Anonymous coaches rip Georgia football defense, wide receivers to ESPN

Some out there aren’t all that impressed with a number of aspects of the Georgia football team. And several anonymous coaches made their feelings known to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

The strongest quote came when speaking about the Georgia defense. The Bulldogs will have their hands full against the highest-scoring offense in the country.

“I won’t be surprised if Tennessee scores 50,” one coach said. “Georgia’s front is average. Their back end is below average. They really miss William Poole [who left the team early in September]. I don’t think their corners are special. The [Kelee] Ringo kid, he doesn’t run nearly as well as you’d expect. The others are just OK. They’re going to run right by those corners.”

Georgia coach Kirby Smart was asked about his secondary earlier this week. Unlike the feckless anonymous coaches, Smart projected confidence in his secondary.

Either way, we’ll learn a whole lot about his secondary this Saturday.

“We’re excited to see them go compete,” Smart said. “I think they’ve gotten better each and every week. Grown some depth in the secondary playing some other guys. I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I mean, they’re going to -- one thing is for sure, they’re going to get to cover.

“They’re going to find out. Because there’s no hiding anybody when you play these guys.”.

Related: Kirby Smart confident in Georgia football secondary: ‘I’m looking forward to the opportunity’

“He makes a lot of plays on the ball. He is the ultimate competitive excellence guy,” Smart said about Bowers after the win over Florida. “(Todd) Hartley talks about it all the time. Competitive excellence is when it’s 50-50 or when you’ve got to go make a play, can you make it? We’ve seen him do it over and over again.”

Related: Social media gushes over Brock Bowers, eyes massive Georgia football-Tennessee matchup

We’ll learn a lot more about this Georgia team on Saturday when it takes on the No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee already has a win over Alabama this season, besting the Crimson Tide 52-49.

The game is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on CBS.

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