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Georgia defense yet to face adversity, Kirby Smart waiting to see how it'll respond

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•09/14/22•

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Georgia defensive players indicate a fumble recovery during the Bulldogs 33-0 win over Samford in a game played September 10, 2022, at Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA. Photo credit Perry McIntyre.

Before Georgia’s season-opener against Oregon, Bulldogs’ head coach Kirby Smart said that his team needed a game because he needed to see how they would respond to adversity. As he explained, he’s never coached a defensive player that didn’t give up a play or get beat. How they respond to that largely determines how good they are.

And through two games of the 2022 season, Smart still feels the same way, especially on defense. Georgia has won its first two games 49-3 and 33-0, meaning the defense has still yet to allow a touchdown. Ahead of Saturday’s SEC opener against South Carolina, Smart still feels like he’s got to learn how they’ll respond.

“How they’re going to respond when it gets tough,” Smart said after this past Saturday’s game as to what his biggest concern about the defense would be going into SEC play. “You know, I mean, how they’re going to respond when it gets thick, when it gets physical, when it gets fast, when they get tired, when they give up a touchdown. The biggest concern is what the response mechanism and what are they wired with?”

Georgia’s coaches preach that practice can be tougher than the games and that they sometimes figure out more about a player in practice than they do on Saturdays. Creating adversity though can be tough to do in practice. Still, Smart and his staff try their best.

“I feel like we get put in adverse situations all the time in practice. Coach Smart does a great job of trying to put us in bad situations to see the outcome of it,” Javon Bullard said, naming ‘get the ball back’ situations and various game-to-game scenarios like needing a field goal with two minutes to go. “I’m excited for when we face that adversity. I’m looking forward to how we’re going to respond. I’m pretty sure we’ll respond the right way.”

“Practice makes the game easier, so if you make practice hard, Saturdays should be easier,” Jamon Dumas-Johnson added. “Like he said, they put us in tough things that we won’t even see in the game, but if they do happen in the game, we’re prepared for it because we already did it in practice.”

Saturday’s test is South Carolina and an offense that’s in the top 25 nationally for passing yards per game. Former five-star quarterback and Oklahoma transfer Spencer Rattler has the Gamecocks airing it out. Georgia coaches and players alike know the challenge that that can present.

“They have a great receiving corps. They have really good wideouts. Fast wideouts. Guys who struggled with last year,” Smart said. “They have — you know, quarterback’s got an elite ability to throw the deep ball. He can throw the ball over 70 yards, stretch the field. And he’s an athlete. So when you start talking about, you know — like we played against Bo, we know Bo can throw the ball, Bo can scramble. He’s a guy that can move around. You got to be disciplined. You’re going to have probably five to six snaps a game where you got to use scramble rules, you’ve got to plaster, take shots down the field. You’ve got to win 50/50 balls. That doesn’t change based on who we play. I mean, everybody we play, especially in the SEC, is going to be challenging us down the field. And you got to be able to win those one-on-one matchups. They got really talented guys to do that with.”

Kickoff time from Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia on Saturday is set for 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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