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Georgia football coach Kirby Smart hires Buster Faulkner to offensive staff
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Georgia football coach Kirby Smart hires Buster Faulkner to offensive staff
ATHENS — Georgia football has hired Buster Faulkner to work with its quarterbacks on its offensive staff, DawgNation has learned. Faulkner is the former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Southern Miss. Prior to that, Faulkner spent three seasons as the Arkansas State offensive coordinator and tight ends
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Another great hire! Kirby is the Man!
This could spell doom to 1 of 2 coaches IMO. Either coley or hankton. Guess we'll have to wait and see what shakes out.
Wow. Okay. Welcome!
Buster was at Southern Miss a little less than a year? Maybe he saw an opportunity with Kirby to step up to the SEC, he knows Kirby from his early football days as a QB at Valdosta State. This hire was not anticipated by anyone...at least no pre-hire hype. Buster coached some outstanding QBs. Kirby has quickly changed the coaching rooms at UGA for sure!
Who?
Thanks Kirby for taking steps to fix our offense. Because that's all we're missing right now.
Looks as if Kirby is getting serious about changing offensive philosophies. Good job Coach in realizing change is not always bad, it was needed to keep up with evolving offenses in the SEC and you actually set about moving quickly and did something about it. Go Dawgs!
Smart hire (literally) - I cannot wait until seeing what our new offense, under the new hires, unleashes on the SEC East this year! The Floriduh fans were thinking this was their year to finally give Mullet a win over Smart - not! GO DAWGS!
My first thought was Coley was leaving, but then read kylnmeg's comment that included Hankton as a possibility. It has concerned me throughout the season that our receivers didn't seem to get any better. Why didn't they get coached up? It makes sense that the receivers coach would catch some heat about this. Go Kirby! Go Dawgs!
Well, Coley's importance as a recruiter has been pointed out numerous times, he's recently been given the title Assistant Head Coach, and he's been a receivers coach previously, sooo....
Like most everyone else, I'm really excited about these coaching moves. I don't think a philosophical overhaul is what's needed, though. I think we can reasonably assume last year's offense would have been much more effective if the qb had been able to consistently hit open receivers, and the receivers had been able to consistently get open and catch the passes that made it to them.
Obviously, there were problems and it ultimately falls to the head coach to fix them. But there's so much talk about needing to change the philosophy, and I'm just not convinced that the approach that got this team to an SEC championship, a Rose Bowl win and to within a few downs of a national title just 3 years ago is now utterly obsolete. I think the solution is going to need to be more robust than simply deciding to start flinging it all over the yard. Part of it is execution, but adaptability will be at least as important, and I believe that's what these new coaches are being brought in to instill. I do think running all over your opponents can still make for a successful strategy, provided you have the passing game to back it up.
Personally, I'm hoping the 2020 Georgia offense is something I still recognize, just a more effective (and, frankly, entertaining) version. But ultimately, whatever it takes accomplish that latter part, I'm all for it!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I understand the need for - and want to see - more of a passing game, I'm just hoping not to see such a drastic change that it amounts to a whole new offensive identity. Something tells me that's not going to, nor needs to, happen.
No chance Kirby is doing a total overhaul of the offense. He is "studding" the passing game is all. Integrating the versatility of the option more effectively. Much more open offense now. Spreading out the defenses UGA faces. No more stacking! Modernizing UGA program look. He will also utilize this approach with the RBs. Monken is just the OC to make this happen. Great hire.
I'm not smart enough, @E_Roc to know whether the offense needs a complete overhaul or not, I only know what I read and what my 60-year-old eyes tell me. And what I read and saw this past season, was an LSU offense that was completely overhauled from what it had been for decades. And it wasn't that LSU was a bad team all these years, they just, of late, hadn't been good enough. And so they changed things up, got the right QB and assistant coach in place, and won a National Championship in runaway fashion.
Sometimes, even though you get close, you need to do something drastic to get over that hump. Maybe that's where UGA is now. Maybe we need to make a 180-degree offensive turn and do it differently and that gets us there. Maybe it's just a few tweaks (although the changes we already have seen CKS make on offense tell me that he thinks the fix goes beyond some minor adjustments). But whatever is necessary -- gutting the offense, firing all the offensive coaches, bringing in all new players -- to get us a National Championship, I'm all for it. It's been 40 years and I'd like to see us bring home another trophy while I'm still in the land of the living, not just come close. Go Dawgs!
Looks like great football players aren't the only things Kirby is good at recruiting! Go Dawgs!
In the words of Curley Bill from the movie Tombstone:
”Well............ bye.”
I'm with you DallasDawg (I like a lot of what you write).....Only my eyes are a tad older....I go back to the earliest Dooley days. Smart is not overhauling to the point of firing all staff.....some he had no choice but to replace as he has had attrition. He is making decisive changes he sees now to augment his current system. He is brining it up to a more winning-style program. He hopes beyond the SEC East. Whatever it takes to win a natty...I am for it. Too many walks down the aisle....as a bridesmaid.
I wouldn't bet on it NOT being a total overhaul. Bringing Buster in who played for Chris Hatcher at Valdosta State and Hatcher played from Hal Mumme. Mumme was the architect of the air raid offense although Mike Leach gets some credit as co-founder of the air raid, Mumme was actually running his version of it when he was at VSU in the early 90's and at a high school in Texas before that. Leach became a part of it in 2000 and slightly modified his version. Monken is an air raid guy also.
Kirby is bringing all these guys in from the air raid system and while they do a good bit of running out of the air raid, passing is its foundation. Tim Couch had all those great stats in the air raid system under Mumme at Kentucky but he was considered somewhat unfairly as an NFL draft bust for the Cleveland Browns.
With all the receivers Georgia recruited and the type coaches Kirby brought in, I believe Kirby is doing a complete 180 from ball control offense while resting his defense to an all out high tempo quick scoring offense. I can't imagine Kirby completely going away from being known as RBU but I do think if you love offensive games, that's what is about to transpire at Georgia.
As they say: "good" is the enemy of "great"
For those who are afraid of a change in offensive philosophy, I remember when UGA's offense was centered around one big back "dotting" the I formation. The receivers did more blocking than route running. The fullback (which no longer exists in the UGA offense), was pretty much a battering ram for the tailback. Tailback would carry the ball 30 times per game, at least. Throw in a few passes, a few fullback dives, a qb scramble, and that was pretty much it. But you had an offense that was very successful. When UGA switched to a pro-set offense, there were plenty who were upset with it. But times changed and the I didn't work, as well. I still love nothing more than to see UGA line up in an I formation, with qb under center and hand the ball off. But the game has changed and has made that offense a novelty, now.
I suspect that Kirby will still depend heavily on the run. But I also believe that by changing the offensive philosophy, he will enable those great backs to actually find running room, where there was scant little, this past season, due to defenses scheming against it. Hopefully, the change can help the receivers get some separation so they can be targeted. If that passing game opens up, so will the running game. The days of arranging an offense around what you WANT to do are being replaced by arranging an offense that puts your athletes in a position to win battles and score points, regardless of what formation or philosophy that is.
Everyone thinks that next year will be our year. Dawg fans are getting all to comfortable saying that. But I believe, despite the strength of the defense, that UGA is in for some growing pains with the new offense. I hope to be proven wrong. But I'll temper my expectations, for now.