Georgia offensive line entering 2024 with big expectations, building to that this spring

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s best teams have always had strong play from their offensive line, and the Bulldogs just might be in store for a special unit this season. Kirby Smart told ESPN’s Chris Low that one of the biggest things standing out during spring practice has been the play of the offensive line. While he isn’t wanting to compare to other units from around the country as that’d be unfair in his opinion, he does feel pretty confident that the group is going to be a strength of the UGA offense.

“I can’t put them that great because I haven’t seen the other ones. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. I’ll leave that to the gurus that have the talk shows and media stuff. I can’t sit here and say our group is a top three group in the country because I haven’t seen the others,” Smart said.

“We have a very experienced group, outside of the center. We have a lot of guys who have taken snaps, but I ask you, because you’ve taken snaps, does that make you better than other people? I certainly value experience, especially in our league, but you can go backwards,” he continued. “You have to be careful with guys that are older because if you’re not, guys will go backwards and a younger guy beats them out. There hasn’t been a year that we were here that a younger player hasn’t surpassed an older player because they were hungrier or more driven and more motivated. I don’t see that happening with our offensive line, but I can’t rule it out.”

Among the returnees on the offensive line is Earnest Greene. A redshirt freshman last season, the former top-50 overall prospect from the Class of 2022 started all 14 games for Georgia at left tackle. It was his first collegiate action, and he was impressive. Smart is seen improvement out of him already though, not getting complacent with his positioning.

“His stamina and work ethic in practice has improved each and every practice. I mean, he came in as a freshman, talented, had an injury, couldn’t play. He came back and struggled to get through practices sometimes in the spring and in the fall last year. He got better at that,” Smart said. “He had better stamina; he covers down better now. He plays with a little more effort.”

Smart added that matchups in practice against the likes of Mykel Williams, Damon Wilson and Jalon Walker have helped Greene’s improvement. The three accounted for a combined 10 sacks last season, exactly one third of Georgia’s overall total. Seeing them on a daily basis best replicates what it’ll be like in the SEC.

“He prides himself on being an elite offensive tackle, and he works that way,” Smart added on Greene. “How did he play for a redshirt freshman? He played pretty good, considering he held up and did good things at probably the hardest position to play in all of college football. I want him to be better this year. I want him to be even better than his was last year with how he leads and practices.”

Greene agrees he can be better. He’s coming into this season feeling completely healthy and out of his own head about being the new guy on the field. Now, he can just go play football.

“If you couldn’t tell by now, I still feel that everybody can be better at everything,” Greene told reporters. “I would just say, one of the things that I look back on is trying to – I talked about it with Coach Searels recently, actually – being good in the first four seconds, but being elite in the last five, six, seven seconds, finishing reps. That’s one of the bigger things I’m looking forward to going into next year, having the ability to finish beyond, not the play length, but until the play’s over with for sure.”

“I honestly feel it doesn’t really have that much of a confidence boost because you’re going back to work every day,” he added on using last season’s experience to create confidence. “I would just say, it would be the same as it always was, just going and attacking it one day at a time, one play at a time, one rep at a time, just consistently try to learn something first. If you get caught up in that stuff, that’s when you get complacent and lost in all the other stuff.”

Of course Greene isn’t the only returnee. Amarius Mims must be replaced at right tackle, but Xavier Truss gained plenty of experience there in his absence last season – as did Monroe Freeling in the form of practice reps, being bumped up a notch on the depth chart. Then there’s the guard spots with Tate Ratledge, Dylan Fairchild and Micah Morris manning a three-man rotation of what Smart described as “interchangeable parts.”

Ultimately, Smart wants to have the best five out there. It’s been a consistent theme throughout his time in coaching, and it’ll continue into this season. This spring, and the summer/fall camp that’s to follow, will be all about fine-tuning the connection of the offensive line – one that’s already strong – while also building depth to be able to rotate and keep fresh legs on the field.

“I love the fact that they’re a tight knit unit, they’re real physical, they enjoy practice, they celebrate together, they eat together and again, you hang your run game and protection of your quarterback on the offensive line which we’ve been pretty consistent at,” Smart said. “… We just look at it as let’s get our best five out there. The more guys we have above the line playing winning football, we typically have anywhere from eight to 10 above that line. I hope we fall in that same area at the outcome of this spring as well.”