You gotta love Seth Emerson’s lede this morning ($$).
Goodness, what an exodus of talent is hitting the Georgia defense: Three former five-star recruits, two more who were ranked in the top 100 of their class, and three more who were four-stars. And that doesn’t even include Jordan Davis.
That strips down the poor Georgia defense to only returning:
• 10 former five-star recruits
• Six more who were top-100 recruits
• 15 more who were four-star recruits
Kirby Smart’s cupboard, not very bare at all as it turns out.
Yeah, there’s some serious experience walking out the door, but that’s life in college football these days if yours is an elite program. Better to have talent on hand to replace it than not. And maybe there’s a transfer or two in the works, to boot.
I’ll take my chances with it, thank you very much.
Get The Picture 
I’m not worried about the defense in the least. The talent is stacked on the depth chart with more young blue chips on the way (or already in Athens). Will they take a step back statistically? Probably. Will they still likely be a top 5 defense in the Power 5? Probably.
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They could take a step back statistically and still be the best defense in college football. 2021 was “other worldly” defensively speaking.
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Wow! Even our eyes, watching the incredible talent sub back a forth, isn’t as sobering as looking at the numbers. That’s crazy! I feel warm all over. 🙂
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Sitting pretty.
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There is no doubt there is talent aplenty.
But whether we can replace Dean, and to a lesser extent Cine, as coaches on the field is the big question. THAT may take a few games.
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The Smiths
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Exactly this. Nolan Smith in particular was already cited this season as one of the team leaders. Having him back next year will be huge. Chris Smith should be the leader in the secondary for sure.
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Definition of reload, & over half the 2022 class (18) already early enrollees on campus.
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ILB is a concern for me. 10 will be a player and there is plenty of talent. My worry is the amount of time it takes for a LB to react vs think. Dean and Roquan took 2 years to get to the elite level. Walker and Tindall took 3 years to get to reacting, some of which was correlated to number for reps. Fingers crossed by December the new guys have gotten to the elite level.
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My concern is not talent or abilities that is something Kirby has fixed it’s team leadership from the players. Even coach Saban struggles with that every season and it’s a requirement for championships. Last season like 2017 there was great team chemistry and leaders who kept everyone focused. Who steps up this season will be more interesting to me than G day QBR.
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For the defense, see above (Nolan Smith, Chris Smith). On offense, the team seems to rally around Stetson. No reason to think they won’t this year as well.
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Having the Smith boys back is a big deal. Jalen Carter could end up being a leader on defense. I really don’t know much about him as far as personality. Jordan had such a charismatic personality and to me Devontae Wyatt was an unsung hero on that defense. I think the defense will be very good but we got spoiled this year and can’t expect that next year. The offense will be better. We will miss Zeus and Cook as leaders. I think Milton and Edwards are more than capable and Branson Robinson looks like a monster. Just need a little leadership to emerge to help Stetson.
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Sorry Senator but I believe you left out the most interesting line in the article! Seth prefaces his discussion with this line: “ there will still be changes, transfers in and out, Maybe another signing or two, the usual off-season stuff.”
The USUAL off-season stuff!!?!
Damn we got there in a hurry
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Bama won a national title in 2020, lost eight players to the first two rounds of the NFL draft (half of whom left college early), and turned around and played for another title the very next year. I’m optimistic that our talent level is headed for that degree of “reloadability,” if it’s not there already.
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How big of a deal is losing Lanning, though?
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Still think Tank Billiingsly is going to see how things progress through the Spring – wouldn’t surprise me at all if he came back home after Spring ball is done.
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Our RB room is nicely stocked and since we’re already over the scholly limit, I doubt we have room for Tank.
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The offensive exodus is more worrying to me. Kirby is “on the mother” when it comes to his defensive cupboard.
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The Dawgs have a record setting QB1 coming back. No worries.
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LOL.
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LOL?
He didn’t make that up.
https://mobile.twitter.com/RadiNabulsi/status/1484591473156833283?s=20
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Yeah, man. We got doods on top of doods.
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This week in “Dawg fans just ain’t used to this”…
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Honestly, we’re going to miss the big brain on Nakobe Dean; but that’s about it.
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Well… and his otherworldly, Roquan-esque sideline-to-sideline closing speed.
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Is leadership may be the most valuable commodity that we lose. He did some ass chewing in the NC game and the players responded when he did.
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There aren’t a lot of Jordan Davises around.
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I think Jalen Carter getting EVEN MORE downs is going to open a whole new world of havoc. Throughout the season, on more than one occasion I heard talking heads insist that HE might be the best player on the defense (usually while their colleagues were debating which 2 other players were the best).
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Jalen Carter is like a meaner, more athletic Jordan Davis. The man plays angry.
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I fully expect the defense to take a step back next year. Instead of the incredible 10ppg allowed, I fear that they may regress to allowing a disappointing 11ppg. It will be incumbent on our offense to bail them out next year.
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