Bryan Evans up to speed at safety
Bryan Evans, shifted to safety after some disappointing results early last season at cornerback, is getting rave reviews in Georgia’s spring practice.
He’s listed as the No. 1 free safety, and all indications are that he and Reshad Jones are pretty solidly entrenched for now as the starting safeties.
Mark Richt said Evans’ skill set is a good fit for safety: “He’s always been very strong. He’s fast. He has no problem with contact. And he’s very smart, and safeties, quite frankly, have a bigger responsibility in the defensive scheme to make adjustments and things like that. And it hasn’t been difficult for him.”
Also, Evans has been a force as the Georgia defense attempts to regain some swagger lost last fall.
”He’s probably got as much spirit out there as anybody,” Richt said. ” He’s enjoying what he’s doing, practicing with high tempo and high energy. I think that’s really a good sign he’s enjoying it and understands it and is doing a nice job with it.”
Almost from the afternoon in mid-season 2008 that he shifted to safety, Evans – now a senior – has said he wishes he’d made the move sooner. He started the first five games of last season at corner, got notably burned a few times, then backed up at safety the rest of the way.
He talked with his friend, Tennessee safety Eric Berry, upon making the move. Berry told him the new position would allow Evans to better use his speed in open areas. Evans also thinks his athleticism and fondness for big hits serves him well at the position.
Georgia didn’t practice Wednesday but will be back at it today and Friday, the sixth and seventh sessions of spring ball.
Richt was unexcited by the most recent practice on Tuesday. “It didn’t fire me up that much,” he said. “It wasn’t bad, but I don’t know if it was championship level, to be honest with you. The energy wasn’t quite what I had seen to that point. We’ve got Thursday-Friday this week to get back on track.”
Georgia’s spring coaches clinic, by the way, will be held today and Friday, with Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore as featured speaker.
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103 comments Add your comment
UGA Fan
March 27th, 2009
8:42 am
I think dawgfan4life is really an ignorant Tech fan. If not, shut up because it is fans like you that give other fans a bad rap!
JohnWaynesworld
March 27th, 2009
9:30 am
Yes he did get burned at corner last year (and the year before that and the year before that). It is the reason he got burned that is concerning…He was caught peeking into the backfield. That is something that plagued Thomas Davis at safety at times and is something that Evans cannot repeat doing or he will leave his cornerback teammate in bad situations.
I-DOG
March 27th, 2009
1:13 pm
Agree that we need to give Evans a chance at safety. It is a different position and I don’t think the coaches would “set him up” with rave reviews this early if he weren’t pretty darned good at it. I don’t think it is a situation where he is mediocre but we have few options. I haven’t seen our coaching staff talk up a guy like this without him going on to be a good player.
Could all be a moot point if we don’t have a good pass rush. Does anyone else think the 3-4 would work better with the group of players we have?