Impact Analysis: Smoke Bouie brings versatility to Georgia secondary
Georgia didn’t add a player from the transfer portal after the 2021 season. It added its third player from the portal on Friday in Texas A&M defensive back Smoke Bouie. He joins wideouts Dominick Lovett (Missouri) and Rara Thomas (Mississippi State) on the UGA roster.
Bouie’s addition could prove huge for a Bulldog secondary that is losing some key components. We break down what it means for the Bulldogs below.
Bouie’s history with Georgia + the 2022 season
The Bainbridge, Ga. native was committed to Georgia for seven months — November of 2020 to June of 2021. Texas A&M was the primary competition when he decided to open things up and the Aggies ultimately got him to sign.
Georgia never gave up and clearly thought highly of the talented defender.
According to Pro Football Focus, Bouie played 182 snaps for the Aggies during a frustrating 2022 season. Most of those snaps, 102 to be exact, came at a wide cornerback position. He saw a few snaps at safety and in the slot as well, tallying four total tackles (three solo) and a pass breakup.
UGA’s situation in the secondary…
Georgia has recruited extremely well in the back half. The Bulldogs have tons of talent at cornerback to go along with some experience. Malaki Starks comes back at one of the safety spots and Javon Bullard will be back at either STAR or safety.
Tykee Smith is set to back up Bullard. The Bulldogs have Dan Jackson, David Daniel-Sisavahn, and JaCorey Thomas at safety. Jackson and DDS have a lot of experience at this point. There’s depth and there’s talent and there’s a group of newcomers who just add to all of it.
Where Bouie fits + a prediction
The versatility is really intriguing. If you are a believer PFF’s grades, you’d see a guy who struggled in coverage last season — while playing outside cornerback, mind you — but he tackled extremely well. His tackle grade on the season is just under 80 and that’s pretty strong for a true freshman. Again, if you put stock into those grades.
Bouie has the compact body type and love of contact to play safety or STAR. There’s an intriguing dynamic at play here where Javon Bullard might be the better fit at safety and Bouie might be the best fit at STAR. That would make for an interesting secondary next season with Starks and Lassiter written in with pen and one cornerback spot open.
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that. Starks and Bullard at safety, Bouie at STAR, Lassiter and Daylen Everette (!) at cornerback.
