ATHENS — Fans come to G-Day to see the offense shine.
But for much of the early afternoon, it was the Georgia defense that had the better showing
There was just one touchdown scored in the first half of Saturday’s spring game by either team. By comparison, the Georgia defense had two first interceptions over that same time frame.
Daniel Harris came away with a pick in the first quarter, pulling down a Gunner Stockton pass in the end zone. In the second quarter, freshman Dominick Kelly stepped right in front of a Ryan Puglisi pass.
G-Day is often an aerial show, but the Georgia secondary found a way to make things difficult on Saturday.
“It’s a throw-happy league,” Smart said. “We don’t carry many pressures. We don’t carry a lot of alternative things to protect them. We say in this game, we’re gonna find out if we can throw a catch and if we can make plays down the field. We made a couple down the field. We had a couple nice picks.”
Georgia’s starting defense was missing a few key pieces, as likely starters Daylen Everette, Christen Miller and Gabe Harris were all out or limited on Saturday.
Harris made an early statement with his interception, while safety Joenel Aguero was around the ball often.
At linebacker, Chris Cole and Justin Williams both stood out. Cole had a pass breakup on a Ryan Puglisi pass that would’ve surely ended in a touchdown.
Meanwhile Justin Williem was perhaps the most impactful front-seven defender on the afternoon.
He had a game-high 9 tackles to go along with 3 tackles for loss. Georgia rarely puts forth a balanced offensive attack on G-Day — there were a combined 88 pass attempts — but the two sophomore linebackers showed once again why their ceilings are so high.
" I’m excited about Justin and Chris," Smart said. “I’ll tell you that there’s not two players on our team that play with more fire, passion, and energy, and we talk about it all the time. Fire, passion, show me your fire, passion, and energy. They were having fun on the field. They enjoy each other. They compete. They love the game of football.”
CJ Allen led the first-team defense with 8 tackles and 3 tackles for loss. Georgia’s inside linebacker room looks to be a clear strength moving forward.
As for the defensive front, that group is a little more difficult to evaluate. The Bulldogs were very vanilla in terms of blitz scheme and the quarterbacks could not be touched.
Joseph Jonah-Ajonye came up with a nice pressure that likely would’ve been a sack if he were allowed to finish the play. The redshirt freshman missed most of last season due to a foot injury but he showed flashes of why he arrived at Georgia as a 5-star recruit.
The Bulldogs did see outside linebacker Quintavius Johnson exit the game in the second half with an ankle injury, something Georgia can ill-afford. The four other players on the roster behind Johnson at the position on Saturday were all freshmen.
Among the newcomers on defense, Adrian Maddox had an early sack off a delayed pressure. He also had a costly pass interference penalty that extended a drive.
Elijah Griffin made his presence felt as he blew up an end-around early in the group, while displaying a few moments of impressive raw power.
“Elijah made some plays too and then continues to get better,” Smart said of the freshman defensive tackle.
The most eye-opening performance came from a different freshman in Kelly. In addition to his second quarter interception, he later added a pass breakup.
Smart, as he usually wants to do, reserved judgment on Kelly until he could review the type. But for someone like Kelly, who reclassified from the 2026 class to arrive at Georgia early, it was a strong first effort in his Georgia career.
“I mean, typically, ones that the media sees, it’s like, well, in the stat line he had an interception, but did he go up and make a great play,” Smart said. “I’m not taking anything away from Do<, because Dom’s had a really good spring, but that ball was thrown right to him, we had a busted route.”
Eventually, the Georgia offense fought back and made some plays on the afternoon. The two Georgia offenses combined for four touchdowns in the third quarter alone on Saturday.
Given the circumstances of the day, the Georgia defense more than held its own.
After the final practice of spring football, Smart acknowledged that his defense gave up its fair share of plays on Saturday. That is to be expected as any G-Day veteran would know.
Seeing as how Saturday was Smart’s 10th G-Day as a coach, he understands the constraints the defense is often put under.
“I don’t know if you’ve played out there before, but when you go out there, there’s a big guy, six foot four, that knows where the ball is, and you don’t,” Smart said. “Sometimes it’s hard to make that play. I’ve been there.”
