Kirby Smart credits players, coaches for Georgia’s run defense

Georgia faced their biggest test of the season this weekend as they took on a Kentucky team Saturday that like them entered the matchup undefeated. It’s safe to say the Bulldogs passed with flying colors, defeating the Wildcats 51-13 in their most impressive win of the season.

Kentucky’s ground attack is their bread and butter, which the Bulldogs were able to stifle early and often on Saturday to hand the Wildcats their worst rushing performance of the season along with their first loss on the year.

Elite run defense is nothing new for Georgia, and following their win over Kentucky, head coach Kirby Smart was asked what is team’s secret recipe to run-stopping success.

“I don’t know if there’s anything different, but we have good players, we have good coaches, and when you have good players and good coaches you execute at a high level,” Smart said. “Tray Scott and our defensive staff, they believe in striking blockers and playing the run, and we probably haven’t played the run as good this year as we could.”

Georgia held Kentucky to just 83 yards on the ground after giving up 219 rushing yards to Auburn in their back-and-forth battle a game prior. But Smart used an interesting tactic with his players that referenced back to their game versus the Tigers that could explain their dominant performance on Saturday.

“But it wasn’t for lack of trying or lack of tackling, the first thing we did on Monday after the Auburn game is we showed 10 clips of unbelievable run defense against Auburn. We had some unbelievable strikes and blow delivery and getting off blocks, that’s what playing run defense is,” Smart said. “We were really positive with them and showed them doing it and they responded to that.”

The Bulldogs’ defense is holding opponents to 103.7 yards on the ground this season, and while Smart believes improvement is possible, Georgia’s recent history is hard to deny in regards to stopping the run.

Georgia has now gone 42 consecutive games without allowing a running back to reach 100 yards in a game against them, with Kentucky’s Ray Davis being their latest victim. Davis is the SEC’s leading rusher fresh off of a 280-yard performance versus Florida the week prior, but was held to just 59 yards on the ground against the Bulldogs.

Rush defense is just another feather in the cap of the Bulldogs’ who are holding opponents to just 13 points per game this season, and if they continue to improve in the second half of the season Georgia could be even more dominant than they were a season ago.