Kirby Smart Hopes UGA Football's Growth And Experience Will Help Calm The Tide

ATHENS - Once again, Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs are back in the SEC Championship game.

It’s an annual tradition at this point. 

Unfortunately, losing to Alabama is becoming somewhat of a tradition too, especially in Atlanta.

The Dawgs excelled in the regular season this year, but of course their only loss came to this same Alabama team.

However, that battle in Athens was back in September. Both of these teams have changed a lot since then. Kirby Smart has seen several key members of the team go down with injuries since then and he’s seen others thrive and play better each week.

This is not the same Georgia team we saw two months ago and Smart talked about that this week.

“Well, we improved in some areas. We've gone full circle in other areas. We've been dealing with different injuries now than we probably were then. Offensively, the growth of Gunner would be one thing. He's played in more games. He's played in a lot of tough environments. Defensively, we've got guys a little more experienced. That's probably the biggest difference probably is that the guys that were young when we played them last time, they're a little more grown up now. They played more games. As the year goes on, you get more comfortable with who you are. You tweak some things. We've moved some things around and tried to make things better.”

That’s something this staff has done an excellent job with. Georgia’s lack of pass rush and inconsistency in the secondary were big questions marks early in the season. They were not getting enough pressure on the quarterback and they were giving up too many explosive plays. 

Now, we’ve seen really impressive play from cornerbacks Ellis Robinson and Demello Jones in the secondary. We’ve seen more improved play from Quintavius Johnson and Gabe Harris on the outside. The defensive line has steadily improved over time as well. 

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Overall, the defense has clearly taken a step forward since late September and will head back to Atlanta playing with a lot of confidence.

“We're playing a little more together in terms of execution”, Smart said. “We got more experienced players. The biggest thing to me is we’ve got young guys who have had to grow up while playing together. They're playing with a little more confidence. We call it the cumulative effect. We do a lot defensively actually throughout the year. The cumulative reps of hard things get easier. There's enough overlap between those offenses and carryover of our defenses that allows repetitions to mount up and help us.”

After getting down early to the Tide in game one, Georgia’s defense stepped up big in the second half and allowed the offense to get them back into the game. They shut down an elite Ole Miss offense in the fourth quarter in early November and smothered a sometimes high-powered Texas offense three weeks ago. Then they held one of the nation’s top offenses to just nine points over the weekend.

Georgia’s defense is playing their best football of the season right now and doesn’t appear to be slowing down. If they can continue their excellent play on Saturday it’s clear the Dawgs could be in for a big night.