Georgia Football Keeping Its Defensive Staff Intact Is Huge for 2020

For Georgia to keep all of its defensive staff intact after a historic season is nothing less than incredible. It will be huge for their chances to be better in 2020.

Those who watched every down of the Georgia Bulldogs' 2019 season need no reminder that the Dawgs' defense downright dominated opposing offenses that didn't feature Joe Burrow. 

For the vast majority of the season, the Silver Britches' defense stole the show from an offense capable of more than it accomplished.

Dan Lanning's defense finished the year having allowed only two rushing touchdowns, three fewer than the next closest team (Oregon), and ranked among the top fifteen in the following statistical categories:

• 3rd in total defense
• 1st in rushing defense, allowing just 2.62 yards per carry and 74.6 yards per game
• 14th in third-down conversion percentage
• 12th in defensive touchdowns
• 1st in fourth-down conversion percentage
• 1st in scoring defense, allowing 12.6 points per game
• 2nd in total touchdowns allowed, 20 against San Diego State's 19
• 13th in red zone defense

Now consider that the Junkyard Dawgs lost just three defensive starters in defensive lineman Tyler Clark, linebacker Tae Crowder, and safety J.R. Reed. 

Now consider that the Dawgs' D returns each and every coach from last year. Whether the individual Georgia fan places more importance on Jimmies and Joes or X's and Os, all indications are that, at the very worst, there won't be too much dropoff from 2019's statistically impressive group of defenders.

Kirby Smart and the University of Georgia's efforts to maintain the high performing defensive staff does come with a price tag, and it's a big one. 

Dan Lanning's first season as a collegiate defensive coordinator yielded results astounding enough to earn contract offers from other Power 5 schools. The Bulldogs had to cough up big money to keep him around, and Lanning saw a pay increase of $500,000; his initial contract awarded $750,000 and his late March extension took him up to $1.25 million. 

Co-defensive coordinator/ILB coach Glenn Schumann earned a $50,000 raise from 2019 and now makes $600,000 per year. He's nearly doubled his salary since making $325,000 two years ago.

DL coach Tray Scott was also awarded a $600,000 salary for the upcoming season. He came to UGA in 2017 having signed a $400,000 contract before receiving a $70,000 pay raise in 2018. 

The athletic department's deep pockets are invested in keeping this group together and it shows. 

It's already difficult to preserve any college coaching staff on either side of the ball, but especially difficult following a season like the one Georgia had a year ago. A defensive coordinator could take a head coaching offer, a defensive line coach could get a defensive coordinator gig, somebody could make a lateral move for a considerable raise, et cetera. These things happen.

Considering the youth of the coaching staff and the attention they've received from other institutions, the University of Georgia Athletic Department accomplished nothing short of incredible in retaining every coach behind the remarkable 2019 Bulldogs defense. 

The majority of the staff has worked together since the team's 2017 College Football Playoff run. Lanning, at the time, was a first-year outside linebackers coach. Schumann was coaching inside linebackers but hadn't yet been given the title of co-defensive coordinator. It was Scott's first year in Athens after a few years at North Carolina and a few weeks at Ole Miss before Kirby Smart poached him.

The only change since then: In 2018, Mel Tucker leaves for a head coaching job at Colorado (and, since then, another at Michigan State). 

Tucker's primary role of defensive coordinator is then filled by up-and-comer Dan Lanning. His secondary (pun very much intended) role of coaching defensive backs is then filled by Charlton Warren, who worked with Tray Scott in Chapel Hill in 2015 and 2016. Even in the sudden absence of Tucker, rapport and cohesion have been established among current defensive staffers. 

Any 2020 Bulldog defender who isn't a transfer or redshirt senior has spent their entire college career instructed by the three mainstay coaches. That doesn't even include a defensive-minded head coach in former Georgia defensive back Kirby Smart.

The returning defensive experience in both coaching staff and player personnel puts everyone on the same page. The previous edition of Georgia's defense was great, but 2020's has the potential to be greater.

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