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Kirby Smart reveals biggest offseason concern for Georgia football as reigning CFP champions
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Kirby Smart reveals biggest offseason concern for Georgia football as reigning CFP champions
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart didn’t bat an eye while sharing his biggest concern of the offseason.
Comments
Good for Van Pran. Excellent mindset and example of leadership.
Griffith doubling down with another questionable article about UGA needing a "miraculous" season to win the SECE. Making out that JTD, ASpeed and LBrini are "former starters" that would be counted on to be starters this season is a misleading stretch beyond belief.
"Out for spring" is not a problem unless it carries over into the season. Injuries are a concern for every team (ask '21 AL) and can derail any team regardless of talent level (ask '21 AL). Hopefully, UGA has good luck in the injury category in '22.
While a healthy JTD's was probably UGA's best QB last season and this season, returning SBIV was able to fill in adequately. Whatever was the story last year, JTD seemingly had difficulty staying healthy. The UGA QB room is still strong enough to win the SECE. Probably with any of the 4 QB's playing considering the relatively minor differences in skill levels and the strength of the rest of the offense.
To pretend that Speed, Kimber (saw the writing on the wall - currently running 2nd team at FU) and Brini would be better than Green, Lassiter, TSmith, Poole, Starks and probably other's (3 Fr 5* CB's) is a take that doesn't hold water. Like AL has done for years, UGA "roster management" is now required to find room for the highest rated players that want to commit to UGA. This means roster churn with (lower rated class fillers and slow developing) players free falling on the depth chart making a career decision to find a place where they can play. Fretting over the losses of Condon, Shaw, Mitchell and Robinson is laughable. Truth be told, UGA fan's should send them a thank you note for finding a better place for them to play and freeing up space in the recruiting class. .
But the reality of this apparently is lost on Griffith or doesn't fit his narrative to push panic to sell his click bait.
Again with all the new players wanting to build their value and the continued development of the younger players forced to play last year, UGA clearly looks like the class of the SECE.
My reading of Mike's article was unlike yours. I thought he was pretty straightforward without much if any spin. I'm not always a fan of Mike, but he sometimes gets everything right and seems like a good guy. I believe he became much more of a Dawg fan and a Kirby fan last season.
Reloading will be just fine with me if Kirby can pull it off.
Of course that's just my take.
Go, Dawgs!
@UGADad20
”While a healthy JTD's was probably UGA's best QB last season and this season, returning SBIV was able to fill in adequately. Whatever was the story last year, JTD seemingly had difficulty staying healthy. The UGA QB room is still strong enough to win the SECE. Probably with any of the 4 QB's playing considering the relatively minor differences in skill levels and the strength of the rest of the offense.”
Please. Get serious. Eat your crow from last season and move on concerning Bennett. 🤣
No crow to eat. UGA won on a generational D (and injuries to AL - according to Mel Kiper and many others) and highly ranked players on O that surrounded the QB.
The only thing I have seen that is "miraculous" in fairly recent memory is SBIV recovering 2 of his 3 fumbles. The 1st one especially. Except for SBIV's 3rd fumble of the game UGA had a "charmed" game. Which, if you have followed UGA football, has been the exception. UGA was never known for winning the big game but for somehow finding a way to lose. Winning less with more. Now or never and can Kirby win the big one? (from last year) etc etc. That was the narrative about UGA football out there for many years. I didn't invent that perception. But that was the prevailing perception of UGA football. If you deny that widely held perception you are revealing your lack of objectivity. If you prefer to look at things through your fan blinders "Good for You". Don't shoot the messenger.
You are all over the place… I guess you are trying to appear clever… 🤷🏻♂️
LOL...I think you just hit the old nail on the head.
@MikeGriffith
You guys need to get rid of these ridiculous "Vote Up"/"Vote Down" buttons. They're anonymous with no follow-up or justification. Somebody is arbitrarily going down the line and selecting the "Vote Down" button, regardless of content, which isn't fair to the "Comment Poster".
EXAMPLE: The very first comment: "Good for Van Pran. Excellent mindset and example of leadership."
VOTED DOWN.
What Dawg Fan in their right mind would Vote that comment down. I've noticed it in a number of articles, that benign Comments supporting the Dawgs, were "Voted Down" for no apparent reason. I suspect Trolls, but, this is giving them easy ammunition, with no consequence or requirement to support their opposition with a Post.
Makes no sense!
@UGADad20
Kirby Smart made the change to William Poole at Star for the playoffs. Star is one of the MOST CRITICAL positions in Smarts defensive scheme. If he’d do this here it stands to reason that at some point Kirby wouldn’t have hesitated to bench the drastically inferior (as you seem to suggest) SBIV for JTD much earlier in the season, once JTD got healthy. As has already been posited… it’s time to eat your crow. Do you like it fried? 🤣🤣🤣
@UGADad20
I'm not sure how you inferred all that --
My point is UGA is on the brink of what will be the biggest reload in recent CFB history --- and if they do win the East -- I think they will -- the coaches and program should get credit for doing a miraculous job, just as I have said Nick Saban has done with his consistency turning out championship contenders at Alabama.
I'm sensing some believe UGA will win just because they are UGA -- that's a dangerous mentality but one I have seen at other schools I've covered after they enjoy great success.
I'd just say stop and appreciate what just happened, and recognize it's going to be tough to replace 15 NFL Draft picks AND 7 players in the portal, including 4 who were starters
Other teams are trying to win, too, and they have resources -- it will be fun to see if the Bulldogs can win another SEC championship soon, since the last one was 2017.
Mike, I'm not going to argue his point, cause I'm not sure what it is...
BUT, you and the rest of the Sports media are focusing on the ball UGA just blew by you in 2021. You aren't paying attention to the one that's coming in 2022. That's what I find so amusing.
Yeah, UGA lost 8 top tier personnel off a generational defense and some third tier personnel, nobody will really miss. I get it...but, what exactly did they lose off an offense that averaged 39 pts/game? That is what you 20/20 hindsight guys are overlooking.
They are losing, 2 backs, that could have easily gone in the 2021 draft with their replacements already on standby. 2 offensive linemen, that for all intents and purposes were replaced by the CFP by Jones and a healthy Ratledge...not to mention Mims and a plethora of top tier offensive linemen. Pickens, whom was not present for portions of 2020 or 2021, and Fitzpatrick, together, accounted for, 14 completions and 190 yds in 2021. Great players, but not a whole lot of production loss to what figures to be a generational offense.
The Pro-Style offense with air raid principles, utilizes a mobile QB and quick strike passing game, to put the RBs and TEs in the 2nd level of the defense, with blocking provided by WRs and OL releasing downfield. The OL provides just enough time for the play to be developed by the QB to get the ball to the RB/TE/WR on the edge or over the middle. Most of the yards come in YACs or QB keepers.
That's the way Monkin and Luke run the offense. Luke did the exact same thing with a mobile QB as the Spring board when he was at Ole Miss. You guys should have seen this coming in 2020. Bennett is the perfect QB for this system. Daniels was intended to be a stop-gap answer until one of the younger QBs could be developed. Bennett's development was a pleasant surprise to the coaching staff. This offense is in his wheelhouse and he could become a top 5 Heisman Candidate by the GA vs FL game, if not before.
Next year, the Dawgs are perfectly setup to become an offensive juggernaut, utilizing the TE position in a novel and highly effective way. That's why they are putting a premium on WRs that can block. The hole isn't at the LOS, it's past the LOS behind the oppositions front 7. If you look at the 1st big Sack in the NCG against BAMA, you'll note that Burton completely missed the block on Harris, that allowed for a 12 yd sack. He was supposed to brush him back, on the way to a short out pattern...and missed him...completely. that's unacceptable in the offense UGA's trying to run.
I don't think it's a secret. When an offense returns the kind of talent and experience UGA has and a defense more than capable of being a top10 defense...well, a Natty is in the cards again. The crazy thing is, that they don't lose a great deal in 2023, either. Not with all the guys standing in line for their turn to be elite.
I don't think anybody's taking anything for granted, but we're not blind either. With the talent Kirby has accumulated and the program that he's built, it's like wipin' your butt with a wagon wheel...there's no end in sight. LOL
The last time I saw this kind of domination out of a football program by a former Dawg, was when Erk Russell built the Ga. Southern program in the early '80's.
"Lovin' every minute of it" Loverboy...1985.
Very interesting analysis. Not sure it will turn out the way you project, but your reasoning is well conceived. 👍
I'm not completely sure either, but, what I think Smart and Monkin are doing, is creating a hybrid offense with air-raid principles, using TEs and RBs. Every team before them, employed an "X", "Y", "Z" and Flanker, with a smaller, athletic OL to create one-on-one mismatches in the "air-raid" offense. I believe the strategy for Smart/Monkin is to create mismatches using bigger, more athletic TEs and RBs, that also have the ability to block at the 1st and 2nd level along with 1 or 2 WRs, with like abilities.
What made me start thinking along those lines, was the use of Bennett in the running game; the stacking of TEs, like Gilbert, Bowers, Washington and Delp; Monkin's use of James Cook on the perimeter last year; various comments made throughout the season by the coaching staff and announcers (i.e., Herbstreit)....but, above all, bringing in Todd Monkin and Matt Luke.
In the "air-raid" offense, you aren't looking to throw the ball deep, you're looking to create one-on-one mismatches and put the ball in the right spot...where you're downfield blocking strength is set up.
An ideal QB is required to be mobile and accurate. He needs to make quick decisions and get rid of the ball quick. He doesn't need to throw the ball deep, but, he needs to be able to throw accurately on the run.
Bennett and BVG seem to fit this mold best, although, BVG's accuracy is still a question mark. Beck's decision making and mobility are also question marks. I expect all of these guy's to improve their weak areas between now and the end of Fall camp.
Next year, Smart and Monkin will unveil an innovative offense that I believe they've both been working on for years. 2020 slowed them down a bit, but, it didn't stop them. How else do you think they managed to convince so many talented TEs to accumulate in one spot?
I think it will work beyond belief. Defenses aren't ready for it. They're set up to stop the old version of the air-raid, smaller faster receivers...not the one with big, fast tight ends and running backs and big, quick offensive linemen...all of whom, can block.
Not many teams or HCs have the juice to put this together.