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Comments
Great conversation, y'all. I'll believe KM-squared is as much of a force as Zeus/Cook if they're pounding out the yards and catching out of the backfield at a similar rate a few games into the season. For now, I do think we're not as deep at RB this year, and -- as UGADad points out -- KM+KM don't have a record of durability vs starting defenses. That said, Robinson is the most promising back since Chubb (or maybe Zeus before his ACLs). And KM+KM will be running behind a heckuva line.
Last year, we lacked a lot of the 30-plus-yard runs that Chubb and Michel used to break out with regularity. I'm curious what y'all think the reason was. At first, I thought it was mainly because Zeus is pretty straight ahead and not that shifty. But Cook and McIntosh seem like just the kinds of backs that can go to off the races once they get past the line, and they didn't break a lot of long runs either. Did that have something to do with the way our offense was run (e.g. WRs not stretching the field?), or how the backs are being used, or did it more half to do with the RBs' abilities?
Regarding NFL: Even if the pendulum doesn't swing back 15 years (to when multiple RBs were taken in the top 10), this draft still may have been a sort of low tide for RB draft picks. In the way-to-earlies, Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs are projected as 2023 first rounders. Not surprisingly, each caught more than 50 passes the previous two years, which is consistent with what both of y'all's were saying about versatility, hands and coming out of the backfield.
Isn't there also the possibility that eventually RBs who are really good (Walter Payton-like) athletes will be highly valued again just because fewer and fewer of those guys who combine strength, speed, agility, first-step etc will opt to be running backs? In other words, the price (draft level) gets higher when the supply is low. Bijan Robinson fits that profile (although I'm not saying he's Sweetness!).
"True we lost Pickens but he really didn't contribute last season til the very end." But don't you think it mattered that Pickens was there when we really needed him? I don't see anyone else having the strength and body control to haul in that big 52-yard catch.
I largely agree with your larger point about WRs, though. We've got six WRs with real talent and a fair amount of experience -- seven if you count Arik, or for that matter all the ways those Arik/Bowers/Delp may be used as WR. Stetson's gonna find plenty of go-to weapons among them.
"Last year, we lacked a lot of the 30-plus-yard runs that Chubb and Michel used to break out with regularity. I'm curious what y'all think the reason was."
IMO, the running game at UGA changed for 2 reasons. If you look at the 2017 team, when UGA had Michel, Chubb and Swift, they also had Hardman, Ridley, Godwin, Wims and Weorner. The receiving corps, overall, wasn't near as explosive as the 2021 group, though they had their moments. The 2021 group, including the RBs and TEs, were explosive in YACs due to the use of the WR and OL group in downfield bocking.
Personnel is not the reason they became less explosive in the running game. In 2017, UGA's offensive coaching staff was build to advance the running game. Jim Chaney and Sam Pittman were 2 of the best in the business at employing the running game to support the passing game.
Todd Monkin and Matt Luke were experts in the RPO with running QB style, Pro-Style with air raid principles. This style offense requires a mobile QB, so Mike Griffith and the rest of the so-called experts should have seen the move to Bennett coming. LOL. After all, that is what Luke ran at Ole Miss and it's in Monkin's. DNA.
Spread option doesn't own the middle of the field as in the Chaney/Pittman Pro-Style. The Monkin/Luke offensive line is bigger and not quite as athletic as the Chaney/Pittman line. They're set up to pass block, mostly, but, are athletic enough to get to the second level as the play develops. Doesn't mean they "can't" run block, but, it's not how they were recruited or trained, which leads you to believe, Smart has had this in mind for a few years.
The idea is to get the RB the football in the 2nd level through the pass, not by opening holes at the LOS, though you can't abandon that option completely. The linemen give the QB/RB time to develop the play, then, release downfield to take out the smaller LBs and DBs..."opening a hole" off the LOS, so to speak. That style is supposed to counter the bigger more athletic defenses that have developed over the last 10 years or so.
UGA is set up, right now, to take their offense to a whole new level in 2022. They could actually be the equivalent of the 2021 defense, in dominance. That's what I see, anyway.
Great stuff!