ATHENS — The Georgia Bulldogs came in at No. 2 in the first College Football Playoff rankings.

They’ve largely handled their business thus far, with wins over No. 5 Alabama and No. 24 Florida.

But it hasn’t been a flawless season thus far, as evidenced by Georgia’s loss to a 4-4 Auburn team. The Bulldogs were undone late in that game by a Gunner Stockton fumble.

The Bulldogs rebounded against Florida this past weekend, winning 27-8. But the fumbling issues persisted.

So much so that ESPN’s Bill Connelly singled it out as Georgia’s biggest flaw to this point.

“They’ve fumbled an incredible 14 times,” Connelly said. “That’s tied for 126th in the nation. They’ve suffered eight fumbles in the past three games alone. They’ve muffed four punts, but eight other players have fumbled at least once. It’s the strangest of epidemics.”

The Bulldogs have been fortunate to only lose two of those fumbles in the previous three games. Talyn Taylor fumbled against Florida when the Bulldogs were in the red zone with a chance to make it a four-score lead in the fourth quarter.

The Gators lone points came after Georgia’s only turnover against Florida. Jon Sumrall’s team conversely turned it over four times.

“Think we can play obviously a lot better offensively,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “But we did what we had to do, and we avoided turnovers for the most part and we got turnovers. The Dawgs didn’t beat the Dawgs today. The Gators helped us with some of the turnovers they had.”

Three of those fumbles have come by way of punt returner Sacovie White-Helton. He’s muffed a punt in each of Georgia’s last three games.

The Bulldogs have recovered all three of those fumbles. But the recent performance from White-Helton has led to a fiery defense from Smart.

“Ball security? He didn’t fumble,” Smart said. “You talking about him catching the bounce ball? Would you prefer it roll down to the one yard line and us start backed up? I don’t. I like what he did. I thought he was aggressive. If he does it, he’s got to field it properly and take care of it. I’ve played with a lot of guys that are scared back there. So I don’t think Sacovie’s scared.”

White-Helton did have a 30-yard punt return in the win over Florida, validating Smart’s belief in the third-year receiver.

If Georgia were to consider its other options at the position, the Bulldogs could turn to Craig Dandridge or Landon Roldan. The latter did have a fumble while returning a punt earlier this year against Western Kentucky.

In the event Tyriq Green returns from injury, he could also be a potential option. He did work as Georgia’s kick returner prior to injuring his ankle against Western Kentucky and has missed the last six games for Georgia.

As for White-Helton, Smart still believes he’s Georgia’s best option as the team’s punt returner.

“We’re not going to ever play scared here. So I don’t believe in letting that ball just roll down there,” Smart said. “Now I’d like for him to make a good decision and catch a high hop, a Sunday hop. We work really hard on that. That’s a field position play. He’s made a lot of catches on balls. He had a great return tonight. So it really wasn’t ball security. If you want to question his judgment, then the Alabama one, sure, you question that.”

Georgia has lost a total of five fumbles this season. Conversely, the Bulldogs have been able to recover eight of their opponents’ fumbles.

Georgia has already forced more turnovers this season than it did all of last year. The Bulldogs are +6 in turnover margin on the year, ranking 16th nationally in the stat.

If the Bulldogs have better ball security, they could rank even higher in that all-important category.