How Georgia plans to fix its run defense

Glenn Schumann did not mince words about the Georgia defense’s 2024 performance.

When asked Wednesday if his unit lived up to the standard set in Athens, Schumann responded, “No.”

“I think we weren’t consistent enough to meet the standard,” Schumann said. “That’s just the reality. You can’t have games against five playoff opponents, teams that made it to the 12-team playoff, and play really well there, and then have four other games where you give up 28 points or more. Point blank. Period.”

Many of those shortcomings and inconsistencies came in run defense, an area the Bulldogs have traditionally dominated in the Kirby Smart era.

Georgia gave up 129.64 yards per game (36th in the country) and 3.71 yards per carry (T-31). Compare that to the peak defensive years of 2019-2022, where the Bulldogs ranked in the top three in both stats every year.

Some of that is due to talent, sure. Those defenses were loaded with players who are currently executing at a high level in the NFL.

But Schumann makes no excuses. The running game has been an emphasis on both sides of the ball this offseason. With fall camp nearly a week old, Schumann is honed in on ideas to fix it.

Tackling has to improve, as Schumann said the Bulldogs did not meet their standard last year. So too does leveraging the ball carrier and not letting runs bounce outside.

Georgia is also looking to “change the math” regarding the run game.

“On an offensive playbook page, everybody’s blocked except for the middle field safety. Let’s not act like there’s unblocked guys,” Schumann said. “No matter what you do on defense, every once in a while, you might trip them. The way to change the math is to either take two blockers or beat your blocker. So that goes back to striking blockers, getting off block, technique, tech blocks, technique and fundamentals. The more guys we have that don’t trade, we call it trading one for one. Like, hey, if you block me and I stay in my gap, but I don’t do anything else to affect the play, I trade one for one. The offense won on that play.”

All these areas are focuses for the Bulldogs as the first scrimmage looms this Saturday and then the season opener three weeks beyond that. But Schumann also knows that, without consistency, none of it means a thing.

“We talk about being elite or not,” Schumann said. “To be elite, you have to be consistent. That’s what makes something elite. So we can’t have up and down performances. Everybody in that room knows that when they came to Georgia, they came to Georgia to play championship-level defense, coaches and players included, and so anything short of that isn’t the standard.”