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Slowly but surely, Georgia’s lineup for the Sugar Bowl is coming into focus. Suffice it to say, it’s not going to look much like it has all season.
That’s particularly true on the offensive line, where the Bulldogs are having to replace two full-time starters and a part-time starter in left tackle Andrew Thomas, right tackle Isaiah Wilson and right guard Ben Cleveland, respectively. That’s not to mention that they’re under the direction of a new position coach in Matt Luke.
Thomas and Wilson are skipping the bowl to prepare for the NFL Draft, and Cleveland is academically ineligible to play. According to player interviews after Georgia’s practice at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, their replacements are going to be sophomores Cade Mays and Jamaree Salyer at the tackles and redshirt freshman Warren Ericson.
For the Bulldogs, it means the future is now.
“I kind of look at it like camp,” said Salyer, a 6-foot-4, 325-pound sophomore. “Learning a new coach, learning new faces, learning new things to do. But I’m having fun with it. It’s a great new experience and I’m loving it.”
To add to the newness, the group is under the direction of a new coach. Luke replaced Sam Pittman a few days after Pittman accepted the head coaching job at Arkansas. Luke, a career offensive line coach, was fired as Ole Miss’ head coach a week earlier.
“They’re just different coaches,” Mays said after Georgia’s practice Saturday. “They’re both great coaches, both very successful. I’d say it’s just their style of coaching. Coach Pittman is really solid. … I don’t know, they’re just different. They teach things differently and just see the game a different way.”
Salyer concurred: “(Luke) is definitely different. He’s an upbeat guy. He has a lot of fun doing what he does. He’s a great coach, he’s very good at what he does, and I respect him a lot. It’s almost like no drop-off.”
Salyer has one career start, which was at right tackle in the second game of the season. He played mostly guard as a backup his freshman season, then mostly right tackle this season. He has participated in 12 of 13 games.
Mays is the most experienced of the group. He has started 10 games this season and has played every position on the line, including center. He started one game at left tackle for an injured Thomas in the third game of his freshman season. This year he has been Georgia’s primary starter at right guard.
Ericson is the big unknown. The 6-4, 315-pound redshirt freshman has played in only five games in his career, and those opportunities all came in late-game situations against vanquished opponents. He signed with the Bulldogs as a center, and that’s where he worked in practice most of the season.
“He’s looking real good,” Salyer said of Ericson, a 4-star prospect when he signed with Georgia out of North Gwinnett High School. “He’s getting a lot better during these practices, honestly. It’s like night and day. He’s been at center a lot, but to move to right guard and be able to do the things he does is ridiculous.”
The group is being offered the ultimate challenge. Baylor led the Big 12 in quarterback sacks with 43.5, including 12.5 by junior defensive end James Lynch. The Bears do so out of an unusual defensive alignment that utilizes a three-man front most of the time, but brings pressure from somewhere almost every play.
“It’s definitely a front that we’ve never seen before,” Mays said. “It’s a new front, a new scheme we’re not really familiar with. But we’ve gotten in the film room and we’ve got a good game plan for them.”
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