After Georgia football’s Wednesday afternoon practice, fifth-year senior defensive lineman Michael Barnett spoke with the media and discussed what the defense, specifically the defensive line, is working on to improve during this bye week. Barnett also talked about fellow senior d-lineman Justin Young, and he also shared what he thought the identity of the 2019 Dawg defense is.
One area Barnett thought the defense could improve on as far as the d-line is their technique and execution.
“I feel like we just need to improve on our technique. Play calling, executing better,” said Barnett. “That’s just what we try and work on. We’ve got to block better, really just tune-up our craft.”
With Julian Rochester still working his way back onto the field from recovering from a knee injury and David Marshall still playing through a Lisfranc Fracture he sustained and had surgery to address last season, Justin Young has stepped up and taken a bigger role along the defensive front for Georgia. Barnett shares his impression of Young’s performance this season so far.
“I know what Justin can do; we came in at the same time,” said Barnett. “It’s like with both of us, we just have to remain consistent and execute the plays that are called, not just trying to get off blocks really quickly so it’s really about execution, both me and him.”
There has been a lot of discussion and talk about the Bulldogs identity on defense and part of that has to with creating “havoc.” Barnett says Georgia’s identity is about being relentless and wreaking havoc, but that they have room to improve.
“We put our identity out there that we want to be relentless, attack the ball, and wreak havoc; but I feel like we can always improve,” said Barnett. “There’re some areas we need to improve on.”
Barnett was asked how this 2019 Georgia defense compared to last year’s 2018 squad.
“Last year was a different team, this is a new team. You’ve got new faces on the field, you’ve got freshman coming in and making an impact, I feel like we’re just trying to make a new identity,” said Barnett. “We’re going to leave the past in the past and the future, we’re going to leave that to greatness. We’re only looking at one game at a time.”