Georgia football: who is going to lead the 2019 Bulldogs

The 2019 Georgia football spring practices have begun. Among other things, the team is looking for new leaders to step up.

Six seniors with starting experience have exhausted their eligibility, and four juniors are leaving early. This has the 2019 Georgia football team searching for new leadership. Head coach Kirby Smart isn’t too concerned however. Or at least he isn’t more concerned than usual.

"“I’ve never felt great about leadership at this point in time,  I didn’t feel great two years ago, I didn’t feel great last year. I think you can’t find true leadership, and you can’t manipulate it. You can’t make it happen. It happens through adversity, and you have to create the adversity. So in the off season we try to create adversity, hey, something happened.”"

Who’s going to lead the team this year? What players will carry and will the team through adversity? Here are four players who I believe are the best candidates for the job.

J.R. Reed

J.R. Reed has kind of been the anointed one for the 2019 team since last summer. He transferred from Tulsa and began playing for the team in 2017, surprising media and fans by having an amazing season, showing himself to be among the best tacklers in college football.

Going into 2018, Smart chose him to help represent the team at SEC Media Days and he was one of the stars of the event. Things he said during interviews showed he was ready to lead the team from a vocal standpoint as a junior. He went on to have another solid year in 2018 and now he returns for his senior season. According to Reed, he put his NFL dream on hold to win a championship at Georgia.

What more can I say to put Reed over as a leader of the 2019 team? He’s been a leader for a whole year now. Maybe more than that if you consider how mature he played as a sophomore in 2017. There are areas he needs to improve on the field, and I have confidence he’ll make those strides. But his vocalness is top notch, teammates listen to Reed. And his energy and pride is contagious.

Tyler Clark

Eventually, Tyler Clark will get his due from the media. He’s been a contributor since his freshman season in 2016, has started numerous games, and even when he doesn’t start, he’s still a constant fixture of Georgia’s defensive line.

He’s entering his last year of eligibility and he brings the most experience out of anyone on the defensive line besides nose guard Julian Rochester. Clark has four sacks as a Bulldog and 11.5 tackles for a loss. He’s a difficult player to block and helps open up lanes for the linebackers to penetrate. Clark also plays two positions in Georgia’s defense. He’ll lineup as a defensive end or a defensive tackle depending on the formation.

Clark isn’t typically a big-play guy, but he’s consistent and he has to be one of the hungriest for a championship. He played a big role on the 2016 squad which lost several ugly games, and was on the field both times against Alabama in Georgia’s most heartbreaking defeats.

Jake Fromm

When discussing leadership for football teams, the conversation will instantly shift to the quarterback, regardless of if an offense passes more often or not. For two years, Jake Fromm has been a solid leader as Georgia quarterback, but he’s been somewhat protected as well. As a freshman, he had Nick Chubb and Sony Michel as the superstars in the running game. And he had a receiver in Javon Wims who could make the catches regardless of how close the ball was to him.

Last season, Georgia had another great rushing duo, but when that duo was neglected in Baton Rouge, Fromm couldn’t step up to will Georgia to a win. He later redeemed himself against Alabama for most of the SEC Championship Game.

Georgia will still have a loaded running game, but the team will also rely on Fromm more. Tight end Charlie Woerner and wide receiver J.J. Holloman recently said new offensive coördinator James Coley likes to throw the ball more than Jim Cheney.

Gone are the days of Jake Fromm passing the ball just 13 times a game apparently. He’s going to use his arm a lot more to spread the ball around to a large group of receivers, tight ends and running backs. With Georgia’s reputation as a run-first team, he’s going to have to be on top of his game early in 2019. We all know he can keep the offense organized. He’s great at making changes at the line and dishing the ball to an open receiver immediately. To be a leader though, he’ll have to excel in the pocket and in scrambles for entire games.

D’Andre Swift

Running back D’Andre Swift has always had an upperclassmen to lean on. Ad a freshman, he excelled with 771 yards of total offense, but he was in the shadow of Chubb and Michel. Last year, he led the team with 1,049 rushing yards, but he shared time with junior Elijah Holyfield.

In 2019, he’s still sharing carries with elite talented running backs, and senior Brian Herrien will get his shots as well. But as a junior with 2,117 yards of offense and 17 touchdowns in his career, he’s the leader of Georgia’s strong stable of running backs. And at the University of Georgia, that carries a lot of weight and expectations, regardless of how many times Jake Fromm passes the ball. Swift can have only one carry, but it’s expected to be a damn good carry.

How he handles these expectations will define who he is as a leader of the 2019 Bulldogs. If he continues to perform the way he did when healthy last year, he’ll be the proverbial tank Georgia’s offense rides into battle on.