In search of a prima donna? Don’t look at this UGA unit that might be best in football
Good defenses keep teams in games. Great defenses can win games almost single handedly.
That’s exactly what happened for No. 3 Georgia on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs rode a dominant defensive effort in the second half to a 44-21 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers at Sanford Stadium.
It’s not like Georgia played terrible in the initial 30 minutes. Seven of Tennessee’s 21 first-half points came on a botched Georgia snap the Volunteers recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.
The other two scores came on passes of 36 and 27 yards from one opposing senior to another, quarterback Jarrett Guarantano to receiver Josh Palmer. Trailing 21-17 at the break, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and his staff couldn’t do anything but tip their caps.
“They beat a guy, they were one-on-one out there on the outside and it was a 50-50 ball that we lost,” Smart said. “The receiver made a hell of a play and the quarterback made a hell of a throw. Sometimes, you give them credit for what they threw.”
The coaches came out of halftime with some adjustments. They figured Tennessee’s only chance to win might be to beat Georgia on those deep 50-50 passes, so they wanted to take that away.
Eliminate that they did. After halftime, Tennessee amassed just 71 total yards and was 1-for-11 on third-down conversions.
The Bulldogs started flexing their muscles almost immediately after intermission. On the third play of the second half, redshirt sophomore linebacker Azeez Ojulari blew around the end and sacked Guarantano. He also poked the ball loose and fell on it, giving the Bulldogs the ball at the Tennessee 15-yard line.
“We preach on getting strip sacks at practice,” Ojulari said. “Aim at the ball, the ball came out and we recovered it.”
That turnover turned into a Bulldog field goal. On the third play of Tennessee’s next drive, Guarantano felt pressured by sophomore defensive back Tyrique Stevenson. He flung the ball away and it fell into the waiting arms of junior defensive back Eric Stokes for his second interception of the year.
That led to another Bulldog field goal. Even though the offense hadn’t cashed them into touchdowns those two turnovers — the first giveaways by Tennessee of the season — turned a 21-17 deficit into a 23-21 lead.
The defense continued to stymie the Volunteers, and the offense added a pair of touchdowns to stretch the lead to 37-21. In the third quarter, Tennessee totaled just 14 yards of offense.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, senior linebacker Monty Rice put the proverbial nail in the Volunteers’ coffin.
He came on a blitz and, just like Ojulari earlier, sacked Guarantano and knocked the ball out. However, he managed to keep his feet, scoop up the ball and return it 20 yards for a touchdown.
Rice’s first touchdown since his senior year of high school and his first sack since his sophomore year at Georgia put the game out of reach at 44-21.
“It was a surreal feeling,” Rice said. “I kind of cried a little bit because it’s just crazy. It felt like a movie or something. It’s just a blessing to be in this position.”
It was a phenomenally athletic play by Rice, to be sure. However, it’s his preparation for that moment that shows why the Georgia defense is great.
He doesn’t take too many reps on third down with that play in practice. However, he stayed ready, paid attention to the reps and, when the time came, he jumped on it — literally and figuratively.
That’s true of this entire Georgia defense, a group Smart says is free of “prima donnas.” This is an elite unit, yet it doesn’t have any one true superstar.
It’s a unit, Smart said, that just wants one thing: to be one of the best in the nation.
“They take pride in being good,” Smart said. “Everybody puts sweat in the bucket. There’s a lot of guys contributing on defense. The atmosphere that’s created on defense here is just, we’re not letting them score. We’re not going to let them in. They hold everybody accountable.”
That camaraderie plays out in the group’s performance on the field. Take Ojulari’s sack, for example. Rice noted that if the rest of the players up front don’t execute the pass rush stunt correctly, Ojulari might not be able to get into the backfield.
Rice said he didn’t want to get into any arguments about whether Georgia’s defense was definitely the best in the nation. He avoids topics like that because, after all, “politics are crooked anyway.”
This group could very well be the best defensive unit in the country. It definitely ranks as one of the best, if not the best, group Smart has had in what is now his fifth year in Athens.
Whether it’s the best in college football or not, this defense is truly elite. It’s a group of 11 players working as one, the “prima donna” free group that pays attention to detail and adopts a mindset of never allowing the opponent to score.
This Georgia defense has all the markings of a group that is capable of leading the Bulldogs to an SEC East championship and beyond.
Georgia vs. Alabama game info
Who: Georgia (3-0, 3-0 SEC) at Alabama (3-0, 3-0 SEC)
Where: Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17
TV channel: CBS
The series: Georgia has lost five straight to the Crimson Tide
This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "In search of a prima donna? Don’t look at this UGA unit that might be best in football."