While there are many contributing factors that led to Georgia not playing in any of the last three national championship games, an easy one people point to is the departure of former offensive coordinator Todd Monken to the NFL. He spent three magical seasons on Kirby Smart's staff from 2020 to 2022 before joining John Harbaugh on the Baltimore Ravens. Harbaugh now has a new gig...
Ian Rapoport reported Monken is expected to follow Harbaugh to the New York Giants this offseason.
Todd Monken is among the assistants expected to join John Harbaugh. https://t.co/QD8qdqpQOw
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 15, 2026
In New York, Monken will aim to help Harbugh lift the G-Men out of the NFC's cellar. They do have a promising quarterback in former Ole Miss star Jaxson Dart, but the Giants have been one of the most dysfunctional franchises in the NFL for over two decades. Even though Monken still sports Dawgs sweatshirts around the office, he is not coming back to Athens to replace Mike Bobo any time soon.
While Bobo has been a fine offensive coordinator at times, Monken was the very best in the business.
Todd Monken to follow John Harbaugh on his first New York Giants staff
Entering this week, there were nine NFL head-coaching vacancies across the sport. While Harbaugh was supposed to officially interview with other teams such as the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Giants owner John Mara did not let him get out of town before putting pen to paper. Although he achieved great success in Baltimore, he only won one Super Bowl working for that great franchise.
As for Monken, he did help take Lamar Jackson's overall game to new heights, but it hit the fan for the Ravens at times this year. Even when Jackson was cooking with gas, it always felt a little bit disjointed with him running Monken's scheme from afar. When Monken was working for Smart, he got the absolute most out of Stetson Bennett IV. Georgia reached its greatest heights as a program with him.
Overall, Georgia's relative coaching attrition from Smart's staff has been amplified within the context of the 12-team playoff. The game has changed. Georgia has to adapt. Maybe we did not appreciate Monken as much as we should have while he was here? Yes, he was beloved, but it can be next to impossible to fathom what it is like to be the with the best you had and will ever have in the moment...
Monken has mostly been an NFL guy in his coaching career, but Dawg Nation was so luck to have him.