ATHENS — Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann admitted on Wednesday that the 2024 Georgia defense was not up to standard.
Schumann, now entering his fourth season as Georgia’s defensive coordinator, explained why that was the case and what Georgia can do moving forward to fix some of the many issues.
Below is a full transcript of everything Schumann said on Wednesday.
Everything Georgia DC Glenn Schumann said about the 2025 defense
Opening statement …
“We challenge the players all offseason in terms of passion, fire, and energy. And I think through the first six days, that’s been outstanding. Obviously, it’s early, there’s still things that need to improve in terms of execution. It’s built that way on purpose. The first six days are really heavy installation on both sides of the ball. Philosophically, you do that because over time, you get more reps. The best way to add to knowledge andadd to execution is by getting reps doing it. So the earlier you put it in, the sooner that they can make mistakes and get that corrected. So there’s still a ways to go in terms of that. That’s what camp’s for. But the passion, fire, and energy has been great. It’s a credit to them. I told the defense the other day, it’s kind of like marriage. Everybody’s happy o. their wedding day. Everybody has a lot. of passion and energy the first five or six days. But what separates teams from others is what happens from day six to day 15. And then the consistency. over the course of the season can keep that going. But I’m really pleased with where that is at the start of this.”
On if they assess players’ ability to recall information while recruiting …
“I think that when you go through the recruiting process, the more time you spend with people, the more you can tell guys that really love ball and that are going to be invested in it. It’s our job to teach them and it’s their job to put in the work to learn. We’re a team in that manner. And so it’s not necessarily just, oh, we’re quizzing and seeing who has the best recall and they’re the guys that need to be here. Obviously, that’s beneficial. But the guys that really love it, they’re going to be determined to work through it. Ultimately, learning comes from their own personal investment in it. And so I think you’re gauging guys’ levels of investment and love for the game of football. And then, do they want to just play, or do they want to talk about it? And if they want it to be part of every aspect of their life, man, that translates.”
On how this team compares athletically and size-wise to past teams …
“I’m really pleased with where this group is. I think they had a great off-season. I think that we have size, I think we have speed. I don’t think comparisons are fair to the guys here or the guys before, but I’m really pleased with where they’re at. I think that the conditioning level that we have, and you’re continuing to build up stamina to play. You build from playing a four-play drive to a six-play drive to an eight-play drive. There’s nothing like playing football to get in football shape. And so we’re still doing that, but there’s nothing. I think comparisons are not fair to the past or the present.”
On CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson …
“It’s honestly really crazy to think about. I constantly refer to them as the old heads now. I think that reality for them of, hey, time’s running out a little bit. It feels like you have forever when you first get here, and the next thing you know, you’re a junior. But just their maturity level has always been high. But I think their outward confidence, their leadership, how vocal they are, and then just how that translates to them playing the game. They’re playing faster, they’re communicating faster. The reps allow you to see, people talk about the game slowing down. Well, the more you play, the more it slows down, right? Because now you’re anticipating, you’re not reacting. I think you saw a little bit of that last year in spurts, where, man, at times they were playing really fast. I think the more they play, the more confident they are, both in terms of communicating the defense, commanding from a leadership standpoint, and speeding up their run fits, what they do in coverage, what they do in blitzes. And so I just think all of that has followed a natural progression. Those guys work really hard in all aspects of their game.”
On who could replace the Jalon Walker role from last year …
“Every team, so within saying, hey, make us uncomfortable, I think every, you ask the players to be uncomfortable, because that’s where growth comes from, right? So I think it’s important in camp you assess, hey, who are our best players? What do they do well? Obviously there is a blueprint for what the Georgia defense is, and there’s a standard there, but that’s more about how to play the game than it is about, hey, are we going to be more quarters or three-deep zone? Hey, are we going to be more five-man front or a four-man front? Hey, are we going to play more base defense, like number of linebackers on the field, or are we going to get in dime on third down? All those variables are really based on who you have and what they do best. That’s part of what you find out in camp. We teach the defense, and then as you get closer to the games, you mold it to the guys. But we have, I think we’re not asking anybody to, hey, go replace Jalon Walker in that way. It might be three different guys replace what he did, and it might be relative to their strengths. So it might be a little bit from the outside linebacker room, some from the inside linebacker room. But we’re not going to ask somebody to feel exactly what he did, because that might not be in the best interest of this team.”
On what he’s seen from Christen Miller so far and what he expects out of him this camp …
“Yeah, I think he’s, there’s times he’s been at a really high level. The challenge there is sustaining it, because his level of intensity, effort, his level of communication, just his urgency is at an all-time high, which is what it needs to be. We need him to be a guy that can both anchor in the middle, but also be really disruptive because hey, when you’re playing, we always talk about, hey, when you’re playing base mode, let’s say we’re playing technique up front. Hey, the gaps are very clear in front of you. Hey, linebackers have to fill those gaps. Well, hey, we need him to be strong at the point of attack. Hey, we need an outback. But then when we move, he’s a really good athlete. So he needs to add value in terms of disrupting plays when we do move him. Then I think interior pass rush is really, there’s ways to navigate edge pass rush on offense. It’s really difficult to deal with the dominant pass rusher in the middle, in terms of pocket push and when to match up some guarding centers. The more he can do that, we need that from our interior D line, not just the run-stopping ability, but pass rush ability, and ability to disrupt plays and push the pocket. So that’s what we need from him.”
On how much of the 19-22 run defense was having elite players and if the run defense stats from last year can lay in a way …
“No, I mean, stats always tell you something. I mean, stats are what they are. I mean, you start rationalizing stats, then you’re just making excuses for a performance that wasn’t up to our standard. Number one thing we need to do better in run defense, okay, is tackle better. We did not tackle to our standard last year. If you tackle better, you eliminate yards after contact, okay? We need to leverage the football better, okay? Specifically, on thr perimeter where the ball bounced out too much. And so that goes back to trust and playing together as a unit. So one of the big area, we’ve just been really harping on, hey, the right way to tackle, which we always do. That’s not like this is some unique thing, but our guys are very aware of where we need to improve. They know to play Georgia football on both sides of the ball, we need to run the ball and stop the run. They’ve taken great pride trying to improve in those areas. But we need to tackle better, leverage the football better. And then ultimately, guys, we talk about changing the math. Like on an offensive playbook page, everybody’s blocked except for the middle field safety. Let’s not act like there’s unblocked guys. No matter what you do on defense, every once in a while you might trip them. The way to change the math is to either take two blockers or beat your blocker. So that goes back to striking blockers, getting off block, technique, tech blocks, technique and fundamentals. The more guys we have that don’t trade, we call it trading one for one. Like, hey, if you block me and I stay in my gap, but I don’t do anything else to affect the play, I trade one for one. The offense won on that play. So, tackling, leveraging the football, okay? And then we have got to do a great job of not going one for one in terms of dealing with blockers. And that’s what it is. WhOKou don’t do that well, it leads to the results we saw. And so, hey, we’re not worried about that. We’re just worried about the future. Guys are taking pride in doing those things every day.”
On how they’re dealing with the new rules about abrupt movement presnap …
“I think, you know, Kirby had a quote about defining what abrupt is. I think that’s really important. I think educating your players is, hey, this is what’s seen as abrupt and this is what’s not seen as abrupt. Any time there’s rules, whether it’s roughing the passer or abrupt movements, you educate your players on what the right way is, and you coach them how to do that. It’s not going to be our job to officiate it. It’s our job to present the rules and the information to our players, coach them the right way, and make sure we do it that way.”
On Elo (Ell-Oh) Modozie …
“Elo. Just saying. That’s that. Man, bright kid. Like, I just love he, you wouldn’t know that he hasn’t been here his whole career just watching him. I’m talking about that from a person standpoint, okay? From a standpoint making him fit in with the guys. He has meshed with our unit exceptionally well in terms of, you always, when you bring in a transfer, there’s always an element of, hey, how are they going to fit in with our people? We try to do our background and we bring people in. Do we think they fit our culture? He’s done a great job of that. He’s still learning. This is really six practices into it for him. But he’s an athlete. The things you saw on tape that made us interested in him coming here, you see those. I think as he gets more and more reps, he’ll continue to see more and more of what he can do from a, you know, edge rusher standpoint, an edge-setting standpoint. And he’s also a really good athlete. You know, this guy played wideout in high school. So when he does need to drop and do those things, he’s unique in that sense. But he’s still, you know, we’re six practices in. It’s his first six practices. So even though, you know, he’s an older guy, he’s out there adjusting like some of the other new players. So he’s only going to get better from here.”
On Joseph Jonah-Ajonye …
“Joseph is a great athlete for his size. He has the length we look for in the defensive end position. He has some natural power to him. I think that for him, you’re looking in that Mykel role, where you want to be a guy that can go from playing inside the tackle to outside the tackle, and that’s really what we need from him. With him not getting as many reps, it’s saying that every day he’s getting better. I’m really excited about what he’s going to do this year because we had high hopes for him at the beginning of last year.”
On Quintavius Johnson …
“Q is a guy who, you know, you think about athletically. This guy was a high school quarterback, he played on his feet. So some of the things that, you know, marry up with what I said about Elo’s skill set. Like that, that balanced out, Q’s really bright. The guy really cares at a high level, he’s a good athlete. As an outside linebacker, there’s a lot asked of you, more than just setting the edge, and he’s able to do all those things. So he’s had a good camp, he had a good spring, and, you know, we need more out of him than what we’ve seen so far. But with the way he works, we’re confident we’ll get it out of him.”
On Kris Jones and his move to OLB …
“Yeah, one, first of all, you know, Kris Jones is a selfless guy. When we had those losses, you know, at outside linebacker, and we were looking at his frame, you know, his body type, he has a lot, he has a naturally bulkier frame. So he’s a guy who played inside and outside in high school, okay? But his frame had the ability to put on more weight, potentially, to be able to be an edge setter. He was all for whatever helped the team. I think, you know, it’s like starting over, though. You know, he learns, he spends a whole year learning the position at one position, and hey, these are my alignments, these are my fits, these are my coverage responsibilities, and then you start over. So I think you saw that in the spring. I’ve been pleased with, I’ve seen growth this fall. He’s improved as a rusher, which he didn’t get to do as much last year. I think I’ve really seen him flash there. He’s a heavy-handed guy, so he needs to keep developing, but he has a skill set that can help us out there.”
On Elijah Griffin …
“Elijah, yeah, EG’s doing great. You know, you always want to temper expectations on young players, but he has a maturity to him, a work ethic to him. He’s obviously a big guy with a lot of athleticism, so we hope that Elijah’s able to help us this year. The capacity with which he’ll be able to help us is really about how he continues to grow and advance, but he’s had a good start to camp.”
On if last year’s defense met the standard …
“No, I think we weren’t consistent enough to meet the standard. That’s just the reality. You can’t have games against five playoff opponents, teams that made it to the 12-team playoff, and play really well there, and then have four other games where you give up 28 points or more, point blank period. We know that. It has to be better, and you can’t be up and down. Consistency is the mark of a great defense. We talk about being elite or not. To be elite, you have to be consistent. That’s what makes something elite. So we can’t have up and down performances, and everybody in that room knows that when they came to Georgia, they came to Georgia to play championship level defense, coaches, players included, and so anything short of that isn’t the standard.”
On what makes a good teacher …
“Well, as a teacher, you teach to your students, right? Like you have to have an ability to teach to different learning styles if you’re trying to reach the whole room, right? So there’s times that you have to teach at a pace that’s exciting enough to keep the guys that have been here, and that have a high level of understanding. You have to challenge them for their growth, okay? But you also have teach at a pace that still reaches the guys that are learning. That’s what I think makes a great teacher, is the ability to get through to all levels of understanding. You’ve got some guys that came and played single A football, and some guys that came from IMG Academy, right? The level of football they’ve been exposed to is different. So you can’t just coach to one guy, right? I told the linebackers this morning, it’s like if you’re in a lecture hall, it’s hard necessarily for some guys to learn in a lecture hall. There’s 100 students in there, right? When we have meetings, it’s interactive. So part of teaching is interacting. I don’t want to sit up here and be like Charlie Brown, blah, blah, blah, blah. That’s not good. They need to interact, they need to ask questions. So part of that is making sure they understand communication from them matters. And if they’re not giving it back to us, we can’t help them. We can’t know when they don’t understand. But then part of it on our end is making an effort to reach each individual. How you explain something to one person might not make sense to the next person. So you can’t just teach it one way. You have to find a way to reach each individual, because that’s our job as coaches.”
