ATHENS — The requisite cautionary note: This was just the end of the second week of spring practice, with three weeks to go. Another cautionary note: This was not the alignment the Georgia football team will use all the time.
Still, during their workout Saturday, the Bulldogs offered up a look at the depth chart for the defense when it uses a 3-3-5, which is at least some of the time. It came during a pursuit drill.
The first-team defense in this alignment, going from back to front:
- Sophomore Mark Webb was at cornerback, along with senior Deandre Baker, with junior Tyrique McGhee also on the field, apparently at the star. The safeties, as expected, were junior J.R. Reed and sophomore Richard LeCounte.
- The inside linebackers were seniors Natrez Patrick and Juwan Taylor, who have tended to run with the first team this spring. The only outside linebacker on the field in the 3-3-5 was senior D’Andre Walker.
- The defensive line included senior Jonathan Ledbetter, junior Julian Rochester and junior Tyler Clark. Nothing shocking there.
The second-team defense, as best could be ascertained:
- The secondary included sophomore William Poole at nickelback, sophomore Ameer Speed at cornerback, senior Jarvis Wilson and redshirt freshman Tray Bishop were at safety. There also appeared to be someone with jersey No. 27 on the field, but there is no No. 27 on the roster.
- The inside linebackers were sophomore Monty Rice and junior Tae Crowder. The lone outside linebacker on the field was sophomore Walter Grant.
- The defensive linemen were juniors David Marshall and Michail Carter and senior DaQuan Hawkins-Muckle.
As for the third team, it was harder to tell because players were shuffling in and out quickly.
As for a few other observations from the 10-minute media viewing period:
- The first team offensive line remains the same: LT Andrew Thomas, LG Kendall Baker, C Lamont Gaillard, RG Ben Cleveland and RT Isaiah Wilson. That has been the case for each practice so far, and could remain that way for awhile, though players have said freshman Cade Mays is competing at right tackle.
- Mays isn’t the only freshman early enrollee working with the second team. Warren Ericson has consistently been the second-team center, while Trey Hill was working with the second team at guard, over redshirt freshman Netori Johnson.
- The quarterbacks were triple-spotting, as in three quarterbacks throwing to receivers at the same time. The result was more than a few incomplete passes, with footballs whizzing in different directions. But both Jake Fromm and Justin Fields appeared to hit more than a few slant passes during the drill.
- This was the team’s fourth spring practice in full pads.