Kirby Smart raises one concern with the Georgia offense entering 2025 season

System

Kirby Smart raises one concern with the Georgia offense entering 2025 season

ATLANTA — For all the talk surrounding Gunner Stockton this week, Georgia coach Kirby Smart took a far more stern tone when discussing a different aspect of the Georgia offense.

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jdatl3

They've recruited well on the O line. Motivation, training, and scheme. If Vandy can run on folks, georgia should. I'm glad Kirby mentioned it.

JBMDawg46

The O-line SHOULD be better. Yeah, I know who got drafted. IMO, who got drafted isn’t the issue. The issue is who is currently in the O-line room. They look to be better IMO. One worry for me is the O-line coach. I didn’t like the hire from the get-go. He was less than stellar under Coach Richt and at UNC. Coaching has to improve in the O-line room.

railroadtrack1

There are a lot of bodies in the OL room that nobody really knows a lot about, and I mean BIG bodies. They are young yes, but surely there are some of them that are coachable, and have the fire to be on the field and making a difference.

CTD

Connor said the main problem is "mystery meat" Gunner.

So we should believe him….not Kirby. After all what does he know.

Connor is the expert….and proves it by being disrespectful to Stockton and has a man crush on Manning like the rest of the media (steak).

mitch_earl

3 reasons why UGA didn't run the ball last year.

1. UGA doesn't recruit blocking TEs or fullbacks. This is because their scheme requires having All-SEC or first 3 round NFL draft prospects at 4 of the 5 OL positions. Last year, while they had those at RG, LG and C, they DID NOT have them at OT. Instead OT Xavier Truss went undrafted and if he sticks with the Broncos or any other NFL team it will be at guard. Freeling, Morris and Greene didn't play like Amarius Mims, Broderick Jones, Jamaree Salyer (3rd OT for the Rams) etc.
2. The WRs (and TEs). Where Arian Smith, Dom Lovett, Dillon Bell, Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie are individually good players - indeed Smith and Lovett were drafted and it would not be a shock were Delp, Luckie and Bell are also - together they were less than the sum of their parts because they are complementary players. Smith, Lovett and Bell are all ideally third WRs. They - and Delp and Luckie - badly needed someone in the 1st and 2nd WR roles to be effective. Without that, they could not get open. Defenses in turn were able to dedicate a bare minimum effort to covering them and focus the rest on the running game.
3. If UGA had the likes of Knowshon Moreno, Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel or even D'Andre Swift at RB - 1st or 2nd round picks and rookie NFL starters - they would have had the talent to overcome 1. or 2. Indeed, with guys like that at tailback, the WRs and TEs are a lot more effective. The sidelines are open for Bell, the middle is open for Lovett and the TEs, and the vertical routes are open for Smith. Instead, UGA had a 4th round pick in Trevor Etienne (who would have been a 6th rounder with a different last name) and a true freshman who would have benefited from redshirting in Nate Frazier. Both guys did their jobs: reading the defense and hitting the holes that the OL created for them. But anything extra like making guys miss in the backfield, breaking tackles and turning short gains into long runs with cutbacks and breakaway speed? Nope.

I guess I can say that I don't really like UGA's scheme. Recruiting WRs has never been a strength for UGA. How many times has UGA ever had more than 1 All-SEC player at WR? Meanwhile, UGA has no problem recruiting RBs when they put their minds to it. (Which, incidentally, they did not when they brought in Todd Monken to build an offense around Stetson Bennett IV. Haven't had an Yet UGA ditches the fullback and the true pro-style offense in favor of a scheme where they have to start 3 WRs. Haven't had an RB come close to a 1000 yards since despite UGA generally playing 14-15 games a year.) Yet instead of playing to that strength by using a traditional 2 back offense, they do a 3 WR offense and play to their weakness.

Also, why focus your recruiting on receiving TEs? If you recruit traditional TEs, if they can't get open in the passing game without help (like Delp and Luckie) then at least they can block. But if they are undersized and don't have good blocking skills or technique (like Delp and Luckie) how do they help your offense? Having a generational talent at Brock Bowers at TE combined with multiple future NFL starters at OT covered those issues up for a few years. But since you can't count on that, then UGA really needs to reconsider their TE recruiting philosophy and their base offense. With a lead blocking fullback and an edge blocking TE, merely above average tailbacks like Etienne and Frazier are a lot more effective, which would have really helped Lovett and Smith off play action on the outside and mitigated having merely good but not great players at OT.

Kasey

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