Javon Bullard, Bulldogs blitz Tennessee to season-high sack total
ATHENS, Ga. — It’s not often that you see a defensive back leading a team in sacks, but that’s exactly what happened for Georgia in its 27-13 win over Tennessee on Saturday. Javon Bullard helped the Bulldogs generate pressure on Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, coming up with two of the team’s six sacks as just one way to keep the Volunteers from having much success in the passing game.
“He is so tough. He is so physical. He’s like a little stick of dynamite,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said in describing Bullard. “When we recruited him, it was [the] COVID year, and there weren’t that many people recruiting. I said, ‘This guy’s tough. He loves contact. He hits people.’ And Schumann and the defensive staff — I give Schumann a lot of credit. He came up with a couple plays that he thought would disrupt them, and he kept running the same thing. Like, ‘We can’t run it again.’ He ran it again. I said, ‘We can’t run it again.’ He ran it again. I was like, jeez. But Bullard kept coming off the edge and was really impactful as a rusher, and the guys in the back end held up. So, I was really proud of those guys.”
Those description of ‘tough,’ ‘loves contact,’ and ‘he hits people,’ are exactly what Bullard wants to be said about him. In previous interview sessions with reporters, both Bullard and his teammates said that he’s a hitter despite being a little bit undersized. That part of his game is something he rarely gets to show though playing in the secondary. Sure it’s important to make tackles when receivers catch passes, but he’s doing everything he can to make sure that the passes aren’t caught in the first place and that there aren’t any tackles to make. Saturday though, the tackles were there for the taking when his name was called upon to go after Hooker.
“The way we prepared through the week, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday practices, those days we get after it. We practiced hard all week, so I felt like the game wasn’t won on Saturday, the game was won throughout the week,” Bullard said. “Our front did an amazing job. We had a game plan to do more with less, a three down front knowing that they spread the ball around and go up tempo. Those guys did an excellent job: Naz, Marvin Jones, Chaz, Robert Beal. It allowed us to play more free and we were able to get some pressure.”
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“They’re definitely up there,” he added on his two sacks and where they stand in terms of accomplishments in his athletic career. “I’ve never played in an environment like this. Just a kid from Milledgeville, Ga. playing in an atmosphere like this, I’m extremely grateful, and it’s an extreme blessing … It’s amazing. The coaches, I’ve got great gratitude for the coaches for believing in me and putting me in the game plan to blitz the quarterback. We just stuck to the game plan, and I’m grateful the coaches gave me an opportunity to do what I can do.”
Bullard and the Bulldogs will be on the road this coming Saturday going up against another talented passing attack. Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers passed Dak Prescott as the school’s all-time leader in career passing touchdowns and yards under the direction of Mike Leach and his air raid offense. While it’s not the same scheme as what Tennessee does offensively, it’s not out of the question to think that Georgia is going to want to get Bullard and the Bulldog pass rush involved again next week. Kickoff time from Starkville, Miss. is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.
