Defensive line was one of a handful of key questions Kirby Smart had about his team going into the current football campaign.

So, two games in, what does he think?

Georgia’s head coach was asked that very question during Wednesday’s SEC Teleconference.

“We’re playing with a lot of effort and we’re playing with a lot of guys by committee. We were a little more disruptive this last game which is easier to do against that kind of team because they’re an Air Raid type deal, throwing the ball a lot; that makes it easier because you’re able to get a little more activity,” Smart said. “But the verdict is still out on our entire team. We really don’t find out who we are until we get in some adverse situations, and we know this weekend and the weekends that are coming the competition level is going to continue to go up. We’ve got to play well.”

So far, so good.

Although the Bulldogs don’t have what Smart qualifies as a dominant player, he’s been pleased with the work he’s received from its core – a group that includes Devonte Wyatt, Jordan Davis, Tyler Clark, David Marshall, Travon Walker and Michael Barnett who have received the majority of the defensive line reps.

Against Vanderbilt, Wyatt had three tackles and forced a fumble that eventually led to a field goal while Davis had a pair of stops, and got a hand on a field goal that ultimately went through the uprights against the Commodores.

Justin Young, Malik Herring, Netori Johnson are also part of the group, with senior Julian Rochester available after off-season ACL surgery, although he’s yet to get in a game.

While he would love to have that big-time defensive lineman, Smart feels there’s enough talent at hand to be successful.

“It’s nice to have dominant players, especially up front, because they’re hard to block and they make mistakes happen for the offense,” Smart said. “But there’s a lot of people who have done it historically by committee. I would love to have four dominant guys but that’s not necessarily going to happen. I don’t think there’s a style of defense that needs committee versus dominant, you take what you get and you really try to analyze what you do well with your defensive line as a unit whether it’s movement, striking blockers, getting off blocks and you try to situationally play guys that can help you win the game.”

Smart said he’s pleased with the progress Zamir White has shown.

“He’s done a good job. He looks more and more confident,” Smart said. “I think the initial getting the ball, reading his keys, the burst is starting to come back. The acceleration through contact we saw a little bit last week and he continues to grow with that and that allows him to improve and get better.”

That could prove to be bad news for Bulldog opponents.

In two games, White has 13 carries for 123 yards, an average of 9.5 per rush. He also scored the first on what should be the first of many career touchdowns last week against Murray State.

Although the sample size is small, Georgia’s running backs are actually ahead of last year’s pace after rushing for 284 and 271 yards, respectively, against Austin Peay and South Carolina, for a total of 555.

The first two games against Vanderbilt and Murray State has seen Georgia run for 323 and 269 for a total of 592.

D’Andre Swift leads Georgia with 22 carries for 214 yards, with his 9.7 per-carry average just ahead of what White has been able to produce.

Add in Brian Herrien (17-96), Kenny McIntosh (9-61) and James Cook (5-52), Georgia’s running back room has plenty of talent go around, having already proven they can hurt teams running between the tackles as well as the perimeter.

“They’ve done a good job. I think our front has been able to create space, get some perimeter and inside runs where we’re not limited to inside runs only,” Smart said. “I think anytime you’re making people aware that you can attack the perimeter in the run game as well as inside it just makes it harder to defend, but the test will increase this weekend because they have an extremely athletic front and they cause a lot of problems with their disruption inside.”

Although the talent level might not have been comparable, Smart was pleased with the overall improvement he saw from his team coming off the victory at Vanderbilt two weeks ago.

“I thought we executed a little bit better than we did against Vandy. We played a little bit cleaner; we didn’t have quite as many penalties, we tackled a little better,” Smart said. “You can probably argue that we may not have been playing the same skill level as Vandy but we’ve got a lot of other areas that we can still improve on and that’s what is important for me this week – to see the improvement from Week 2 to Week 3.”

Will he? Smart has his fingers crossed.

The Bulldogs have been very careful not to talk about or even mention next week’s highly anticipated game against Notre Dame, keeping their collective focus solely on Arkansas State.

It’s also given Smart an opportunity to test the players he hopes will be the leaders of his team.

If the Bulldogs are to reach the goals that they’ve set for themselves, it’s going to take the team’s leaders accepting the responsibility of making sure everyone is doing what they’re the one setting the tone, not just for Saturday’s game but the ones to follow

“We had a really good camp, I thought it went well. The last two weeks we had good practices. This week it’s been really hot, and we’ve had a couple of good practices and a couple of poor ones,” Smart said. “The guys need to go out and focus on doing better today and our leaders are going to have to be our best practice players. They’ve got to set the tone and you do that by how you practice.”

Smart on Nakobe Dean:

“He’s coming along well. He got his first real taste last weekend, got to in the game and play and be involved in a lot of formations, a lot of different third down situations. He’s improving his heath meaning he’s able to practice and sustain longer so he can take more reps in practice where the last two weeks we couldn’t give him a lot of reps in practice because of his injury and this week he’s been able to play on first and second down a little more and play with a little more pace.”