Georgia football's to-do list for the bye week

It’s the bye week, or the open week, you can call it whatever you want. Kirby Smart is probably going to refer to it as the “work week” at some point in the next few days. The schedule makers have set seven teams up for Georgia and it has knocked them all down thus far.

Now the Bulldogs get a chance to rest a little, reset a lot, and get better before finishing the regular season with five straight games against Power Five programs — yeah, we can still put Georgia Tech in that category.

So what does Georgia need to accomplish this week? Below, DawgsHQ takes a look.

Georgia needs to get healthier…

As much as this should go without saying, we have to say it. Georgia has been dealing with a few relatively minor injuries to key players the past couple of weeks. Junior defensive tackle Jalen Carter has missed the past two games. The same can be said for sophomore inside linebacker Smael Mondon. Georgia needs both of those guys back.

Then you have AD Mitchell, who has missed the past five games with an ankle injury. Smart mentioned that Mitchell has also been dealing with a thumb sprain of late. Junior running back Kendall Milton didn’t dress for the Vanderbilt game with a strained groin.

That should about cover it when it comes to the key injuries Georgia is dealing with. Will all of those guys be back? Maybe, but Smart isn’t going to assume it.

“Some of these guys I don’t know if we’ll get them back,” Smart said after the Vanderbilt game. “I mean, there’s no off week that say you magically get everybody back. It’s time. Each injury’s different. We have to see how they progress and how much pain tolerance they have. Ultimately, some players handle injuries better than others. I want them all to get better and get well, but it’s not realistic to think that all these kids are going to be back by Florida week. I don’t know that we’ll be completely healthy. I don’t know that you’re ever completely healthy. Hopefully we can get more healthy.”

The authorities at DawgsHQ haven’t ruled out coach speak as a heavy driver behind this Kirby Smart quote.

Get back to the basics…

Let’s get straight to the point here. Every team in the country can block and tackle better. Georgia needs to be one of those teams that does down the stretch. I wouldn’t say the Bulldogs have been overall bad at either of those things in 2022, but they’ve been bad at times.

The blocking, both from the offensive line and the perimeter guys, was bad against Missouri. The tackling was pretty bad against Vanderbilt for stretches of that game. Georgia needs to get better at both things and the bye week is the perfect time for it. Georgia will essentially take four days to get in as much fundamental work as possible.

Ramp up that Georgia pass rush…

Georgia has done a fantastic job of disrupting and affecting the opposing quarterback this season. The Bulldogs, more often than not, have had the signal caller rushing the ball out or trying to buy time. But that might not be enough with a really tough November lurking. Georgia needs to get home in the pass rush, knock teams off schedule, and take the next step as a defense.

The Bulldogs sport one of the stingiest defenses in the nation. It’s because they’re really fast and consistently more fundamentally sound than most. One way the unit can take a giant step forward and start earning comparisons to the elite 2021 group is by sacking the quarterback.

Enjoy it…

This is for Georgia fans, Georgia players, and Georgia coaches.

For the fans, you’ve been going at it hard since the start of the 2021 season. Your team is 21-1 over the pat two years and 25-1 dating back to a four-game win streak to end the 2020 season. Stretches like the one Georgia is on don’t grow on trees.

It hasn’t and probably won’t ever really stop for these players and coaches, at least not until they give up the game. They’ll all get a couple of days later this week to forget about football for a bit and enjoy those around them. Charging the batteries is important.