ATHENS, Ga. - The Georgia Bulldogs are playing the rarest back-to-back games of this Southeastern Conference football season.
Only four SEC programs have not had to change quarterbacks this year as the result of injuries. Georgia is one of the fortunate few with healthy junior Jake Fromm, and the Bulldogs are in between games against Auburn and Texas A&M.
Auburn freshman Bo Nix and Texas A&M junior Kellen Mond also have avoided the injury rash, as has LSU graduate transfer and Heisman Trophy favorite Joe Burrow.
"We do a good job of making sure that Jake gets the least amount of hits possible," Georgia graduate transfer tight end Eli Wolf said this week. "In some offensive schemes that are catered to a dual-threat quarterback, if you leave a guy, the quarterback has to make a guy miss. Texas A&M has a dual-threat quarterback who has made some plays with his legs, and that will be a challenge for our defense.
"I just think it's been a freak thing this year. You certainly don't like seeing quarterbacks go down. We've played a lot of teams that have been relying on their backups, and a lot of those backups have been doing a good job."
Florida's Kyle Trask and Kentucky's receiver-turned-quarterback Lynn Bowden have managed to help those programs absorb early season-ending setbacks to Feleipe Franks and Terry Wilson, but other schools have experienced notable dips in production. Earlier this month alone, Taylor Powell filled in for Kelly Bryant and couldn't lead Missouri to any points against Georgia, while Deuce Wallace got the start for Vanderbilt with Mo Hasan and Riley Neal nursing concussions and endured a 56-0 thumping at Florida.
Mond will be the first SEC quarterback Georgia has faced who started at his school a year ago, and this is the eighth and final regular-season league game for the Bulldogs.
"I do think they're getting hurt at a little higher rate than usual," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "I don't know if that's an outlier, or if that's going to become the norm. I think it's because the design of offenses is all NFL mentality - get the backs out, get everybody out. You don't see people max protect. You don't see people seven-man protect.
"You see people run their quarterbacks. That's an extra option to rush the ball. As offenses have grown and as scoring has exploded, so has the exposure of quarterbacks."
Smart knows he is fortunate to have an offensive line that is both talented and massive, with the average size of 6-foot-5 and 328.6 pounds making it the largest in program history. The Bulldogs also have a veteran in Fromm, who has started 38 consecutive games, the longest streak among FBS quarterbacks.
Georgia's six sacks allowed for 37 yards are the fewest for any FBS team except Air Force, which has attempted just 97 passes all season, but most teams don't have that same dynamic as the Bulldogs when it comes to protecting the quarterback against relentless rushers.
"Defenses are taking less regard for contain," Smart said. "For true base defensive principles, all they look for is, 'How can I hit your quarterback?' Right, wrong or indifferent, that's what they're trying to do. That's what we try to do. That's what everybody tries to do, so when you do that they get hit more, and when they get hit more they get injured more.
"I don't think the trend is going to go away. I think our conference and NCAA rules are trying to protect quarterbacks more, so we actually coach the decision you make to stay off the quarterback, but ultimately they're getting hit more and legally hit, and that creates more injuries, which is tough."
Last weekend's season-ending loss of Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa to a dislocated hip at Mississippi State only heightened a year of injured SEC quarterbacks, which has been a dilemma that nobody has enjoyed. Not even the defenders.
"Offenses are moving the pocket more," Georgia defensive end David Marshall said. "They move every time, and the quarterbacks have to throw off their hip every time. It's one thing to another, and injuries pop up."
Said Bulldogs outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari: "It's football, for sure, and injuries always happen. You don't wish them upon anyone, but it's football. It happens and it's sad."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.