ATHENS, Ga. — Key members of the Georgia defense and their coordinator met with members of the media on Friday afternoon. So, of course, a Gunner Stockton news conference broke out.
They were good sports about it. Malaki Starks, a standout safety and probable first-round NFL draft pick, laughed at the fourth — then fifth and sixth — time he got a question about Stockton, who he has known since they were 5 years old.
“He beat me every year 33-0. Every year, I don’t know why,” Starks said of their high school battles when Starks’ team played Stockton’s. “Except for one year, it was 33-6. I scored.”
Jalon Walker, who recently won the Butkus Award, talked about Stockton’s playmaking abilities. Mykel Williams, another likely soon-to-be first-round pick, gushed about Stockton’s running. Defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann said Stockton’s athleticism “makes you defend the entire field, and he makes you play honest on defense.”
Schumann then got a question about Georgia’s approach against Notre Dame in next week’s Sugar Bowl … a question that began by referencing Stockton. From a pure story perspective, it’s understandable.
A quarterback making his first college start in a College Football Playoff game is something people want to talk about.
Jalon Walker (11), Mykel Williams (13) and the Georgia defense held Texas to one touchdown in the SEC Championship Game. (Joshua L. Jones / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
But from an importance perspective, it’s overlooking arguably the other big key to this game: Which Georgia defense will show up?
This defense has been, at times, the same dominant unit that has been the backbone of the Kirby Smart era. But at other times, it has been mediocre.
Scoring defense? Georgia ranks 20th nationally in points allowed, which is solid but well below the last three years: first in 2021, fifth the next two years.
Yards allowed? Georgia has fallen all the way to 37th nationally in yards per play allowed after being 11th last year, 15th in 2022 and second in 2021.
And yet Georgia is in the national title chase once again.
“When big moments are needed, our defense is always there to create havoc and create plays for our team,” Walker said.
The SEC Championship Game was a big moment, as was the first Texas game. So was the season opener against Clemson and the second half against Tennessee. But there were problems during the first half against Tennessee, the first half against Alabama, basically the entire Ole Miss game and most of the Georgia Tech game.
“To meet the standard and expectation we have for playing defense at Georgia, you have to be consistent,” Schumann said. “Because if you’re inconsistent, you’re going to have ebbs and flows. What this group has shown is that when we’re at our best, we can be really good.”
So why isn’t it all the time? Some of it is the schedule. Seven of Georgia’s 13 opponents rank in the top 32 nationally in offensive yards per play. But when a defense gives up 21 points to UMass and 31 to Mississippi State, it’s not just the schedule.
It’s also not one area in particular: Georgia ranked fifth in the SEC in pass defense, going by yards per attempt, and eighth in rush defense, going by yards per rush. The pass rush has been solid: Georgia is 26th nationally in pressure rate this year (35.3 percent), up from last year (49th at 33.4 percent) and in line with the 2021 and 2022 teams.
Then there’s havoc rate, which has been an emphasis for years and perfectly encapsulates this defense’s maddening inconsistency: In the two wins over Texas, the Bulldogs have 25 tackles for loss. For the rest of the season, they’re averaging only 5.4 per game.
Schumann focused on another area: explosive plays allowed. For the season, Georgia ranks 33rd in explosive play rate allowed at 10.7 percent, per TruMedia, which defines explosives as passes of 16-plus yards and rushes of 12-plus yards.
“When we minimize explosive plays, we play really well,” Schumann said. “There are a lot of factors that go into that. I think the better we tackle, the better we play the ball downfield, the better we execute. That’s what we need moving forward. When we’re consistent, we’re pretty good. When we’re not, then there’s been times where yards have been gained, yards have been given up.”
Here are the opponent’s explosive plays for each game:
| Opponent | Explosive plays | Explosive plays percentage |
|---|---|---|
|
3 |
5.8 |
|
|
1 |
2.1 |
|
|
5 |
6.8 |
|
|
11 |
16.9 |
|
|
9 |
15.8 |
|
|
8 |
12.7 |
|
|
7 |
9.3 |
|
|
5 |
7.4 |
|
|
10 |
15.6 |
|
|
3 |
4.2 |
|
|
6 |
10.5 |
|
|
12 |
14.3 |
|
|
11 |
14.9 |
There was a clear trend in the regular season. But then came the SEC championship when Texas racked up 11 explosive plays. The difference there was in the red zone: Texas was 0-for-3 in getting touchdowns and overall had to settle for seven field goal attempts. Before that game, opponents had scored touchdowns more than half the time after reaching the red zone (51.3 percent).
That could point to a maturing unit. The week of the game Kirby Smart belabored that when the defense gave up big plays or had a big penalty against it, it seemed to wilt. The opposite was true against the Longhorns.
Ultimately, getting back to the 2021 defense would be unrealistic. That unit ended up having seven first-round picks playing for it. But this year’s team seems to have at least three, so it should be better.
Maybe some of the confidence is back. When asked one of the many questions about Stockton, Williams answered with a bit of patting his own unit’s back.
“It’s not like he’s a rookie out there,” he said. “Because he plays a great defense every day.”
And Williams and his defensive teammates surely know that for all the attention on Stockton, their performance on Wednesday is just as intriguing and important.
(Top photo: Joshua L. Jones / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
