Our Gait Bait series continues with a look at one of Florida's biggest rivals, Georgia.
The Quarterback Room
Jake Fromm is clearly the starter but the quarterback did not have the best showing at the Bulldogs' G-Day.
Fromm threw a pick-six during his first drive, was late on some throws, and was nearly intercepted by Mark Webb a few plays after his first pick. He finished passing 14-of-29 for 116 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
But with Justin Field's decision to transfer to Ohio State, the real question was who will Georgia's number two guy be. After Fromm it looks like both Stetson Bennett and D'Wan Mathis are the two signal callers vying for that second position.
Bennett showed he has the arm, competing a 52-yard pass to Matt Landers. He finished the day going 8-of-14 for 128 yards and a touchdown for the Reds and 4-of-9 for 82 yards for the Blacks.
Mathis on the other hand demonstrated that he is a willing runner with a nice arm. The first year quarterback still has a lot of work to do, however. Although his first drive went fine, his second drive saw him throw an interception on his first throw of the drive.
One can argue Mathis was part of the biggest play of the game - a 39-yard TD trick play. In the play, Mathis hands off the ball to James Cook, who tossed it to Landers on a reverse.Then Landers throws it to Mathis for the touchdown.
The Passing Game Gets Reinforcements
During their spring game, the Bulldogs utilized the running backs a lot in the passing game.
New Georgia offensive coordinator, James Coley enjoys the short passing game and it showed in the spring scrimmage where D'Andrew Swift, Brian Herrien and James Cook all proved to be good pass catchers. This could be key for Smart's side as the young receiver group matures during the year since the receivers had a mixed day back in April.
Drops were a problem for the group. Landers failed to hold on to three balls that touched his hands, meanwhile Georgia tight end Charlie Woerner led the red team with 5 catches for 44 yards and Trey Blount led the black team with 5 catches for 69 yards.
Strong Defense
The Georgia defense created scoring opportunities in the 2018 season and continued to do so this spring.
During the game in April, cornerback ripped a ball out of the hands of wide receiver Jeremiah Holloman and then took it back to the endzone. He also had a few pass breakups in the game.
Stokes is expected to be the leader in the secondary this season.
Another name to watch is Justin Young. Stokes worked his way up the depth chart and it seems like Young is doing the same.
The UGA defensive end only featured in one game last season, the season opener against Austin Peay, and four games the season before. However, after coming close to transferring, Young took several first team reps during the spring game. He recorded two tackles, a tackle for a loss and a sack.
Other Defensive Spring Standouts
AZEEZ OJULARI - The redshirt freshman linebacker came onto for the injured D'Andre Walker in the Sugar Bowl to end the year and has used that to propel him to an impressive showing this spring. He still needs to work on his physicality but he could be a name to watch in 2019.
NAKOBE DEAN - Another linebacker to keep an eye on is Nakobe Dean. The freshman early enrolled and could make an immediate impact this fall. Dean received first-team reps this spring during the G-Day game. Dean finished with five tackles and a pass breakup in the scrimmage.
