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Georgia football defensive ‘formula’ has Bulldogs ready to take on talented Ohio State offense

ATLANTA — The Georgia defense that will take the field on Saturday will be very different than the one that lined up against Michigan in the College Football Playoff last season.

Only two defensive starters from that game will suit up for Georgia, cornerback Kelee Ringo and safety Chris Smith. The latter is one of the few examples of a player who stuck around at Georgia and developed over the course of five seasons. Consider Smith’s fellow 2018 signee Azeez Ojulari is in his second season in the NFL.

“He’s a product of our development, and he came in and has really blossomed into a really good safety prospect at the next level,” Smart said of Smith. “Just proud of the work he’s done. He’s a great example of, if you stick around and grow in this system, you can be really good.”

That system doesn’t just get the most out of over-looked prospects like Smith. It gets players such as Jalen Carter and Malaki Starks onto the field early in their careers. It rotates consistently in the front seven while it has no problem playing youngsters in the secondary, provided they’re good enough to beat out the tremendous competition at all levels.

The 2021 Georgia defense was universally lauded as legendary. This group had to replace five first-round picks and a total of eight starters. It then lost Nolan Smith, the group’s vocal leader and best outside linebacker, midway through the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

Yet the 2022 Georgia defense has carved out its own legacy. It’s not as statistically overwhelming as the 2021 group, but the Bulldogs once again ranks first in the country in run defense, second in scoring defense and eighth in yards per play allowed.

And it’s done all that while taking orders from two new coordinators, as Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp took over for Dan Lanning, now the head coach at Oregon.

The more things seem to change for this defense, the more the results stay the same.

“It’s just culture,” Smart said bluntly on why the defense continues to excel. “That’s not going to change. What we do is not going to change. It doesn’t matter if one coach leaves or another coach leaves. That doesn’t impact our defense. We rep a lot of players at practice. We have a system set up to get our twos and threes ready.

“So the next cast of defensive players is getting ready right now just like they were last year. I think, if you’ve got a good formula for getting guys ready, it prevents large gaps in seasons.”

The Georgia defense is used to being challenged by now, and Saturday’s game against Ohio State will be no different. The Georgia defense was told it would give up 50 against Tennessee, before holding the Volunteers to just 13 points.

Part of the reason for the resumed chatter about this Georgia defense is due to the personnel on Ohio State’s side of the ball. Quarterback CJ Stroud was a Heisman finalist, while wide receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka each topped over 1,000 yards this season. It’s a talented passing offense, even without Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

But perhaps the larger reason for concern is because of how the Georgia defense looked against a pass-happy LSU offense. The Tigers racked up 502 passing yards and 30 points, both season-worst performances for this proud Georgia defense.

“We did have some lapses during that game in the second half,” cornerback Kamari Lassiter said. “We just really needed to recenter and refocus after that win and during this time off and just get back to the basics of Georgia football.”

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The Bulldogs have had a month to stew on that performance, one that was aided by the fact that Georgia led 35-10 at halftime of said SEC championship win over LSU.

Still, this Georgia defense will once again have to prove itself. It’s used to it by now, given Georgia’s defense has had to answer questions at seemingly every turn this season.

This time last season, Georgia was similarly coming off its worst performance of the season heading into the College Football Playoff. Alabama shredded the Georgia defense in an SEC championship game loss, forcing Georgia to face a Big Ten foe.

That group responded by holding Michigan to just 11 points. While many expect Ohio State to put forth a better challenge this go around than Michigan did last, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day knows this Georgia defense is going to make life difficult for Ohio State.

That’s the standard that Georgia has played up to this season. Its opponents are well aware of it, even if the general public may not be.

“We know we’ve got to play our best game up front. We know what the challenge is and certainly some great players over there,” Ohio State coach Day said. That’s what working towards this all year is all about. You have to be playing your best football right here in the CFP, and certainly we’re going to get challenged here on Saturday.”

Ryan Day knows Georgia defense will challenge Ohio State

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