Georgia Offensive Coordinator, James Coley Sugar Bowl Press Conference
A lot has been said about the performance of the Georgia Bulldog offense, though seemingly none of those things said have come from the offensive coordinator, James Coley himself.
Today, that changed as Coley had his press conference prior to the Sugar Bowl.
Here are the highlights from the above presser:
"We came here the day before yesterday after practicing at our facility and the guys showed up with a lot of energy, a lot of juice. It's been really fun coaching this group the last week and a half. They've embraced everything. We've got a new coach on the staff and he's brought a lot to the table and they've welcomed him. It's just been a fun time."
That new coach he mentioned, Matt Luke, has been the topic of conversation in seemingly everyone's statements, especially the energy level he brings.
"Man, I thought I had a lot of energy, but it's fun coaching with him. He really enjoys it, I mean you can really tell it's his passion. Of course, he's a head coach and he's done this for a while, but he's running up and down the field celebrating with players and coaching them hard. He's always teaching. We can be in a staff room and he's teaching the staff."
When asked his take on how things went this year on offense, Coley responded:
"Everyone's talked about the play on the outside, and the questions on Jake. But you know what? I've got to do a better job. I'm looking at myself hard, criticizing myself and busting my tail to get those things better. We do have to put some pieces in place for a quarterback in the pass game, and we have to pieces in place upfront for the running backs. Bottom line it all comes down to the players. So, how you get your players to get to reach their full potential and that's what we've been fighting all season long to get better at."
A lot has been said about Kirby Smart's identity being placed on Coley's offense and it's something that Coley addressed today:
"I don't really see it a system that Kirby wants to run, or that we are forced to run this type of system. No. We as a staff sit down and see what gives us the best chance to beat certain teams. It's who you have out there and who you are trying to feature.
I don't think it's what I want to do is being held back. No, whatever I want to do has been done.'
Coley has been Jake Fromm's quarterback coach for the last two seasons, and he defended the quarterback's performance this season:
"If you look at the stats, Jake's performance with Lawrence Cager in the game was something like 71% completion, and when Lawrence Cager was not in the game it's a lot lower. So, has he regressed or have the stats regressed? I'd say the stats regressed. I'm around Jake every day if anything Jake's sharper because of the multiples that he's had to deal with with the new guys in the lineups."
