Georgia defensive early enrollees stand out, show bright future for Bulldogs
ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart is in favor of keeping spring games the way they are. Instead of rule changes that would allow Georgia to line up against a lesser opponent from nearby, he’s happy having 22 of his own players on the field at one time seeing his first team offense go against his first team defense. Then, when they come off, it’s the second team’s turn.
That was the case on Saturday, and the number of reps able to be received was a huge benefit to younger Bulldogs like Damon Wilson, CJ Allen, Raylen Wilson and AJ Harris. The group of four finished as the Red Team’s leading tacklers on the day while Joenel Aguero and Sam M’Pemba tied for fifth and fellow early enrollee Jordan Hall had a pair of batted balls at the line of scrimmage to make his impact in his first outing between the hedges.
“Got a ways to go. They’re not ready. They know that. They’re working really hard at it,” Smart said after Saturday’s scrimmage about Wilson and Hall, both of whom were five-stars according to the On3 Industry Ranking. “The sooner they get ready, the better we’re going to be. Because we’re going to need both those guys to step up and play. They’re just young. It’s okay to be young. They have a ways to go and I think they’ll get there. I think both of those guys will contribute and help us next season. I’m very pleased with where they are and how hard they work but they’re not there yet.”
Harris had the team-high six tackles. He added a pass breakup in coverage, showing his youth at times too being beat by Jackson Meeks and getting called for a pass interference penalty. Then there was Allen with five tackles and the Wilsons – Damon and Raylen – with four each. Damon had a pair of sacks, the only player on either team to get to the quarterback twice, while Raylen returned an interception 21 yards for a touchdown late in the game.
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“Yeah, they probably had better days than they had springs,” Smart said when asked about the two early enrollee inside linebackers, Allen and R. Wilson, and their performances on G-Day. “I mean, they both showed up. They’ve had some mistakes and some errors during our scrimmages. I wouldn’t say they’ve stood out as of today. They had a couple of flash plays. I thought CJ really burst and tackled some people and closed, and Raylen kind of made the play of the game there but it was a ricochet play. It was a ball that bounced off, and he was the right guy at the right time. But they’re both talented, and they’re both really high-character kids that are going to make our program better. They push the standard the right way.”
Georgia had 18 freshmen on campus this spring from its No. 2 class in the country. Another eight are set to arrive in just over a month at the start of summer. While they’ll have to play catch up to the ones that came early, the talent speaks itself with the likes of Troy Bowles (No. 88 overall, No. 7 linebacker per On3 Industry Ranking), Daniel Harris (No. 55 overall, No. 6 cornerback per On300) and Chris Peal (No. 83 overall, No. 9 cornerback per On300), among others joining the ones that got their feet wet on Saturday. Needless to say, the future is bright – as it has been for quite some time – for the Georgia Bulldog defense.
