How Did Georgia's Secondary Fare Against Clemson?
The secondary was a big focal point of the offseason for Georgia after the Dawgs lost seven defensive backs from a season ago. That was the largest amount of losses suffered at one position for Georgia in recent memory; not only was the quantity large, but the quality of those losses hurt even more.
Georgia lost a first and second-round corner in Eric Stokes and Tyson Campbell and a fifth-round safety Richard LeCounte, as experienced of a safety as they come in college football. Not to mention the loss of Tyrique Stevenson to the transfer portal, Stevenson was an up-and-coming player at the STAR position, an integral piece of the defense.
A void was left in Georgia's roster waiting to be filled. That void would be filled through the transfers of West Virginia's Tykee Smith and Clemson's Derion Kendrick. The latter of which made his debut in the red and black against his former school.
Without access to the All-22 tape that literally allows you to see all 22 players on the field, it is hard to judge the secondary throughout a game based on the TV copy. Most of the secondary go out of the frame after a few seconds following the snapping of the ball.
Though Brooks Austin was able to notice something during his film study on the defense... Georgia's coaching staff clearly believes in what they have. They played as much, if not more, man to man against Clemson than they even did a year ago.
Judging that we did not hear Kendrick's name called or didn't see much of him throughout the game as his receiver rarely got the ball, it ultimately solidified any doubts that he would be Georgia's number one.
The guys behind Kendrick left us wondering what exactly Georgia had in the more inexperienced defensive backs? For one, we got to see a lot of those guys, as Georgia rotated in and out between Ameer Speed and Kelee Ringo, while Latavious Brini played the majority of the snaps at STAR.
The casual football fan would assume that one of the top two corners listed on the depth chart would assume the toughest assignment from the opposing team; well, that assumption was not the case on Saturday as it was Latavious Brini who took the mantle of covering Justyn Ross.
Ross was coming off a spinal injury that caused him to miss the 2020 season, meaning Georgia would be his first game back since 2019. That situation could have its upsides and its obvious downsides, but Ross was still a tough cover. And Brini more than held his own all night long.
With the newly acquired Tykee Smith going down in fall camp with a fracture in his foot, Brini's competition for snaps at STAR left Brini in a similar situation to where he was in January for Peach Bowl.
And much like the Peach Bowl, Brini stepped and put in a good showing for the Dawgs at STAR. However, Brini's biggest plays would come on two pass breakups that could've changed the game's complexion, one of those plays being a pass breakup in the endzone.
In a matchup of two great defenses and two offenses with the potential for explosion, it was the Georgia defense that would score the game's only touchdown. Safety Christopher Smith would pick off DJ Uiagalelei right outside of the redzone and return it for a touchdown.
On 3rd down and 4 with about three minutes left in the first half, Clemson was knocking on the door of the redzone after Clemson recovered its own punt after it strikes Kendall Milton's leg, the Dawgs dropped into a mixed coverage blitz, sending Nakobe Dean and Latavious Brini after the quarterback, and leaving Nolan Smith covering the flats, with Kelee Ringo in man with Lewis Cine as the single high safety over the top helping out Ringo, with Derion Kendrick in a deep-third zone, while Quay Walker dropped to a hook zone to pick up the remaining man.
Chris Smith disguised his coverage as if he was guarding the flat when he saw Clemson's Ross coming across the middle on a slant, leaving Smith the room to jump the route and take it for six.
Smith's touchdown would be the play that ultimately gave Georgia the edge in a defensive battle.
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