Dogs’ defense vows to force more turnovers

By TIM TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For three weeks, the AJC will look at how the Bulldogs are addressing deficiencies on last year’s team. Today: Forcing turnovers.


Athens — In his daily remarks to the media this month, Georgia coach Mark Richt has unfailingly mentioned the interceptions made or fumbles recovered on the practice field by the Bulldogs’ defense.

One day, Richt raved, linebacker Darryl Gamble had four takeaways — two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. Another day, Richt said, “Everybody’s getting in on the act.”

This much should be kept in context: most of the takeaways have been the work of the first-team defense versus the second-team offense, often with freshmen quarterbacks on the field.

Still, Richt can’t be blamed for noticing when a defender intercepts a pass or causes/recovers a fumble.

Because, well, such things didn’t happen often last season.

“We’re putting a lot of emphasis on getting turnovers and trying to score on defense,” Gamble said. “We know we didn’t do a great job of getting turnovers last year.”

In fact, only seven of America’s 119 major-college teams gained fewer opponent turnovers last season than Georgia, a deficiency that exacerbated the Bulldogs’ other defensive problems.

Georgia had only 16 takeaways last season — 11 interceptions and five fumble recoveries — and dramatically improving those numbers ranks high on the Bulldogs’ 2009 repair list.

There’s plenty of room for improvement, to be sure. Georgia had less than half as many takeaways as, say, Florida, which had 35 en route to the national championship. Oklahoma, the Gators’ opponent in the BCS title game, had 34. So it’s not an insignificant statistical indicator.

“It’s going to be big for us to get turnovers this year,” Georgia safety Bryan Evans said, “because the offense can feed off that.”

And the offense might need the inspiration, without Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Mohamed Massaquoi.

Georgia hopes improvement in several related areas will add up to more turnovers. Improved pressure on the passer would force opposing quarterbacks into more errant throws. Better ball-catching skills on defense would reduce the number of dropped interceptions. And a more intense defense would jar more fumbles loose.

“We have to play hard enough, fast enough, to make those things happen,” Richt said.

Last year, only three major-college teams — Tennessee, Washington and Washington State — recovered fewer opponent fumbles than Georgia’s five.

And last year, remarkably only one player in Georgia’s secondary had an interception — safety Reshad Jones with five. The team’s other six interceptions came from defensive end Demarcus Dobbs (2) and linebackers Gamble (2, both returned for touchdowns in the win at LSU), Darius Dewberry (1) and Dannell Ellerbe (1).

“I think we take it personal that we didn’t have the interceptions we wanted last year,” Evans said. “This year we come in with the intention that anytime we get a chance to get an interception, we’re going to take it.

“We worked on that a lot this summer, a lot of ball drills. I think it has pretty much showed in camp because we haven’t dropped many picks. We’ve got better judgment on the ball in the air. Hopefully, when we transition into the season, we’ll keep coming up with plays.”

Said cornerback Brandon Boykin: “Knowing we didn’t have a lot of turnovers last year, we came out and worked hard on our ball skills. Just the intensity we have is going to allow us to get more turnovers.”

Improvement will be needed from the get-go. Coming up with turnovers in the Sept. 5 opener at Oklahoma State seems as good an idea as any for interrupting the Cowboys’ high-powered offense, which averaged 40.77 points per game last year.