Georgia Football: Scout team will be important this week

Georgia Football has been working away on their bye week and the rise of two players against LSU shows how important the scout team is to teams.

The loss to LSU is now comfortably in the past for the Georgia Football team. They have spent the past week getting back to work and as we’ve talked about a few times, there should be some players making moves in some position battles. Jake Rowe of 247sports had a great article today about how Jordan Davis and Robert Beal have grown as players this season while they were on the scout team in practice. Despite being down the pecking order, both players have used the experience to grow and impressed against the Tigers.

Their rise shows how differently Kirby Smart uses the scout team to what we were used to under Mark Richt. That unit is not a bunch of walk-ons who just help the first team guys go through the motions. It’s loaded with young and hungry players who are being told that those sessions are a chance for them to impress and see the field come game day. Beal and Davis both showed that Kirby Smart isn’t blowing smoke when he says the best players will play. He gave both of those guys serious playing time last week and both now should be more involved in the defense.

Georgia needs to see more of that over the next few weeks. There are some players and position groups that UGA really need to see improvements from. Demetris Robertson has all of the talent in the world, but he’s struggling to see the field this year behind Georgia’s more established receivers. This week should be a great opportunity for him to keep developing and maybe impress enough to see some more snaps against Florida. There are lots of freshmen who will also be on that team that could also impress and move up.

That’s especially true on defense. Yes, the offense last week was poor, but that unit is more complete than the defense right now. There are questions on the defensive side of the ball and lots of young talent on UGA’s scout team. Will others like Mark Webb or Channing Tindall step up and see the field more in Jacksonville? I don’t know, but hopefully, there will be more stories like Beal and Davis when we do reach that game. If there is, this Georgia team might finally reach it’s potential in the second half of the season.