Spring Outlook

(L-R) ILB Quay Walker, DB Lewis Cine and DL Devonte Wyatt return as three of Georgia’s most productive playmakers on defense in 2021.

offensive linemen

Even with three starters returning, the Bulldogs may be reshuffling this spring on the offensive line. Jamaree Salyer and Warren McClendon were bookends at tackle and Justin Shaffer manned one of the guard slots last season. Salyer did move inside to guard for the bowl game, with Xavier Truss getting the nod at tackle. Warren Ericson gave the Bulldogs key plays at both center and guard, starting twice. Owen Condon and Sedrick Van Pran each appeared in four games, including a start at tackle for Condon in the season opener. After a year in the system and a taste of game action, Broderick Jones, Clay Webb, and Tate Ratledge will look to take the next step. Highly regarded early enrollee Amarius Mims and will use the spring to make an impression on Georgia’s coaches. Another early enrollee, Micah Morris, underwent shoulder surgery in January 2021 and will miss spring workouts. The Bulldogs also return valuable depth in Chad Lindberg, Austin Blaske, Cameron Kinnie, Blake Watson, David Vann, Dalton Perry, Chris Brown, Miles Johnson, Devin Willock, and Weston Wallace. defensive linemen

The Bulldogs are as deep and experienced as perhaps they have ever been along the defensive line. Ten-game starter Devonte Wyatt led all interior linemen with 25 tackles, including two for loss, last season and will return for a sixth year of eligibility. Jordan Davis notched 16 tackles in seven games and freed teammates by taking on multiple blockers. He punctuated his junior season by blocking a Cincinnati field goal in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. As a freshman, Jalen Carter emerged with 14 tackles in 2020, three for loss, and even caught a touchdown pass on offense. Like Davis, he also added a blocked placement kick (PAT vs. South Carolina) to his resume. Travon Walker had 13 stops and a caused fumble in 2020, followed by Zion Logue with eight tackles, Julian Rochester (who is returning for a sixth year) with six, Nazir Stackhouse and Warren Brinson with three each, and Tramel Walthour, Tymon Mitchell, and Bill Norton with one apiece. The Bulldogs return Cade Brock after a redshirt season, while Marlin Dean, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, and Jonathan Jefferson will check in as early enrollees. ing group of outside linebackers. Nolan Smith had 22 tackles, including 2.5 sacks, and 20 pressures last season. Adam Anderson pitched in 6.5 sacks among his 14 tackles and he added 24 pressures, two caused fumbles, and a fumble recovery. The Bulldogs also return Robert Beal Jr., MJ Sherman (will miss spring after off-season shoulder surgery), and Matthew Brown. Chaz Chambliss, Smael Mondon, and Xavian Sorey are early enrollees who hope to make an immediate impact for Georgia. inside linebackers

Nakobe Dean, the Bulldogs’ top returning tackler with 71 stops, underwent off-season shoulder surgery. He will miss spring practice but is expected to return to anchor the inside linebackers position. Off-season shoulder surgery Quay Walker contributed 43 tackles last year, while Georgia got 15 from Channing Tindall. The Bulldogs also return Rian Davis and Trezmen Marshall, and they are welcoming transfer John Staton IV, who had more than 100 tackles as an All-Southern Conference player last year for Samford. defensive backs

Graduation and early departures in the backfield have claimed a number of key players from 2020. Still, the sheer numbers alone make it a position of great potential. Lewis Cine started all 10 games last year and ranked second among all Bulldogs with 52 tackles. Christopher Smith emerged as a late-season starter and racked up 26 tackles. Pressed into a starting role for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl game, veteran Latavious Brini responded with five tackles (two for loss) and a pass breakup. Additional candidates include veterans Ameer Speed and William Poole, as well as Major Burns, Jalen Kimber and Daran Branch. The latter trio will be going through their first spring practice. Kelee Ringo, highly regarded as a prospect a year ago, is coming off an injury and a redshirt season, and Javon Bullard, David Daniel, and Nyland Green are early enrollees who will get a look. Georgia also returns Jehlen Cannady, Patrick Taylor, and Dan Jackson. specialists

The 2020 rotation returns intact with punter Jake Camarda, kicker Jack Podlesny, and snappers Payne Walker and William Mote. Camarda — 2020 SEC Special Teams Player of the Year — averaged 46.6 yards per punt a year ago, including nearly half of his efforts covering 50 or more yards. The Norcross native also handled kickoff duties for the final seven games of 2020, with touchbacks becoming routine. At punter he will be backed up by Noah Chumley and Noah Jones. Podlesny earned Offensive MVP honors at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl after he drilled a go-ahead 53-yard field goal with just three seconds left. For the year, he was 13-of-16 on field goals and 38-for-38 on extra points for a team-high 77 points. Jared Zirkel returns at kicker after redshirting in 2020. Kearis Jackson, Kenny McIntosh, and Zamir White were Georgia’s top return men a season ago.

outside linebackers

Pressure on quarterbacks will come off the edge from a veteran and emerg-

Junior ILB Nakobe Dean led all Bulldog tacklers with 71 total stops in 2020 and will be looked upon for leadership of a Georgia defense that returns four members of the starting lineup.

Sept. 4 vs. !Clemson

Sept. 11 UAB TBA

Sept. 18 *South Carolina TBA

Sept. 25 @ *Vanderbilt

Oct. 2 *Arkansas

TBA

TBA

Oct. 9 @ *Auburn

TBA

Oct. 16 *Kentucky TBA

Oct. 30 vs. ^*Florida (CBS) TBA

Nov. 6 *Missouri TBA

Nov. 13 @ *Tennessee TBA

Nov. 20 Charleston Southern TBA

Nov. 27 @ Georgia Tech TBA *SEC games; ^TIAA Bank Field (Jacksonville, Fla.); !Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, N.C.)

2021 Key Dates

March 16 - Spring practice begins March 17 - NFL Pro Day April 17 - Spring G-Day Game April 29-May 1 - NFL Draft

A Glance At The 2021 Schedule

Following a year that saw their 2020 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game canceled due to the ongoing pandemic, the Bulldogs are set to line up in another non-conference opener at a neutral site (Charlotte, N.C.) in 2021. Georgia will face Clemson for the first time since topping the Tigers 45-21 in Athens in 2014. The Bulldogs own a 42-18-4 edge in the all-time series with Clemson and have won six of eight neutral site matchups. Georgia has a total of four non-conference showdowns scheduled - two to start the season and two to wrap the regular season up. After the opener versus Clemson, the Bulldogs will play host to UAB for only the third time in history. Georgia won the previous games (2003, 16-13; 2006, 34-0). Led by former Bulldog offensive line coach Sam Pittman, Arkansas will make its first trip to Sanford Stadium since 2010. Georgia leads the all-time record 11-4 with the Razorbacks. The Bulldogs knocked them off in Fayetteville, Ark., 37-10 in the 2020 opener. The Bulldogs’ slate features a single open weekend (Oct. 24) and it is again traditionally placed prior to the game versus Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. While the No. 8 Gators outlasted Georgia 44-28 in 2020, the Bulldogs beat their SEC Eastern Division rivals from 2017-19. A week after the Bulldogs close out their SEC schedule at Tennessee, they host Charleston Southern for their final home game on Nov. 20. The teams have only squared off against each other once and that resulted in a 55-9 Georgia victory in 2014 in Athens. The Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry was played every year from 1925 until 2019 and the series is slated to begin again in 2021. The Bulldogs have won the last three in a row, including a 52-7 victory in Athens during the teams’ last matchup in 2019.

2020 Georgia Results

Sept. 26 @ *Arkansas W, 37-10

Oct. 3 #7 *Auburn W, 27-6 Oct. 10 #12 *Tennessee W, 44-21

Oct. 17 @ #2 *Alabama L, 42-24 Oct. 31 @ *Kentucky W, 14-3 Nov. 7 vs. #8 !*Florida L, 44-28

Nov. 21 *Mississippi State W, 31-24

Nov. 28 @ *South Carolina W, 45-16 Dec. 12 @ #25 *Missouri W, 49-14

Dec. 19 *Vanderbilt CANCELED

Jan. 1 vs. #8 ^Cincinnati W, 24-21 *SEC games; !TIAA Bank Field (Jacksonville, Fla.); ^Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (Atlanta, Ga.)

Another Year In The Red And Black

Bulldog offensive and defensive starters who opted to return to Georgia for another season included junior RB Zamir White and seniors RB James Cook, OT/OG Jamaree Salyer, OG Justin Shaffer, DL Devonte Wyatt, DL Julian Rochester, N Jordan Davis and WR Demetris Robertson. White redshirted the 2018 season after tearing his ACL for the second time. He started all 10 games in 2020 and finished with 779 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Four Bulldogs took advantage of this year’s NCAA rule that 2020 seniors could return for the 2021 because of the ongoing pandemic. Shaffer has seen action in every season since 2017 for Georgia. Wyatt started his career at Hutchinson (Kan.) CC in 2017 and has been on the Bulldogs roster going into his fourth year. Rochester has started 21 games for Georgia since the 2016 season, including a pair in 2020 before going down with an ACL injury in the win at Kentucky. Robertson began his career at the University of California in 2016. Following a 2017 season that saw him play in only the Golden Bears’ first two games because of an injury, he transferred to Georgia and has started five games over the last three seasons.

Dawgs For Pups Bringing Change To Athens Area & Beyond

The Bulldog football team initiated the Dawgs For Pups program over the last year to embrace the act of serving the Athens community and beyond and the early results have been overwhelming. Georgia’s players and staff helped raise more than $100,000 for wireless cards that area kindergarten through eighth grade students could use for virtual learning; collected nearly 30,000 pounds of food for local food banks; made a donation of more than 400 coats to those who were in need during the winter season; and adopted 100 families to buy Christmas presents for in December.

Georgia Signs One Of Country’s Top Classes Yet Again

For the fourth year in a row, the Bulldogs signed one of the nation’s top classes. Georgia added 20 prospects during the December and February signing periods, including 16 early enrollees.

The sixteen early enrollees are the most that Georgia has added in school history. This group started school in January and are working out with the team while they take their first classes at Georgia. TE Brock Bowers (Napa, Calif.), DB Javon Bullard (Milledgeville, Ga.), RB Lovasea Carroll (Warrenton, Ga.), LB Chaz Chambliss (Carrollton, Ga.), DB David Daniel (Woodstock, Ga.), DL Marlin Dean (Bowman, Ga.), LB Jamon Dumas-Johnson (Hyattsville, Md.), OL Dylan Fairchild (Cumming, Ga.), DB Nyland Green (Covington, Ga.), DL Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (Gaffney, S.C.), DL Jonathan Jefferson (Douglasville, Ga.), DB Kamari Lassiter (Savannah, Ga.), WR Jackson Meeks (Phenix City, Ala.), OL Amarius Mims (Cochran, Ga.), WR Adonai Mitchell (Missouri City, Texas), LB Smael Mondon Jr. (Dallas, Ga.), OL Micah Morris (Kingsland, Ga.), LB Xavian Sorey Jr. (Campbellton, Fla.), QB Brock Vandagriff (Bogart, Ga.), OL Jared Wilson (Winston-Salem, N.C.)

Offensive Potential In 2021

The 2021 season will be the second under Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken. In 2020, the Bulldogs went 8-2 employed three different signal callers. Georgia averaged 32.3 points/game, which ranked fifth in the SEC. When JT Daniels became the starter in late November, Georgia went 4-0 the rest of the season with wins over Mississippi State, South Carolina, No. 25 Missouri and No. 8 Cincinnati in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The Bulldogs did not have the benefit of a spring practice last year to install a new offense because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of Georgia’s players, this will be their first spring practice so the Bulldogs are eager to work on their rhythm and continuity at all positions.

New Faces In Secondary

Jahmile Addae is the new Secondary coach for the Bulldogs after Charlton Warren left to become the Defensive Coordinator at Indiana. Addae inherits a room that features returning starters in safeties junior Lewis Cine and senior Christopher Smith. The Bulldogs had four players leave early for the NFL Draft in starting corners Tyson Campbell and Eric Stokes along with seniors Richard LeCounte and Mark Webb. Senior Latavious Brini drew his first starting assignment versus the high-powered No. 8 Cincinnati passing attack in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. He had a career high five tackles, including two tackles for loss, and a pass break-up. The Bulldogs have inked a plethora of highly-ranked players in the secondary during the last two signing periods who will battle for a spot on the field this spring and preseason.

A Look At The Line

There will be plenty of competition for playing time on the offensive line for second-year Offensive Line coach Matt Luke. Georgia had to debut a new front in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl game after a couple longtime starters in C Trey Hill and OG Ben Cleveland made the decision to prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft. Senior Jamaree Salyer continues to show his versatility by lining up at both tackle and guard along with junior Warren Ericson, who started games at both C and OG in 2020. Salyer (LG), along with fifth-year senior Justin Shaffer (RG), started the bowl game with first-time starter Xavier Truss (LT) and redshirt sophomore Warren McClendon (RT). McClendon was a 2020 Freshman All-American after starting the last nine games in 2021. Salyer and Shaffer have each started 12 career games while Ericson has started three games.