Georgia Bulldogs

Editor’s note: Each day between now and Georgia’s Capital One Bowl date with Nebraska, we will review the season for a key Bulldogs player and attempt to project what’s next. Today we’ll look at right tackle John Theus.

No. 71 John Theus
Freshman/Offensive tackle

Role in 2012: Theus came to campus as one of the highest-rated offensive linemen to sign with Georgia in years, jumped into the starting lineup in Week 1 and held onto the job all season.

The good: You can count on one hand the number of true freshman offensive linemen who have started Georgia’s season opener through the last few decades -- and Theus is one of them. He was an enormous get on the recruiting trail and immediately fit in well on Georgia’s offensive line. He mostly lived up to the advanced billing, becoming one of two Bulldogs (along with one of his roommates, tailback Todd Gurley) to earn SEC All-Freshman honors from the league’s coaches.

The bad: Without question, there were moments when Theus looked lost out there. Then again, true freshmen don’t expect to come into the SEC -- with its trademark fearsome talent along the defensive lines -- without experiencing a few hiccups. Nonetheless, he started all 13 games after initially battling with Watts Dantzler for a starting spot during preseason practice.

Crystal ball: Make no mistake, it’s a major accomplishment for a true freshman to start every single game in his first season of SEC football. Georgia’s coaches clearly have huge expectations for Theus as his career progresses. Who knows what the future holds, but it appears as though he will remain at right tackle for now. Wherever he lines up, Theus must take several steps forward to fulfill his potential, but his ceiling is unquestionably sky-high.

ATHENS, Ga. -- With suspensions and injuries damaging Georgia’s defensive depth, perhaps it is no surprise that the Bulldogs have started slowly on defense in two games thus far.

Senior defensive back Sanders Commings -- who along with outside linebacker Chase Vasser missed the first two games on suspension -- said the absences of key players produced the majority of the early busted assignments. Although Commings and Vasser returned for last Saturday’s game against Florida Atlantic, the Bulldogs were still without suspended All-America safety Bacarri Rambo and linebacker Alec Ogletree.

That, Commings said, is part of the reason opponents have already scored three touchdowns of 40-plus yards in three games, where the Bulldogs’ stout 2011 defense allowed only two touchdowns of that length in 14 games.

Further, they have already allowed 11 plays that covered 25 yards or more -- five to Buffalo and three each to Missouri and Florida Atlantic.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Michael Bennett knows there is something that separates him from other players at his position. He jokes about it all the time.

The Georgia sophomore realizes that as a Caucasian wide receiver at a big-time college football program, he is like a living, breathing four-leaf clover -- extremely rare -- but he has also been a good-luck charm for the Bulldogs thus far.

Bennett leads the Bulldogs with 265 receiving yards and, among the SEC’s top 15 players in receiving yards per game -- he ranks fifth with 88.3 -- he is the only one who is not African-American.

“I’ve proved myself throughout my whole life, being a white guy playing a black man’s position. It’s just the nature of how it is,” Bennett said with a grin. “It’s not racist or anything, it’s just the way it is. I feel like I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder in high school and then coming here. No one’s really respected me. I remember going in 1-on-1s and no one wanted to go against me because they didn’t want to get burned by a white guy.”

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia’s administration hasn’t decided whether to mount a full-fledged campaign to promote outside linebacker Jarvis Jones for the Heisman Trophy, but if Jones keeps performing like he did in last Saturday’s win against Missouri, he might not need much help.

“It is a little early,” admitted Georgia’s longtime sports information director Claude Felton. “A lot of times your ‘campaign’ sometimes can almost be conducted by someone other than the school. ESPN GameDay, Fox or CBS studio shows -- I think those types of things have significant impact, what those people’s opinions are who are on TV every week.

“I don’t know if they’ve started it yet, but pretty soon they’re going to start where every week it’s ‘Who’s in the Heisman race?’ So I think those kinds of things can be just as significant as anything the school might do.”

And the highlights don’t lie. Jones has won multiple SEC and national weekly awards after leading Georgia to a 41-20 win against Missouri with nine tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, an interception and five quarterback pressures.

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