Georgia football: 3 Reasons Stacy Searels is an outstanding hire
Stacy Searels has the talent to work with within the Georgia football program
One of the biggest concerns from the Georgia football fans is the number of sacks that North Carolina has given up in the last few seasons with Stacy Searels as the offensive line coach.
Georgia allowed just 16 sacks in 15 games last year, so fans don’t want to see that number go up if it doesn’t need to.
Matt Luke did a great job with pass protection, but he wasn’t the person out there blocking — it was the players, which most of those guys return in 2022.
The Tarheels gave up 49 sacks in 2021, 34 in 2020 and 37 in 2019. Those numbers aren’t great, and they are downright bad, but that doesn’t mean it will happen in Athens.
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When Searels coached at Georgia the first time the Dawgs were a team that rarely gave up sacks. In his first season with Georgia, that unit, which had three starting freshmen on it, gave up 15 sacks, which ranked No. 13 in the country.
In his second season, Georgia gave up 17 sacks, which ranked No. 21 among the other college teams. His third season, 2009 was his best because the Dawgs’ offensive line gave up just 12 sacks on the year, which was No. 6 in the country.
Then in his final year, the Dawgs gave up 25, which isn’t great, but not terrible either.
No one wants to see starting quarterback Stetson Bennett under pressure because he usually makes mistakes when he gets rattled but to automatically assume that Searels will cause Georgia to cough up 30-plus sacks as the offensive line coach is silly.
It’s understandable why most fans are concerned with that, but a lot more goes into the offensive line than how many sacks they allowed. We get it, Searels wasn’t the fans’ first choice, but there is much more good that he brings to the table than bad.
These offensive linemen that Sam Pittman and Luke have brought in are naturally gifted, and the starters all have a lot of experience already. Searels won’t have to do much with them to alter that.
There will be some changes, but for the most part, he is stepping into a great situation, probably the best situation because the foundation is complete.