Jordan Davis gets results, not stats

If you were to look at Jordan Davis’ individual statistics so far this season, you would think he’s barely touched the field. He has registered just five tackles, including only two solo stops. Those numbers certainly don’t sound impressive, until you realize what’s really happening.

Davis, being 6-6 and 330 pounds, fills up a lot of space on the defensive line, and he uses it to his advantage. He accepts the brunt of the force from opposing offensive lines to free up easier routes to the quarterback for his teammates. When asked about what his lack of individual tackles means, Davis said it’s actually a good sign.

“I love it,” said Davis. “We always have a saying. ‘If it’s two on me, somebody’s free,’ so I take real pride in that. I can lead a game with zero tackles and I still feel like I had an accomplished game because somebody else is eating off me. If a play comes to me I’m going to definitely try to make it. But the play doesn’t care who makes it.”

Against Notre Dame, Davis didn’t record a single tackle, solo or otherwise. Davis claims that he was faced with double and triple teams throughout the game.

“I remember at one point in the game, I had three people on me, Davis said. “We got a pretty good stop on that one too. I take pride in that. It’s a real big feeling of accomplishment if I have two people on me.”

Following the victory over Notre Dame, Georgia enters what tight end Charlie Woerner referred to as “work week.” Head coach Kirby Smart said these next two weeks are crucial to the development of each player.

"We give every player on the team three or four notes on what they've got to get better at,” said Smart. “Every coach is assigned players to say here are your three target areas you've got to improve on. It might be special teams for one guy, it might be depth of route, blocking. It's very specific because we want them to have a purpose. If you're not careful they might be, like, 'What am I doing out here? It's like treading water.' No, we don't want them doing that. We want them getting better, we want them to have target areas to get better.”

For Davis, he’s looking to improve his pass rush. It's worth noting he wasn’t assigned pass rush as his target area. Davis requested it. He told the coaches “I just want to work on my pass rushing.”

When asked why he requested an area instead of receiving one from the coaches, Davis said it was just an aspect of being a leader.

“We talk about level five leadership. We try to be thumb pointers and not finger pointers,” said Davis. “We don’t want other people telling us what we need to do. We want to do it ourselves.”

Davis and the rest of the Georgia team will work on their improvements these next two weeks as well as prepare for Tennessee. The sophomore defensive tackle is hoping for another physical contest two Saturdays from now.

“If I felt like I was beat up at the end of the game, it’s a good game for me.”