An early look at Georgia's depth chart

Now that the spring football season has settled down, I wanted to take a brief look at Georgia's depth chart to try and pinpoint some of the things to look for as the Dawgs head in to fall practice.

First, the basics:

You can peruse the post-spring depth chart here.

A couple of things immediately stand out: first, the Dawgs are going to have a need at receiver - while they have Massaquoi set as flanker, split-end at present is set to be filled by Kris Durham. The Dawgs have never really had a true step-up receiver in the Mark Richt era, and that may or may not change this year.

I say may for the following reasons: Massaquoi has shown flashes of brilliance (Georgia Tech 2006 comes to mind), but he also remains maddeningly inconsistent, with the ability to disappear from games at times. In addition, Georgia will certainly look to use AJ Green at some point during the season - and he has the ability to be really, really special. Freshman receivers are typically a big gamble - no one really knows how Green will perform next year, but everyone assumes he'll be really special by year 2 or year 3.

You need to look no further than Vidal Hazelton or Patrick Turner at USC to see that talented receivers can be a gamble - and often aren't all that productive in their first couple of years. Of course - you can also look at Reggie Wayne at Miami as an example of what truly talented receivers can do at the college level in their freshman year. Bottom line: it's a mixed picture. A lot of Green's development rides on how Eason utilizes him and develops his route running skills. Many Georgia partisans have a lot of questions about Eason's coaching ability, especially given Georgia's prior track record with supposedly 'special' wide receivers. If Green doesn't develop quickly, there's going to be a lot of folks scratching their heads trying to figure out why - and Eason is likely to get a lot of heat for that.

The second thing: does Georgia ever rebuild on defense? Wasn't it just last year we were really concerned about young linebackers and corners, especially once we learned Paul Oliver wouldn't be back in 2007? This year's defense looks absolutely stacked, even given the fact that we essentially lost our biggest pass rusher in Marcus Howard. A lot of folks are high on Jemery Lomax at DE for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that pretty much anyone Georgia has plugged into the spot over the last eight years has wound up All-SEC or better. Roderick Battle at the other DE is more the more obvious choice for All-SEC honors, but the point remains: despite losing Marcus Howard, Georgia's pretty much going to just plug in a replacement and be just fine.

The questions at linebacker? Gone. Last year we were all fretting over a very young linebacking corps, and this year...well, everyone's pretty much sold on them as All-SEC performers. Dannell Ellerbee and Rennie Curran are the two main components to the corps. Again, Georgia seems to just be able to clone random linebackers at will, place them in their scheme, and reap the rewards. It's almost scary how efficient it is.

As SMQ noted a couple of weeks back about the defense:

The stars on the defense are still more prospective than fulfilled, with the possible exception of scout favorite Jeff Owens in the middle of the line, but it’s very possible the defense will field a lineup made up entirely of guys rated in the top dozen at their position out of high school. This is exceptional recruiting, retention and development: at worst, there won’t be a regular on the defense who was ranked outside of his position class’ top 25 by Rivals, and even the feted units at USC and LSU can’t say that across the board. All the noobs in the secondary are now upperclassmen who ended last year by holding André Woodson and Colt Brennan to their worst games of the season.

Yes, you read that right: a defense with potentially more talent than USC and LSU. We'll see how that pans out, of course - but there's nothing in Georgia's recent history that leads me to worry too much about the defense.

As for the offense, some of the key components that have been missing over the past couple of years are finally snapping in to place. A smart recruiting strategy and focus on the basics have finally led to a more efficient - and powerful - offensive unit for Georgia as a whole.

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