Curtis Compton/AJC
Georgia outside linebacker Davin Bellamy celebrates in the UGA student section at Sanford Stadium after leading a defense that stoned Auburn in the second half on the way to a 13-7 victory in 2016.

Georgia football’s Wolfpack receives the Planet Earth treatment

Cy Brown
Cy Brown

Welcome to Good Day, UGA, your one-stop shop for Georgia football news and takes. Check us out every weekday morning for everything you need to know about Georgia football, recruiting, basketball and more.

Don’t turn your back on the Wolfpack

Here’s further proof that everything is better with David Attenborough.

Georgia football’s always-excellent video department outdid itself this time. Check out this video, in which clips of Georgia’s crew of outside linebackers — a.k.a the Wolfpack — is overlaid with commentary that Attenborough did for the Planet Earth television show about an actual pack of wolves. I have to say, it’s spectacular.

“Further south, other, bigger predators prowl the tundra. Wolves. A wolf has finally picked up the trail,” Attenborough said as the video opens to shots of Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter. “At last, a chance. The hunt is on.”

Queue highlights of Bellamy and Carter wreaking havoc on opposing quarterbacks. Before the video closes with the linebackers breaking down the huddle with a howl, we see Carter come off the field with a turnover and Bellamy wearing the Spike Squad that Georgia players earn with a turnover.

Attenborough’s commentary ends on a perfect note.

“The kill will feed the pack for several days. But then, they will have to resume the chase.”

Are you ready for Saturday yet?

Justin Fields to announce commitment Friday

All-everything 5-star 2018 QB Justin Fields is set to announce his college choice Friday at 10:45 a.m. If you’re reading this after that time, check the DawgNation homepage for everything you need to know about Fields’ decision, whatever it may be.

Based on 247’s Crystal Ball feature — which aggregates predictions from recruiting reporters around the 247 network — Georgia has the best shot to land Fields. Fifty percent of reporters who weighed in believe he’ll choose the Bulldogs. Florida State is in second, with 38 percent of predictions pointing toward the ‘Noles.

And just as a reminder of what Georgia stands to gain or lose Friday, here are some highlights of Fields:

Step into the film room

Oliver Connolly of SEC Country did an excellent film study of Georgia’s defense. Among his talking points are the success Georgia’s secondary has found using pattern-matching principles and the defense’s discipline. But I wanted to point you to what Connolly had to say about Roquan Smith. This is poetry:

“Smith’s diagnose-and-attack instincts are off-the-charts good. He doesn’t arrive at the collision point on time; he arrives early. It’s as though he’s reviewed an advance copy of the game. There are few better at thundering downhill and shooting gaps. He navigates the malaise up front effortlessly and closes with jarring speed.

However, good defense isn’t about flashy plays. It resides in the absence of spectacle.

It’s the little things that make Smith such a destructive defender from down to down: always playing with the proper leverage; attacking the correct shoulder; hitting the right gaps; stack-and-shedding rather than charging downhill with reckless abandon; conjuring space when it appears like there is none; head up, wrap-up tackling; accelerating on contact; not falling for fakes or being caught out of position; playing with great eye discipline; and playing with great gap discipline.

The Jeremy Pruitt Memorial Indoor Practice Facility is really paying off

One underdiscussed potential contributor to Georgia’s success so far this season is the new indoor practice facility. In Seth Emerson’s DawgNation mailbag, he fielded a question about the affect the indoor facility is having on this team.

“This remains an underrated factor, and one that should get more attention if Georgia keeps playing well. The Bulldogs seem to be in great conditioning shape, and the whole ‘practices are harder than the games’ culture change philosophy would appear to have been helped by this.

I’ll admit that I was as guilty as anybody for years in downplaying the importance of an indoor facility. People in the administration would point to the few rainy days lost to practice, and I’d write it and not do the right research. Lesson learned. Football is a physical, grueling sport, especially in the deep South, and an indoor facility allows teams to go inside on hot days periodically and have better practices.”

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It’s Friday. Try not to hit a wall.

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