UGA defense showed little dropoff from national title team. Buckeyes passing game big test

ATLANTA—Will Muschamp spoke with glee like the veteran coach that he is when he talked Tuesday morning about what was ahead later in the day for the Georgia defense for its scheduled practice in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Saturday’s Peach Bowl.

“Today’s bloody Tuesday, and we’re going to get after it,” the Bulldogs co-defensive coordinator said of the old football term for the most physical practice of the week. “It’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.”

Georgia lost eight NFL draft picks off the defense including five first rounders from its national championship team last season, but the body of work from the season is a big reason why this team is 13-0 and the No. 1 seed heading into the semifinal game with Ohio State.

The last sample size is something the defense has had a chance to marinate with in what will be four weeks between games. In the 50-30 rout of LSU in the SEC championship games, the Tigers put up 502 passing yards, second most ever against Georgia.

The focus has been on technique and fundamentals, safety Chris Smith said.

“We know we had a bad day that game,” inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson said. “That was an embarrassment for us. We just went back to work.”

Smith said the defense knows “we can perform better, and that's what we want to do for this game on Saturday.

It was hard to top how the season started for Georgia even if there was uncertainty when it got underway.

“Going into the season, I thought we had a solid training camp and there were still so many unknowns about our defense,” Muschamp said.

Jumping on top of Oregon 28-0 helped the defense grow with the young players because mistakes made were covered up in the 49-3 blowout.

The Bulldogs turned to replacements waiting in the offseason and they’re confidence grew as the season progressed.

Defensive linemen Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt departed but Jalen Carter remained and has lived up to his dominant reputation after injuries hampered him early in the season.

Butkus Award winning linebacker Nakobe Dean and first-rounder Quay Walker were replaced on the inside by Jamon Dumas-Johnson who was selected AFCA second team All-America and former five-star Smael Mondon stepped up as the duo share the team lead in tackles at 64.

“I feel like the depth we have and work we put in this offseason and just how bad everybody just wanted it, I feel like it’s not necessarily a surprise for us the success we’ve had this season,” Mondon said. “We know the job’s not finished yet.”

The defense’s dropoff has been hard to notice because it’s been minimal in most areas even with coordinator Dan Lanning leaving to become Oregon head coach in January.

It is second in scoring defense at 12.8 points per game allowed, down from 10.2 last season.

It is allowing 292.1 yards per game—ninth in the nation—after finishing second last season at 268.9.

The run defense is even better, giving up a measly 77.0 yards per game—tops in the nation—ahead of the 78.9 per game last season.

The key to maintaining that success, Kirby Smart?

“It's just culture,” the seventh-year coach said. “That's not going to change. What we do is not going to change. It doesn't matter if one coach leaves or another coach leaves. That doesn't impact our defense. We rep a lot of players at practice. We have a system set up to get our twos and threes ready. So the next cast of defensive players is getting ready right now just like they were last year. I think, if you've got a good formula for getting guys ready, it prevents large gaps in seasons.”

Muschamp said strong recruiting and player development and buy-in from players has made for a smooth transition this year. He said he and co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann “take turns,” in defensive installation.

Muschamp says Georgia’s defensive philosophy doesn’t budge even with some tweaks in scheme to account for changes like at inside linebacker in personnel.

The Bulldogs will focus on defending the middle of the field and stopping the run, he said.

“How we defend it may change,” Muschamp said. “We’re a different defense schematically than we were a year ago. Is there some carry over in what we do? Sure.”

Schumann called the last half of football “really disappointing” when LSU backup quarterback Garrett Nussmeier threw touchdown passes of 33 and 34 yards and completed another pass for 59 yards.

“There’s never a singular issue, right?” he said. “You try to address things where they showed up in their own silos, right?”

He said that includes defensive calls made, scheme adjustments, technique and fundamentals and a mental lapses.

“They’re aggressive,” Ohio State sophomore star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. said. “They trust themselves to make plays. They’ve got the confidence in themselves to do that.”

Cornerback Kamari Lassiter said Monday that the defense had “some lapses during that game in the second half. We just really needed to recenter and refocus after that win and during this time off and just get back to the basics of Georgia football.”

Ohio State boasts the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense at 44.3 points per game with Heisman finalist CJ Stroud who is tops the nation in pass efficiency and touchdown passes with 37.

“They have a lot of guys that can win their one-on-one matchups,” Schumann said. “Ultimately more than any big picture scheme thing, it’s how can you win your matchup when you’re isolated and you’ll be able to change the matchups up throughout the game based on what you call whether that’s coverages, pressures.”

Harrison Jr. (6-foot-4 and 218 pounds) is the top target with 72 catches for 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns who wins his share of one-on-one opportunities.

“I don’t know if it’s a 50-50 ball, it might be a 70-30 ball,” Muschamp said.

Emeka Egbuka (6-1, 205) has 66 catches for 1,039 yards and 9 touchdowns and Julian Fleming (6-2, 205) has 29 receptions for 462 with 6 touchdowns.

“They look like outside backers on tape, but they can run,” Muschamp said.

Ohio State players say they aren’t putting too much stock in what LSU did but are certainly studying game film.

“I don’t know why they get beat on some of the deeper balls,” said Stroud, “but I do know they are good and we have to be sound in what we do.”

Schumann said Smart sets the tone with how things will be run in the program “and he doesn’t relax on it. We try to be physical on a day-to-day basis not a week-to-week basis.”

Said Muschamp: “We coach our guys hard and they receive hard coaching. You can do that if there’s a certain connection. That’s a word we use in our organization a lot and I think there’s a huge connection. …It’s built off of last year and the belief and connection we had a year ago and that has bled into this season with our players as well.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia defense shows little dropoff this season, but faces Ohio State test