The Georgia Bulldogs return just four defensive starters from last season’s Southeastern Conference championship team.
Those four are not required to view that as a negative.
“Honestly, it’s fun,” senior defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter said. “You get to rebuild. It’s like being a little kid with all these Lego pieces just trying to put something together to make a huge tower. You’ve got guys with the same amount or even better talent who just don’t have the experience yet.
“Some of our guys now are even better athletes. D’Andre Walker didn’t play a whole bunch last year at outside linebacker, but when he was in the game, you knew it. The moment they’re called upon, they’re going to show what they have.”
Ledbetter and junior tackle Tyler Clark are Georgia’s lone returning starters in the defensive front seven, with cornerback Deandre Baker and safety J.R. Reed back in the secondary. The Bulldogs had 13 of their top 14 tacklers returning before last season, but the ratio this year is six of 14.
This has left third-year defensive coordinator Mel Tucker with a significant overhaul he compared to 2011, when he was in the same role with the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL.
“I think we had maybe eight or nine new starters, and they were all free agents,” Tucker said. “Then they were coming off a lockout deal, so we had a spring training camp which was pretty tough. Every year there are different challenges.
“Every time you have a new player, you have a new defense, so we work really hard to develop all of our guys and get them ready to go. I’m excited about what we might be able to do.”
Georgia’s defense was headed last year by outside linebackers Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy, inside linebacker and Butkus Award winner Roquan Smith and safety Dominick Sanders. Carter started multiple games and Sanders every game as freshmen for the 2014 Bulldogs, but this season’s defensive leaders arrive from different directions.
Very different directions.
Georgia’s defensive representatives at SEC Media Days this summer were Reed and Ledbetter, with Reed having started his career at Tulsa and with Ledbetter having been suspended the first six games of the 2016 season due to a pair of alcohol-related arrests. Ledbetter even was taken off the roster for several weeks by coach Kirby Smart.
“I started seeing the gifts that I was turning away and that I was potentially about to lose after all the hard work I had put in just to get to the University of Georgia in the first place,” Ledbetter said. “It was all about to go out the window if I didn’t grow up.”
Said Tucker: “”It’s a credit to him. He’s a good young man, and he has always been. I think he has learned from the past.”
Ledbetter is coming off a junior season in which he compiled 38 tackles and 5.5 tackles for loss, including an 8-yard sack of Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield during Georgia’s memorable double-overtime triumph in January’s Rose Bowl. Reed sat out the 2016 season after transferring from Tulsa and started all 15 games last year, finishing second on the team behind Smith in tackles with 79.
Reed had a knack for producing in Georgia’s biggest games, making nine tackles at Notre Dame, eight against Florida, a season-high 11 at Auburn and seven in the Rose Bowl.
“J.R. is a guy who has stepped up as a leader for us,” Tucker said. “He’s comfortable with his teammates. He is establishing himself as a player who can produce on the field. He is very unselfish and helps other players.
“When it comes to his character – he is an impeccable guy.”
The biggest potential star of this year’s defense is Walker, who has played in 41 career games but has yet to make a start. Walker had to wait behind Carter and Bellamy but came off the bench a season ago to rack up 40 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks.
Like Ledbetter, he also had an 8-yard sack of Mayfield in the Rose Bowl.
“I feel like everything happens for a reason, and there was a reason they were playing in front of me,” Walker said. “Now it’s my turn to show what I can do and show that I know the game a lot better. I can’t just come in with the mentality of making the play.
“I have to know the game and my opponent, and I have to be prepared for anything that can be thrown at me.”
There are a slew of other defenders who could emerge this season, ranging from five-star freshman cornerback Tyson Campbell to Notre Dame graduate transfer defensive lineman Jay Hayes. It’s a Lego tower for Tucker and his staff to assemble.
“Only time will tell if we’re as successful as last season, but the standard of performance hasn’t been changed,” Tucker said. “We are coaching our players and trying to develop them and teach them in a way that they can reach those standards. We always want to play great defense here, regardless of who the players are.
“There are always going to be new players stepping in and great players leaving, and it’s our job to get them ready. That’s why we’ve recruited well. We expect these guys to step in and play great defense for us.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.