What kind of impact has Daniels made?

Welp, there’s certainly the statistical impact, both from a team perspective…

Georgia’ scoring average rose from 29 to 41.7 points per game since Daniels took over and its total yards jumped from 382.8 to 498.3. The Bulldogs passing yards grew from 209.3 to 279.7 a game and rushing output from 173.5 to 218.6. Third down conversion percentage zoomed from 42 to 67.

… and a positional one.

It’s a relatively small sample size, but Daniels’ 187.87 passing efficiency rating in his three games as starter, would rank fifth nationally in the NCAA stats which requires playing in 75 percent of a team’s game.

That would put Daniels one spot ahead of Trask and ahead of former Georgia and now Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence who currently rank 10th and 11th.

… Daniels has completed 66.7 percent of his passes against a schedule of Mississippi State, South Carolina and Missouri, teams that combined to go 10-20. The Bulldogs had a 52.4 completion percentage in the first six games with Stetson Bennett and D’Wan Mathis with a tougher slate.

It’s fair to note the level of competition Daniels has faced, although it’s also fair to counter with the point that of the six defenses Georgia faced before Daniels became the starter, Georgia’s passer rating exceeded the opponents’ defensive passer rating in only two of those, Auburn and Tennessee, and even in those two, it wasn’t by much.  With Daniels in charge, Georgia’s offense is 3-0 in that regard, and by significant margins against Mississippi State and Missouri.

But I would argue that the greater impact has come strategically.  Consider this quote from Eli Drinkwitz after Georgia dismantled Missouri’s defense:

On trying to limit George Pickens and his production: “Well, we gave up 316 yards rushing. We were trying to load the box and if you load the box you leave the wideouts one-on-one it is kind of pick your poison-type deal. We felt like we needed to stop the run and we weren’t able to do that unless we put extra people in there and that opens up the passing game. It just wasn’t very effective today.” 

My fellow Dawg fans, as far as I’m concerned, “kind of pick your poison-type deal” is the Holy Grail.  Kirby can have his impose your will, but I want a guy who can call a game for which the defense doesn’t have the answers.  The last three games have shown me that Daniels has given Monken the missing element he’s needed to do just that.

And don’t think Cincinnati hasn’t noticed.

“I still don’t think he’s unleashed all he can do,” said Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell who is preparing his team to play Georgia Friday in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta. “When you run the ball, you got as good an offensive line as they have, you don’t have to kind of sit your quarterback back there and do all those different things. I can see where they’re probably slow in the maturation, and say, ‘Hey, just don’t get him everything. We might get away from some of the things we do really well just because he throws it so well, has such a touch,’ you don’t want to lose the nastiness and toughness that those guys up front bring.”

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