Georgia releases statement on Nolan Smith injury
The Georgia football program has confirmed news reported by DawgsHQ earlier in the day. UGA sports information released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying that senior outside linebacker Nolan Smith will have surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle on Thursday.
The school didn’t mention anything about a return but trusted sources tell DawgsHQ that Nolan Smith is likely out for the rest of the 2022 season.
“Nolan Smith, a senior outside linebacker from Savannah, Ga., injured his right pectoralis muscle in the Georgia-Florida football game last Saturday,” said the statement from UGA sports information. “Smith will have surgery to repair the muscle injury on Thursday by Robert Hancock, M.D., and Eric Gordon, M.D., at Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center in Athens. Smith will perform his rehabilitation at the University of Georgia and a full recovery is anticipated.”
The injury forced Nolan Smith to leave Georgia’s 42-20 win over Florida in the first quarter. He injured it while bringing down a Florida ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage. The Bulldogs had gotten quite a bit from Nolan Smith before his injury. He had two solo tackles, one for loss, and a quarterback hurry halfway through the second quarter of that game.
Nolan Smith is Georgia’s leader in sacks and tackles for loss. He has three sacks and seven stops behind the line of scrimmage to go with 16 total tackles, a pass breakup, and numerous quarterback hurries. A season ago Smith was one of two Bulldogs to piled up double-digit tackles for loss. He had 10.
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Smith had 3.5 sacks last season but two of those came in the post season. He had one each in Georgia’s College Football Playoff matchups with Michigan and Alabama. The one against Alabama was the last play of the National Championship game.
Smart told reporters last week that Nolan Smith is more than just a productive edge player for the Bulldogs. He has a larger role within the team.
“Leadership, toughness,” Smart said of Smith. “Nolan is a natural leader. He’s been that way since I met him when he was in eighth grade and he came up here to camp. He’s been a natural leader, comes from a great family, but his leadership is more important than his ability and his ability is pretty strong. He creates a toughness about the he holds people to a standard of the way you strike blocks, the way you close on counters, the way you rush with effort, special teams, I mean, he plays on all special teams. He’s just a core guy.”
Georgia’s showdown with Tennessee is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday. CBS is televising the game as its SEC Game of the Week. ESPN’s College Game Day will be in Athens on Saturday along with The SEC Network’s SEC Nation show. The Bulldogs opened as a 12.5-point favorite according to VegasInsider.com. That line is now down to 8.5 points.
