So, Barrett Sallee asks what he considers to be the most pressing questions for each team this spring. Some are pretty obvious, like what Auburn, TAMU and LSU are going to do at the quarterback position. There’s also how does Tennessee shore up its defensive backfield, which looks like a pretty gaping hole for now. There’s also amusing — did you know Alabama has to replace Metchie and Williams?
Then, there’s Georgia.
Georgia
How deep can the defensive line be this season? The Bulldogs defense was historically dominant last season, but multiple key players from the national champs are gone — particularly along the defensive line. Jalen Carter, a 6-foot-3, 310-pound monster, should be the talk of the town after showing flashes of stardom last season alongside departed monster Jordan Davis. Carter has the skillset to be a top-tier NFL draft pick in 2023 and needs to step up in the middle of the defensive line. Devonte Wyatt, a 315-pound monster as well, is also off to the NFL after seven tackles for loss a year ago, which will put even more pressure on coach Kirby Smart to build the depth that championship-caliber teams need to win at an elite level.
Co-defensive coordinators Will Muschamp and Glenn Schumann have replaced Dan Lanning, who took the head coaching gig at Oregon in the offseason. Their first order of business will be developing talent up front.
Will the d-line be less experienced this season? Sure. Will it be less talented? If Carter’s better than last season’s starters — and that’s something many observers believe — that’s a much closer question. And Sallee seems to acknowledge that in the way he asks the question. If he’s wondering about depth, I’d say that’s a first world problem for a program that’s been recruiting the position at a lights-out level. I’d also say that he forgot to mention the lights-out job Tray Scott has done as the position coach there.
Get The Picture 
Yup Senator… Lot less worried about the line. Bigger concern is LB’S. Very talented, but very light in experience. If the LB’s come along quickly, really believe the defense will be pretty darn good. Nobody is expecting last year, but they have the chance to be pretty darn good and with an offense that should be one of the best in football and maybe with the best O-Line in football. And with UGA’S backs (watch out for Milton), if you want to put it on the ground and eat clock, then that opportunity is going to be there.
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We have a closet full of monsters…
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No matter how good Carter is he isn’t replacing Walker, Davis AND Wyatt. If he’s a carbon copy of one of those guys, we should feel very lucky. We should have enough talent, depth and competition to be ok enough up front. I’m far more worried about the corner opposite Ringo and db depth generally than any other position group.
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I think Carter is actually more talented that all of three of the guys you listed on a individual basis. But, you’re right, he isn’t replacing all three at once.
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More talented than Travon? You sure? He is about to be our highest drafted defensive player ever and that will be based primarily on talent: 6’5” 275 and runs a 4.51.
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I guess time will tell. But, yeah, I think Carter is an Avenger.
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Jalen may play above his talent. That would be wonderful. We don’t see very many “unicorns” like Travon Walker though.
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I think in the purely DL, hand-in-the-dirt talent category, Carter is/will be better. Travon is a freak among freaks, he can lineup on the line in a 4pt stance and then drop back into coverage on any play. He’s a nightmare for an offense to account for. That said, Carter has 45lbs on Walker; he can’t drop back or play LB like Walker does, but what he can do, he does at an elite level. We’ll see next year…I’m guessing/expecting he’ll have a monster year and be a top 10 pick himself.
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to God’s ears…
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I have no doubt that Carter is a massive talent. I also no doubt that there talented guys coming up. But one guy doesn’t make a defensive line; they have to play as a unit, and that unit has to be a sub unit of the the defense as a whole. So I think it is fair to ask questions about losing a big chunk of that unit to the NFL. If you have been watching the last few years, the coaching staff knows what they need and the know how to get it. It’s a potential problem, but I’m not clutching my pearls over it.
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Carter, Logue, Stackhouse, Norton, Brinson, Walthour, etc. etc. etc. are still there. A lot of talent in Tray Scott cupboard.
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I am really curious to see the coverage changes on the backend without the generational front Kirby was able to lean on last year. Tray Scott got a raise, but he already needs another one.
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Will Carter play more snaps than the guys did last year, and if so will that negate to some degree his play? I agree that he is potentially the most talented but even he will get worn out if he is taking too many snaps. However, as a fan of the national championship-winning DAWGS, I will trust the coaches and know that the defense will be top 5-10 by the 3rd or 4th game.
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I think you’re spot on…D line starts to gel early, builds momentum, and by game 3 starts to look almost as mean as last year’s D.
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I hate to be the irrational pessimist of the group, but I just don’t have any real confidence in what we will get in DL play opposite Carter. Since the moment he got snaps, JD99 transformed our run defense. when he didn’t play, we weren’t as good. We are all penciling in Logue as if he is a high level, All-SEC caliber guy. He probably isn’t. He weights 50 lbs less than JD.
By default, I guess Walthour takes Walker’s spot, and he is even less likely to “breakout” than Logue. The rest of the names along the DL are relatively less heralded recruits (Stackhouse, Brinson, Jefferson, Dean – who may be OLB) who haven’t played much or talented true frosh (Williams, Bear, Washington). Obviously, if one or two emerges as near elite, we are in very good shape alongside Carter. That said, 2022 will certainly be a test for Scott, Schumann, and Muschamp.
The ILB issue is simply experience. The talent is off the charts. Sory, Smael, JDJ, and Jalon are all elite defenders capable of replicating what Nakobe, Quay and Tindall gave us when they figure things out.
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Everyone these days plays so finesse, I just don’t know how much difference we’ll notice. Is beating people 42-15 that much different than 42-0? Statistically its huge but otherwise I’m not sure how much it will matter. We just need to have enough offense and defense to avoid shootouts with our division rivals. Obviously, if we’re going to have any success in the postseason we’re going to have to improve everywhere. The offense has to be better in 2022 because the defense will NOT be a generational one. I think it can be good enough if Stet and the OL step up.
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Totally agree with this take, Derek. Kirby has built the program on complementary football. The reason we won Alabama game 2 is that we dictated the way the game was going to be played.
Bottom line is that we have lost 1 game in the Smart era (and none since 2016) when we have scored 30+. That is the magic number.
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Yep… it’s the run defense without #99 that will suffer. Will probably cost us a touchdown more per game in defensive scoring allowed. Hopefully that doesn’t cause our pass defense to be too much less effective. Logue, Stackhouse and Brinson need to step up. I feel like Stackhouse is the key and has the biggest upside if he puts it together.
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As a fan, it’s nice to be in this position. Just pontificating about how the reloading will shake out. Looking down from on high as every single one of our rivals scrapes and scraps trying to build something competitive.
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I just hope everyone keeps talking about our “weakness” along the defensive line.
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The opposite of rat poison
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Let’s get the gist of this conversation, do not expect any positive UGA football to roll from this guys keyboard and if there is/was any, could GAS less, this “That’s in the rearview mirror now” B.S. isn’t the focus, he can’t accept the facts as they present themselves…The prettiest little cesspool on the plains is over flowing while their low tide hc still cashing checks prior to his next season bus ticket out of town, that whole program is and has been floundering for 3-5 years now with no end in sight, even the son of barner left town to head for greener pastures out west…those are just some of those fun barner facts today, in the spring time 2022…#AUBURN SUCKS!
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Believe we are in a reload mode, not rebuild.
Also believe we will miss Lanning’s play calling more than we think.
Have not heard who will actually call the defensive plays
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I believe the coaching questions also fall into the reloading category at this point.
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Yes, No offense to Dan Lanning, but Will Muschamp truly has been the best defensive coordinator on average in CFB for nearly 2 decades now. I see zero fall off in that department.
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Every defensive call goes through Kirby. It will be the same philosophy that it was with Lanning. While we may not be as great in execution of the calls, I don’t imagine the defensive philosophy of being an anaconda is going to change much.
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I have no doubt that the defense will regress (how could they not?). They will go from generational to only elite. The offense on the other hand, I expect to take a huge step forward. Instead of beating teams 35-10 like last year, we beat them 49-17 or if the defense really struggles, then 49-20. Either way I can live with it.
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The D may not be as good as last year but, I expect the D to be solid opening the season and improving. The offense if the injury bug doesn’t hit has plenty of returning production.
Oregon has a new coaching staff, Nix at QB
S. Carolina is a should win
Mizzou again should win
Auburn has had transfers. etc. etc.
UGA should win those games, some growing pains may result in not covering Vegas, but should be Ws. Early season visits to the Chickens has made for a nervous Saturday afternoon but should Win.
UF and Tennessee are late October/early November. The D should be battle tested and executing. A visit to Starkeville is well placed on Nov.12th. The teams known to score points come late.
The schedule sets up well assuming injuries don’t set in. UGA has recruited well, the D has plenty of coaching talent, scheme continuity, etc. In theory UGA should be going into Atlanta with a perfect record most likely facing Bama.
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You people failed to mention Metchie and Williams…
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And QBR.
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Smart and crew have been pretty darn good at recruiting and developing defensive linemen and linebackers. Probably as the years go by some groups are going to be better than others and it’s certainly possible this year won’t be as good last year (who were really really good), but over the long run they do this really well and have earned the benefit of the doubt.
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I have a totally different take on it I guess…Wyatt and Davis were former 3 star recruits, and I’m not saying they were slouches or anything coming out of HS, but let’s give some credit to our S&C program and marvelous coaching that coached them up. Davis benefitted from being a really large athlete, and I take nothing away from him. BUT, if you’ll recall, Davis struggled in the beginning with his weight and conditioning. Wyatt didn’t just walk in out of junior college and take the D by storm. It took them both a year or two to get where they were, But now we have about 10-12 DLinemen and many if not all of them were ranked 4 and 5 star recruits, higher than Wyatt or Davis coming out of HS. All of them now have a year or MORE in the S&C program. None of them are going to replace Davis’ size, but how many in the group of Logue, Norton, Stackhouse, Brinson, Mitchell, Ingram-Dawkins, Walthour and Jefferson, (and that doesn’t even count the incoming freshmen!) can be at LEAST as good as Wyatt? Surely in that group we’re gonna find two great players to flank Carter.
Maybe I’m the eternal optimist, but I think we’re gonna be just fine.
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I don’t see how anyone could worry about our defense with the recruits and coaches we have. Will we set records every year? Of course not. But we had Grantham and Martinez for a while. We know what the bottom is, we practically surveyed the shit and made an awesome map.
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LMFAO!
A range card, if you will.
I think the Dawgs D will better than alright. They were damn sure a joy to watch in 2021. I’m watching the Orange Bowl in snippets this morning. That’s the best D I can remember seeing and a lot of senior leadership. We may never see their like again. But Kirby is certainly setting the next few classes up to attempt to top them.
Been waiting a looooong time for this.
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“Carter’s better than last season’s starters” Whether that is true or not I do not know. What I am pretty sure about though is that there is a big drop in talent last year to this year in positions 2 through 4. That is the problem I see.
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“Sallee” should be part of the lexicon, definition being missing the mark in favor of fueling a lazy narrative.
The biggest question for Georgia this offseason is replacing half of the coaching staff. Smart has now entered Saban territory, and it will be interesting to see if this thing sustains itself with so much turnover.
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