Moment not too big for Georgia OL Monroe Freeling
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Injuries mean next man up, and for Georgia on Saturday it was a pair of freshmen called upon into larger roles. Monroe Freeling and Lawson Luckie were forced into action after Xavier Truss and Brock Bowers each went down with injury, and according to their coach, neither shied away from the challenge.
“I was proud of them. There’s no message. They go into the game ready to play. I didn’t say a word to them. They understand,” Smart said. “Monroe went in, did a really good job. Lawson Luckie, those guys practice every day. They take all of the same reps. I thought our guys did a great job.”
Smart elaborated on their outings. In the case of Luckie, his action didn’t result in any stats. He slotted into the second tight end role as Oscar Delp moved up a notch in the pecking order. Delp caught two passes for 32 yards, both after Bowers exited, while Luckie acted as an extra blocker in 12-personnel.
As for Freeling, the offensive tackle also didn’t record any stats but played almost five times the number of snaps in his first game-reps with the first-team. It wasn’t the first time he’s repped with the ones though.
“We do a million walk-throughs and practices, and I’ve been telling Stacy and those guys, ‘You’ve got to put Monroe in there. You can’t just put him in the game. Put him in there with the ones and let him practice, let him see what it’s like to go against our guys,'” Smart shared. “That moment came, and it wasn’t too big for him. I thought he did a good job.”
The thing with injuries is they’re never expected. The next one is just as surprising as the last one, and it means that every individual must be ready if their number is called.
That’s part of the goal of Georgia’s upcoming bye week, Smart said. First of all, the Bulldogs need to get healthy. They’re a banged up football team. They must also get others ready for if folks are unable to play.
“I want to get all the twos, threes, all the guys that haven’t played as many snaps ready to go. I don’t know when it’s going to be, but it’s going to be a Monroe Freeling or a Lawson Luckie moment where a kid’s got to go in and play. It’s coming, we just don’t know who,” Smart said. “I tell the guys all the time, there’s 22, 44 players, twos and threes, that we’ve got to get every single rep we can for them so they’re prepared for this stretch run of five games which, guys, is going to be physical and tough. We may or may not be playing with a full deck. We’ve got to go get better.”
