ATHENS — Watching Malaki Starks field punts for Georgia made it clear the Bulldogs missed Anthony Evans.

Starks is one of Georgia’s best players and leaders on the team. But despite having ample room to work with, Starks didn’t bring the same juice the sure-handed Evans did to the punt return.

“Malaki’s going to do nothing but get better and get more confidence. He’s done it before in his life,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “He has been in a game. So, you know, that game changed a little bit. We weren’t asking him to do that at the point that they lost their quarterback. We got wind. We had a couple opportunities we wanted to play safe on the punt return team and make sure we defended the fake. We didn’t set up returns. So there were probably some yards there, but we were not asking him to do that.”

Evans is dealing with a hamstring injury at the moment. Smart didn’t provide much clarity on his status for Saturday’s game against Ole Miss. Perhaps the availability report that comes out on Wednesday night will. Evans first appeared on the report last Thursday, as he was ruled out for the game against Florida.

So far this season, Evans’ 14 returns have netted Georgia 118 yards. That’s a massive boost for a Georgia offense that has struggled with turnovers thus far this season and hasn’t been as potent as it has been in years past.

Georgia is currently averaging 33.1 points per game. That’s the fewest since the 2020 season, which was Todd Monken’s first in Athens.

That season was plagued with injuries at the quarterback position. This year, it seems to be the wide receiver and running back positions that are battling attrition.

Consider that at wide receiver, Rara Thomas was dismissed from the program and Colbie Young is currently suspended. With Evans out due to injury, Georgia played just five wide receivers in the win over Florida.

And one of those, Sacovie White, saw only two snaps.

“I don’t feel good about our depth. I don’t feel great about our depth at snapper,” Smart said. “I don’t feel great about our depth at holder. I don’t feel great about our depth at field goal protection. I don’t feel good about our depth at wide receiver or anything because I don’t ever think you have enough to practice the way you need to practice.”

Running back might be even more impacted at the moment. Trevor Etienne continues to battle a rib injury. While he’ll likely be able to play on Saturday against Ole Miss, he won’t be 100 percent.

Georgia will likely be without Branson Robinson and Roderick Robinson, as the former deals with a knee injury and the latter has missed every game this season with a toe injury.

Smart knows there isn’t a calvary to call in for more firepower. At this point, Georgia has to find a way to make it work with what it has.

“We are who are are. Part of your job as a coach is the figure out who your best players are. We rank our players. We don’t do it by position,” Smart said. “You’ve got to figure out your best combination of players and use their skillset. That’s what good offensive minds do, they use football players and not plays. We’ve got good players still, just might not have as much experience as the other guys.”

Georgia will have to try and keep pace with an Ole Miss offense that racked up 63 points last week in a win over Arkansas. It’s going to need to make every point count if the Bulldogs are going to continue their winning ways, in spite of the mounting injuries.

Saturday’s game is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET start on ABC.