Wednesday news and notes

The Georgia Bulldogs are 5-0 for the third straight season, but is there a difference between this year’s squad and the previous two?

Offensive guard Ben Cleveland believes so.

“I feel our biggest thing this year is just our depth and talent level that we have at all positions,” Cleveland said after practice Wednesday. “There’s not one guy that can’t roll in, who’s not just as good as the next. I think that’s where we really set ourselves apart this year, just playing who we need to play for the best outcome.”

Georgia has also won 15 straight games against East Division foes heading into Saturday’s contest against South Carolina (Noon, ESPN), a streak Cleveland said he wasn’t immediately aware of.

“It’s not noted visibly to us,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a couple of guys out there who realize it and make sense out of it, but it’s one of those things to me, we could sit out here and talk about it—but at the end of the day, we’ve just got to go out and play.”

However, Cleveland did concede that Georgia is a confident team.

“Absolutely there’s a confidence in the locker room. You’ve got to have confidence within our team to go out and have the success we’ve had these last few weeks,” he said. “It’s another one of those things where, honestly, we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves. We truly do stay focused on the task at hand.”

Right now, that focus is on South Carolina.

The Gamecocks are currently 2-3 (1-2 in the SEC), but feature a team that can give the Bulldogs some trouble if Georgia isn't prepared.

Much of Cleveland’s focus will be on Gamecock defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw (6-6, 310), one of the top players in the country at his particular postion.

“There’s no doubt he’s one of the best d-linemen in the country,” Cleveland said. “We’ve just got to go there like it’s any other day, any other game week, and just play our brand of ball.”

That’s not all.

“They’re without a doubt fast, and they love to get in there and create havoc, stuff like that, just like we do,” Cleveland said. “I feel like this is the type of defense we’ve been preparing for all year. Hopefully, we’ll go out there and have the advantage.”

During a press conference earlier this week, South Carolina coach Will Muschamp was asked about Jake Fromm’s proficiency throwing the back-shoulder pass.

Fromm’s ability to connect with that particular throw, especially to Lawrence Cager, is an area that’s of apparent concern.

So, what’s the key to making it work?

“I think it’s timing, it’s trust, it’s beating a guy off the line so he that has got to play catch-up,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “Because the harder the guy has to run to catch up and get with you, the better chance you’ve got of hitting the back shoulder. If you never threaten him vertically, he’s probably not going to be really afraid of a back-shoulder.”

Cager leads the Bulldogs with 15 catches for 197 yards and three touchdowns.

Smart’s reputation as a defensive coach obviously preceded him long before taking the head coaching job at the Bulldogs.

However, it was the one season he spent as running backs coach with the Bulldogs in 2005 that stands out the most.

“I think that was probably one of the most valuable years of my career because I looked at it through the eyes of an offensive staff—(Neil) Callaway, (Mike) Bobo, Coach (Mark) Richt—of how they analyze a defense, and how they see things.”

That’s not all Smart said he learned.

“I think coaching the running backs was more than just effort. It was psychology. It was management. You got four guys in the room who all want the ball,” he said. “Protection of the ball, and protection of the quarterback were ultimate goals, but it was a good experience for me to see how offenses think about things.”

“Don’t even talk about his singing. It’s the most God-awful, just ear piercing—because he never stops. He constantly sings wherever he’s at. It’s pretty bad—really bad, actually.” - Cleveland on the singing of Jake Fromm after a few bars of Rocky Top following Georgia’s win at Tennessee.

On Georgia defense not allowing a rushing touchdown this year:

“It’s always a point of pride. I think every defense in the country would tell you they don’t want to allow people to run the ball in. I don’t want them to throw it in either. It’s not like you can say, 'I’m going to give up a bunch of passing TDs and not rushing TDs.' We want to keep people out of our end zone all together. We’ve been able to do that at a decent rate. We’ve got a defense that has to continue to get better. We have to tackle better. We’ve got to force more turnovers. We’ve got to get more three-and-outs. We’re proud of the fact that we haven’t given up a rushing touchdown, but there have not been a lot of opportunities, unfortunately, because some of the times they’ve scored, they’ve scored from further out.”

On South Carolina’s recruiting compared to rivals Clemson and Georgia while building a program:

“It’s a challenge everywhere. It’s not just a challenge at South Carolina, or that it’s not a challenge for us. The Southeastern Conference and the area we have a 10-, 12-hour radius around the city of Atlanta, and you talk about the teams who are in that area, there’s a lot of good football players. I think the teams that do well are the ones that recruit to a culture, recruit to a format, and they have a certain criteria they look for in recruits, and they go find the best ones that fit their program. Then they develop them. That’s important. You’re not going to win every single recruiting battle; none of us are. You got to go recruit the right kind of kids and do a good job of evaluating them. I think they do that at South Carolina. They do a good job of getting the right guys in their program. To be able to sustain success is tough anywhere in these conferences, because there are so many good programs.”