Mike Huguenin brings up a point about an area of the defense that does need to improve from last year’s performance when he asks about the pass rush. It was anemic at best: Georgia finished eleventh in the conference in sacks and ninth in tackles for loss.
Some of that no doubt was by design – we saw Floyd drop into coverage quite a bit, for example, and with the running quarterbacks Georgia faced throughout the season, Pruitt emphasized containment out of necessity (not that it always worked) – but you can’t chalk all of it up to that.
Huguenin isn’t kidding when he says this is a big spring and season for Lorenzo Carter, who appeared to disappear for much of 2015 after a strong freshman year. And it’s also fair to note, as he does, that Davin Bellamy is Georgia’s leading returning sacker for 2016. With three.
If there’s one area where Grantham showed out better than Pruitt, it’s sacks. Even in 2013, with that defense, the Dawgs averaged almost one more sack per game than last season. While that makes the job Georgia’s secondary did last year look even better, it’s pretty much a given that a solid pass rush is a defensive back’s best friend. That’s something Smart and Tucker need to address going forward.