There is a lot of hype about Georgia’s defense this year and rightfully so.

The Bulldogs ranked No. 1 in the nation last season in both scoring defense and run defense, finished No. 3 in total defense and No. 8 in pass defense efficiency.

With many of those players back, pundits are assuming that Georgia will simply pick up where it left off. Sophomore linebacker Nakobe Dean said Tuesday this year’s defense should be judged on its own accord.

“We haven't done anything,” Dean said in a Zoom interview with reporters on YTuesday. “The 2020 defense hasn’t done anything. We haven't even stepped on the field yet in pads so that's all that we really need to say.”

Although head coach Kirby Smart wasn’t present for Tuesday’s media sessions, Dean’s words were no doubt music to his ears.

“There’s a disease that creeps in at Georgia where kids believe they are better than they are and they read their own press clippings,” Smart said in a previous interview. “They’ll only be as good as they can be if they stay as hungry as they are. When you’re not hungry, you become average. And some of that, I think, has affected us in the past.”

Dean said Georgia’s defense is hungry.

“The goals from this year to last year aren’t too different,” he said. “You’ve just got to do it. You’ve got to execute better, get more havoc plays. You’ve got to take the ball from more people and things like that.”

Redshirt sophomore Azeez Ojulari, who led the Bulldogs with a team-high 34 quarterback pressures, agreed.

“We’re still working to be that great defense,” Ojulari said. “Definitely, because in all those games, we didn’t reach our goal, so there are definitely some things we can improve on.”

Dean said Georgia’s inside linebacking corps is ready to do its part.

With Tae Crowder's graduation, he is the only missing inside linebacker from last year's group. Dean said this year’s corps of Monty Rice, Rian Davis, Quay Walker, Trezmen Marshall, Channing Tindall and Nate McBride are ready to show just how good they can be.

"The inside linebacker group, we're pushing to try to be the leaders of the whole team, not just the defense. We're pushing everybody with how we stay together, and I feel like more now than ever, we can say anything to each other,” Dean said. “Me, Trezmen (Marshall) and Rian (Davis) were the young guys last year. When we see somebody doing something, we might not call them out because we were young and we did not want to get in the mix. Now we call anybody out if we see them slacking and they can do the same for us. I feel like that relationship right there just helps us."

The Mississippi native said he is excited for the season to get started.

Although he did not watch Monday night’s schedule announcement, Dean said the Bulldogs' main focus needs to be on themselves before getting caught up in the 10 conference opponents.

“No matter what the order of games was I’m pretty sure we’re going to compete the same every week,” Dean said. “As a team, we’re going to practice hard. That’s what we do.”

The sophomore feels some quality work done over the shutdown.

“Oh, it was definitely of value. It was a lot of ways that guys could have used their time, that little extra time we had this summer,” he said. “I actually took one a class. I was doing chemistry work most of my own time. I could not do chemistry work when in meetings or walk-throughs or workouts, but it helped me a lot that extra time. I was able to put in a lot of work."

Dean also took time Tuesday to challenge his fellow students.

With classes set to begin Thursday, members of the football team will be mingling with their fellow students for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There are concerns, just like all the students who came back to campus,” he said. “There are concerns but I want to challenge my student body and everybody here to wear their face masks when we’re going to class and things like that.”

His fingers are certainly crossed.

“I feel like our team, our coaches, everybody, the medical staff have (stressed) wearing masks and everything, staying six feet away and everything like that,” Dean said. “I feel like it will become more of a challenge when class starts, and everyone comes here. I feel like if we just fall back on what we’ve been doing, we’ll be all good.”