ATHENS — There’s a new name in Georgia’s secondary.
Actually, there are a few. But when No. 20 trotted onto the field with the No. 1 defense Saturday against Clemson, a lot of folks were sent scrambling for their game programs.
No. 20 belongs to JaCorey Thomas. The junior from Orlando, Florida, was first in the game at the Bulldogs’ all-important nickel-back position, which they designate with the name “star.” The consensus had been that sophomore Joenel Aguero had won that job in preseason camp. But unbeknownst to the masses, Aguero suffered a pulled hamstring in Georgia’s final full-contact practice of the preseason.
That made Thomas the proverbial “next man up” among the Bulldogs’ defensive backs. For the 6-foot, 205-pound athlete, his first career start has been a long time coming.
“Honestly, I really didn’t know,” Thomas said of finding out he would start Saturday. “You just come out there to play every day. So, I really didn’t know I was coming in first at the beginning. We have a lot of different packages. If we’d had started out in (regular), I wouldn’t have been on the field. But we started in nickel, so I was out there for the first (snap).”
Fortunately for Thomas, his mother was there to witness her son’s first career start.
“She was pretty happy,” Thomas said with a smile.
Thomas didn’t play the entire game. His total of 19 snaps represented 33% of the Bulldogs’ defensive plays against Clemson. But he saw plenty of action. Fourteen of the plays in which Thomas was on the field were passes. He even got his hand on one, recording his first career pass breakup.
“PBUs,” as the DBs like to call them, are somewhat of a specialty for Thomas. If you want to play in Georgia’s secondary, they need to be.
“It mostly about not panicking,” Thomas said. “Usually when the ball comes, the receiver’s eyes get big and his hands go up. So, when you think the ball is coming, you try to break their hands away from the ball. If you try to go for the ball, you might miss it. But if you rake one or both of their hands, it’ll be a way-harder catch.”
In some situations Saturday, the Bulldogs rolled All-American safety Malaki Starks into the star position and brought in freshman KJ Bolden at free safety. A 5-star freshman out of Buford, Bolden actually played more snaps than anybody else on Georgia’s defense, with 49.
“KJ’s like a lot of our other freshmen, really developed,” Thomas said. “This fall camp and this past spring, the kids like him that came in early have really developed. They’re doing great as they come into this family and culture.”
Bolden made one of the day’s best defensive plays on Clemson’s first offensive series. Facing third-and-10 at their own 20, Tigers running back Phil Mafah seemed to have a lot of room to run when he hauled in a pass in the right flat. But Bolden came in like a blur from deep in the secondary and took down Mafah for a 2-yard gain, and Clemson was forced to punt.
“KJ is very confident,” Smart said of Bolden. “He’s played more football than most seniors, been playing since he was 6 years old in the heart of Atlanta in one of the toughest leagues there is to play football. So he’s played against older kids all his life. He’s extremely athletic. The moment’s not too big for KJ. He’s very gifted athletically, but he also has great football instincts and intuition.”
Freshman cornerback Ellis Robinson also got into the game Saturday. Generally, though, it takes some time earn one’s spot in the Georgia secondary.
That certainly has been the case for Thomas, who probably would not have guessed that his first career start would come at star. Most of his work at Georgia has been at one of the two safety positions. From there, he played in 19 games his first two seasons, including 13 of the Bulldogs’ 14 games last season. He has 11 career tackles to his credit.
Georgia defensive backs always cross-train, so Thomas was ready when his name was called to play nickel back Saturday. The hope for the Bulldogs is that Aguero will be able to return to action this week, but those prospects remained uncertain as of Monday.
Utilizing Thomas, Bolden and Starks as a sort three-way adjustable wrench is fine with Smart.
“They did a tremendous job of knowing what to do from three different positions,” Smart said. “We really need to get Joenel healthy, but I thought JaCorey stepped up and took advantage of his opportunity.”
Thomas vows to be ready wherever he might needed.
“We just need to get better every week,” he said. “We always have something we need to fix or something that could be improved on. That’s why we have a goal to get better every week.”
About the Author
