ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia football coach Mark Richt clearly sits with a glass half full when it comes to the pass defense of the Bulldogs.
After allowing 153 receiving yards and two touchdowns to Louisiana-Monroe’s Rashon Ceaser in the season opener, the Bulldogs enabled Vanderbilt quarterback Johnny McCrary to throw for a career-high 295 yards last Saturday. Georgia outscored the Warhawks and Commodores by a combined 82-28, forcing both opponents to throw more than normal, but the Bulldogs rank 12th among the 14 Southeastern Conference teams in pass defense entering Saturday’s game against visiting South Carolina.
“It’s early in the year, so stats do get skewed pretty good,” Richt said this week. “When teams are behind, they do start chunking it, but you could have said how great we were in the run category. Part of it is because we got ahead of people and they were slinging it.
“They didn’t stay true to maybe what their game plan was. I just think the stats are a little skewed early on.”
Georgia has been stout against the run, holding ULM and Vanderbilt to an average of 75 rushing yards per game and 2.3 yards per carry.