ATHENS — As Kirby Smart was listing Georgia defensive linemen, it began to sound more and more like he was rattling off an injury report.
“We’re not injury free, Warren (Brinson)’s battling injury, Jordan (Hall)’s battling injury, Mykel (Williams) has been battling injury, and Christen (Miller) has been battling injury,” Smart said on Tuesday. “I mean, he’s not able to complete the work week every week, in and week out, but he’s able to go out and play.”
Smart simply naming dudes on the Georgia defensive line speaks to how difficult this season has been for this group to this point. Nazir Stackhouse has been Georgia’s only healthy interior lineman this season.
But for as much as health has been an issue to this point, Georgia seems to finally be in a better spot on the injury front.
Only Hall was out for Georgia’s game against Mississippi State, but the sophomore was able to dress out for the game. This week during practice, Hall has been able to do more and better manage the pain following August surgery.
“He’s having to get comfortable with the pain that he has,” Smart said. “And it jumps up and bites him at times. And you never know, it might just hit him on a rep. And that’s kept him from taking the rep load that he would like to take. But he’s out there today doing more this week than he did last week.”
The early season injuries have taken a toll on the Georgia defense at large, with the Bulldogs ranking 44th at the moment in rushing yards allowed per game. Consider that from 2019 through 2022, Georgia never ranked lower than second in this category.
It ranked 20th a season ago, when the defensive line was considered a problem.
To this point though, Georgia has had bigger issues with its defense, most specifically in the secondary. The defensive line has come along slowly, getting better and healthier each week.
“It’s always been a next man up mentality, and Tray Scott always preaches availability,” Stackhouse said. “Any guy that is in that defensive line room and is practicing, he’s going to work his butt off to make sure they know their technique in and out, because his goal is to use everyone in that room. And yeah, it’s unfortunate that we have a couple of guys that have gone (down), but that doesn’t really faze us too much, because we know that our technique is always gonna help us on the field.”
Stackhouse lives that mantra, as Smart praised Stackhouse’s ability to always be on the field. Consider that last season, Stackhouse played more snaps in 12 games than Jordan Davis played in 15 during the 2021 National Championship Season.
All those snaps did have an impact on Stackhouse, who wasn’t able to be as fresh as he would’ve liked. Stackhouse and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins have taken on major snap count loads this season and it has been much needed for the Bulldogs. Ingram-Dawkins has been Georgia’s most disruptive defender, as he leads the team in sacks and tackles for loss.
But Stackhouse fills an even bigger role for Georgia.
“He can anchor,” Smart said. “So he’s been very durable, and we would be in trouble without him. And I thought he had a really, really good year two years ago. He had a pretty good year last year, and then this year he’s played better to me than last year. And he continues to grow and get better, but he’s just been a workload.”
The toughness and leadership that Stackhouse displays has trickled down to the rest of the Georgia defensive line. They’ve pushed to get back healthy, appearing to do so before one of the biggest games of the year and against one of the best offensive lines in Texas.
It’ll take a group effort to penetrate Texas’ offensive line and slow their offense. Stackhouse and whoever is able to are ready for the challenge.
“One thing about our defense is that every team that we play, they may have a big running game, and the number one thing is to defeat the run,” Stackhouse said. “That’s the only thing we’ve been working on since game one to now, just to defeat the run as our primary.”
