How ‘warrior’ Khalil Barnes, Georgia defense neutralized Ole Miss

ATHENS — Kirby Smart isn’t shy about Khalil Barnes’ journey.

Georgia didn’t make enough of an effort to recruit him from nearby North Oconee High School. He ended up signing with Clemson, where he spent his first three seasons.

Georgia quickly pounced on Barnes in the transfer portal this offseason.

Saturday night’s performance showed why Georgia so badly wanted Barnes and why Smart owned his recruiting goof.

“He’s very instinctive,” Smart said. “I just think about the plays he’s made, and tackles, and the sack. He does exactly what he’s coached to do.

“And he’s a tremendous kid that we’re dumba---- for not taking him out of high school. So I’m just glad he’s here with us now.”

Barnes did a little bit of everything for No. 2 Georgia in its 42-7 win on Saturday. He had an early pass breakup. He picked up a sack of Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, something the Bulldogs failed to do in two meetings against him last season.

Immediately after Barnes’ second-quarter sack, Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann sent Barnes after Chambliss again.

Instead of taking another loss, Chambliss made a bad play worse and chucked the ball into the air.

KJ Bolden easily walked under it for his second interception of the season. He was surprised such a veteran quarterback like Chambliss would make such a critical mistake after Ole Miss had finally gotten into the red zone.

But Bolden has become accustomed to seeing Barnes make winning plays.

“He’s a warrior, man,” Bolden said. “He gives you his best every day. He’s a leader. You know, he does the right thing. He’s just, a guy you can look up to for sure. Like, even me and him almost being the same (age), hey, I can kind of look up to him a little bit. Cause he just do things the right way, man.”

Barnes finished the night with three tackles to go along with his pass breakup and sack.

The Georgia defense smothered Chambliss all night. He had just 170 passing yards on 34 attempts to go along with the interception.

It was a far cry from the 362 yards he threw for against the Bulldogs last season.

Georgia finished with five sacks in the win, tying its season high in a game.

Smart shared that the Bulldogs did some things differently in practice this week.

“I thought that the way (Glenn) Schumann decided to practice really helped us,” Smart said. He did things a little different this week, because we knew so much about him (Chambliss), and we practiced kind of a different way. And it helped calling the game and messing with their tempo and messing with the quarterback.”

But the personnel for Georgia on Saturday was also different. The Bulldogs haven’t gotten much from their transfer portal class but Barnes has been an obvious home run.

“He’s just a hard worker,” Bolden said of Barnes. “Like, he’s a hard-nosed guy. Like, KB, you’ll never see him doing the wrong thing, basically. Like, he’s one of them guys like, he’s always doing the right thing, man.”