Georgia second-year defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt used his first preseason news conference this month to stress his desire for the Bulldogs to play with more consistency.
Pruitt used his second news conference Monday evening to remind folks that only five of the 11 starters from a year ago are back. The Bulldogs are having to replace six 2014 senior starters: defensive linemen Ray Drew, Mike Thornton and Toby Johnson, inside linebackers Ramik Wilson and Amarlo Herrera and cornerback Damian Swann.
“Those six guys played hard for us, and they had been around for a while,” Pruitt said. “It’s going to be hard to replace those guys. It’s hard to just plug in 17- and 18-year-old guys in place of guys who are 22 or 23.
“We’re in the process of building and trying to create our identity, and we’ve got a ways to go with that.”
The Bulldogs were noticeably better in Pruitt’s debut season than they were in Todd Grantham’s fourth and final year as defensive coordinator in 2013. They went from allowing 375.5 to 337.2 yards per game, as well as going from 29.0 to 20.7 points allowed per game.
Safety Dominick Sanders and outside linebackers Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd are the only players Pruitt considers to have had a lot of experience.
“It happens everywhere, and it’s nothing new,” he said of the replenishing process. “We’ve just got to do it.”
Georgia practiced for nearly two hours Monday in full pads. It was the 18th practice session of the month and the first since Saturday’s second scrimmage.
Though he tempered expectations somewhat and refused to single out touted freshman defensive lineman Trenton Thompson when asked about the newcomers, Pruitt was not shy in his praise of second-team outside linebacker Davin Bellamy. A 6-foot-5, 241-pound redshirt sophomore from the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee, Bellamy appeared in 10 games last season, tallying 17 tackles and two tackles for loss.
Head coach Mark Richt said after Saturday’s scrimmage that Bellamy dominated the second-team offensive line, and Pruitt was asked Monday how Bellamy was performing and if he was a notch below the likes of Jenkins, Floyd and Lorenzo Carter.
“I wouldn’t say he’s a notch below any of those guys,” Pruitt said. “He might be the best one. He works really hard out there. He’s physical, and he likes the game. He can play every down.”
Odds and ends
Inside linebackers Reggie Carter and Tim Kimbrough returned to Monday’s practice, as did fullback Quayvon Hicks. The quarterback rotation in the portion of practice open to the media had Greyson Lambert taking first-team snaps, with Brice Ramsey working with the second team and Bauta the third team. Georgia signed six defensive linemen this winter, and Pruitt said Monday that most of them have defensive end bodies compared to defensive tackle.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.