Two bright spots on the Georgia Football defense from LSU

Despite the loss to LSU, there were two players who really stood out in the defeat to LSU and both freshmen should have big futures in Athens.

There is a lot of griping to be done regarding the loss to LSU. We can talk all day about the players who struggled or underperformed in Death Valley. It wasn’t all bad, however. There were a couple of freshmen who really stood out to me during their reps this weekend. Both are tremendous physical talents who showed in a hostile environment that the future could be really bright for them on the Georgia Football team.

Robert Beal, OLB Redshirted Freshman

If you could build an ideal outside linebacker, they’d probably look like Robert Beal. From a purely physical perspective, the guy already looks like an NFL player. Standing at 6-4 and around 245lbs, Beal already looks like a wrecking ball coming from the outside. He’s got incredible quickness for his size and it’s been clear since day one that the guy has talent. It’s just been a case of whether he can reach the immense potential in Athens.

Beal arrived in school very late last year. He had a difficult senior season in high school, ending up attending three different schools in a year after a move to IMG Academy in Florida didn’t work out as planned. That put him behind the eight ball in his freshman season and so he was given a redshirt.

Beal saw some extended time in this weeks game and boy did he respond. He had the first sack of his career on a fantastic move where he completed destroyed the offensive tackle. It wasn’t the only impressive play from Beal who flashed his speed on several plays. He’ still got a ways to go but Beal showed this week that he’s getting better every week under new OLB coach Dan Lanning. If this game was a sign of things to come, the Dawgs have a really talented player in Beal who is ready to make some noise in the second half of the season. That’s exactly what Smart and his defense need as they look to make passers less comfortable.

Jordan Davis, DT, True Freshman

One position group where Georgia struggled last weekend was the defensive line. There was a big reason for that. Injuries. Georgia went into the game without David Marshall, Devonte Wyatt, and DaQuan Hawkins-Muckle. That’s three linemen who are all an important part of the Dawgs DL rotation. Marshall and Wyatt, in particular, have impressed this year.

Their absence forced freshman Jordan Davis to see more reps than expected. Davis is already Georgia’s biggest DT. That’s right, the freshman has more size than anybody else in UGA’s roster. They just do not build many people like him. Standing at 6-6 and over 330lb, Davis is a monster who could be the future at the nose tackle position. The issue for him this year was that he is just incredibly raw and needs time and coaching to get better.

Despite this, Davis really looked good last Saturday. He made some mistakes, but he also moved offensive linemen around much better than I was expecting. He’s still got a way to go but Davis looks like he’s prepared to get more reps this season. If he can keep getting better, Georgia might actually end up being deeper at DL than many expected when we get to November/December. That would certainly help a lot going forward.

Between these two guys, Georgia looks like it’s going to have a couple of young players on their defense this year that could be better than many expected. Neither of these players was expected to contribute much in 2018. Their emergence gives Kirby Smart and Mel Tucker options after the bye week and that’s exciting. Hopefully, a couple of more young players can emerge after the bye and this defense can get back to being the dominant unit we expected when the season started.