruction to student-athletes during practice and competition," said the NCAA. That means that Muschamp will be able to do plenty of hands-on work with the Georgia defense. Before the rule change, the lines on what analysts could and could not do were a bit blurry. They weren’t supposed to be involved in giving detailed technical instruction during drills, but they could only point out big picture things and comment on effort during practices. In the past, analysts were given a lot of freedom to interact with players in the facility and watch tape, but any yellow tape is no longer a concern.
Sources close to the program described Muschamp as being “fiery as ever” this spring. During one of Georgia’s spring sessions, the loud voice that earned him the nickname “Boom” filled UGA’s indoor practice facility. He started in on Bolden after the talented early enrollee failed to properly play his half-field responsibilities at the safety position. When the prized recruit didn’t make it over to the boundary in time to defend a pass in a team drill, Muschamp lit into him for the effort he showed on the play. It was vintage Muschamp, and being around that type of burning intensity was one of the things that convinced Bolden that Georgia was the right place for him to play his college football.  
There is something poetic about the fact that Smart hired his former boss to assist him in taking their alma mater to the pinnacle of the sport. The defensive changes Muschamp inspired helped spark Georgia’s historic three-year run. 
As the Bulldogs prepare for 2024, it is likely that Smart, Schumann, Muschamp and the rest of UGA’s defensive staff are hard at work on solving the Bulldogs’ issues with red zone defense. Most great defenses are great at controlling the run, and you can bet that UGA will have a renewed emphasis on shutting down opponents on the ground. As the staff analyzes the best way to use 2024’s personnel, another wave of defensive evolution could occur. In his analyst role, Muschamp is likely to have more time to spend on these types of projects. That could pay major dividends for the Dawgs when it comes time to take the field. 
For UGA to win a third title in four years in 2024, its roster full of talented defenders must play at a high level. Still one of the sport’s sharpest defensive minds, Will Muschamp will be a big part of helping the Bulldogs get there. 

"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 #20. 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…
24 For 2024 - #20 Dominic Lovett
UGA rarely takes transfers.
There are a few reasons why…
1) The Bulldogs recruiting has been as good as any team in the nation since Kirby Smart arrived. Georgia has signed 8 straight classes ranked in the top three nationally, which has stocked every position room with blue-chip talent.
2) Georgia’s staff has been excellent when it comes to evaluating high-school prospects. UGA signs a lot of four and five-star prospects, but it also has a tremendous hit rate on lower ranked players. Over 25% of the three-star recruits that Georgia has brought in under Smart have been drafted by the NFL, which is over five times the national average. If UGA is signing a player who isn’t highly rated then it usually means they know something that the recruiting services don’t. Even when Georgia loses a highly publicized recruitment, it usually doesn’t miss out on filling its needs at the position.
3) Georgia develops its talent as well as any program in college football. The process of building a pipeline of recruited talent isn’t static. When players show up they are nurtured by teams of nutritionists, strength coaches and football experts. The UGA machine takes players who are already very good and makes them stronger, faster, and technically sound. Sometimes Georgia takes a player who is good at one position, and turns them into a productive player at a totally different spot. They might have to gain 40 pounds first, but UGA’s staff has done the homework to know whether that prospect’s frame can put on that type of weight without sacrificing too much speed. If a weaknesses exists in a player’s game it is minimized. Georgia recruits some prospects who they expect to contribute early. They recruit others who will go through a long period of change prior to ever taking the field. Either way, there is usually a plan. If a player is in UGA’s system then it’s because the staff believes it can turn that player into a significant contributor one day.
4) UGA won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022, and it hasn’t lost a regular season game since 2020. That said, winning comes at a price. If you want to play for Georgia then you have to work harder than you would at most places. Practices are more physical. Coaches are more demanding. So are teammates. Every coach and player at every college program wants to win, but very few are willing to suffer to do it. If you want to play for Georgia you have to be willing to suffer a little bit.
5) Georgia’s general recruiting proposition is based around everything above… The Dawgs develop NFL talent. When you amass lots of NFL talent at the college level then you compete for championships every year. After those championships are played for, guys go and get paid. In the NIL world, a lot of players are looking to maximize their current market value instead of maximizing their future earning potential. Georgia pays its proven stars well, but only after they’re proven. The Dawgs are never the highest bidder for any player, and that includes ones who enter the portal. Kids who enter the transfer portal after a successful season are often moving up from a contender. They often do so because they missed out on big NIL bucks as recruits. The NFL might be in their future, but more often than not they want to get paid immediately. Finding a player who is using a productive season as a springboard is normal. Finding one who wants better development and a chance to compete for championships more than they want the biggest dollar amount isn’t normal.
UGA’s Talent Acquisition Strategy at WR
After Georgia’s 2021 national title, the Bulldogs chose not to bring any players in through the portal. Smart bet on the guys he had on his roster, and it paid off in a 15-0 season. It made a pretty significant statement when the Bulldogs brought Dominic Lovett and Rara Thomas into their WR room the following offseason. It made an even bigger statement when the Bulldogs brought 3 more portal WR’s into the program this past offseason (London Humphreys, Michael Jackson III and Colbie Young).
Wideout is the one position on the roster where UGA has been unable to consistently hit home-runs with its high-school recruiting. A big reason why is the high percentage of top WR’s who are looking for the biggest NIL deal they can find. Georgia sells its development on the trail much more than any immediate earnings a player might acquire, but it also doesn’t prioritize spending on WR’s. Smart’s program has been built on the line of scrimmage, and an elite front seven propelled UGA to its 2021 national title. The hardest thing to find in football is big bodies that can move. There are only a few real difference makers on the defensive line in any given class, and history has shown that those players rarely transfer once they pick a college. When Georgia takes big swings with NIL at the high-school level, it usually does it along the line of scrimmage.
On the other hand, WR’s are a dime a dozen. The Bulldogs signed 3-star wideouts in back-to-back classes when it brought in Ladd McConkey in 2020 and AD Mitchell in 2021. Mitchell eventually transferred to Texas, but both players were picked in the first two rounds of the most recent NFL Draft. You can find value further down in a class, and recent evidence points to the idea that UGA believes it can also find value in the portal.
The most impressive thing about Georgia’s back-to-back championship seasons is that it was missing its #1 wideouts for most of the time. George Pickens was never fully healthy for UGA in 2021, and AD Mitchell only played 3 games at full speed in 2022. The Dawgs have shown they can build pass catching depth, but they have still yet to have a 1000 yard receiver in the Smart era. Lots of schools like to use that against UGA on the recruiting trail, and it’s another reason why the Bulldogs have found themselves with 5 transfer wideouts on their 2024 roster.
Could the Loss of Bowers & McConkey lead to Lovett breaking out?
If you’ve followed my work for awhile, then you’re probably familiar with Yards Per Route Run. It’s a simple stat- Yards receiving divided by the number of routes a player has run. When applied to WR’s who receive regular playing time, YRR is an extremely effective measuring stick. Historically speaking, 2.00 YRR is the benchmark for high level receiver play.
Brock Bowers, Rara Thomas, Ladd McConkey and Dominic Lovett were among the 19 SEC pass catchers who had 50+ targets and 1.99 Yards Per Route Run in the 2022 season. In 2023, McConkey (3.26 YRR) and Bowers (2.65 YRR) again easily cleared that mark.
Both players missed at least 4 games, but they were also the targets who UGA’s passing offense ran through on passing downs. McConkey played in 9 games for Georgia, but he was on a snap count in some of them due to back issues. His YRR numbers are likely inflated by the fact that UGA looked to maximize his snaps by using him when they could. He had 37 TGT’s and 30 REC’s for 483 yards last season, but they came on just 148 receiving snaps. Bowers took 271 receiving snaps. Despite only playing in 10 games, that number was the second most on the team.
Thomas struggled adjusting from Mississippi State’s Air Raid offense to UGA’s pro style concepts early in 2023, but he was beginning to come alive before suffering a foot injury late in the season. He recorded a 1.72 YRR, but he only saw 35 targets over 11 games and never really got into a groove.
Lovett led UGA with 315 receiving snaps, and his 70 targets was just 1 shy of the team high that Bowers recorded. His 614 yards on 53 receptions led to him having a respectable 1.95 YRR, but that was almost a full yard lower than the 2.94 YRR that he recorded as the #1 WR in Missouri’s 2022 offense. That season, he was one of only 3 SEC receivers with more than 2.50 YRR
So, why the regression? There were times early in the year where Lovett and Beck didn’t seem to be totally on the same page, but that changed as the season went on. The truth is that Bowers and McConkey took up a lot of the vertical space in the 2023 UGA offense. Lovett’s average depth of target in 2022 was 11.8 yards downfield, but that slipped to 6.2 yards at Georgia last season. With that in mind, Lovett’s 11.6 yards per catch looks a bit more healthy. On average, he gained 5.4 yards after the catch per reception.
With Bowers and McConkey gone, the question we must ask is what Lovett can be for UGA in 2024. Like McConkey, he has experience both inside and outside. In 2021 at Missouri he took 77.6% of his snaps on the boundary. In 2022, he took nearly 84% of them in the slot. That year, Lovett had 45 catches for 746 YDS when lined up in the slot. That led to an eye popping 3.16 YRR as an inside receiver.
Those numbers point in a direction that says Georgia is probably correct to use Lovett in the slot. He took 83.5% of his snaps there in 2023, and it appears he will once again be the starter at slot for UGA in 2024. Where he lines up doesn’t need to change, but where he goes next probably should. Lovett averaged 16.6 yards a catch as an inside WR in that 2022 season at Mizzou, but he did it with an ADOT of 12.6 yards.
If you watched Carson Beck in 2023 then you know one of the things he excels at is throwing the ball up the seams. Lovett is at his best lined up inside, and the two could form a formidable pair on intermediate throws over the middle of the field. Lovett’s YAC numbers seem to go up the further downfield he runs his routes. He caught 9 passes on 14 targets of 10-19 yards over the middle. He turned those receptions into 222 yards, which was helped by the 10.3 yards after the catch that he averaged after those catches. That is a super productive 24.7 yards per catch, which makes sense for a speedy WR who can create separation. It is something UGA should look to use to its advantage in 2024. In short, send #6 downfield and good things happen.
At times this offseason, I’ve wondered what it might have looked like if Georgia had used Lovett that way at the end of 2023. The UGA passing game struggled through the SEC Championship with an injured McConkey and a hobbled Bowers facing a secondary full of future pros. Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint and Dillon Bell also struggled to create separation throughout much of the game. When you go back and rewatch the tape of that SEC title game loss, it is Lovett who is often breaking open somewhere on the field as the ball is delivered to a well covered Bowers or McConkey.
Lovett creates separation frequently and put up strong numbers at Mizzou despite middling quarterback play. He was a major part of Georgia’s screen game last season, with 22 of his 70 targets coming behind the line of scrimmage. That should continue this year, but Lovett will look to improve on the 6.3 yards per catch he had on receptions behind the line. The rising senior had just 5 missed tackles forced last year. Sources have said that he’s spent time bulking up his lower half this offseason in the hopes of fighting through contact better and creating more yards after the catch.
There is no replacing Brock Bowers, but there is a chance for Georgia to replace both him and McConkey in the aggregate. When looking for matchup problems on the UGA roster, Lovett stands out. He had 13 REC’s on 16 TGT’s against man coverage last year and all 4 of his TD’s came in man-to-man situations despite the fact he only averaged 3.0 yards of YAC per catch versus man. On the other side of the coin, Lovett produced 8.3 YDS of YAC/rec versus zone coverage last year. This speaks to the fact that he can burn man coverage downfield for big plays and find holes to sit down in when facing zone. He is a total package.
Lovett will have plenty of other weapons around him, and the combo of Rara Thomas and Colbie Young on the outside should keep teams from shading coverage towards the middle of the field. That would be major for the Bulldogs. Lovett’s play will be a big factor in determining if the Bulldogs have enough firepower to win a third title in four years, but it could also have a ripple effect on UGA’s talent acquisition strategy at the position moving forward.
At the moment, it looks like UGA can manage its WR position without recruiting high-school wideouts at an elite level. Lovett left Missouri after being its #1 option, but felt scorned by the amount of NIL money and attention that the program had funneled towards freshman 5-star Luther Burden. By coming to Georgia, he made a decision to compete for bigger prizes at a better program. The Bulldogs gave Lovett just 6 less targets last season than he had at Mizzou in 2022, but he also played in 2 more games.
Georgia sold Lovett on being a feature WR for a title team and further developing him for the NFL. That development is happening. Lovett’s blocking improved greatly throughout 2023, and his body has gone through another transformation this offseason. That said, he wasn’t always featured last year. He often disappeared for long stretches despite seeing the most receiving snaps on the team.
In the end, quality is more important than quantity. McConkey was drafted 34rd overall despite having less than 150 receiving snaps last season. Lovett can be a productive high volume target who lives off of little chunks, but it feels like the NFL loves to see its future draft picks showing they can create separation on vertical routes. Georgia’s WR recruiting at all levels could be well served if it showcases Lovett in a way that leads to him having a good year statistically. It could also be well served by having him turn into a highly drafted player. Whether true or not, Georgia would not be helped by the perception that Lovett’s future was hurt by leaving Mizzou for Georgia. If the Dawgs don’t want to be involved in NIL bidding wars at the high-school level, then it needs its portal wideouts to be success stories.
Bowers and the targets he demanded is now a thing of the past. The Bulldogs also have a future first-round QB under center in Beck. This feels like the time where a Georgia wideout could finally put up big numbers in big moments. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lovett ends up being the guy who does it.