Comparing the 2017 Georgia football team to the 2002 Bulldogs after six games
Offenses trying to find their identity
Georgia’s offense going into 2002 was very similar to the offense going into 2017. The 2001 offense scored at least 30 points in every victory except for the Tennessee game. However, they were held to less than 20 points in all four losses.
The 2001 Bulldogs had a decent offense that played well against inferior foes but fell apart against good defenses. The 2016 offense was very similar. Both left a lot to be desired heading into the following seasons.
The offenses were also similar in the fact that they each featured young but clearly talented quarterbacks playing with a mature and high quality run game. David Greene and D.J. Shockley handed off to Musa Smith. While Jake Fromm and Jacob Eason hand off to Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.
The conundrum of both offenses was to establish an offensive identity. The run game was not that great in 2001. Smith, Verron Haynes and Jasper Sanks combined for 1,577 yards. While the 2016 run game produced much better numbers (2,333 for top three rushers), offensive line play casted doubts on how good the run game would be in 2017.
Turning complete control of the offense over to the quarterbacks seemed like a viable option given the talent at the position. Greene and Shockley earned recognition as two of the best to ever play quarterback for Georgia. Jacob Eason had an amazing true-freshman year while Jake Fromm is an impressive leader for a true-freshman.
The identities of the 2002 and 2017 ended up being different with mixed results. In 2002, Georgia strived for as balanced as possible. Smith ended up being Georgia’s first 1,000-yard rusher in 13 years and Greene passed for 2,924 yards.
However, the offense looked stagnant at times. They needed a touchdown by David Pollack to beat South Carolina. And Georgia only scored 13 points while giving up a touchdown on an interception against Florida. Against the best defenses, the 2002 Bulldogs still couldn’t seem to put everything together.
But in 2017, after taking a couple of games to figure out their identity, Georgia finally settled on a run-heavy attack. The results speak for themselves.
Against Appalachian State and Notre Dame, Georgia tried to play balanced. In those games, they scored 51 points and racked up over 600 yards. But everyone could tell that the offense looked vulnerable.
Since then, they decided to rely on Chubb and Michel. Georgia went from an average of 27.5 points to 35 per game. Yardage per game has also increased from 347 per game to 414.
At this point in 2002, Georgia’s offense still seemed deeply flawed. But after six games in 2017, the Bulldogs looks good enough to outscore anyone considering that the defense isn’t going to allow many points.