Georgia DB Javon Bullard is loving transition to a new position
ATHENS, Ga. — When Georgia’s first-team defense took the field on G-Day, Javon Bullard was in a different spot. After winning defensive MVP in both College Football Playoff games last season while playing the STAR/nickel position, Bullard took the field as the strong safety.
Christopher Smith had that role the previous two and a half years. It was Richard LeCounte‘s position before that. Bullard has some big shoes to fill but based on what we saw in 2022, he’s more than capable.
He’s also quite willing.
“It has definitely been fun,” Bullard told reporters after the G-Day game. “Football is going to be football. I still play defensive back. It’s not like I moved to receiver or anything like that. I love it, man. The coaches brought me in and told me they were thinking about a position change. Like I said, it was definitely a challenge because you’re going into another world as far as safety. Safety is basically another linebacker. You’ve got to know because there’s so many checks in our defense but I feel like it was amazing, man. Just dialing in and the coaches helping me and really just taking that ownership and doing what I can to make the team better.”
Kirby Smart has stated on the record, more than once, that Bullard’s work at safety is for depth-building purposes. He said it again after Saturday’s scrimmage.
But Bullard’s wording suggests that there’s much more to it than that. The fact that he’s being approached about a position change and taking “ownership” of a new role indicates that he could be there to stay.
Add to it the emergence of Tykee Smith at STAR/nickel, and Georgia is in a good spot. It has the versatility necessary to get it’s best defensive backs on the field without having to try and fit square pegs into round holes.
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Smith got the start at STAR on Saturday and responded with a strong showing. He had the first interception of the game in the third quarter and showed some serious athleticism in coming down with the ball.
The goal, however, is to get as many guys ready to play winning football as possible. That means putting different guys in different situations, some where they’re comfortable and some where they have to overcome some adversity.
All of those defensive backs in the mix, and there’s quite a few to hear Smart tell it, will be charged with taking the summer months to build upon what they’ve learned over the past five weeks. Competitions restart come August 1 during preseason camp.
“We’ve got a three-way deal going at safety with (David Daniel-Sisavahn), (Malaki Starks) and Javon,” Smart said. “Those guys rotate and play there. Hope to get Dan Jackson back there who has played and started there at that position. Tykee has worked there as well. Tykee and Bullard can both play Star. We felt like we needed to invest reps in Bullard to create some safety depth where we’re short. Every rep that Bullard wasn’t taking Star, that was allowing him to develop as a safety and we need more Stars. And plus we wanted to get Joenel (Aguero) as much nickel/star work and Marcus (Washington) as much nickel/star work and if we had left Bullard there it would have eaten up some of those reps. You’re just trying to develop depth on your roster.”
