There is no hiding the fact that Georgia will need to play much better this weekend if they want to leave Tennessee with a victory. That sentiment falls on UGA's offense more than their defense, but there is no denying that the Bulldogs defense has room for improvement as well.
Kirby Smart recently spoke about the one element of Georgia's defense that they need to improve the most which may just be the most fundamental thing in football.
Tackling.
"Yeah, we worked hard on it, done some good things, had some missed tackles and missed some opportunities for turnovers," Smart shared via 247sports.com. "That's one of the biggest learning things is you gotta get the turnovers when you get an opportunity. The balls on the ground, interception opportunities, hands on balls, you gotta get them. But for two games, probably haven't been tested enough to really warrant and say where we are as tacklers."
Kirby Smart wants Georgia's defense to focus on the basics
It goes without saying how important tackling is as a poor tackling team will struggle to win very many games. Unfortunately for Georgia this is something Smart has said multiple times this season and even back during fall camp that his defense needs to improve on.
Thankfully it hasn’t been that noticeable through two games this season that Georgia struggles with tackling. In fact, one could argue that they’ve been pretty solid because Georgia’s defense has only surrendered 13 points so far this season. That however might have to do with the level of competition they played, so it will be interesting to see how they do this weekend at Tennessee.
But if Smart is constantly emphasizing how they need to improve their tackling, then that is a serious concern for the Bulldogs moving forward.