Big offense, or big offensive players?

Two noteworthy items from today’s Seth Emerson’s piece, inspired by Burton’s departure for (presumably) greener pastures ($$):

First, I love this quote from Terrence Edwards.

“I don’t think you necessarily have to have these gaudy stats to be thought of as a high draft pick,” said Edwards, pointing out that he himself wasn’t drafted. “But kids and parents love stats.”

Chicks will always dig the long ball.

Second, stats.

• Georgia is the first college football national champion since 2008 to not have a 1,000-yard rusher or receiver. (Florida that year was led in rushing by Tim Tebow with 673 yards, and in receiving by Louis Murphy with 655 yards.)

• Georgia this past season was also the first team in SEC history to gain at least 6,500 yards without a 1,000-yard rusher or 1,000-yard receiver.

The key points in each of those items perhaps being that a) Georgia won the national championship, and b) gained a healthy amount of yards (6,644, second most in the SEC and sixth most in the country).

That Todd Monken fella’s not too bad at his job.

Seth goes on to make another very good point about the offensive philosophies at Alabama and Georgia, respectively.  It’s not just that ‘Bama emphasizes the pass more; they also concentrate touches with their top players considerably more than does Georgia.  (Alabama’s top two receivers combined for 46% of the team’s total catches; Georgia’s, 31%.)  If your top guys are that much studlier than the rest, that’s sensible, but as we saw in the national championship game, it can leave you exposed if those top guys can’t play.

The point here isn’t to criticize either coach’s approach.  Obviously, there’s more than one way to skin a national championship cat.  But maybe this makes it a little easier to understand Burton’s decision while also showing that Georgia’s offense may be built well enough to survive it.  Or, to put it another way, I’ll sweat Monken’s departure, when it happens, a lot more than Burton’s.