Centered

Maybe Hutson Mason has a point.

Two years ago, Hutson Mason was entering his first and only full year as Georgia’s starting quarterback. As the new captain of the offense, Mason’s head was swimming was information he had to process and act on, whether it was at practice, team meetings, or before the snap in a real game.

But Mason had some valuable help: David Andrews, a senior center and third-year starter.

“He had seen everything in the book,” Mason recalled this week. “He had seen every blitz we could possibly see. Every stunt. Every twist. That was really awesome for me.”

“You’ve got to have a guy whose intelligence, and has football smarts,” said Mason, who is now working at Georgia State as a quality-control staffer. “Ben Jones was the same way. If you ask David, having that guy ahead of him to pass the torch to him, really helped.”

“I can’t speak for the complexity of coach (Jim) Chaney’s gameplans on a week to week basis, but I’m sure if Jacob Eason ends up starting he’s going to have a lot on his plate,” Mason said. “A lot of nerves. I’m sure the coaches are going to try to simplify things and take things off is plate, let him rely on his talent, try not to think too much. ..

“I’m sure the coaches have looked at that, and said: Especially if we’re going to have a young guy at quarterback, how great it is to have Kublanow there to help.”

As Seth Emerson notes, Georgia tended to have happier times with experienced centers, which certainly wasn’t the case last season.  Perhaps this is why:

When Mason was Georgia’s quarterback, then-offensive coordinator Mike Bobo had a complex offense and put a lot on centers and quarterbacks to make checks at the lines and read the blitzes. And it required the quarterback to be on the same page as his offensive line, especially the center.

The unanswered question, of course, is how much of how disjointed Georgia’s 2015 offense looked can be laid at the feet of a new center and how much can be attributed to the way the scheme around him was implemented.  I have no idea as to either, but perhaps we’ll get some idea as this season unfolds.

17 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football

17 responses to “Centered

  1. Russ

    I still say losing Andrews in the Florida game hurt the most. We’d have won with a healthy Andrews in there.

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  2. Cojones

    His downfield blocking for runners didn’t hurt either. Man, what a player and the Patriots have Andrews-appreciation as well.

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  3. 69Dawg

    Centers have to be smart but they also have to be able to hold their own with Nose tackles a whole lot bigger than they are. remember the epic battle between Ben Jones and Mount Cody. Ole Ben did everything he could but pull a gun on him. He didn’t always win but he sure tried.

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  4. CB

    “The unanswered question, of course, is how much of how disjointed Georgia’s 2015 offense looked can be laid at the feet of a new center and how much can be attributed to the way the scheme around him was implemented.”

    Don’t overthink it, we had zero talent at qb, a thin largely inexperienced receiving corps, and we lost Nick Chubb. That’s why the offense was bad. I don’t care how smart David Andrews was. He couldn’t have made Lambert more decisive, he couldn’t have made Ramsey more accurate, he couldn’t have healed Chubb’s knee, and he couldn’t have made Godwin older and experienced.

    Now if we had that entire offensive line back and Will Friend to coach them up…

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    • Macallanlover

      “zero talent”, total BS. So typical of UGA fans to eat their own and make hyperbolic statements to make their points. Lambert wasn’t Aaron Murray, or David Greene, but get real. There was a lot more wrong last season on offense than just the QB, and center was just one.

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      • CB

        We got Lambert off the bench from an ACC school that won 4 games last season. Think about it, Lambert was so bad that dawg fans look back on Huston Mason favorably.

        And, you’re right there was a lot more wrong. Like I said, Chubb got hurt, and we were thin at receiver. Did you even read the whole comment?

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        • Macallanlover

          I read it, very unimpressive. Go attack another team, and its players. Your mind is closed, and wouldn’t get much about this game even if it were open. Go hang with the other doofuses you heard this from, one person couldn’t be so wrong all on their own. Don’t like Lambert? Just say so, the opinion is whatever you want it to be, but stick to just those words, you get lost trying to sound like you get what you obviously don’t.

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          • CB

            An entire paragraph of condescension without a shred of facts or even an attempt to support your own argument? If you don’t like what I have to say then refute it. I’m very open minded, please prove me wrong. I don’t have a problem with Lambert, but he is what he is, and he probably isn’t getting any better. God love him he’s trying his best, but he’s pretty clearly one of if not the worst QB in Athens since Richt took the program over.

            Not sure how old you are, but one thing I learned at a young age was not to argue if you can’t defend your position regardless of how passionate you are about the subject. How’s that for a condescending retort?

            Sucks to suck bro. Go home and read a book.

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            • Macallanlover

              LOL. You cannot condescend from your present level, slick. Not worth the argument to me.

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              • CB

                That’s what I thought.

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                • Jared S.

                  Kind of playing devil’s advocate here….
                  His original point was that your assessment that we have “zero talent” at QB is unfounded. And I agree with him here. You don’t set an NCAA record throwing 24/25 in a game with “zero talent.” You don’t throw 12 TDs and only 2 INTs in a season with “zero talent.” Is Lambert great or even good? Maybe not, but he’s not awful. And he doesn’t have “zero talent.”

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                • CB

                  Zero talent was clearly hyperbolic. I feel like that goes without saying. I’d say Lambert is pretty awful. The one game at SC aside it’s he was the least productive QB we’ve had probably in my lifetime.

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  5. W Cobb Dawg

    Meh. We found ways to lose 3 games we should’ve won (scu, fu and gtu).

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  6. Saxondawg

    This point isn’t “overthinking” at all. I wondered all season about the inconsistency of an OL that came into the season highly regarded. Unless I’ve got it wrong, Sale, the OL coach, wasn’t on the same page as Schottenheimer. Sure, we struggled at QB, but an undependable OL contributed more to that than people realize.

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  7. And I thought I had an ego problem! Macallanlover writes a lot, says very little, and waits for the applause! It’s a blog for chrissakes and your opinion is about as valuable as my mom giving tips to my little league coach! It was embarassing and served little purpose! Mike Potter

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  8. Losing Ryan Kelly is a bigger concern for me than which QB will start at Bama this year. Hard to replace a guy like Kelly.

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