Spring practice and G-Day may be over, but Georgia football—or the coverage of it—does not take a holiday.
We will attempt to break down and analyze all the things we learned over the past few weeks about the program.
We hope you enjoy:
What we learned: Javon Bullard is ready to take on the role of safety
It came as absolutely no surprise when we started hearing that Bullard was seeing more reps at safety than at star, his primary position last season.
There were reasons that happened.
No. 1: With the graduation of Christopher Smith, not only did the Bulldogs need to find a new starter, but Georgia’s depth at the position also needed a boost.
Bullard’s presence does that and more.
Along with sophomore Malaki Starks, Bullard, David Daniel-Sisavanh and the rehabbing Dan Jackson (foot), this should give the Bulldogs a solid core, while some of the defense’s younger safeties get their college legs underneath them.
Why the change?
We touched on this a little bit above, but another reason the Bulldogs were willing to allow Bullard to start seeing more time at safety was the presence and health of Tykee Smith.
Smith can play safety and has, but star is believed to be his better position, and now that he’s over the myriad of injuries that plagued him his first two seasons, Smith is showing exactly what he can do.
It’s also allowed players including Marcus Washington, Smoke Bouie, JaCorey Thomas, and Joenel Aguero to receive additional reps at the position.
Quoting Kirby Smart
“We’ve got a three-way deal going at safety with David Daniel, Malaki, and Javon. Those guys rotate and play there. Hope to get Dan Jackson back there. He's played and started there at that position. Tykee has worked there as well. Tykee and Bullard can both play star. We felt like we needed to invest reps in Bullard to create some safety depth where we’re short. Every rep that Bullard wasn’t taking star was allowing him to develop as a safety. And we need more stars.
"Plus, we wanted to get Joenel as much nickel/star work and Marcus as much nickel/star work as possible, and if we'd left Bullard there, it would have eaten up some of those reps. You’re just trying to develop depth on your roster. That’s really what we’re trying to do with those guys, to try to create some safeties and stars.” – Kirby Smart
