Kirby Smart 'bothered' by Georgia defensive performance
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s offense scored a season-high 59 points. The Bulldogs totaled 550 yards of offense. Yet, coming out of Saturday’s win over UMass, the story of the day is the defense.
UGA allowed 351 yards to the Minutemen, now a 2-9 squad playing under the direction of an interim head coach and working with a pair of backup quarterbacks. UMass rushed for 226 yards with running back Jalen John averaging 11.9 per touch, totaling 107 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. That, to Kirby Smart, is concerning.
“I don’t know that it was just tackling. We did not tackle well, but it was more than just tackling,” Smart told reporters after the game. “It was — like, I hate to say it, I just don’t think that our guys were ready to play and energized to play as their guys were. Their guys wanted it more than us, and it’s very rare that I could sit up here and say that.”
“They were playing harder, they were moving us, they were playing physical. They had some nice RPOs and some nice play designs, but it wasn’t about that,” the ninth-year head coach continued. “It’s, I want to, like, desire. That’s the biggest thing.”
That wasn’t the only time the defensive struggles came up with Smart either. In fact, the issues against the run were his focus when asked about Georgia’s defense of explosive plays, allowing eight passes of 15+ or rushes for 10+ yards.
“It’s elementary. You play the ball, and then you tackle a man with the ball. If the man catches the ball, it’s okay. Catch and run with the ball, it’s not okay,” Smart said about the 75-yard touchdown allowed to Jakobie Keeney-James early in the third quarter. “That’s not all on Daniel (Harris). I’ve got to watch the film, but Dan (Jackson) knocked him off. You’ve got to hit your target. The two of them got to finish the play. You’ve got to get the guy on the ground. I mean, fluke plays, like that may happen, but the 200 yard rushing is what’s more concerning than a fluke play. That bothers me way more than the pass and catch.”
Linebacker CJ Allen and safety Malaki Starks, two multi-year starters and leaders for the Bulldogs, were equally bothered by Georgia’s defensive performance.
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“Yes. We’re always working, we put the work in throughout the week so we want to go out there and perform to the best of our abilities,” Allen said. “We’ve got to go back to work … We know what we did wrong, some stuff went bad. We’ve just got to get ready for Georgia Tech. Focus on ourself, get better, see what we did wrong and didn’t execute right, and it’s a new week.”
“They were doing what we expected, and they did the same thing over and over again,” Starks added. “I hate to say it, it just wasn’t our day. We’ve got to be better as a defense.”
Next up for Georgia is a quick turnaround and an in-state rival that gave the Bulldogs trouble last season. Georgia Tech rushed for 205 yards on UGA a year ago as the Dawgs avoided upset in Atlanta.
This year’s matchup of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate will take place in Athens. Kickoff time at Sanford Stadium is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
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