Game Prep: The Evolution of Georgia's Offensive Attack

While Kirby Smart's reputation as a head coach is mainly tied to his defensive prowess, the Bulldogs will trot out an offense that, compared to just a few years ago, would be unrecognizable to many.

If you were to ask a college football fan back in 2019 what comes to their mind when they think of Georgia's offense, most if not everyone would unquestionably come back and say "A run-heavy football team who likes to line up under center, be physical upfront and let their running backs lead them to victory."

At that time, most Georgia fans would have no reason to dispute this logic, as in the past 35 years, the Bulldogs have had an astounding eleven running backs get drafted somewhere in the first two rounds of their respective NFL draft. The thing however, that Georgia fans would warn every opposing fanbase now is that they haven't forgotten their roots, but Georgia's offensive repertoire has expanded to where they no longer need to heavily rely on their rushing attack to win. 

A Changing Of The Guard

This change in offensive philosophy began with a change at the offensive coordinator position. Current offensive coordinator Todd Monken was hired back in January of 2020 in order to help Georgia's offense catch up to the offensive evolution that has taken place for the better part of the last decade. 

When talking to the local media in a presser back on August 11th about his offensive style, he discussed how the way in which the offense operates is as simple as just throwing the pigskin around more, that there's more to than meets the eye.

"[The question is] fair in the fact that I do like to throw it. I think people think that I don't like to throw it. And I'm paid to score. I'm not paid to win..." Monken explained. "There's a big part of that where they think that Kirby [Smart] dictates what we do on offense; no... He dictates that we be explosive and that we utilize our personnel to do everything in our power to win games."

A Man Of His Word

When watching what Georgia did in their dismantling of the Oregon Ducks back in week one, it's clear that Monken wants to use multiple types of plays and formations to spread the wealth on offense because they have the weapons to do so.

They'll call screens to the edges where their extremely athletic tight ends in Brock Bowers or Darnell Washington can either catch the pass or serve as the primary blockers. They'll use play-action bootleg to get Stetson Bennett IV, who's quite fast at QB, on the move outside of the pocket, making the defense either bite and allow  a potential explosive pass to go to a receiver like AD Mitchell or sit back and let Bennett scramble for easy yards.

The Bulldogs will also use pre-snap motion where they'll not only see what kind of defensive coverage they're facing, but also can either overload one side of the field for a numbers advantage, or hand the ball off to a quick shifty weapon in Ladd McConkey.

Bottomline, this isn't your older sibling's Georgia Bulldogs who will try to lean on your defensive front for sixty minutes and win a war of attrition. Georgia can now attack a defense both horizontally and vertically in both the running and passing games on offense, so needless to say, the Gamecocks will have their hands full from a strategy standpoint in this SEC East matchup.

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