Georgia football begins spring practices next month. With a few starters leaving and new players arriving, several positions are up for grabs.
Spring practice is just around the corner. The Georgia football is set to return to the practice fields to tune up before a few months away from the field. 14 new scholarship players join the roster this spring and will jump into the position battles, including no. 1 overall prospect Nolan Smith.
Several starting positions are up for grabs. But all positions will be fought for this spring by incumbents and their ultra-talented backups. Here are the most interesting position battles you should pay attention to when spring practice begins.
Wide receiver
Phenomenal signees George Pickens and Dominick Blaylock, and graduate transfer Lawrence Cager might not be on campus yet. But that doesn’t mean we should hold off on watching the wide receivers until the summer. Georgia has several young receivers who are good enough to start this year. They’ll at least fill huge roles off the sidelines.
Junior J.J. Holloman leads the group this spring, along with senior Tyler Simmons and redshirt junior Demetris Robertson. Those three won’t compete against each other as they’re different types of receivers. Holloman’s the big possession receiver, Simmons is the speedster and Robertson is an all-around talent who can do a bit of everything. Basically, they’re the starting X, Y and Z receivers going into the spring.
Behind them is a group of unproven players led by Kearis Jackson. He was Georgia’s top receiver signed in 2018 and was one of the first receivers to check into the game when the first unit was being phased out in blowouts. He’s another possession receiver with big play ability after the catch.
After him is the 6-5 second-year receiver Tommy Bush. He joined Georgia football along with Jackson last year. You also can’t count out a pair of receivers who arrived on campus with Holloman. Former four-star Trey Blount caught three passes last year. Former three-star prospect Matt Landers hasn’t yet caught a pass, but the redshirt sophomore received praised from Javon Wims last year.
Those four are going to work to build a stronger connection with Jake Fromm. They’ll also work on blocking and route running. With great springs, they will make it hard for the newcomers to earn prominent spots on the team. Fromm should have a lot of options in 2019.
Jack linebacker, sam linebacker and defensive end
These three positions are together since they all have the same jobs. Mainly, get to the quarterback. Georgia will replace starters at two positions. D’Andre Walker leaves behind the JLB, Jonathan Ledbetter yields his DE spot. Walter Grant, the starter at sam Linebacker, returns but he has to earn his spot again.
Unlike wide receiver, several newcomers join the battle. Nolan Smith is the one everyone will be watching. He topped most recruiting rankings, including the 247Sports Composite. But, he’s not the only no. 1 overall prospect Georgia signed to help out the pass rush. The top junior college player in the nation Jermaine Johnson also joins the team. Four-star Rian Davis is another player to watch.
But they are joining a position group that is well on depth. Behind Walker and Grant all year were true freshmen Brenton Cox and Adam Anderson, and sophomore Robert Beal. Each took different routes to their roles on the team. Cox and Anderson were five-star, SEC ready talent coming out of high school. Cox was a contributor from day one. Anderson took some time to get acclimated to the SEC game, but he became a fixture on defense as the season progressed. Beal was a four-star in 2017 and needed a year to develop his game.
Cox, Beal and Anderson were used almost exclusively at outside linebacker. Georgia really didn’t have a backup behind Ledbetter because he was typically only used when Georgia used formations with four-man lines. Defensive tackles Tyler Clark and Malik Herring took his place in traditional 3-4 formations where they weren’t used off the edge. But Herring occasionally played defensive end on the edge. Mostly because he’s a great run-stopper though.
No doubt, this is the biggest battle of the spring because of all the newcomers. Those three positions are very important because they are where the pass rush comes from. There’s a lot of questions at those positions. Who do the coaches place at defensive end? Can Grant hold off the competition to keep his starting SLB job? Who takes over at jack?