Kirby Smart discusses Georgia’s plan on defense without Mel Tucker, Deandre Baker
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SEC East champion Georgia enters the Sugar Bowl as a decisive favorite over Big 12 runner-up Texas — the line is currently at 12.5-points in favor of the Dawgs — but the Bulldogs will be without two key components to the team’s success this season, as defensive coordinator Mel Tucker has left to take over the Colorado program and cornerback Deandre Baker ultimately decided it was in his best interest to sit the game out.
How will Georgia adjust without those key contributors? Kirby Smart was asked just that during his Monday Sugar Bowl media availability leading up to Tuesday’s game.
The first question tackled by the Georgia coach was how the team planned to adjust to calling the defense without Tucker’s assistance.
“We’ll be doing it by committee as we talked about. We’ve got a group and a staff that work really hard together,” Smart said. “Between Dan [Lanning], [Glenn] Schumann, Tray Scott, myself, the GAs work really hard. Both Wendel [Davis] and Bakari [Guice] have done a great job of stepping up and helping from that standpoint.
“We do it by committee most of the time anyway. Mel called the defenses for us. But between series, during the week game planning, it was done by committee because that’s how you put a game plan together. But that’s very similar to how it will be done in this game.”
Those sentiments echoed what outside linebackers coach Dan Lanning said over the weekend when he met with the media.
“I think a lot of people put a lot more into that than is probably the actual case. We make a lot of decisions during the week before you ever get to the game. So, when you look at a specific situation in the game, a lot of those decisions have already been made,” Lanning said. “But I think the right answer is that everybody is going to be involved in that just like they have been all week.”
As for Georgia’s secondary, Smart admits he won’t be as comfortable as he has been in recent seasons with standout Baker roaming the backend of his UGA defense.
“Deandre has done a great job from a leadership standpoint, confidence standpoint for those guys. As far as the difficulty of preparing for it, the difficulty comes tomorrow because he’s not out there,” Smart said regarding Baker. “The prep so far has not been difficult because he’s not there; it’s been concerning because you’ve got a little bit more unknown when he’s not out there. You feel really comfortable the last however many games, three years, that Deandre is going to control his side of the field.
“Now you’ve got not two new guys ‑‑ two guys that have experience ‑‑ they don’t have the experience of Deandre Baker ‑‑ who get an opportunity to go out and play. And that’s probably the most exciting thing, seeing those guys play.”
(Photo by Steven Colquitt; UGA Athletics)
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
