Georgia football has had a ground and pound for a long time, and while there have been times the Dawgs aired it out, the rushing game has always been the main emphasis. The Dawgs are RBU for a reason, and that’s because they usually depend on those talented running backs to win them games.
While that is still something that can happen in college football, the main emphasis has turned to these air raid offenses that rack up massive amounts of yardage and produce so much explosiveness, defenses usually cannot keep up with them.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has a difficult decision to make, but it shouldn’t be a tough choice because it’s past time to evolve the Dawgs offense.
After the Alabama game, it’s beyond evident that the Dawgs must do something with its offense.
Georgia football is long overdue for an offensive evolution.
It’s not going to be just a quarterback change or anything like that. Instead, it’s going to be an adjustment to make running the ball a second option instead of doing it first.
This season, Georgia did an excellent job of using its wide receivers more than they have in years past, along with finally making the tight ends a top priority. However, still, it wasn’t enough to overcome Alabama. The Dawgs have also been pretty explosive this season, but not quite like the top offenses have been.
Look at what happened when former LSU coach Ed Orgeron did with the Bayou Bengals in 2019, he had a quarterback like Joe Burrow and then brought in a passing coordinator to help out the offensive coordinator. They worked together, and bam, one of the most prolific offenses ever.
Clemson made the change as well. So many schools have gone to this up-tempo, high-powered offenses to compliment their defense and have won titles. While the Dawgs still have a shot at a championship this year, this is a change that needs to happen permanently. Georgia can still have its stable full of talented running backs, but it’s time to leave that behind and join the next wave.
Here are three reasons Georgia football needs to evolve their offense if they want to win it all eventually.
Kirby Smart needs to follow in his mentor’s footsteps
Georgia football is overdue for an offensive evolution, and head coach Kirby Smart has already seen a shift like this before during his time at Alabama.
Head coach Nick Saban used to be one of the most anti-fast offense people in college football. He despised the up-tempo, super-fast offenses until he learned more about them. We all know the Tide won national championships in 2011 and 2012 with two of Kirby Smart’s best defenses.
Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M provided the Tide with their lone loss in 2012, beating them with this quick offense, and that seemed to have sparked Saban’s attention. Lane Kiffin came into the picture in 2014, and thus the evolution began.
Smart was there for all of that when they began recruiting different defenders with speed and athleticism over the big guys Alabama was used to getting.
When the Tide started shifting the offense, it caused a shift in the defense, and Smart could adapt. He has already done this at Georgia, now comes the decision to do the same thing with his offense.
His mentor did it, and sometimes you need to copy the mentor because they know a thing or two. There is a reason Saban has seven national championships, and part of that is his ability to evolve the offense.
Kiffin came in, and while the stats didn’t immediately show the offensive improvement, it did help carry it on after he left the program in 2016. He implemented a faster, more open offense that read defensive zones like a robot. He turned a scout team quarterback into one of the SEC’s most lethal in Blake Sims, and well, the rest is history.
Smart needs to remember how he felt when that evolution began to take place and start to do it at Georgia. It’s time the Dawgs get with the program and hire a passing coordinator to help with Todd Monken.
That helped Alabama, it undoubtedly helped LSU, and it helped make two national titles happen for Clemson. Regardless of whether they were called passing coordinators or not, someone on staff understood up-tempo offenses that could successfully throw it all over the field.
While there have been eight different offensive coordinators at Alabama since 2007, Kiffin sparked a new identity to the Tide, and away they went from under-center to lining up in the shotgun and doing whatever they wanted to because they could. It continued with Brian Daboll, the offensive coordinator during the 2018 national title, yup that one.
Then Steve Sarkisian came in 2019 and 2020 to put together one of the most explosive offenses ever to brace a college football field.
The point here is, Smart’s seen this evolution before and how much it helped Alabama take that next step into becoming what it is today. He needs to go back and take some notes because that needs to be the next step in Athens. This ground and pound offense worked for a long time, but it no longer works especially in the postseason.
More explosive offenses equal even more talent for Georgia football
Another big reason Georgia football should evolve their offense is for guys like Jameson Williams and those like him to come to Georgia instead of the other schools they seem to choose over and over again.
The Dawgs have had plenty of success recruiting, but I’m talking about getting these dynamic NFL-type receivers who want the ball 10 times a game to impress scouts. Yes, Georgia has guys like George Pickens, Jermaine Burton, and other talented guys, but they don’t get used like John Metchie, Williams, and the others.
Thankfully, there are quarterbacks like Gunner Stockton, Brock Vandagriff either coming or at Georgia, so there is a start, but they need guys to get it to them. This offseason needs to feature both of these guys to see what they can do for Georgia, and if they’re not ready, the Dawgs need to go after a throwing machine.
It takes elite dynamic passing games to win national championships complimented by their rush attacks. Georgia already recruits running backs well, and yes, they are recruiting well. Still, there is a different caliber of playmakers they miss out on sometimes that could be in Athens if the offense just took a step in the right direction.
These high-powered offenses, like the last handful of teams to win the national title game depend on quarterbacks to throw it almost 50 times a game, and well, Georgia doesn’t have that right now. Stetson Bennett averages around 20 throws a game, so it won’t work when asked to do more against a team like Alabama.
Joe Burrow threw 49 times in LSU’s national title game. Trevor Lawrence had 32 pass attempts in his last title game appearance. Mac Jones threw it 45 times last year when the Tide won, and Bryce Young threw it 44 times last weekend.
There is a trend here, and Georgia is sitting the quarterbacks capable of this on the bench. If they want to win a title, they have to throw when they want to, not when they have to.
The Dawgs are already recruiting exceptionally well, but they don’t always get the kind of playing time they want or need to get to the next level.
While they have landed some of the top playmakers in the last couple of years, look at what Alabama has on their wideout roster and then tell me there is no difference — you’d be wrong too. They are similar, but if the Dawgs had a Metchie or a Williams on this team, lord knows what could happen.
Change is a good thing for Georgia football if they want to win championships
Georgia football doesn’t need to be afraid of change. Sometimes it feels like head coach Kirby Smart doesn’t mind this ground-and-pound offense because he is a defensive-minded guy. However, if he wants to win championships, he will have to do some work with his offense.
The first step was hiring a guy like Todd Monken, but now let him run the offense and be creative with these talented playmakers. Monken knows what he is doing, and with the right personnel, this offense can be great.
Georgia spreads the wealth, but at the same time, the focus is still on being able to run the ball.
Throwing the ball more isn’t a bad thing. It’s something most offenses try and do nowadays. Look at Ole Miss, Alabama, Ohio State, heck, even Florida for a little while — they all are explosive on the offensive side of the ball. One of them has a good defense in Alabama, while the others are still figuring that out. However, they know if they score 50 points, they can usually win games.
Georgia’s got the defense, and now they need to take the leap of faith and change the offense. Some kids may leave, but so be it. The Dawgs want to be elite. Well, they have to match the offense to the defense.
Some may say, well, we did it for 12 games this season, yeah, but look what happened when Georgia needed explosiveness against a defense like Alabama. Smart is intelligent enough to know by now something has to happen. Run-dominant teams aren’t going to win national championships anymore.
The Dawgs need to be explosive, throw the ball without a care in the world and make their opponents pay that way. It’s past time to change the offense. It was past the time in 2012 when Georgia fell to Bama in the SEC Championship.
Georgia has been good enough but not great enough to win it all. The Dawgs may win it all this season, but that doesn’t mean they should keep this stagnant offense even then. Evolution happens naturally, and it’s the logical next step for the Dawgs.