The 5 Georgia football players who can best help fix the team’s two biggest problems going into 2025
Kirby Smart has made it clear Georgia has to do a better job of running the football and stopping the run in 2025. If the Bulldogs don’t, they’ll likely experience the seem sense of disappointment that they did at the end of the 2024 season.
“There’s a long list of things we can improve on,”Smart said in an interview with Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy on WJOX. “But number one, we’ve got to stop the run better.And we’ve got to run the ball better. And if you do those two things, you’re also going to help yourself on third down. Because we weren’t where we needed to be on third down. But those problems came from first and second (down).”
Some of this will fall onto the coaches to do a better job of scheming up ways to improve Georgia’s rushing attack and clog opposing rushing lanes. But much of it will be decided by how Georgia plays on the field.
The Bulldogs are a young team with plenty of unproven players at key positions. Georgia had three offensive linemen and defensive linemen drafted a season ago.
So if Georgia is going to improve in running the ball and stopping the run, it’s going to need some new impact players to emerge.
Below are five players we think will go a long way in determining if Georgia can improve at running the ball and stopping the run.
Joshua McCray, running back
McCray likely won’t be Georgia’s leading running back. We expect that to be Nate Frazier.
Frazier led Georgia in rushing last season with 671 yards to go along with 8 rushing touchdowns. He’s looking to build off of that as he becomes a key leader for Georgia in 2025.
McCray, who transferred in from Illinois following spring practice, will be a much better barometer of how competent Georgia’s rushing attack will be in 2025.
Consider that in 2023, Georgia had Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards in the backfield. Milton was the flashier and more explosive runner. But Edwards kept Georgia on schedule and in manageable third-down situations.
Edwards finished with 881 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns that season. McCray replicating that would be a massive win for the Bulldogs and their rushing attack.
Even if McCray simply matches what he did for Illinois last season — 607 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns — that should keep Frazier from having to do too much to elevate Georgia’s ground game.
Monroe Freeling, left tackle
You could also go with Earnest Greene here, as he is expected to kick over to the right tackle spot. Both were highly touted players as prospects and both battled injury during the 2024 season.
Georgia did not get good enough tackle play in 2024. The best teams under Smart have always had great offensive tackles. Be it Andrew Thomas, Broderick Jones or Jamaree Salyer, having a great tackle makes things easier for the rest of the offensive line.
Georgia’s interior of the offensive line, at least in the early part of the season, will take a step back from where it was a season ago as it replaces NFL draft picks in Dylan Fairchild, Jared Wilson and Tate Ratledge.
That makes it even more imperative that Freeling and Greene play better than they did to end the 2024 season.
Drew Bobo, center
We’re double-dipping on the offensive line. No position group needs to show more growth from 2024 to 2025.
Bobo started two games for Georgia during the 2024 season, filling in for Wilson in wins over Auburn and Mississippi State. Both of those games came at home and were against teams that finished with a losing record, but Bobo played well in those performances.
What makes Bobo so important for Georgia next season though is that the Bulldogs don’t have great depth at center behind Bobo. The Bulldogs brought in UCF transfer Waltclaire Flynn but the redshirt freshman has zero starts in his college career. The same can be said for redshirt freshman Malachi Toliver and 2025 signee Cortez Smith Jr.
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Bobo needs to stay healthy for Georgia in 2025 if the offensive line is to play up to its potential. Injuries were a major problem for the group last season, which led to underperformance.
Jordan Hall, defensive lineman
Hall may not even end up starting for Georgia. But they’re going to need the redshirt sophomore to play a crucial role for the Bulldogs.
Christen Miller is viewed as the leader of the defensive line room. Xzavier McLeod impressed at times in 2024, his first year in the program. Georgia also brought in the No. 1 defensive lineman in the country in Elijah Griffin. Because Georgia saw Mykel Williams, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse all leave for the next level, the Bulldogs have plenty of snaps that need to be replaced.
That is where Hall comes in. Injuries prevented him from doing much in 2024, as he played in only the final six games of the season.
Georgia has plenty of unproven yet talented defensive linemen that it needs to make an impact this year. No one fit this description better than Hall, as he was a 5-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class.
Traditionally, your third-year players are your best. Think Travon Walker, Jalen Carter, even Jalon Walker a season ago. It would do Georgia a lot of good if Hall played up to their caliber.
CJ Allen, linebacker
Chris Cole and Justin Williams generated a ton of excitement this spring with how they might be able to impact the defense.
But they might best be used in obvious passing situations. When it comes to defending the run, Allen is Georgia’s best option.
Recent history indicates Georgia linebacker CJ Allen shouldn’t be overlooked as he enters junior season
As a sophomore, he finished second on the team in tackles with 76. At 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds, Allen is a throwback linebacker who is more likely to punish opposing players inside the box rather than flowing from sideline to sideline.
Because of how Georgia sets up its defense, the inside linebackers are almost always the most productive players. Allen had only 3.0 tackles for loss last season.
If Georgia’s run defense is to return to being one of the best in the country, he’s going to need to create more negative plays in the run game. Doing so would allow Cole and Williams to also best utilize their skill sets
