Georgia had a simple defensive motto for this week. The Bulldogs wanted to do more with less against No. 1 Tennessee.
That applied to many aspects of the Georgia defensive unit. The front seven played with fewer men in the box due to Tennessee's offensive splits. The secondary had to operate on islands with less help over the top. The defense as a whole played without emotional leader Nolan Smith and had others sustain injuries during the game as well.
That motto, and the team's buy-in to the defensive staff's plan, helped the Bulldogs down the top-ranked Volunteers 27-13 on Saturday afternoon.
"I feel like it was 11 working as one," linebacker Smael Mondon said. "Everybody was on the same page; we all stuck to the plan. The coaches gave us a good plan and we executed it."
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart described the game plan simply. The Bulldogs wanted to limit explosive plays and not let the Volunteers get any "layups" due to Georgia not being set on defense.
To simulate that in practice, the Bulldogs virtually doubled their reps. Twenty-four play periods turned into 35 or 40 rep periods.
"I feel like Coach Smart definitely knows every single scheme and what we’re going to be attacked with," cornerback Kelee Ringo said. "He puts us through harder situations than we’re actually going to see in the games. When it comes to the game, it’s definitely easier to be able to execute. It’s a great feeling."
The hype mostly surrounds Tennessee's passing game. But the Volunteers entered Saturday afternoon averaging 200 yards per game on the ground. They're able to generate that success in part thanks to splitting their receivers out very wide, opening up space in the box.
Defensive linemen such as Nazir Stackhouse had to embrace the "more with less" motto with fewer of their comrades in the box.
"It was probably going to be like five to six of us in the box. Just doing that, we just had to expect the worst to happen. The only thing we do pride ourselves on, defensive-line wise, is defeating the run," Stackhouse said. "If we have only four guys in the box or maybe five guys in the box against their six or seven, we were able to just dominate."
The Bulldogs did indeed dominate, holding the Volunteers to just 94 yards rushing.
The secondary, meanwhile, had to eliminate Tennessee's big plays. Smart said the way the Volunteers play necessitates playing plenty of one-on-one coverage.
The defensive backs did their part. Tennessee mustered just one pass of more than 20 yards. But even more than that, Georgia's much-maligned pass rush finally had a game-wrecking performance.
The Bulldogs entered Saturday with 10 sacks on the year, last in the SEC and tied for 120th in the country. But against Tennessee, Georgia registered six takedowns of quarterback Hendon Hooker and pressured him a handful of other times.
"The rush works with the back end and vice versa," Ringo said. "When the front’s doing really good, the back end’s going to be successful, because we have to cover much less. Also, we saw a few coverage sacks as well, when the quarterback was looking to us, and we’re draped all over them and the quarterback’s trying to look for somewhere else, and the linebackers and D-line were able to get sacks as well. I feel like we work hand in hand."
Smart partially credited the crowd noise for the pass rush. He had someone remind him of last year's game between Auburn and Alabama, when the Crimson Tide allowed seven sacks on the road.
But he also praised the gameplan of Glenn Schumann. Georgia's co-defensive coordinator devised a couple plays, including one that sent defensive back Javon Bullard screaming off the edge, that gave the Volunteers fits. Bullard recorded two sacks in the game.
"He came up with a couple of plays that he thought would disrupt them, and he kept running the same thing," Smart said. "Like, 'We can't run it again.' He ran it again. I said, 'We can't run it again.' He ran it again. I was like, jeez. But Bullard kept coming off the edge and was really impactful as a rusher, and the guys in the back end held up."
The postgame stats are as eye-popping as the numbers Tennessee had posted entering the game. Georgia gave up 289 yards of offense, just over half of Tennessee's yearly average. Hooker managed 195 yards passing, his lowest output of the season. The Volunteers also turned the ball over twice, matching a season-high.
After the game, Smart repeatedly talked about the plan. From the tempo in practice to the scheme to the blitz packages, the Georgia staff worked tirelessly to gameplan for college football's best offense.
The plan resulted in a defensive performance for the ages and a win over the No. 1 team in the country.
"We're going to line up fast, we're going to strike blockers, we're going to play people, we're going to keep the ball in front of us, we're not going to let them be explosive, we're going to affect the quarterback," Smart said. "We're going to buy into it, and if everybody does it—we were talking about the plan every time they came off the field. They executed the plan.”
