ATHENS — Georgia’s right tackle position has been a bit of a revolving door this season. Not in the traditionally bad way when it comes to the offensive line position, as the Bulldogs have gotten strong play from whoever has manned the position.
But Georgia has now seen three different players work as the first team right tackle position. First it was Amarius Mims. He started the first three games before leaving the South Carolina game with an ankle injury. His replacement Xavier Truss left the game against Vanderbilt with an ankle injury as well, clearing the way for freshman Monroe Freeling to step in.
Freeling earned praise for his performance, not just against Vanderbilt but in the weeks of practice leading up to the game.
“About three weeks ago I called him and told him, ‘Monroe you realize you’re one play away and every rep you take in practice you should be imagining you’re in a road game stadium and ready to go. Sure enough, it happened,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I thought he did a good job. There’s a lot of things he could work on. There’s butterflies with that. Fortunately, he had gotten to play in some games but not in that situation. I was thrilled he got to go out there and get some confidence. He’s a really good athlete and he’s a worker. So he’ll work really hard to get better.”
Georgia doesn’t have to answer who will be its right tackle against Florida as the Bulldogs are off this week. The break comes at good time for the right tackle position in particular as it gives Truss and Mims more time to recover.
And there’s a chance Georgia can have all three available against Florida.
Mims had tightrope surgery following the injury. The traditional recovery timeline for that injury takes four to six weeks. The injury occurred six weeks prior to Georgia’s game against Florida.
The Bulldogs have had Mims outfitted with a special shoe in hopes of helping him in his recovery. Smart has rejected putting a timeline on Mims’ return, instead only offering updates on how Mims is progressing.
“He’s weight-bearing, he’s running, he’s moving around,” Smart said. “I thought he looked much better yesterday when he did some stretch and stride stuff. He’s been out there at practice but he hasn’t taken any reps. There’s going to be a timetable on him for the same as everyone else with those injuries. When they’re cleared and they’re comfortable and they can play at a winning rate, they’ll get a chance to go back out there.”
As for Truss, Smart added that he wasn’t able to practice on Tuesday but the hope is that he’ll be back as Georgia begins to ramp up prep for Florida. Georgia spent the early part of the week working on themselves before shifting their focus onto Florida in the later stages of the week.
In the event that Mims and Truss are healthy, Georgia could see Mims slot in at right tackle and move Truss back to left guard. That was where the two started prior to Mims’ injury against South Carolina. Since Mims went out, Dylan Fairchild has been Georgia’s starting left guard.
Georgia has developed depth on the offensive line, through both reps in practice and in game situations. Freeling is the most recent example of that.
“We almost kind of treat him like he’s not a freshman,” Fairchild said. “Sometimes we’ll get mad at him because he’ll mess something up, and then we realize, yeah, he’s still a freshman. He’s so advanced compared to what we all came in as, and he’s really ahead of a lot of other people he was compared to in high school so we treat him that way.”
And as the Bulldogs continue to get ready for the all-important game against rival Florida, the offensive line looks to potentially have its full cast of characters back at full strength.
