Who will replace Rennie

Rennie Curran was a devastatingly efficient tackler. That isn't news too anyone who has watched football in the last three years. Besides being a diminutive beast of beatdown or a tornado of tackles, Rennie also took dependability to the highest possible level. Anytime he didn't smash his way to 10 tackles in a game I was shocked ( that happened 4 times this year when he played the whole game) What may be a bit shocking even to UGA fans is just how much of the work he actually did on the defense. Check these statistics:

Crazy stats

Total tackles- 877  (for the team)

Total Rennie tackles 130 = roughly 15%

The remaining 747 tackles were split between 30+ people

Rennie had the same amount of  tackles as 2nd and 3rd leading tacklers combined in 2009. He had a mere 115 in 2008, which  29 better than next closest.

Who will replace Rennie? 

Let's assume that Justin Houston and Cornelius Washington,  "CornWash", get a shot at the OLB positions.  

This is  generally considered to be a pass rushing position in the 3-4.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-4_defenset     

 Certainly Gamble could wind up there as well being that he actually is heavier than Cornwash.  However, some say he is more on ILB 

and we'll likely have  a rotation.

That leaves us with: 

1) Marcus Dowtin- Made some big plays despite having a club that looked like a pillow wrapped on his hand. 

He looked really confused (on TV) during the Tech game ( I've re-watched three times)but has been otherwise very solid and generally seems to be mean-spirited on the field. 

2) Akeem Dent- Started his career fast and  seemed to hit a plateau, albeit a fairly good one. Still he has good speed and makes his fair share of plays

3) Nick William- He has certainly been preparing for the  next phase, but not as quickly some thought. He'll provide some speedy depth at least.

4) Akeem Hebron-  It would take on heck of a year for him to NOT go down in history as one of those who did not live  up to his Army AA expectations.

5) Chase Vasser -  Nobody really knows yet

 Rennie didn't do everything (he had exactly two force fumbles,  and zero int's ((though one very notable PBU)) and only one fumble recovery in 2009)

 but what he did do was tackle anything that wasn't wearing red and black.  

With 284 total career tackles ( in only three years)he ranks ahead of Thomas Davis and David Pollack.  That kind of production will be tougher to replace

than most would care to admit.