Welp, tomorrow is the first day of the defending SEC champs’ 2018 season, and while I expect the quarterback “battle” to suck most of the media oxygen out of the room, my biggest question about the spring is nicely summarized in yesterday’s Bill King column:
As my buddy Joel put it: “My biggest concern can be summed up in four words: Roquan Smith is gone.”
There’s no question that Kirby’s done a great job of building roster depth, but you don’t lose All-American type talent without having to regroup. If Natrez Patrick can make it back to being a reliable contributor, that would be a huge help, but it’s also something we can’t count on at this early stage.
What’s the area you’re most focused on this spring?
Get The Picture 
1) ILB – if another R isn’t possible does the defensive scheme change from focusing on the Will position?
2) WR – can 2 guys to step up Wims 17 level?
3) OL – does Georgia’s line evolve to roadgrader status with all that talent?
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I’m with you on wide receiver. Wims will be hard to replace and I don’t see who’s on deck to do it.
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I think we’ll be okay at WR and a lot of it has to do with assuming Fromm takes a sizeable step forward. Ridley, Mecole, Godwin, Nauta, Woerner… that’s a lot of options. Then add in Holloman and Landers and I think Fromm will be able to spread it out a lot. While I don’t think we’ll have a guy who dominates the stat line, we could look more like an Aaron Murray-offense where a few guys get consistent balls.
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Agree at WR, we will better than many assume. Don’t know how much more we will get from Fromm, he didn’t see all open receivers, and might can spread the ball around more but he was money when needed. With our running game, he may not put up eye-popping stats like Big 12 QBs do but he accurate and will have some speedy guys to chunk it to.
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I think (expect) Fromm to grow a lot from last season to the next. He has plenty of room to grow when it comes to seeing the field, but all freshman QBs do. I’m sort of banking on him becoming a truly great QB by getting that part of the game up to the level of his leadership/playbook knowledge.
I think we’ll run the ball less this season compared to last season. I think that will be for a couple of reasons, not least of all that I suspect the coaches will trust Fromm more, but I also think we won’t be as insane at RB. We’ll still be damn good, for sure. But I don’t think we’ll be as deep and as consistently good, thus forcing us into throwing it 5-10% more than last year.
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I think we still are in the OL business. As good as the OL played most of last year there could still be improvement. If the OL takes the next step and becomes truly elite….look out everybody else.
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Absolutely. If the OL can step up from solid to great UGA is gonna wreck shop for a while.
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Fromm had confidence throwing to Wims in traffic. While we may have guys that can get open, I’m afraid we’ll miss that go-to guy in the pressure situations.
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No one thought Alabama could replace Ragland, Moseley, Hightower, etc. While I expect a drop off for a while, I think Nate McBride could be that kind of player. I’m worried about losing R with the shallow crossing routes that he would just take away.
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I asked Nate if he was working hard this spring to crack the depth chart. Of course he said he was working hard and added that he thought he had a chance contribute. Then I asked what he thought about being paired with Monty Rice. Nate just smiled and said “Oh, he’s good”. Very nice and respectful kid.
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DL & linebacker: We must have a dedicated and effective pass rush this year. The last great QB Kryptonite we had was Jarvis Jones. If one of the new pups can step up into this role it will allow the line to focus on the run stopping game. CB: Where has our “Deionn Sanders” been? We need to defend the deep routes that always kill us.
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Give me three Roquan Smiths and I’ll conquer the World.
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“Nicely summarized in this Bill King article”. I can’t believe I just read those words on this blog, lol.
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LB because of replacing ‘Quan and OL because there is a lot of young, talented players there- specifically the fight for RT.
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You hit it – Linebacker and to a lesser degree, the secondary. The secondary will not be as experienced; but will be more talented. In fact, you could argue much more talented.
Linebacker – that’s a different story. The talent is there; but the team lost a ton of experience. Offense should be just fine..
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Long snappah!!!!!!!!!
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DL, ole John Atkins did not get a lot of publicity, but watch the film of him always clogging the middle.
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Highly unlikely we find any one to replace R’s talents any time soon, but we can be competent enough as a group that LB will not be a liability in 2018. When Patrick was out last season, we had a couple of guys step up and show some flashes of good things to come. Tucker may have to change the scheme/flow of the way the LBs work together to close the lanes off to get close to what we saw last season from the collective group. Some good young talent available that should get stronger as the season goes along.
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^This, imo. Yes, R is a great talent, but a lot of what made him shine so brightly in 2017 was the way he was used. So I don’t think it is so much a question of whether he can be replaced, but more about how he gets replaced. We have pieces, and we just need to see how the coaches go about deploying those pieces. The G-Day game should be a fun watch, hopefully with good weather in the stands.
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Roquan Smith was a talent for sure but UGA has had LBs step up over the years.
OL and LB are obvious choices. Under the radar, RB depth concerns me some, Swift is a monster but are Holyfield and/or Herrien ready to step up to the work load.
Secondary is my biggest concern. It wasn’t the strength last year and several young players will be playing this year. They maybe more talented but it also takes experience not leave gaps, and gaps in the secondary can lead to 7 quicker than a gap in the DL.
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I have little to no concern about Holyfield, he is a bruiser with excellent speed. Herrien needs to get better at north/south running, but dependable. Not sure we see the real Zeus in 2017, but both he and Cook will contribute before we hit the late stretch. Cook can be a home run hitter, just not sure of how he will react to the speed and tough hits at this level his first year out. Not minimizing what we lost with Chubb/Sony, just saying we have extreme talent at the RB position and perhaps the best OL we have ever had at UGA.
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I have a little more doubt in Holyfield on and off the field. I expect he will step up but we have watched players wash out. Zeus is coming off an ACL and we know that can take a while to get back to 100%. You just never know how a true Freshman will do at the next level. I am not saying Cook or Zeus can’t do something, more that we don’t know. I was a bit surprised at how little action Herrien saw.
UGA has several good RBs but we do not know how many great RBs, and the offense obviously thrived on the RBs. Will the RBs step up or will Fromm and Chaney evolve?
Either way I expect to win the East, the question has escalated to can they win it all?
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Agree, there is no guarantee about an unproven back, I just think his blend of power and speed, combined with how improved he looked his sophomore year, makes him a good bet. He looks like he ran angry this year, more like the power Chubb and Gurley displayed as runners.
Zeus has that same potential, but history has shown it takes more than one year for a RB to get back to his prior form, if at all. His ACL was supposedly a “clean” injury, he has a solid workout approach, I think he regains his full range of motion his sophomore season, hope he does because he looked very special, albeit against a lower classification in NC. HS football. Herrien looked really good his freshman year, just didn’t see any significant improvement his 2nd year. He has speed and some good moves, not sure about his power to break tackles.
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I keep getting back to the OL. I think it is possible this OL may become the best OL in the nation. If a back doesn’t get touched until he is 3-5 yards downfield and with the quality of the RBs on our roster…..it is going to be scary for other teams.
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I’m optimistically ‘expecting’ to make up for the loss of Roquan in the aggregate.
Really looking forward to the #2 CB battle. Will be interesting to find out if McGhee can hold off Webb, Speed, and a boatload of other freshmen, RS freshmen, and sophs.
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Defensive secondary. Hope LeCount shows well and gels with a couple old hands to cover, but depth there is going to have some youngsters.
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I’m really looking forward to see the true Sophomores step up their game. Specifically, McBride, Rice, Lecounte, Walter Grant, and Andrew Thomas.
I also expect for at least one OL to be moved to the DL. I’m thinking Netori or Schaeffer. There’s just too much depth at the Guard spot.
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“There’s just too much depth at the Guard spot.”
When did we last hear that?
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I had to pinch myself after I wrote that.
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Agree… we could use some stout beef on DL in the middle, and OG has a surplus. I won’t be surprised if Netori gets a look at NG this April.
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Who would have thought with Chubb and Michel leaving everyone would be concerned with LB play?
As long as the DL keeps the LBs clean they should be able to play sideline to sideline, not that I expect the same level of play from any one player but the total output should be the near same.
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There is certainly a lot to replace. There may have never been a school trying to replace as much as UGA is right now.
#2 and 3 all time rushers. All time starts, INTs, and int return yards. First Butkus award winner.
Replacing any one of those would be tough for most schools to handle.
UGA has recruited very well so they have the guys to replace them, but UGA has to be better this year than last year. Simply replacing those guys doesnt get the job done. We have to be better on defense and offense to get to the next level.
Obviously we can replace them,but can we replace and improve?
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Don’t disagree with concern at LB and Dline, but what about punter? For the first time in a long time I felt we had the edge on punt team. We’ll miss him.
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There it is!
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Don’t disagree with concern at LB and Dline, but what about punter? For the first time in a long time I felt we had the edge on punt team. We’ll miss Nizalek.
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Sorry for double post!
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The biggest issue is OL. If we’re pushing people around and running the ball and scoring at a good clip, all of which will follow OL dominance, we’ll be fine.
This is going to be a team well suited for getting ahead and taking apart qbs. Inasmuch as replacing Roquan is impossible, I’m not seeeing a lot of great backs or running qbs on our schedule. Frankly we may not have a top 25 team at the end of the year on the schedule. Certainly no top 10 teams.
We need to be able to lean on folks with our OL, get them one dimensional because of the scoreboard and run defense and then set Grant and Walker on the qb.
If we can run the ball at USC and at LSU we’ll be undefeated when we get to Atlanta.
My thinking is that we made a tremendous run with less than stellar OL play and that the days of getting whipped up front will be ending in 2018. It’s just a question of what month in the fall the OL comes together and begins to dominate.
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“Certainly no top 10 teams.”
This is the very reason I’m not overly concerned about loosing such great talent. We will re-load with better talent than the opponents we were better than in 2017. The gap is widening. As you mentioned, USC and LSU, two determined teams at intimidating venues could be challenging.
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My focus this Spring? Driving accuracy and short game, especially within 30 yards of the green. 😉
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Putting. It’s always about putting. Remember that.
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R will be mist.
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I’m hoping to see Fromm make a leap forward reading defenses and making adjustments at the line. That, along with a monster OL, is going to make him out-of-this-world great.
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Running back actually concerns me. Not sure Swift has the between the tackles punch like Sony, Gurley, Knowshon had been. He is fine outside the hashes…and not sure about his blocking abilities yet. Just needs more weight and bruiser-esque, 3-4 yard, long drive grinder-experiences until I will feel better.
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I respectfully disagree. I saw a kid that easily could have been the feature back last year.
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Yep.
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As a matter of pure physics, I didn’t think it was possible to stand Bo Scarborough up on a 3rd and short stretch play. He did the same damn thing in the Rose Bowl too. Never seen anything like it.
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We can talk offense and defense all day but Nizialek last year was incredible. He shaped field position and made long fields for the opposition. Punter was such a great luxury last year. Not having to worry about consistency. If there s an area I am concerned about, it really is the punter.
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