Why Georgia’s defense will be elite again after slipping

Georgia hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2022 season. It seems that most of the focus in on whether the Bulldogs will score enough points to end that drought.

Will play-caller Mike Bobo really open up the offense? Can quarterback Gunner Stockton make more big-time throws? Does he have any top-notch targets to catch them?

Those are legitimate issues, but I’m focused more on Georgia’s defense. Can the Bulldogs get back to yielding little to every opponent?

Georgia won back-to-back national championships while smothering the opposition in nearly every game. The Bulldogs were one-and-done in the playoffs for two seasons in a row as their defense declined from elite to very good.

Before last season, coordinator Glenn Schumann acknowledged that Georgia’s defense didn’t meet its standard in 2024. The group was marginally better in 2025, but still well short of the elite standard set from 2019 to 2023.

This is the year that Georgia’s defense meets the standard again. The group returns nearly all its key players from 2025. Coaches have simplified the defensive scheme so players can play faster.

Schumann said the message for players hasn’t been about improving any specific statistical category.

“You have to be better at everything,” Schumann told reporters in Athens this week. “Ultimately, to have an elite, championship-level defense, you cannot have any weak spots, especially in the format we’re in now, where you have to win postseason games back-to-back-to-back.

“You better be well-rounded and complete and not have any weaknesses. The goal, like I said, is to create the culture and identity of what we want to be and then make sure that we do not have any of those weaknesses.”

Schumann’s unit has a lot of flaws to fix. Inconsistency has been an issue for two seasons in a row.

The Bulldogs stymied three high-scoring teams in 2025: Texas, Mississippi State, and Georgia Tech. Georgia couldn’t stop two high-scoring teams: Tennessee, and Ole Miss (twice).

Ole Miss eliminated Georgia in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. The Rebels scored 39 points while gaining 6.5 yards per play. That was after the Bulldogs held Alabama to seven points and 3.8 yards per play in their SEC championship game victory.

Now, talent and experience should intersect to make Georgia’s defense elite for every week. The group is benefiting from coach Kirby Smart’s strategy of paying to retain players rather than spend for the best players in the transfer portal.

According to ESPN analyst Bill Connelly’s formula, Georgia’s defense ranks fifth nationally with 71% returning production (based on statistics that are most predictive from year-to-year and including transfers). The defense returned just 51% of its production in 2025.

This year’s returning players will execute a simpler scheme.

“The older guys get, the simpler it feels,” Schumann said. “There’s a reality there that people always use this expression about, ‘Well, the game’s going to slow down.’ Well, that’s kind of an unfair statement, because then guys just sit around and wait for it to slow down for them and then they feel like if the game’s not slowing down to them, ‘Well, there’s something wrong with me.’

“It’s a coach’s job to speed the players up, so that they’re playing faster.”

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Bulldogs make opposing offenses look helpless from week to week.

From 2019 to 2021, Georgia’s defense ranked No. 1 in Connelly’s opponent-adjusted SP+ efficiency metric. The unit was third in 2022 and fifth in 2023. Great defensive players left for the NFL during those years, but Georgia kept fielding elite defenses.