Georgia outside linebacker Walter Grant made 21 tackles last season and started in eight of the team's 14 games.DEFENSIVE LINE
The Bulldogs are unique in having five seniors up front with Michael Barnett, Michail Carter, Tyler Clark, David Marshall and Julian Rochester. Barnett is a 2015 signee and therefore one of the lone holdovers from the Mark Richt era, while Carter, Clark, Marshall and Rochester were all four-star members of Kirby Smart's first class. Carter and Rochester were injured throughout spring drills but have practiced this month. Clark, Marshall and Jordan Davis carried first-team status into preseason camp, with the 6-foot-6, 320-pound Davis earning Freshman All-America honors last year after tallying 25 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and four starts at the nose spot during the second half of the season. Justin Young, Devonte Wyatt, Tramel Walthour and Malik Herring also are back, with the Bulldogs adding Zion Logue, Tymon Mitchell, Bill Norton and Travon Walker this past winter.
LINEBACKERS
Smart is seeking more "havoc" plays from a defense that did not have the same pass-rushing presence last season as the year before, when Lorenzo Carter and Davin Bellamy were seniors. The Bulldogs look for improvement on the outside through both the maturity of Walter Grant and Azeez Ojulari and the additions of Jermaine Johnson and Nolan Smith. Grant played in all 14 games last season and started eight, while Ojulari had his redshirt season protected by playing in just three games, with one of them including extensive action against Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Johnson and Smith arrived in January - Johnson as the nation's No. 1 junior college prospect out of Independence (Kansas) Community College and Smith as the No. 1 high school prospect out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Tae Crowder, a former running back, and Monty Rice were the first-team inside linebackers entering August, but expect Quay Walker, Robert Beal, Nate McBride and five-star early enrollee Nakobe Dean to play a lot inside as well. It's the same with Adam Anderson and Channing Tindall on the outside, with former five-star Brenton Cox having left the program early this month.
SECONDARY
As Jake Fromm is to the Georgia offense, so is senior safety J.R. Reed to Bulldogs defenders. Reed signed with Tulsa in 2015, transferred to Athens in 2016 and sat out that season, and he has been a stout leader ever since, having racked up 145 tackles and four interceptions in 29 career starts. He is joined at safety by junior Richard LeCounte III, who arrived at Georgia in the more common way lately - as a five-star signee. Reed and LeCounte team with cornerbacks Tyson Campbell and Eric Stokes, who each had starts at the corner spot opposite NFL first-round pick Deandre Baker. There are multiple possibilities when the Bulldogs get into nickel and dime packages, with senior Tyrique McGhee, juniors William Poole and Mark Webb, sophomore Otis Reese and redshirt freshman Divaad Wilson figuring prominently into those plans. Wilson suffered a knee injury last year that knocked him out for the season until the Sugar Bowl, when he had four tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup. Three touted freshmen who enrolled early - Lewis Cine, DJ Daniel and Tyrique Stevenson - could earn playing time quickly.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Rodrigo Blankenship has seemingly kicked for Georgia since the Vince Dooley era, having broken through as a redshirt freshman in 2016 by making a game-winning field goal at Kentucky and then keeping his helmet on moments later when he was interviewed by the SEC Network. Blankenship has been remarkably reliable, making 53 of 64 field-goal attempts (82.8%) and all 154 of his extra-point tries. He is just as automatic when it comes to deep kickoffs with 82 touchbacks last season in 94 attempts. Punter Jake Camarda made the SEC all-freshman team last year by averaging 42.6 yards on 43 attempts, notching three punts that covered 60 yards or more. Mecole Hardman handled most of the return chores last season and is now with the Kansas City Chiefs, with returning running backs Brian Herrien and James Cook combining for five kickoff returns a year ago and Stokes making one punt return that went 27 yards at Missouri.