Georgia football: Jim Chaney is beginning to prove us wrong

KNOXVILLE, TN – SEPTEMBER 30: (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Georgia football is coming off its second straight blowout of an SEC opponent and its fourth blowout win in five games.

It was just three weeks ago that Georgia football fans were disgruntled with their offensive coördinator Jim Chaney. And it’s easy to see why. I was certainly one of them. I even put Chaney on my list of Bulldogs who needed to step up twice.

During the 20-19 win over Notre Dame on the road, Chaney threw Jake Fromm into the fire with 29 pass attempts in the true freshman’s first start. Meanwhile, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel only carried the ball 13 times each despite both averaging over 4.8 yards per carry. The Bulldogs won, but it’s easy to see why fans and media thought the offense could have scored more points.

At that point in the season, the defense was playing like they had no equal. But with a struggling offense, the thought was that the defense would have to carry the team, to victories.

Now five games into the 2017 season, the defense is still a top-notch unit. But, they haven’t had to carry the team like we had thought. A week after the nail-bitter in South Bend, Georgia cruised to a 42-14 win over Samford.

But of course they would. It’s Samford. Georgia should score 42. Chubb should rush for 100 yards. Fromm should only need 13 pass attempts.

Mississippi State the following week was supposed to be the real test. Those Bulldogs crushed LSU the week before. Their defense was going to ground a Jim Chaney led offense just like so many teams did in 2016, and just like Notre Dame.

And then the offense surprised us. Georgia scored 31 points and would have scored more if not for the bad call and review on D’Andre Swift’s fumble. Fromm passed for 201 yards on just twelve attempts and nine completions. As a team, the Bulldogs rushed for 203 yards. The offense fired on all cylinders.

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Certainly this wasn’t going to last though. Surely Tennessee would slow down Georgia’s offense. The game was in Knoxville, the Volunteers were going to rally behind Butch Jones again and give him and those fans a prideful victory.

At first that was the case. Georgia only managed a field goal after a game-opening interception in Tennessee territory. And they needed some big catches by Terry Godwin and Javon Wims to score a touchdown in the first quarter. But overall, the offense was worrisome after one-quarter.

Something changed after that. Fromm had three positive plays on scrambles (two first downs and a touchdown). The offense didn’t need much more to run free for the rest of the afternoon.

Fromm only passed for 84 yards, but that’s all he needed. Chubb, Michel, Swift, Fromm, Brian Herrien and Elijah Holyfield all combined for 294 rushing yards and the Dawgs scored 41 points in the shutout victory.

Now almost halfway through the season. The narrative has changed again. Georgia has gone from split preseason favorites to get blown out by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, to a team with a great defense that will carry the team to Atlanta. And now, Georgia is beginning to look like a complete team.

The offensive line that was thought to be the achilles heel, looks pretty good. They’re not an élite unit, but they’re doing their jobs well. The running backs and receivers are playing as expected. And Jake Fromm has been a pleasant surprise.

But Chaney deserves a lot of praise as well. He came up with great game-plans in two-straight weeks. He found what works and he is sticking to it. Pound opposing defenses with the stable of backs. And when he needs to pass, he’s giving Fromm easy routes and a green light to run.

Besides that, he’s running a faster offense that Fromm appears very comfortable in. And he’s compensating for the offensive line’s weaknesses by running the power offense he wants out of pistol and shotgun formations. That game-plan has outscored two SEC opponents 72-3.

The defense is the main reason why Georgia is 5-0 right now. I’m sure Chaney will call that group and staff a blessing to work with instead of against. But Chaney is finally coming into his own as Georgia’s offensive coördinator.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time. The game against Vanderbilt, that I called Georgia’s most likely loss for seven months, now looks like a cake walk for Georgia’s offense. The defense will definitely stuff their offense, while Alabama and Florida showed off Vandy’s depth issues on defense.

After that, Chaney’s offense plays the worst defense in the SEC at home against Missouri. Then comes a bye week. This offense will have it’s identity and a lot of confidence going into a game against Florida, whose defense hasn’t really looked as great as the media predicted them to be.

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From there, Georgia is home free to Atlanta. Auburn on the road will be a huge test with their defense. But it’s doubtful that they are the team that keeps Georgia from playing in the SEC Championship game.

No longer are we looking down the schedule to see who has the defense to shut us down. Five games into the season, I think we can be as confident in the offense, that we already were with the defense.

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