ATHENS — Kirby Smart, in some ways, knew this day was coming. Where Georgia’s offensive line no longer was a strength but a legitimate position of concern.
Through three games, this group no longer looks like a position group that was a routine finalist for the Joe Moore Award, given to the nation’s top offensive line. In the season-opener, Georgia started freshman Juan Gaston at right guard. The last time a true freshman started on Georgia’s offensive line to open the season came back in 2017 when Andrew Thomas played right tackle.
Against Tennessee, Dontrell Glover earned his first road start because of an ankle injury suffered by Gaston. Unlike Gaston, Glover didn’t arrive in Athens until the summer. He didn’t go through spring practice, yet quickly emerged as Georgia’s top option at right guard in its SEC opener.
So how did Georgia get to a point where two freshmen might start, or at the very least play a significant role, in the biggest game of the season?
“What a condemnation of the guys that we have on that roster,” former Georgia offensive lineman Jon Stinchcomb said on a recent appearance on DawgNation Daily. “And I say that with all due respect, this is an era where these are paid professionals. This is no longer amateur sports.
“These guys that are a part of this roster are being compensated. And we’ve got a number of players that have been a part of this program for a few years now that as we’re looking at this, you’re saying arguably are two best, and I’m not disagreeing with you, are folks that haven’t been on campus, that have not even had one single season under their belt, but yet have surpassed guys that have been on this roster.”
Stinchcomb is not some hot-take artist, looking to say controversial things to create headlines. He has served as a member on Georgia’s athletic board, in addition to winning an SEC Championship as a member of the 2002 team. He would go on to win a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints.
So his words carry real weight when criticizing the state of Stacy Searels’ room.
Searels is now in his second stint as Georgia’s offensive line coach after previously holding the title from 2007 through 2010.
Searels was hired in February of 2022 after Matt Luke stepped away from the position. After two years off, Luke would eventually be hired as the offensive line coach at Clemson.
The 2021 recruiting class signed by Luke illustrates what the standard of the Georgia offensive line used to be. Georgia’s four-man signing class consisted of Amarius Mims, Dylan Fairchild, Jared Wilson and Micah Morris.
The first four names on that list all started in the NFL last week, while Morris has become the anchor for Georgia’s offensive line at left guard.
But the 2022 signing class, which was put together under Luke’s watch, is where the cracks began to develop.
“We’ve had a large group leave in terms of two things, draft, and we had several portals,” Smart said. “And when you lose that in one position, it’s hard to replace. I have seen this year coming for two to three years in terms of a gap. Just didn’t know when it was going to hit because of Dylan (Fairchild) and some of those guys had extra years.”
Georgia signed five offensive linemen in that cycle. Only Earnest Greene and Drew Bobo are still with the team. Bobo is Georgia’s starting center.
Greene would be Georgia’s starting right tackle if he were healthy. But he’s battled a back injury this season and will not play on Saturday. One possible combination Georgia could turn to against the Crimson Tide is playing Glover at right guard and Gaston at right tackle.
“Maybe we’re better served moving a true freshman from a position, the only position we’ve seen him play in very limited time, to a whole new position in a different place because he could be better than what we currently have,” Stinchcomb said. “That, to me, there is a huge condemnation for the development of those guys.”
The other three signees in the class were Aliou Bah, Griffin Scroggs and Jacob Hood. Bah transferred to Maryland after the 2023 season. Of the five offensive linemen who have transferred out of the Georgia program since Searels took over, Bah is the only one who has emerged as a starter at the Power 4 level. Scroggs is at Appalachian State and Hood went from Nebraska to Nicholls.
In the 2023 recruiting cycle, Joshua Miller exited the program after just one season to transfer to Syracuse. Georgia did sign Kelton Smith Jr., in that cycle, but he medically retired from football after his first season in Athens.
That cycle, Searels’ first in charge of talent acquisition, saw Georgia land Monroe Freeling, Bo Hughley and Jamal Meriweather. Freeling has become Georgia’s starting left tackle, while Hughley emerged as a hero in the win over Tennessee as he came off the bench in the fourth quarter to fix Georgia’s right tackle issue. He could make his first career start on Saturday against Alabama.
“I didn’t know they’d make a change. Stacy (Searels) told the headphones he thought that Bo was going to play better,” Smart said after the Tennessee game. “He thought he’d finish stronger than (Michael) Uini. He was getting a little bit sloppy and a little bit tired.”
Uini, a redshirt freshman, started at guard against Austin Peay before moving to tackle when Greene’s back injury flared up against the Volunteers. Fellow 2024 signee Jah Jackson also started against Austin Peay but he was relegated back to the bench for the second half in favor of Hughley.
Georgia signed seven offensive linemen in the 2024 recruiting class. That they’ve already been passed by two members of the 2025 class only further hammers home Stinchcomb’s concern with the state of the offensive line room.
“It’s a little bit disappointing for us to have guys that have been a part of this program two, three, four years now, and you can’t contribute in a meaningful fashion,” Stinchcomb said. “Might be time for you to go. And that’s sad, but that’s what you talk about in professional sports, and that’s what this has become.”
In total, Georgia has signed 26 offensive linemen since the 2021 recruiting cycle. Three are in the NFL. Five have transferred out of the program, while another was medically disqualified.
That leaves Georgia with 17 offensive linemen to work with in terms of finding its best five-man combination.
Georgia never found that a season ago under Searels, even with having three top 100 NFL Draft picks. Injuries played a significant factor in last year’s offensive line never gelling, with only Fairchild and Xavier Truss being healthy enough to start every game. Greene dealt with an upper body injury, Wilson missed two games because of a foot injury and Tate Ratledge was sidelined for four games because of ankle and knee injuries.
Georgia has started three different offensive line combinations to start the season and Saturday will likely be a fourth if either Hughley or Gaston start at right tackle.
“I could tell you who the best players are if they were all healthy, but the health brings that into doubt, right,” Smart said. “Like, if a guy’s 80%, another guy’s 90%, another guy’s 95%, it’s hard to measure who’s better. But that’s everybody across the league right now. Our left side’s not completely healthy. Our defensive line’s not completely healthy. You know, our backfield’s not completely healthy. And guess what? It’s not going to get any better — not with what we’ve got coming down the pipe.”
Glover and Gaston deserve credit for how well they have adjusted to the college level. Gaston was one of the stars of spring practice and fall camp. Had he not gotten hurt at the end of Georgia’s second drive of the season, maybe the offensive line would not be as big a worry at this point.
The praise for Glover has been similarly positive since he forced his way into the lineup. Georgia was able to land Glover after he initially committed to play for Nick Saban when he was still at Alabama.
“Yeah, good instincts, good size,” Smart said of Glover and Gaston. “They both have good strengths. They came from good high school weight programs and opportunity. I mean, if they were here last year or two years ago, I don’t know they would have.”
This is the fourth season Searels has been in charge of Georgia’s offensive line. Despite calls for his job last offseason, Smart stuck with the Georgia offensive line coach. It was a bet on continuity.
Georgia did bring in analysts John Lilly and Phil Rauscher this offseason to help with the offense. Rauscher spent the previous four seasons in the NFL working as the offensive line coach for the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Through the first three games of the season, the right side of Georgia’s offensive line has been the most consistent issue with Georgia’s offense. If the Bulldogs can figure that out, it could well have an elite offensive unit.
It’s a problem Smart knows has to be solved. One that seems to have now become a recurring issue for the program.
“We’ve got all kinds of linemen that go over there on the right side on the scout team, and they get better,” Smart said. “And if we have to go to one of those guys, we’ll go to one of those guys. We just want good fighters.”
