Georgia Football: 3 defensive veterans who need to step up in 2017.

Dominick Sanders.

Some might be surprised to see Sanders on this list. He’s played a lot during his 3 years so far and has been an interception machine for the dawgs. He has however had his issues and that needs to change this year. The secondary is the weakest part of the defense because of its lack of depth and a lot of freshmen are going to end up getting playing time.

With Malkom Parrish out for at least a few games, Sanders is going to be even more important. This position group really will need leadership and Sanders has to be the player who gives that. Almost nobody else has the experience to do it. He needs to lead by example. One of the ways he can do that is by improving his tackling.

This has been an area of inconsistency for Sanders during his time at UGA. He is by no means a bad tackler, but there are times where he misses some that he clearly should make. If he’s leading a unit of that is inexperienced, he’ll need to be better in this area. It’s unlikely that the freshmen will naturally be good tacklers. Tackling is a skill that often takes time for players to develp.

With such a stacked front 7, the secondary should have a chance to make big plays. Sanders is going to be the key player on the back end if that is going to happen.