Never mind that last year Jake Ganus wasn’t anywhere near Columbia, S.C. on Sept. 13, Jacksonville, Fla. on Nov. 1 or Sanford Stadium on Nov. 29.
He left the field those days victorious with his UAB football team, but the senior transfer inside linebacker is now a member of Georgia’s defense. He can still feel the pain those who were there on those dark days last season remember.
“They lost three games last year and if you look back at all those games I think they could have won all of them,” Ganus said. “That’s three games away from playing in the SEC championship and potentially playing in the playoffs. That’s kind of in the back of our minds. We were just so close. I wasn’t with them last year, but I’m still part of this team. …I feel like if we just work that much harder and do that little extra stuff right we’ll put ourselves in position to have a good fall.”
Georgia’s defense showed much improvement during its 10-3 season. It had games where it looked like a championship defense: a shutout at Missouri, holding Auburn to a touchdown, limiting Arkansas to six first-half points and Louisville to seven.
In Georgia’s three losses, it was a different story: 271 passing yards and three touchdown passes by South Carolina in a 38-35 Gamecocks win, 418 rushing yards allowed to Florida in a 38-20 Gators steamrolling and 399 rushing yards allowed to Georgia Tech in a 30-24 overtime loss.
“There are certain games that we didn’t show up, didn’t really play the way played in other games,” outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins said. “That’s inconsistency and that’s something we can’t have if we want to go where we want to go. ...You can’t take a game off. You just can’t do it.”
Second-year defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt said finding that consistency is a focus, “doing it over and over and over again. There were some times last year that we played the way we want to play, but there were some times in the year we were kind of like a roller coaster. We’ve got to fix that.”
The biggest dip in the roller coaster came in Jacksonville against Florida. Jenkins said Georgia didn’t respect Florida like it should have. The Gators were having a down season and the Bulldogs hoped that star tailback Todd Gurley would return from suspension, which didn’t happen.
“We let what Coach Pruitt likes to call clutter get to us,” Jenkins said. “I feel like that’s what led to our downfall in that game.”
Six starters remain from last year’s defense, but it’s the five that have departed that Pruitt accentuated this week. He noted the losses of All-SEC first team selection Amarlo Herrera and All-SEC second teamers Ramik Wilson and Damian Swann along with Ray Drew and Mike Thornton (along with part-time starter Toby Johnson).
Georgia still has potential difference-makers in linebackers Jenkins, Leonard Floyd and Lorenzo Carter and safety Dominick Sanders. The defense has added lineman Trenton Thompson, the nation’s No. 1 recruit by the 247Sports composite.
“It’s hard to just plug 17, 18-year-old guys into place for guys that are 22, 23 years old,” Pruitt said. “We’re in the process of building, trying to create our identity and we’ve got a ways to go with that.”
That identity, players say, is showing more maturity in the way they carry themselves and bringing a nasty streak to the field.
“We’re more mean,” nose guard John Atkins said. “Another year under coach Pruitt, we can only get better. …It’s really time to work now.”
Georgia ranked eighth in the nation and tops in the SEC in scoring last year and was 17th in the nation in total offense in 2013. Georgia returns one of the nation's top tailbacks in Nick Chubb and a veteran offensive line, but will be breaking in a new starting quarterback.
“I really want this year to be the year where the defense is the highlight of the team where we’re the ones that are saving the games, we’re the ones that are putting the pressure on the offense to score,” Jenkins said. “Just to flip the script this year.”
