I don’t care how stout Georgia’s defense may be this season, I don’t think any realistic fan believes the Dawgs can win a national title, or probably even a conference title (Alabama’s defense is going to be very good, too), with a repeat of last year’s offense. I don’t think Kirby does, either, which is why he replaced Coley with Monken.
The $64000 question is how much freedom does the head coach intend to give the offensive coordinator. Obviously, you’d think Monken pressed for more initiative to structure the offense and call plays than Coley was given, but is this a bridge too far for Smart?
“Really what I took away from (the Air Raid) was being able to throw to win,’’ Monken said after being hired by the Cleveland Browns last year. “That really to me was the Air Raid. You had a certain amount of run game, you ran a lot of the same concepts and you could throw to win. That was really it. Like any offense, it works a lot better if you have good players.”
No, not the Air Raid part — the bit about “being able to throw to win”. That’s what LSU did to shred Georgia in last year’s SECCG, so Smart knows first hand about its effectiveness, but is he really willing to make that kind of jump? Honestly, I have no idea. What do you guys say?
Get The Picture 
I kind of doubt it, but I hope I’m wrong.
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Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it. I really hope he’s changed.
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If 2015 was an unsatisfying 10 win season, I think you can probably see from some commenters how 12 wins last year was just as unsatisfying. I’m not one of them.
I think you have to have some semblance of balance to win … and I don’t mean early Bobo balance. I mean you have to be able run and throw effectively. Edwards-Helaire had an excellent season running the ball in addition to Burrow’s passing game. Last year we were effective and then we weren’t.
You don’t have to throw for 5,000 yards to win a title. Running for 2,500 with 3,500 passing would be just fine with our defense.
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I see what you did there with your headline, Senator.
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I was wondering if anyone would notice.
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If Nick Saban could change, Kirby can change. I hope.
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Kirby is ultra competitive – likely obsessed with wining it all – he will do what he needs to do.
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In this Hogbody’s humble opinion, Kirby’s occasionally impulsive decisions under pressure are just as important an issue.
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He forgets to HC sometimes , trying to DC
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Honestly, I have no idea….(alternative to manball 2021)…as the HC @ UGA evolves/learns/grows in that position, he also will become more comfortable in that skin…hence changes come and go, do you believe the OC @ UGA would take that job knowing there would be handcuffs or in the interview process that play calling freedom had to have been an issue…we will believe also that the OC’s resume had more interviews than just UGA, i get injuries change game plans and the like, if this OC is personnel specific to route running, blocking schemes and movement to produce the desired effects on the opposing d, UGA should be alot better than just fine….special teams play is a big ? for mine eyes….
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Smart was at Bama as Saban realized that Manball has limitations and the future is a pass happy offense. Maybe Kirby had dreams of the re-establishing Manball at UGA, but after last year he has to see why Saban made the move. Plus, he could have hired Bobo and played Manball with more passing, but he went for a guy who will pass and pass a lot when the defense gives him that. That’s what was missing last season on offense, and Kirby goes into 2021 without any of the causes.
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I guess I’m an exception here but I still believe in smashmouth football. What Kirby brought to Athens was a certain physicality that wasn’t there under CMR and I for one really liked that change. Last year two things happened that messed up out O: (1) Our all world O-line lost some of that physicality at times and (2) our passing game was substandard which had a lot to do with (1). When other teams figured out or WRs couldn’t get open or catch it they would rush 4 and walk another defender into the box at the snap playing press coverage behind that. South Carolina taught our opponents to do that. That is why we had trouble on O after the SC game. You don’t have to throw 50 times a game to win. You just have to have the threat of a passing game to win if you can run it effectively too. I’m worried about that exact thing for next season. We have Pickens back and some young new very good wideouts coming in. But we still have the same WR coach. That was where the weakness was last season. I don’t see where that has been fixed. Plus, Georgia has a very tough schedule. We could see the Dawgs beat FU and still lose the East with a loss to Bama and an upset in some other game.
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I don’t necessarily think it was the coach. It could have been but we had receivers that couldn’t get off the line very well and our deep ball threat just didnt scare anyone. Hopefully Monken and Newman put some defenses on their heels. Otherwise we are looking at press with 7 or 8 in the box all day.
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You aren’t the exception as I am fully with you. We are RBU for a reason. I think the value of being able to run the ball is that you are able to be effective in play action. The fact that we were one of the lowest play action calling teams through the midpoint of the year is crazy.
The other interesting thing I saw throughout the year was how “off” the offense was. Everything on the offensive side is about rhythm and being on your spot at the right time. I liken it to acting on the stage. The actors have to be in the right spots at the right time or the whole flow of the play becomes disjointed and the audience gets confused. I felt like I saw a lot of that last year. The mesh point between QB and RB was a 1/2 step off and awkward. The routes WRs were running seemed to be “off” 2-3 yds.
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I re-watched UGA @ Clemson from 2003 yesterday. While we ran what many would today consider a “phone booth” offense, we had receivers wide open down the field because David Greene never took for granted or took a play off carrying out the fake. His body and mechanics looked identical whether he handed it to Tony Milton or kept it to sling to Fred Gibson.
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You are so right. Greene was soooooo good at play action.
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That’s why DG id my all-time favorite Dawg. The dude was a riverboat gambler/magician with his ball handling.
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Yeah. That one…
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But even aside from the “flatback rooskie” play (which was Greeney at his extreme), he carried out the fake, even after handing the ball off, the same way every time. There were no “tells” from either over-exaggeration on one play or laziness on the other…..he didn’t overly “present” the ball in an unnatural way on PA fakes. Run or pass, Greene’s movements looked the same on every single play. It was uncanny.
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The Senator made the observation of how absent play action was in our repertoire several times past season. If you watched the QB School video he posted last week, you will remember there were only a few play fakes demonstrated but the analyst (Jt Sullivan, I think?) remarked on how little they made sense from a play design stand point. Coley had a few good plays drawn up but for the most part it was head-scratching.
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He was so so good at it. A d CMR was good at teaching it then
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I don’t think he just tosses a recruiter like Coley (top notch) to the wayside just for more of the same.
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Also, by all accounts Monken was hamstrung like we’re fretting about by the HC at his last job. I’d be surprised if he’s risking his entire career by taking another job where that’s just going to happen again. Gotta imagine he addressed this up front before taking the job.
People, this is a whole bunch of worrying over one bad year of offense. Settle down. Go watch some games from 2017-2018 and take a deep breath.
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You would hope not.
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Well, if virtual G-Day was any indication, I think its more of the same old same. I swore I was watching Coley and Fromm out there.
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Heh. Well played, sir.
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The question is, how many big games will Kirby have to lose before it sinks in that manball isn’t going to win a natty? Ten years ago it was terrific. But the recent natty winners have proven they can score and win against great defensive talent. Assuming you’re going to grind out 24-21 wins in the secc or playoffs isn’t dealing with reality.
Monken, Luke and Faulkner were terrific moves in the right direction. That gives me a lot of hope Kirby has seen the light.
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I invite you to revisit the discussion on the definition of Manball. It’s all about players beating players. Nothing about play design or offensive philosophy. Coley is gone because the offensive efficiency AND the explosiveness went down.
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You mean there’s nuance to Manball? Here I was thinking its running straight into a loaded 8 man front, regardless of talent, field position, score, down or distance.
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A smart coach knows that it’s players AND plays, not one or the other. To win it all, you will have to beat a team or two that have the players to match up with you. When that happens you better be able to out-think them or else you end up losing like UGA did in 2017 and 2018.
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Sometime you lose to a team with inferior talent when the other team’s coaches out think you. Sorry, but I just got finished watching a replay of the South Carolina-Georgia game.
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Put me in the class that thinks Kirby has learned something and will have Monken play to our strengths, whatever that is. If it’s throwing the ball 60%, then it’ll at least be attempting to throw the ball 60%, until it fails or we get ahead by 2TDs. Then it’s back to RTDB.
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The biggest issue with Kirby’s manball is inability for the QB to run the ball in the zone read scheme. Even with no speed, Fromm could have easily rushed for 50-60 yards a game early in the season. Defenses ignored him and the run scheme was too vanilla. Of course a better passing game would help with some willingness to throw on first down.
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Fromm has good legs. You can bet that the reason Fromm didn’t run more last season was that he was told not to run. And the reason he was told not to run was the backup QB situation.
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I think KS will do whatever it takes to improve, but I don’t think he’ll ever embrace a wide open, pass first offense. Last year I think our QB lost his mojo because our OC was not good at keeping fundamentals at the forefront (Fromm digressed), and there was little creativity.. Then everything got real conservative because everyone lacked confidence, including KS. I sensed some change in the Sugar Bowl, but even then, it didn’t seem there was confidence to keep the foot on the gas offensively.
I look for more confidence in the pass game, assuming the QB is not reckless, with the run still being the main thing. To me the question is will we ever be willing to throw to put games away.
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Can’t believe anyone is questioning whether UGA should be able to throw to win in 2020. Dang it, this isn’t service-academy football.
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NFL Team Offense Rankings:
2019 Cleveland: Rushing 12th, Passing 22nd, Scoring 22nd;
2018 Tampa Bay: Rushing 29th, Passing 1st, Scoring 12th;
2017 Tampa Bay: Rushing 27th, Passing 4th, Scoring 18th;
2016 Tampa Bay: Rushing 24th, Passing 16th, Scoring 19th
Before getting discouraged about Monken’s numbers last season, keep in mind that over the decade before his arrival Cleveland’s offense was the worst in the NFL. I’ll choose to grade him on a curve there.
There is some reason for optimism.
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He wasn’t the playcaller in Cleveland, either.
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I was totally optimistic for wholesale changes pre-coronavirus. Now, I’m not so sure that’s even the wise move at this point. The smart teams are probably going to run about 10 plays this year.
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Tony, I totally anticipate social distancing guidelines will mandate wholesale changes on offense. 😉
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If social distancing is still in vogue the linemen will be at least 6 feet apart. We will run the spread by default – right?
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Think so. I think Kirby is playing multi-level chess, here.
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I don’t think throwing to win requires 50 passes per game. I think we throw more. I don’t think we do too much else tremendously different. Are we going to be saying ‘wow, I can’t believe Georgia is running this kind of offense?’ No. Just throwing more should keep eight or nine guys in the box to a minimum. Even the best offensive line can’t block more than one man apiece.
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That’s pretty much it. Georgia was never a threat to throw last year – be it scheme, receivers, or a regressing QB. Whatever it was – once defenses figured out that wasn’t going to beat them, we were toast. I don’t need Kirby to have the team come out and throw 50 passes a game just to prove they can. I just want to have an offense that CAN throw the ball when it needs to. Last year’s offense clearly couldn’t.
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I do not want to see an Air Raid offense on the field. I do not want to see a Manball offense on the field. I want to see an offense on the field that can and WILL take advantage of the opposing teams weakness. I want to see a team that can run it down an opponents throat for 300 yards one week and then the next week light up the opponent for 400 yards passing. Some weeks it may be totally balanced 50/50. LSU may have lit it up on the passing game last year, but they also could run it down you throat. Same with Clemson and the Breck Shampoo Guy. They may throw it a lot but Travis Etienne could take over a game on the ground when the situation called for it. UGA has the talent and the personnel to do the same thing. They just have to discover the desire and will to do it.
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This in spades. This was exactly what we did to teams from 2012-2014. We punished teams with downfield passing when defenses stacked the box against RBU. When they left the box favorable, backs ran wild behind iffy offensive lines.
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It depends on the guys on your roster.
Looking at the 2020 signing class, it skews heavily towards offense, including 5 WRs and a TE. We also brought in a transfer QB known to throw a nice deep ball.
Kirby has shown a propensity to self-scout and aggressively correct weaknesses. What remains to be seen is if another leak will spring. That was one of the hallmarks of CMR.
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lsu hadnt thrown, to win or even to lose, except the 1 season with mettenberger & OBJ, until they got another transfer QB & NFL coordinator this past season. Then he was allowed the freedom to run the O without Orgerons interference. Kirby is doing the same.
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Id be shocked if a tremendous offensive mind like monken came here to shut up and color. Hes not some kid.
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