Malaki Starks promises defensive improvement for Georgia: ‘It’s on us’

ATHENS — Georgia had two players pick up Midseason AP All-America First Team honors. One was star tight end Brock Bowers, who will now miss time after having ankle surgery.

The other is Malaki Starks, who knows more than anyone in the country how good Bowers is.

“Brock’s a leader. He’s a great leader, a great athlete,” Starks said. “The things that he does, it’s very special. I think his game is very solid all the way around. Just the person that he is really just makes him who he is.”

As his accolades show, Starks has been a very impactful player for Georgia this season. He has 25 tackles and 2 interceptions through the first seven games of the season.

With Bowers now out, Starks and the rest of the Georgia defense will need to continue to play at a high level.

“Brock is very talented, but we’ve got a lot of talented players,” Starks said. “It’s not just one player, it’s a team that makes up a whole team. We’ve got some guys who are going to step up and we all believe in everybody that’s here. If everybody steps up their game, offense and defense, individually, we’ll all come together as a group. We’re not really worried about it too much.”

Starks’ comments echo those of his head coach. Kirby Smart has cautioned against the idea that any one player is going to have to step up and drastically up their game.

No one is going to put on their Superman cape, even if Starks sometimes flies through the air as if he were the caped crusader.

“If anybody thinks they have to be Superman, they don’t need to be on our team. Because they’ll be disappointed. Superman is not real,” Smart said. “He’s dead. He’s not alive. He’s not real. You can’t try to be that guy. There is no player that we’re asking to step up and do more than you can. As a collective effort, every player is going to do more. That includes defense getting turnovers, special teams getting better field position. Other guys get the opportunity to touch the ball and make the most of it.”

Defensively, Georgia has plenty of issues to worry about outside of the injury to Bowers. The Bulldogs gave up 20 points to Vanderbilt and earlier this season surrendered their most rushing yards in a game since 2018.

One other glaring issue has been Georgia’s red zone defense. The Bulldogs have only allowed foes inside their 20-yard line 15 times this season. But of those 15 trips, 13 have ended in touchdowns. The Bulldogs rank 119th in the country in red zone defense touchdown percentage.

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