ATHENS — Georgia has stressed the importance of communication following the 13-12 win over Kentucky. It’s one of the areas that Georgia coaches believe must be addressed if Georgia is to beat Alabama this weekend.
Like the Kentucky game, Georgia will be on the road this weekend. That will make communication all the more difficult this weekend.
“When you look back at the game, there were some major communication errors there, talking about across the front, and communicating who we’re working to, points, and things like that,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “Which a lot of that, some of that has to do with being on the road and crowd noise, and everybody being on the same page. Protecting the quarterback on some pressures that are really easy pickups.”
It’s understandable why Georgia may have had some issues with those protections. For starters, Deone Walker of Kentucky is one of, if not the best, defensive linemen that Georgia will face this season.
But it was also Jared Wilson’s first road start at center for Georgia. Wilson is not a natural center, as he transitioned to the position in college.
Smart was complimentary of Wilson when asked to assess how the junior has played to this part in the season.
“Very intelligent. He understands. He did a great job last year,” Smart said. “He studied, under Sed(rick) Van Pran. He picks things up. Carson does a lot of our communication as well as Jared. They share in it. Carson has the ability to override, but Jared and he are on the same page, so he’s doing a really good job.”
Left guard Dylan Fairchild went into greater detail about ways Georgia can make things easier for Wilson in terms of communicating calls to the rest of the offensive line.
“I think communication is a big thing that we have to work on just all across the board, I mean, including myself, I mean, we’re gonna play in hostile environments, we’re gonna play in big games, that’s just part of our schedule this year,” Fairchild said. “I think relaying the calls down the line is a big thing that I know I need to work on myself, so Jared’s done a great job. I think just relaying calls down the line is gonna be the key.”
Georgia is having to reshuffle its offensive line, with Tate Ratledge undergoing TightRope surgery to fix an ankle injury. He is expected to miss the next several games, possibly returning by Florida.
With Ratledge out, Micah Morris will make his first career start against Alabama. Morris has played plenty, including coming in during last year’s SEC championship when Amarius Mims went down with an injury.
Ratledge’s injury also impacts the center position, as he had been the backup center during fall camp. Drew Bobo now slides up the depth chart with Ratledge out. Were something to happen to Wilson, Bobo would take the field.
“We always want to have three, we’ve got to have three,” Smart said of the center position. “And we want to have three ready. We got two that we really feel solid about, and then we’ll have a third one here in the next couple days based on what we’re doing.”
Georgia’s offensive line didn’t have its best performance against Alabama last season, nor was it good enough against Kentucky. This Saturday, it will have to be if Georgia is to get its first win in Tuscaloosa, Ala., since 2007.
