Following Georgia’s initial scrimmage of spring practice, it was no surprise when head coach Kirby Smart was asked about the Bulldogs’ youthful and inexperienced defensive secondary. What may have been somewhat of a surprise was the candidness of the often-guarded Smart, who generally reveals very little following scrimmages.
“For a lot of the [defensive backs], it (the scrimmage) was their first live action,” Smart said. “We’re a long way from being ready in terms of what we need to do in the secondary, because we just have a lot of inexperienced players.”
From last season, the Georgia secondary lost three starters—Tyson Campbell, Richard LeCounte, and Eric Stokes—and a reserve, Mark Webb, to the NFL. DJ Daniel also left for the NFL. Tyrique Stevenson, who started four games last year at the Star position, transferred to Miami (FL).
With the return of starter Lewis Cine, a junior, and senior Christopher Smith, who started the final five games of the 2020 season, Georgia’s safety positions seem to be in decent shape. However, depth is a concern for the Bulldogs at two other positions
At Star, it appears a couple of seniors will battle it out for first string—Latavious Brini and William Poole—but Brini played in only 99 combined defensive snaps the last three seasons, and Poole just 236 combined snaps the previous four seasons.
Still, it’s at the cornerback positions where the Bulldogs are especially lacking experience.
“I think we have six corners working [this spring],” Smart said when asked which cornerbacks were getting reps. “We don’t have any corners who have experience, so I look at it as all of them are getting reps.”
As of now, it would appear that a couple of redshirt freshmen— Kelee Ringo, who missed all of last season with a torn labrum, and Jalen Kimber, who played sparingly last season in three games—will start at cornerback. Backing them up are true freshman Nyland Green, the No. 127 overall prospect in the 2021 class, and Ameer Speed, a senior, yet one who has played in only 155 combined defensive snaps since the 2017 season. Redshirt freshman Daran Branch and true freshmen Kamari Lassiter and Javon Bullard are also in the mix. Besides his safety position, Cine too has reportedly been working at cornerback.
Speed and Kimber worked as the starting cornerbacks on Saturday.
Although Georgia might be entering a season the least experienced it has been at cornerback in more than 40 years, Smart said the group is “getting better.” He added that the cornerbacks have been constantly challenged this spring by being “attacked” in passing situations—something they might go an entire game without having to defend against—while having to execute “probably the hardest thing to do in all of college football,” according to Smart: apply one-on-one coverage on the perimeter.
Accordingly, there could very well be a silver lining to Georgia’s youthfulness and inexperience in its secondary, as the 2021 campaign looms.
“[The secondary consists of] a lot of young guys who haven’t played a lot of college football, but they’ve played a lot of football," Smart said. “And are good football players.”
