Jenkins and Geathers on the same line? And more defensive notes

The assumption has been that if Kwame Geathers had a good spring, he could have a chance to push incoming recruit John Jenkins for playing time at nose tackle.

As it turns out, Geathers is playing so well that he and Jenkins could end up playing together.

“We play with three (on the defensive line). There’s nothing etched in stone that those guys have to be at nose,” Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “We’ll see how it goes. We’ve got a couple different packages.”

So the 340-pound Geathers or 361-pound Jenkins could play end.

“There ain’t a rule against it, is there?” Grantham said, smiling.

Geathers played sparingly last year, and the team pushed hard to sign Jenkins to fill the much-needed nose guard position. But with Jenkins not due to arrive on campus until May at the earliest, Geathers took advantage of all the snaps in spring practice.

“His arrow is up,” Grantham said of Geathers.

Defensive line coach Rodney Garner said Geathers has improved his use of hands in the trenches, and is “playing stouter.” The competition with Jenkins may have spurred Geathers, but Garner thinks a natural progression was in order.

“Obviously he’s a year older. The kid’s just a redshirt sophomore.”

A few more notes from the defensive coaches after Thursday's final spring practice:

- Secondary coach Scott Lakatos said a decision will be made later on whether Sanders Commings will play safety or cornerback. That could depend also on how the incoming freshmen look.

“We’ll sit down some point after recruiting and go through position by position and see what our depth looks like at that time and see what the best crew (is) we could put out there,” Lakatos said.

Commings only spent one day at safety in spring camp before suffering a concussion. He's likely out for the G-Day game.

Entering camp, Shawn Williams had the edge at the other safety spot over Jakar Hamilton, and due to Hamilton's injury, that hasn't changed.

- Abry Jones seems to have solidified his first-team spot at one end spot, opposite DeAngelo Tyson. As far as the backup end, Garrison Smith is a bit ahead of fellow sophomore Derrick Lott.

“Garrison is a little bit more comfortable in knowing what to do,” Garner said. “That’s probably him playing last year in the system a lot more than Lott did. We’ve got to continue to improve Derrick’s knowledge in what to do so we can turn him loose and play him faster.”

- At inside linebacker, it appears Richard Samuel and Brandon Burrows are ahead of Mike Gilliard for the backup spots. Christian Robinson and Alec Ogletree seem entrenched at the starting spots.