Tucker says Georgia defense ‘still a work in progress’

Mel Tucker greeted the handful of reporters awaiting his news conference at the Embassy Suites Tuesday with a warm smile. He asked how everyone’s holiday season went and noted the obvious, which is that it’s been a while since he’d been able to publicly comment about the Georgia defense he coordinates.

It had been a while, in fact – Aug. 6 to be exact. So there was a lot to talk about with Tucker in only a 14-minute window.

Tucker’s defense, especially in the back end, showed great improvement throughout the season. Early on, the pass defense was a liability, with Missouri and Mississippi throwing the ball all over the field against the Bulldogs.

By the end of the regular season, Georgia’s pass defense became a strength and averaged only 125.3 yards through the air over the final six games.

“We're still a work in progress,” Tucker said. “Our guys played hard. They learned how to run towards the ball, and learned how to take the ball away. They play together. We've grown as a defense over the season. We've still got a lot of work to do.”

Georgia finished the regular season ranked fourth in the SEC in total defense at an average of 328 yards per game.

Much of the end-of-season surge that resulted in defensive improvement, Tucker said, was a result to better fundamentals and an improved grasp of how to communicate with one another on the field.

Big plays were a problem early in the first month of the year. By the end of the season, Tucker’s defense finished tied for second in the SEC with only 45 plays going for 20 yards or more.

“Just playing together, and being sound fundamentally, and understanding, ‘Hey you can't give up big plays if you want to be a great defense,’” Tucker said. “And so just being sound and solid, playing together, communication, understanding the scheme. The guys have grown and so it's a really fun group to coach.”

An area Georgia hasn’t fared well this season is in red zone defense. When opposing teams get inside the 20, Georgia has allowed a scoring conversion rate of 94.6 percent. Twenty-nine of the 35 scores were touchdowns, with the Bulldogs having a hard time of holding teams to field goals in the red zone.

Tucker said this has been an area of emphasis, especially since TCU has posted touchdowns on 30 of its 44 red zone scores.

“It’s been a focus for us,” Tucker said. “Obviously we need to execute better in the red zone. They (TCU) do a great job in the game planning so that’s been a major point for us. We’ve worked on red zone almost every day.”

Tucker has had the benefit of working for a boss, head coach Kirby Smart, with a deep background on the defensive side of the ball. At practices, Smart is fairly hands on with the defense, with Tucker saying the relationship has been able to pay off throughout the season.

“It’s great. He’s been doing this a long time and so have I,” Tucker said. “We see football the same way. He’s very, very passionate about the game, hyper-competitive and so am I. So I think it’s a really good relationship for our players because we work hand-in-hand, day in and day out to get the most out of our players. We have an excellent coaching staff and cooperation is the key. That’s what we want to do each and every day.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Tucker says Georgia defense ‘still a work in progress’."