Started By
Message
Should we be concerned about the defensive line?
Posted on 8/18/25 at 12:23 pm
Posted on 8/18/25 at 12:23 pm
Hearing some ramblings about how the DL seems to have underwhelmed thus far throughout fall practice. The only one that's getting any praise seems to be Griffin. I've heard Christian Miller mentioned a couple of times. The army transfer kid, Modozie sounds like he's doing ok, but he hasn't exactly taken us by storm so far. I haven't heard Hall's name mentioned a single time. And the ones I had really high hopes for, Joseph J-A and McCleod, haven't made much noise either, that I've read or heard about.
And it sounds like the OL got the better of them Saturday during the scrimmage, even though some folks said the DL looked better in scrimmage one.
I'm not the expert some of you are, but I still thinks its a little early to be tapping into our inner Munson and getting REALLY worried.
And it sounds like the OL got the better of them Saturday during the scrimmage, even though some folks said the DL looked better in scrimmage one.
I'm not the expert some of you are, but I still thinks its a little early to be tapping into our inner Munson and getting REALLY worried.
12
Posted on 8/18/25 at 12:25 pm to Darindawg
I think it will be pretty good but in all likelihood nothing like we got used to a few years ago.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 12:32 pm to Darindawg
Hopefully that’s a good sign about our OL.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 12:37 pm to SquatchDawg
quote:
Hopefully that’s a good sign about our OL.
That's what some were saying on other sites. Apparently, this guy they brought in from the pros as a 'consultant' for ol SS seems to be working some magic. Them boys are getting after it.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 1:57 pm to Darindawg
D-Line and defense in total will be good this year. Not too worried about it. Especially looking forward to Ellis Robinson. He’s a legit playmaker in the secondary in which we haven’t had in many years. I find the news as positive because If the O-Line is good then we will be good.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 2:03 pm to Kneehigh
If nothing else were deeper on DL than we were last year. We played like 3 DTs against Kentucky last year. By multiple reports, Christian Miller looks to have locked the F in and taken the next step. Mccloud will be good. Griffin will only get better and play a lot starting with Marshall. If we deploy a NT, Ogboko will do that well. No offense to Naz, but I think we’ll be overall more athletic up front this year. I think our run defense will be a lot better than the last couple years. Per usual, the big question will be do we have a package where we can get home against a good passing team with only 4 rushers.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 2:31 pm to Darindawg
What "ramblings?"
Consistent reports showing the DL to be good.
Consistent reports showing the DL to be good.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 3:05 pm to claydawg09
quote:
Per usual, the big question will be do we have a package where we can get home against a good passing team with only 4 rushers
This is the answer for the defense. The trio of Miller, Hall, and Griffin could be really good. If the Army kid is as good as advertised, our D legit may be elite.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 3:10 pm to Darindawg
Never listen to anything about camp. This time last year all the insiders were talking about how the OL was the best position group on the team. You saw how that went…
Posted on 8/18/25 at 3:29 pm to Spaceman Spiff
quote:
What "ramblings?"
Consistent reports showing the DL to be good.
I've read lots of stuff on other forums. An article yesterday from DN had the 'winners and losers' of fall practice article and listed the DL as a 'loser'. Sorry, couldn't get the link to copy, but here's an excerpt...
Georgia’s defensive line was a strength on both championship teams. Entering the 2025 season, however, it seems to be a major question mark, especially following the most difficult stretch of practice.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 4:02 pm to Darindawg
I hear you. But from the first scrimmage all reports were the defense killed the offense. Yin. Yang. It’ll be ok
Posted on 8/18/25 at 8:01 pm to Darindawg
I'd been looking at the DL, some notes about the interior big men from my spreadsheet (just for fun, not pretending to be an expert). It's more of a synopsis of what we have than a talent eval or camp rumors. A lot of unknowns in this group, but that's going to be status quo for the NIL era IMO.
On the interior (DT, NT), we lost Jarrett, Stackhouse and Brinson from 2024. The latter two were solid DL, had a lot of experience but the 25 crew should be able to fill those losses, IMO. Brinson dealt with an ankle injury that limited his pt for the first half of the season. Jarrett looked like he never got in good shape to me.
We added Griffin, Hanne, and Horton (2023/2024 at Miami). Supposedly Griffin is doing well and expected to be in the two deep, but we'll see. Horton's HS film looks good, (123 tackles and 4 sacks as a senior in 2022 at Langston Hughes, 81 tackles 3 sacks as a junior), but only had 4 tackles in 5 games at Miami, was apparently dealing with injuries. I guess his contribution depends on health and conditioning. My guess is Hanne probably won't contribute much this year, but I could be wrong.
Returning on the interior are Miller, McLeod, Hall, Nasir Johnson, Nnamdi Ogboko, Jordan Thomas. This is the group we need to step up and they all have potential to make big gains in 2025. Miller, listed at 310 up from 305 is a good player, IMO won't be an explosive pass rushing force like some we've had, but we'll see how he does when he's fully healthy. He was banged up several times last year, unspecified injury early in the season that limited his workouts and practice, and then missed the GT and SECCG with a shoulder dislocation suffered in the UMass game that required surgery after the season. McLeod had 13 tackles in 11 games in '24 after redshirting his freshman year at USCe. A couple of times I thought he looked a bit heavy and slow. He's listed 10 lbs lighter (315) in 2025. Hall looks like he has the most upside to me, would've probably played a lot more last year but had bilateral lower leg stress fracture surgeries pre-season and was never close to healthy. Finally had surgery to get the hardware removed after the season and said he felt about 75% this spring but improving.
The 2024 freshmen, Ogboko, Johnson, and Thomas, didn't play a lot in 2024 due to injuries, condition, and the fact that we didn't have a lot of cupcake games to use inexperienced backups. They should be a lot stronger and hopefully more mobile this year. Ogboko is a massive man with a low center of gravity. His strength gives off Jordan Davis vibes, but mobility has to get better if he wants to play more downs. Nasir Johnson is also huge at 340, but also very tall (I've seen him listed at 6'6" at times) with a higher center of gravity so he has to perfect his leverage against college OL. Jordan Thomas moves well for 315, needed to add more strength and maybe what Kirby calls "aggression", but has a high ceiling if he has that dawg in him.
That's my take on the big men. On paper, this year's group is more talented, but less experienced. I think they should be as good as last year's group, maybe better if they've gotten healthy and stronger.
On the interior (DT, NT), we lost Jarrett, Stackhouse and Brinson from 2024. The latter two were solid DL, had a lot of experience but the 25 crew should be able to fill those losses, IMO. Brinson dealt with an ankle injury that limited his pt for the first half of the season. Jarrett looked like he never got in good shape to me.
We added Griffin, Hanne, and Horton (2023/2024 at Miami). Supposedly Griffin is doing well and expected to be in the two deep, but we'll see. Horton's HS film looks good, (123 tackles and 4 sacks as a senior in 2022 at Langston Hughes, 81 tackles 3 sacks as a junior), but only had 4 tackles in 5 games at Miami, was apparently dealing with injuries. I guess his contribution depends on health and conditioning. My guess is Hanne probably won't contribute much this year, but I could be wrong.
Returning on the interior are Miller, McLeod, Hall, Nasir Johnson, Nnamdi Ogboko, Jordan Thomas. This is the group we need to step up and they all have potential to make big gains in 2025. Miller, listed at 310 up from 305 is a good player, IMO won't be an explosive pass rushing force like some we've had, but we'll see how he does when he's fully healthy. He was banged up several times last year, unspecified injury early in the season that limited his workouts and practice, and then missed the GT and SECCG with a shoulder dislocation suffered in the UMass game that required surgery after the season. McLeod had 13 tackles in 11 games in '24 after redshirting his freshman year at USCe. A couple of times I thought he looked a bit heavy and slow. He's listed 10 lbs lighter (315) in 2025. Hall looks like he has the most upside to me, would've probably played a lot more last year but had bilateral lower leg stress fracture surgeries pre-season and was never close to healthy. Finally had surgery to get the hardware removed after the season and said he felt about 75% this spring but improving.
The 2024 freshmen, Ogboko, Johnson, and Thomas, didn't play a lot in 2024 due to injuries, condition, and the fact that we didn't have a lot of cupcake games to use inexperienced backups. They should be a lot stronger and hopefully more mobile this year. Ogboko is a massive man with a low center of gravity. His strength gives off Jordan Davis vibes, but mobility has to get better if he wants to play more downs. Nasir Johnson is also huge at 340, but also very tall (I've seen him listed at 6'6" at times) with a higher center of gravity so he has to perfect his leverage against college OL. Jordan Thomas moves well for 315, needed to add more strength and maybe what Kirby calls "aggression", but has a high ceiling if he has that dawg in him.
That's my take on the big men. On paper, this year's group is more talented, but less experienced. I think they should be as good as last year's group, maybe better if they've gotten healthy and stronger.
This post was edited on 8/18/25 at 8:10 pm
Posted on 8/18/25 at 8:15 pm to Darindawg
If the DL does good in a scrimmage, our OL sucks.
If the DL does shitty in a scrimmage, our DL sucks.
These are just practice notes from 4th party hearsay.
We'll know soon enough.
If the DL does shitty in a scrimmage, our DL sucks.
These are just practice notes from 4th party hearsay.
We'll know soon enough.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 11:08 pm to Spaceman Spiff
quote:
Consistent reports showing the DL to be good.
Individually, the DL is stacked with an incredible amount of talent.
If they can work well as a unit, the DL will be exactly what Kirby envisioned.
Posted on 8/18/25 at 11:36 pm to Darindawg
The one DawgNation goober who does the daily podcast hinted at this the other day, and he's been pretty plugged in for a while.
His point was basically this is the time of year when the hype train goes into overdrive and you hear praise and buzz coming out of the football facility for different position groups. When you don't here it about a certain position group (defensive line in this case), it stands out and is a little concerning. At least this was his point.
I don't know if he has a good point or no real point, but I'm not going ot automatically dismiss it and say "nothing to see here" out of blind faith and homerism..
His point was basically this is the time of year when the hype train goes into overdrive and you hear praise and buzz coming out of the football facility for different position groups. When you don't here it about a certain position group (defensive line in this case), it stands out and is a little concerning. At least this was his point.
I don't know if he has a good point or no real point, but I'm not going ot automatically dismiss it and say "nothing to see here" out of blind faith and homerism..
This post was edited on 8/18/25 at 11:40 pm
Posted on 8/19/25 at 12:56 am to wdhalgren
Strength of the front 7 are obviously the LBs. DL itself has potential. No one there that'll keep the OL up at night trying to game plan for.
Someone has to step up and become an anchor for the group.
Someone has to step up and become an anchor for the group.
Posted on 8/19/25 at 5:27 am to Darindawg
The UGA LOS has underwhelmed the last 2 seasons...especially last season. We were spoiled after the 2021/2022 seasons. While I have no idea what to expect, it's pretty obvious the key to this year's team will be how well that LOS plays. I could see an 8-4 type season. I hope not.
Posted on 8/19/25 at 7:20 am to Darindawg
Defensive line serms like a question mark, but as others have pointed out, there is some quality depth.
Speaking of rumblings, the JJ Hanne guy from Germany may have been underrated as a recruit and appears to be playing well in camp.
Speaking of rumblings, the JJ Hanne guy from Germany may have been underrated as a recruit and appears to be playing well in camp.
Posted on 8/19/25 at 7:27 am to grey
They had to dial him back 
Posted on 8/20/25 at 7:51 am to Chip82
quote:
Individually, the DL is stacked with an incredible amount of talent.
If they can work well as a unit, the DL will be exactly what Kirby envisioned.
Per Brooks Austin, Kirby said Gabe Harris measures at 6'4 275 and predicts him to start at DE. That is welcome news for the Dline.
Page 1 of 3
Latest Georgia News
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News