ATHENS — Wide receiver London Humphreys recalled the Georgia win over Georgia Tech last year as fun. He caught a touchdown in the win, where the Georgia offense finished with 44 points.
The defense did not have as enjoyable of night. The Bulldogs gave up 42 points and 563 yards of offense, the second-most ever by a Kirby Smart defense at Georgia.
Quarterback Haynes King, who accounted for five touchdowns, returns for the Yellow Jackets. Georgia, conversely, will likely be without their top defensive player in CJ Allen. He suffered a knee injury in the win against Texas and is not expected to suit up this week.
That will put even more onto the plates of Georgia’s linebackers this week.
“A lot more challenging this week in terms of vision, eye control, keys,” Smart said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on in the backfield. There’s a lot of motion shifts. You’ve got the extra element of the quarterback run. So fitting things properly, being thick on things, keying things, striking and getting off blockers, no one for ones. They’re all things that’ll be important in this game.”
Chris Cole, Raylen Wilson and Justin Williams will all see an uptick in playing time with Allen on the sideline. Cole got the start alongside Wilson last week, while getting plenty of tidbits from Allen in street clothes.
Toppling King will be a more challenging task for Cole and the Georgia defense.
“What stands out to me, he’s definitely physical,” Cole said. “They have a great, can we run game, a great offensive line. So just stopping at our main goal this year, which was to stop the run. So that’s been a great opportunity for us.”
Georgia is much improved against the run this season, currently ranking fifth nationally in rushing defense. A year ago, the Yellow Jackets rushed for 260 yards in the loss. Georgia Tech ranks 17th in the country in rushing offense and is statistically the best rushing offense Georgia will face during the regular season.
It’s all powered by King, who is still among the Heisman Trophy favorites even after Saturday’s loss against Pitt. King rallied the Georgia Tech offense to turn a 28-0 deficit into a 35-28 game, but the Yellow Jackets couldn’t get the stop they needed in the loss.
Georgia’s defense has improved over the course of the season, specifically since the team’s second off week at the end of October. Georgia could potentially see starting safety Kyron Jones return this week, as he has not played since Georgia’s win over Auburn.
But the Bulldogs don’t expect to have perhaps the best linebacker in the SEC available in Allen. He’ll do all he can to help Cole and the others from the sideline, but it will be up to the Georgia defense to shut down Georgia Tech’s vaunted offense on Friday.
“I mean, at the end of the day, they got a block, we got a tackle, and somebody’s got to do it better,” Smart said. “And that’s a very tough thing when you play them because they stretch you horizontally. They stretch you vertically. They stretch you with tempo. They stretch you with numbers counts because of their quarterback. So there’s no level of comfort dealing with it. It’s more of a, how do you inspire your players to play harder?”
