One of the biggest successes from this 2018 season for Georgia Football has been the play of offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson.
In the last two seasons, the offensive line has become the biggest strength of this Georgia Football team. One of the main reasons for that is recruiting and back in 2017, the highest ranked player UGA signed wasn’t Andrew Thomas, Jake Fromm or Richard LeCounte. Instead, it was the 5-star offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson, who ended up redshirting his first year and sitting out the entire season.
Some players would have seen that as an insult but not Wilson. He didn’t pout and throw a temper tantrum because he’d been forced to sit. Instead, he sat and learned behind some very good players and came into this past off-season pushing hard for a job. During that offseason, he completed with true freshman Cade Mays for the starting right tackle spot and as the season got closer, he secured that spot.
As the season has gone on, Wilson has gotten better and better. Early on in the season he really struggled with pass rushers, but as the year has gone on, he’s really improved in that area. The best example of this was against Kentucky when he was matched up against Josh Allen, a likely 1st round pick and one of the best pass rushers in the SEC. Wilson and fellow tackle Andrew Thomas held Allen in check for the entire game, he had only 3 tackles, zero for a loss in the entire game. It was by far Allen’s worst game of the season and was in a large part due to Wilson being better than expected.
When it comes to the run game, Wilson is a beast. He has fortified the right side of the offensive line that has otherwise been blighted with injuries. He’s played alongside Ben Cleveland, Cade Mays, Kendall Baker and Trey Hill this year. No matter who has been alongside him, the right side of the line has created huge holes and Wilson is a big reason why. He’s a nasty son of a gun who enjoys mauling defensive linemen. He and Cade Mays playing next to one another might be the two nastiest, bruisers in the country.
Despite his play, pretty much nobody has noticed Wilson this year. He doesn’t play a sexy position and he’s not got the quick footspeed right now to be a potential franchise left tackle like Thomas. That being said, he looks like a future NFL player right now with plenty of room still to grow. His rise this year has been one of the best things about this season and positions the Dawgs really well for the rest of his time in Athens. A lot of people might not know his name, but it’s hard to argue against the fact that he’s made this Dawgs team a lot better than many expected.