Jeremy Pruitt and the art of po’ mouthin’

Vince Dooley nods his head in approval over this:

Jeremy Pruitt tossed out phrases like “very inexperienced,” and mentioned his group was in the “process of building.” When he talked up players, it tended to be those whose time at Georgia has come and gone.

It’s less than two weeks away from the start of what many expect to be a very good season for Georgia’s defense, but its defensive coordinator is downplaying what he’s got.

“We’re very inexperienced, first of all,” Pruitt said after Monday’s practice. “You’ve got (outside linebacker) Jordan Jenkins and you’ve got (linebacker) Leonard Floyd, that’s the two guys that have played a lot of football. (Safety) Dom Sanders started every game last year, and besides those three guys there’s a couple of guys that have started some games here. But other than that there’s not a whole lot of experience, okay?”

Saban would have concluded with an “aight?”, but we get your drift, Coach.  Even if, as you admit, replacing experience with new talent is a commonplace occurrence.

As the press conference wrapped up, Pruitt was asked if he was intentionally trying to temper expectations.

“No, y’all are asking the questions, I’m answering them,” he said. “When you lose three defensive tackles that start for you, and you lose two inside linebackers that – I think one of them made All-SEC and another made second-team All-SEC – and you lose a guy that’s drafted in the secondary and he’s played a lot of ball. It’s hard to replace guys like that. That happens everywhere. It’s nothing new. We’ve just gotta do it.”

I just wish someone would have asked him about Louisiana-Monroe’s long snappah.  Although there’s still time for that.

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