The Georgia Bulldogs' special teams unit has been a topic of concern for the team lately. In the spring, the unit entered the season top five in ESPN SP+ rankings. For this year, punting has had room to improve.
With a great defense that the Bulldogs have, putting them on the field in good position is important. The further back an opposing offense can start a drive, the better. Georgia's special teams unit has struggled a bit in that category. Head coach Kirby Smart spoke on pinning opposing teams inside the 20 being a weakness.
"It's really hard because you don't get many opportunities to impact the game," Smart said. "We've talked about it for three weeks. There's hardly any kickoff returns in our conference because the kickers are so good at kicking them out, so kickoff return gets negated.
"Now, a couple teams have, and you can say, 'Well, Tyriq Green ran a touchdown,' but it wasn't in SEC play. Then you go to punt returns, and across the league, there's not a lot of punt return opportunities in SEC versus SEC play."
Georgia is the only SEC team with a kickoff return for a touchdown, but it came against Western Kentucky. Georgia's special teams mainly impacts the game in terms of field position in SEC play.
"Then it's like, 'How do I flip a field?' The best way to flip a field is to have an elite punter that hits bombs," Smart said. "Our offense has been pretty efficient, and we haven't had a lot of punts.
"We've had a lot inside 50, what you call pooch punt opportunities. That's been the biggest weakness. We have not pinned people inside their 10 at the rate that we would like to, and that's probably the most glaring. There's a lot of special teams stats that are just misleading because this is where you are with kickoff coverage, this is where you with kickoff return, but they're minuscule because you don't get opportunities. You only get two or three returns every five weeks."
Georgia is currently ranked 16th in total defense, and if the special teams unit improves, that number can be higher later on in the season. Punter Drew Miller is averaging 46.1 yards per punt, and his longest punt has been 65 yards so far in 2026. Miller has six touchbacks and just six punts downed inside the 20 in 19 punts this season. For reference, Brett Thorson had only 12 touchbacks in 156 career punts at Georgia and half of his punts (78) were downed inside the 20.
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This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: Kirby Smart names 'biggest weakness' for Georgia football