From OnlineAthens.com
October 12th, 2015 09:09 PM
In a cramped visitors’ interview room Saturday night in the bowels of Neyland Stadium, Jeremy Pruitt sat at a table and answered questions after Georgia had just given up its most yards in his season and a half as Bulldogs defensive coordinator.
To his credit, Pruitt usually makes sure to face the music after losses. So there he was after the 38-31 defeat to unranked Tennessee. A week earlier, he was in the locker room at Georgia answering for a 38-10 blowout to Alabama.
Georgia had not given up 38 points in back to back games since 2008, when it happened in three consecutive games — LSU in a 52-38 win, Florida in a 49-10 loss and Kentucky in a 42-38 win.
Pruitt said his players need to do a better job of wrapping up and tackling, and making plays when the ball is thrown in their direction, but he also brought up the youth on the unit just like he did in August.
“We’ve really got a young, inexperienced defensive football team,” Pruitt said. “The guys are working really hard. We’ve just got to get them to come along a little faster.”
Freshman defensive back Rico McGraw and defensive lineman Trenton Thompson tied for third in tackles Saturday with eight. They were among three first-year players who started on defense, joining safety Johnathan Abram.
“It is a big challenge,” coach Mark Richt said of relying on so many freshmen. “Defense played a lot of snaps for a variety of reasons. We’ve got to be able to substitute on the defense. ... The deeper you go into your depth, the younger it gets. That’s true for everybody in America, but we’re already starting some guys that are probably too young to play. That’s where we’re at right now. We’ve got to keep giving these guys opportunities to grow.”
Georgia is having to lean on young talent — it also started true sophomores Malkom Parrish and Dominick Sanders — in part because players signed to one day be starters or at least contributors now are no longer with the program.
Among those are nine players who signed in the 2013 class, including safety Tray Matthews (Auburn), cornerback Shaq Wiggins (Louisville), cornerback Brendan Langley (Lamar), linebacker Paris Bostick (Oregon), cornerback J.J. Green (Georgia Tech) and defensive back Tramel Terry (transferring). Two defensive backs from the 2014 class also aren’t on the team: cornerback Shaq Jones (dismissed) and Rico Johnson (medical).
Georgia’s depth was tested by Tennessee, which ran 90 plays. Five three-and-outs for the offense contributed to that.
“It is what it is,” Pruitt said. “If you score on defense and you score on a
punt return, that’s going to happen. You’re going to go right back out. The big thing to me is when we’re playing with a short field we gotta do a little better bowing our neck and keep them out.”
Pruitt pointed to Georgia’s inability to get off the field on third down as costly. Tennessee also converted on fourth-and-4 and fourth-and-8 on its first touchdown drive. It didn’t help that Georgia’s top pass rusher, Jordan Jenkins, was trying to play through what Pruitt said was a strained hip flexor.
“I can’t say enough about the job our offensive line did,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. “That’s a talented group when you watch their third down defense and the sacks that they’ve had, and the different looks that they have.”
Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs was named the Walter Camp national offensive player of the week and was the SEC’s offensive player of the week, as well. He became just the third SEC player in the last 20 years to have 300 passing yards and 100 rushing yards. The others were Heisman Trophy winners Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel.
“We had a lot of miscommunication and just a lot of different things,” inside linebacker Jake Ganus said. “We just didn’t execute as well as we needed to. It’s disappointing, but you just have to learn from it and move on.”
Tennessee amassed 519 yards, which is the most the Bulldogs have given up since Auburn’s 566 in the 43-38 loss Nov. 16, 2013. The Volunteers did it on a day in which it relied on true freshmen Chance Hall and Jack Jones to play for much of the game on the right side of its offensive line due to injuries.
Even trailing by 21 didn’t faze Tennessee, Dobbs said.
“It wasn’t like we weren’t moving the ball and they were stopping us,” he said. “We gave them a touchdown (on a fumble), going in to score. We had the ball on the goal line and didn’t execute to score a touchdown. We knew we could move the ball on them. We just had to make plays.”
Missouri, Georgia’s opponent this Saturday in Athens, may be what Georgia’s defense needs about now. It has scored 13 or fewer points in three of the past four games, including a 21-3 loss to Florida on Saturday. The Bulldogs shut out the Tigers 34-0 last season in Columbia.
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October 12th, 2015 09:09 PM
In a cramped visitors’ interview room Saturday night in the bowels of Neyland Stadium, Jeremy Pruitt sat at a table and answered questions after Georgia had just given up its most yards in his season and a half as Bulldogs defensive coordinator.
To his credit, Pruitt usually makes sure to face the music after losses. So there he was after the 38-31 defeat to unranked Tennessee. A week earlier, he was in the locker room at Georgia answering for a 38-10 blowout to Alabama.
Georgia had not given up 38 points in back to back games since 2008, when it happened in three consecutive games — LSU in a 52-38 win, Florida in a 49-10 loss and Kentucky in a 42-38 win.
Pruitt said his players need to do a better job of wrapping up and tackling, and making plays when the ball is thrown in their direction, but he also brought up the youth on the unit just like he did in August.
“We’ve really got a young, inexperienced defensive football team,” Pruitt said. “The guys are working really hard. We’ve just got to get them to come along a little faster.”
Freshman defensive back Rico McGraw and defensive lineman Trenton Thompson tied for third in tackles Saturday with eight. They were among three first-year players who started on defense, joining safety Johnathan Abram.
“It is a big challenge,” coach Mark Richt said of relying on so many freshmen. “Defense played a lot of snaps for a variety of reasons. We’ve got to be able to substitute on the defense. ... The deeper you go into your depth, the younger it gets. That’s true for everybody in America, but we’re already starting some guys that are probably too young to play. That’s where we’re at right now. We’ve got to keep giving these guys opportunities to grow.”
Georgia is having to lean on young talent — it also started true sophomores Malkom Parrish and Dominick Sanders — in part because players signed to one day be starters or at least contributors now are no longer with the program.
Among those are nine players who signed in the 2013 class, including safety Tray Matthews (Auburn), cornerback Shaq Wiggins (Louisville), cornerback Brendan Langley (Lamar), linebacker Paris Bostick (Oregon), cornerback J.J. Green (Georgia Tech) and defensive back Tramel Terry (transferring). Two defensive backs from the 2014 class also aren’t on the team: cornerback Shaq Jones (dismissed) and Rico Johnson (medical).
Georgia’s depth was tested by Tennessee, which ran 90 plays. Five three-and-outs for the offense contributed to that.
“It is what it is,” Pruitt said. “If you score on defense and you score on a
punt return, that’s going to happen. You’re going to go right back out. The big thing to me is when we’re playing with a short field we gotta do a little better bowing our neck and keep them out.”
Pruitt pointed to Georgia’s inability to get off the field on third down as costly. Tennessee also converted on fourth-and-4 and fourth-and-8 on its first touchdown drive. It didn’t help that Georgia’s top pass rusher, Jordan Jenkins, was trying to play through what Pruitt said was a strained hip flexor.
“I can’t say enough about the job our offensive line did,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. “That’s a talented group when you watch their third down defense and the sacks that they’ve had, and the different looks that they have.”
Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs was named the Walter Camp national offensive player of the week and was the SEC’s offensive player of the week, as well. He became just the third SEC player in the last 20 years to have 300 passing yards and 100 rushing yards. The others were Heisman Trophy winners Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel.
“We had a lot of miscommunication and just a lot of different things,” inside linebacker Jake Ganus said. “We just didn’t execute as well as we needed to. It’s disappointing, but you just have to learn from it and move on.”
Tennessee amassed 519 yards, which is the most the Bulldogs have given up since Auburn’s 566 in the 43-38 loss Nov. 16, 2013. The Volunteers did it on a day in which it relied on true freshmen Chance Hall and Jack Jones to play for much of the game on the right side of its offensive line due to injuries.
Even trailing by 21 didn’t faze Tennessee, Dobbs said.
“It wasn’t like we weren’t moving the ball and they were stopping us,” he said. “We gave them a touchdown (on a fumble), going in to score. We had the ball on the goal line and didn’t execute to score a touchdown. We knew we could move the ball on them. We just had to make plays.”
Missouri, Georgia’s opponent this Saturday in Athens, may be what Georgia’s defense needs about now. It has scored 13 or fewer points in three of the past four games, including a 21-3 loss to Florida on Saturday. The Bulldogs shut out the Tigers 34-0 last season in Columbia.
...READ MORE HERE...
