By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Jordan Hall’s post on Instagram earlier this month was short and to the point. Along with a group of photos of himself either in his Georgia football uniform or working out — plus one shot of Michael Jordan during his Chicago Bulls days — were the words “prove it.”

It’s the defensive lineman’s third season with the Bulldogs, and he’s ready to prove something to himself and anyone else paying attention.

“You play your best when you have a point to prove,” he said before practice Monday. “I know I do.”

Hall was a one-man wrecking crew during his senior season at Westside High School in Jacksonville, Fla. In his final prep season, the four-star recruit had 106 tackles, including 31 for loss, and nine sacks. He hasn’t been that dominant at Georgia — yet. Part of that has been the guys playing in front of him, and part of that has been dealing with injuries.

As a freshman in 2023, Hall played in 11 games as a reserve and made 10 tackles. Last fall, after offseason surgeries on his legs cost him the first half of the season, he played in six games, with four tackles.

Prior to last season, Hall was diagnosed with stress fractures in both of his legs. That meant rods had to be inserted into both, which was a physical and mental challenge for him. In the spring, Hall described it as the “hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with mentally in my life.”

“His resilience pops out at me,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said Monday, before detailing what Hall went through physically. He added, “You can usually get by with one leg maybe not being 100%, but when you’re dealing with both legs? You’re taking on two (blockers), I don’t know, 25% of your snaps. So, there’s a lot of pressure on those double teams.”

Hall is also part of a Georgia defensive line group that will look a lot different from last season. Hall and Christen Miller are the most experienced returning players, with Miller starting 10 games and making 27 tackles. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs lost Mykel Williams, Nazir Stackhouse, Warren Brinson and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, a quartet that combined for 77 career starts and 99 tackles (including 18.5 for loss) last season.

“The standard of the D-line room is always to stop the run and be explosive and create plays and wreak havoc,” Hall said.

Hall calls it the “burden of responsibility” for defensive linemen, to fight off all of those double-teams and make plays. And this year, with a lot of true and redshirt freshmen in the mix, and Miller the only established playmaker, there are a lot of guys looking to prove themselves.

“As for me and everybody else in the room, we’ve got a chip on our shoulder that we’ve got to prove something,” he said.

Smart said he doesn’t need to wait for Saturday’s season opener against Marshall at Sanford Stadium to know what the defensive line will be like this season. He sees it each day in practice.

“These guys, they’re going to war every day. So, striking blocks, getting off blocks, running to the ball. I mean, who you are is on your tape. That’s your resume. It speaks for itself,” Smart said. “We show our guys every day in the team meeting. This is who you are, because this is what you put on tape, especially at the defensive line and offensive line positions. … The guys with good characteristics, good habits in practice, it’ll show up that way in the game.”

Hall has already drawn attention from one group this season, having been named to the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy Watch List. Each season, the Wuerffel Trophy is presented to the FBS player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership achievement on and off the field. With a big personality to go with his 6-foot-4 and 320-pound frame, Hall is a natural when it comes to interacting with children in the community, including at local hospitals.

As a junior who has been through a lot already in his career, Hall is enjoying taking a leadership role on the team.

“It’s something I always wanted to be, especially coming here,” he said. “So having that weight on my shoulders, I feel like I’m handling it pretty well — doing the best job I can.”

Hall’s girlfriend, Sydney Harris, is a sprinter on Georgia’s NCAA Outdoor national championship track team. She was part of the Bulldogs’ title-winning 4×400 relay squad, and she’s a two-time All-American. While he acknowledges that she would probably crush him in the 400, he said they’ve talked about doing something like a 40-yard race to “kind of make it even,” given that he is more than twice her size.

That race will have to wait. There’s a football season to be played, and it starts Saturday.

 

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.