In the 2018 season, Georgia’s defense recorded eight interceptions, caused 17 fumbles (recovering 10) and had 65 tackles that resulted in 252 lost yards.
In 2019, coach Kirby Smart wants to see more of the same, beginning with spring practice.
“A couple of things we want to establish this spring. We want to increase our havoc rate on defense,” Smart said. “That’s one of the main target areas. We want to be more disruptive, and the only way you're going to be more disruptive is practice being disruptive, so we’ve gotta do that.
“We’ve gotta create more lost-yardage plays, more negative situations, and that’s something we’ve really worked on. And we’ve done studies on the top 10 teams last year in havoc, and we're trying to do some of the things they do, and we’re trying to put guys in position to do that.”
When asked his thoughts about creating more havoc, senior safety J.R. Reed said Tuesday that he’s taking a “no defects” posture on the field.
“My job is to catch those interceptions that I dropped and tell those guys we’ve got to strip the ball and get the ball off those runners and create (pass break-ups),” said Reed, who last season had two interceptions and two pass break-ups. “We don’t want anyone (on the opposing offense) to catch anything – that’s our job in the secondary.”
Reed was not seen on the field Thursday during the practice periods the media was permitted to view.
Thursday’s session was the second of 15 days of spring practice, which concludes with G-Day on April 20 at Sanford Stadium.
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