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NFL playoffs a reminder of what Georgia football needs to improve offense
System
admin
NFL playoffs a reminder of what Georgia football needs to improve offense
ATHENS — If you found yourself watching one of the NFL playoff games this weekend, you probably saw a Georgia player making plays.
Comments
well…. Seeing as nothing is published under the title…. Improve on nothing?
Between headlines with no articles and being unable to comment on 1/4 of the articles, could we get some nil money splashed over here to help this website?
good googly moogly
WOW,…..With a title as incontestably obvious as Ronald McDonald singing a funeral dirge….I suppose supporting facts are not necessary…..Al Righty Then….I'm more than ready to get the "skinny" on who's returning, who's new and what can we all hope to see in the 25 edition of The Dawgs…
glad y’all got the article to publish!!
am I off base here but I’m not sad about losing members of an offensive line that was 102nd in the country?
also, Isaiah Wynn, one of the best tackles we’ve had in recent history was a 3 star, so I’m not as concerned about how these kids “rocked in highschool”
SO difficult to read! No feeling of obligation from "journalist" to proof a piece of work?
We the come up w more than 4 different running plays during the game Bobo. Dude is no better or different than w richt
So basically, we're stuck with the guys we"ve got now on the O-line 'cause the calvalry isn't coming to save us. Ouch. If the O-line can't open up holes, control the LOS, and protect the QB, these offensive stats could be even worse next season. I don't have a lot of confidence that Searals can develop these guys into a Joe Moore unit, but maybe things aren't as bleak as they seem.
Maybe Dawgnation "needs to its improve" editing/proofing...?
"Because unlike wide receiver and running back, the transfer portal isn’t usually a place where you can find offensive linemen to bolster a unit."
Huh? That's not true at all. Alabama got a starting NFL LT who was a 3rd round NFL draft pick Tyler Steen from the transfer portal from Vanderbilt in 2022 the same year they got Jahmyr Gibbs from Georgia Tech. The 2023 national title game was between Washington and Michigan teams that had several portal guys on the OL. UGA hasn't hit the portal for OL for the same reason that Ohio State doesn't for WRs: the guys on the roster are better than the guys in the portal.
While the OL this year wasn't as good as it was 2021-2023 it was comparable some OLs earlier in Smart's tenure. The issue was the RB and WR talent deficit. If defenses don't fear long runs and big plays downfield from the passing game, they attack all the gaps with the LBs and safeties because they don't fear anybody getting behind them and making big plays, which makes the OL look worse than it is. Notre Dame's coach Marcus Freeman even explicitly said after the playoff game: "We knew Georgia wasn't going to beat us with their passing game so we focused on keeping them from beating us with their running game." So having 3 future starting NFL tailbacks (Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, D'Andre Swift) plus a 1000 yard rusher (Elijah Holyfield) made the 2017 and 2018 OLs look a lot better than they actually were. Meanwhile bringing in a backup from Florida to start at tailback in Etienne plus forcing Nate Frazier into the mix as a true freshman when he should have redshirted to spend time in the weight room and with the position coaches to work on his explosiveness and cutbacks made the OL look worse.
Now you probably won't find many pro-style true pass blocking LTs in the portal. The aforementioned Steen did "OK" at LT for Bama in 2022 but was drafted by the Eagles to play guard. But you can definitely find good interior linemen as well as one-dimensional tackles (run blockers or pass blockers) in the portal, especially if you raid the less successful programs and small schools. Michigan State got an OT out of the portal that is the sort of player that I was hoping was on UGA's radar: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state-university/2025/01/11/highly-touted-fcs-tackle-picks-michigan-state-in-portal/77640370007/
If Kirby doesn’t make some kind of changes to the offensive staff, mainly Booboo and sorry Searles, he’s saying to Dawg nation and the rest of the country that he’s content with where the offense is and the direction it’s heading. That is not acceptable.
Kirby is the best coach in the country and very smart, pun intended, in making overall decisions for the team, but his offensive decisions haven’t always been the best ones.
Bobo, that's a lot of words to say absolutely nothing. You're the problem with the offense whether you or your good buddy Kirby care to admit it. In 2023 season you had a powder puff non conference schedule and very favorable home schedule to rack up stats. You had Bowers and McConkey for 3rd down conversions and 2 veteran backs who rarely fumbled. This year facing the toughest schedule and high quality D's. What is needed in those situations is, yes, execution but just as important is scheme and imagination which you sorely lack. How about when you bring in Cash and every defensive player knows that there's a 70% chance the ball is going to him maybe have Trevor or Nate in there to give the D something to think about. Or maybe just having your 2 best backs on the field at the same time. Aren't you supposed to be an fan of play action? We'll, play action works much better when the QB is under center which you barely ran all season. And again, short yardage Jumbo packages which you, with a few successful exceptions, abandoned. The D not only won you an SEC Championship it probably prevented a losing season. You can bring in all the 4 and 5 star O linemen you want (hey, isn't this past line studded with 4 and 5 stars ?) but until you scrap that antiquated, predictable offense I doubt they'll be any NC's in the future.
@shamymax Are you claiming that the issues with UGA had to do with the playcalling or the talent? If so, why weren't Dillon Bell, Dom Lovett, Oscar Delp and Arian Smith more effective when Todd Monken was the offensive coordinator? Why couldn't Trevor Etienne win the starting job at Florida over a transfer portal RB from the Sun Belt Conference? And why was Cash Jones, a walk on, the third RB in the first place? Why has UGA had Dillon Bell try to be Percy Harvin and Deebo Samuel at WR/RB the past 2 seasons?
Playcalling, schemes and strategy aren't why WRs can't get separation, don't make contested catches and drop balls. RBs? Even more so. Coaching can get them lanes to get across the line of scrimmage, which Etienne and Frazier consistently had. But after that, it is the job of the RBs to use their talent and skill to make people miss, break tackles and outrun people for long gains. UGA's RBs rarely did this, which is why the only 100 yard rushing game that any UGA RB had came against UMass, and even in that game the longest carry was 19 yards. So it is Bobo's fault that UGA didn't have an RB that could run away from a 2-10 mid-major defense?
I keep telling people that Monken's offense in 2020 before Brock Bowers and when most of the other people who played big roles the next 2 years were underclassmen or injured wasn't that special, indicating that the real problem is not having guys at WR and RB that are anywhere near as good as the talent on OL and defense. Maybe at some point people will listen. Great job Kirby Smart did this year in getting actual starters at WR from the portal instead of the usual backups and signing a pair of top 50 WRs. So that will help.
But missing out on the top tailbacks again - especially guys with size like the 220lb kids heading to Ole Miss and Florida State and the 230 lb kid heading to Oregon - is concerning. What's the big deal? Simple: because the RB position has been devalued in the NFL, the best athletes, guys who would have played RB as recently as 10 and definitely 20 years ago, are now playing defense if they can't catch or WR or even TE if they can. Where you had 250 lb. tailbacks like Jerome Bettis, Ron Dayne and Eddie George all the time - and former Auburn RB who won Super Bowls on those Eli Manning Giants Brandon Jacobs was 265-270 lbs, plus the Falcons had a guy nearly that big in TJ Duckett on those early Michael Vick teams but sadly no one to block for him - these days guys like that are edge pass rushers. So it is a lot harder to identify and land guys at RB who have actual talent and skill to make their teams better these days instead of just system guys. It really doesn't seem like this UGA regime is putting the effort to do so in.
UGA can either fix the real issue on offense, less talent than the other contenders have, or UGA fans will keep complaining about the OC. Because remember: UGA fans spent the early part of Smart's tenure bashing Chaney and Coley too. And at least UGA had NFL RBs back then. They don't even have that now.
The issues with Georgia this year was not limited to a coach, a player or a single unit. Start with the toughest schedule in the nation, add in the loss of a generational & numerous players to the NFL, layer in numerous & in cases significant injuries across the team, a defense that played at times without discipline & could not get off the field, also consider a sport that is undergoing monumental changes, etc, etc, etc.., Despite numerous issues, this team won 4 games against playoff teams, an SEC championship, & made the playoffs finally loosing with a QB making his first start. Give Coach some room to reload & things will be fine.
I think that if we could pull a Riley Leonard type of QB out of the portal we could be back in the playoffs again next year, provided our O-line improves a lot. Gunner may be able to take us there but it's a crap shoot with an inexperienced QB. We need someone who has played in some big games and can run like a Leonard who has over 800 yards rushing. A true dual threat guy who can take some of the load off the O-line having to be perfect for immobile QB's. I know Gunner isn't a statue, but he's no Leonard either. When I saw Leonard out run our DB Daniels around the end my jaw dropped.