Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Options
3 Georgia football offseason priorities to extend SEC dominance
System
Posts: 10,493 admin
3 Georgia football offseason priorities to extend SEC dominance
ATHENS — Georgia has taken over the top of the SEC football ranks, with Kirby Smart forging his own dynasty.
Comments
test
You'd think after SBIV winning the Manning Award (presented to the collegiate American football quarterback as judged by the Sugar Bowl Committee to be the best in the USA) that the quarterback position would be listed in the top 3. All you have to do is look back at past UGA teams (and other Natty teams) to see that it takes a special quarterback talent to win like UGA has over the last 2 years. And the all had an elite supporting cast of offensive players. Schemes and play calling only go so far. Players make plays and ALL coaches will tell you that. It's really dumb to think Monkin "just schemed" and play-called SBIV into success.
‘It’s the Jimmies and the Joes, not the X’s and the O’s.” I suspect Bennett’s importance is still under appreciated by many, including MG, but not not by Kirby or Monken (based on their comments concerning Bennett). Unless the Dawgs get lucky, I further suspect those many may be in for a harsh reality surprise with whoever starts at QB1 in 2023.
"Monken squeezed the most out of a former-walk-on, and he has developed a deep and talented QB room filled with players ready and capable of setting future records of their own." This is the line that addresses what you're talking about. Even Bennett said that it wasn't until working with Monken for a while that he really understood football, and that the two often butted heads.
I'm pretty sure that MG didn't mention Bennett in the "replace unique talent" section because, as we all know, we've got a pretty stacked QB room at the moment. The question there isn't whether we have an answer for how we'll replace Bennett, but rather who the answer will be. That's not so much the case with the others that got mentioned there.
Georgia has a stacked QB room --there's not as much concern there. Monken, OTH, is one of a kind.
Also, JT went 7-0 in Monken offense, and Fromm was a blown coverage from a national title
Kirby has built a great program and recruited talent at QB -- complimentary football
I used to wonder under past OC's why UGA couldn't have receivers running wide open on occassions as other teamws did on the sports highlight shows I would see. Then we got CTM, and the answer became clear.
"Kenny McIntosh quietly became one of the most versatile threats in recent SEC history, on par with the running and pass-catching versatility Percy Harvin once brought to championship Florida offenses"
Even as McIntosh moves on to the NFL, I'm still excited about the RB room for 2023. There's a load of talent returning for 2023 and as Milton and Edwards take more reps with the ones, their pass catching ability will be enhanced (they're very good already) to the point that they will also be receiving weapons as McIntosh was last year and Cook was before him. The development process at UGA will be effective in carrying on the success that we've seen with the running game at UGA. When you give Dell McGee this much talent to work with, history has proven that it spells trouble for anyone who is tasked to stop them!
GO DAWGS!
You/we have no idea whether UGA has a stacked QB room or not. Just like you/we had no idea SBIV would explode on the scene as an elite QB. Given the importance of the QB position (as evidenced by overall success of teams this year - OSU, Bama, USC, UGA, etc., even if you think you have great potential in the QB room, it is still a huge unknown which makes it a top priority in our case. Just as it is at Bama and OSU - just go read what writers are saying about those teams right now.
You/we expected Carson Beck to get the nod when JT went down. He did not. You/we expected JT Daniels to come back and take back over the QB position when he was healthy. He did not. There's no way of knowing until the players play and what chemistry is built.
@doubledawg1990
Yeah ... Josh Heupel, Craig Krenzel, Ken Dorsey, Matt Mauck, Matt Flynn, Chris Leak, Mac Jones, Jacob Coker, AJ McCarron and Greg McElroy weren't "special quarterback talents" in any sense of the word. Ohio State won the 2014 national title with their third string QB. By contrast the only QBs to win national titles without loaded teams around them were Deshaun Watson in 2016 (4600 passing yards, 630 rushing yards and 50 total TDs still somehow didn't win the Heisman, nor did he win it the previous year with 4100 passing yards and 1100 rushing yards) and Cam Newton in 2010.
UGA had 15 draft picks - 5 in the first round - in 2021 and will have at least 12 draft picks - likely 3 in the first - in 2022. And none of those include Brock Bowers, who is the actual best player on the team and the one who actually made what UGA did on offense the past 2 years possible (even in games where he didn't put up big stats because opposing defenses schemed him, the result was other guys being wide open). If you think that UGA had that sort of talent 2017-2020, prove it. On the field, UGA couldn't rush the passer and had to resort to blitzing, which resulted in UGA getting roasted for big plays by better QBs (Tua in 2017, Hurts 2.0 after his benching in 2018, Burrow in 2018 and 2019, Jones and Trask in 2020).
Yes, SB IV is mobile but let's get real ... he isn't going to beat Tim Tebow or Trevor Lawrence in a footrace. The reason why SB IV was only sacked 9 times in 15 games was because he was playing behind an NFL OL. By contrast, Jake Fromm in 2017, 2018 and 2019 was effectively playing behind 4 OGs and a RT ... no true center and definitely no actual LT. Look at the number of players that UGA is getting drafted now - especially at key positions like OT, DT and CB - as opposed to the number of players that UGA had drafted in the first 4 years of Smart's career.
UGA has a special collection of talent right now. They will likely have more guys drafted next year than this year! If that happens, it means that the 2021 UGA team had like 40 draft picks.
We don't know any of what you say, "we all know." Which is what makes the QB position a priority to figure out.
Georgia football is in a great place!
It's much, much bigger than any one player, but Todd Monken's QBs have had the 3 highest QB ratings the last three years in program history. As for Stet and Kenny and Jalen, and Nolan and Chris Smith, they are in a vacuum now in the NFL draft evaluation process, and we'll see how their value shakes out side by side with other players.
Kirby's system of "complimentary football" protects all the positions, accentuates the strengths and minimizes weaknesses.
LOL!
"Monken squeezed the most out of a former-walk-on"
Just can't let it go can you, you will get your dig/slight in at every opportunity......just so you will look to be right, it all makes you look very petty.....or maybe you just love to troll.
It's a team game and team effort, it doesn't matter what schematic or situational play calling you do, if you can't execute, it all goes for naught.
Just a WAG here, but Bennett will probably go down as the best QB in UGA history......along with great, great players and staff.
Keep up the good work MG, you never cease to amaze me.
It's not so much about having a stacked QB room, as all major players in College football do. BAMA from what I hear is stacked with QB talent.
I'm sure Ohio St. is, LSU, heck even Ole MIss is. What I think is minimized is the uniqueness of a SB. You can stack all the guys we have up in a line and ask them to throw a deep ball and they will all zing it 60+yards. So can every major recruit coming out of HS. I don't believe right now that we have a QB that can't get out of his own way with his feet. No statues in that QB room. All are highly decorated. So, it's going to be who can repeat the same thing over and over again successfully,hitting receivers in stride, finding the open guy when pressured and minimize mistakes. Who puts some touch on the ball when needed. When the crowd is cheering and the bright lights are on, who can handle that adrenaline the best. Who can make the game slow down in their mind?
I believe it was Trevor Lawrence who recently said that he has just realized with his new coaching staff this past season how much being a QB is just the mental aspect. I believe he said it was 90%. THis is a guy who won a NC and was the 1st QB in the draft.
If you watch SB and Bryce Young and even CJ Stroud play it isn't the arm slinging ability that sets them apart. It's between the ears, it's the intangibles, the desire to win that can't be measured as much by a tape measure or a radar gun. It's the ability to slow the game down and see the whole field. If you watch all of those guys play they throw a very "catchable ball". Rarely did you see a ball bouncing off a receiver's hands at 12 yards because it was thrown with too much velocity. Go back and watch a replay of the Ohio St game, Stroud threw some passes while scrambling that looked like dying quails they came down so softly in the endzone, but just in the perfect location.
I can see the game has slowed down for Beck this year which is a good thing for UGA. He has matured alot. He's more serious than he used to be. He knows this is going to be his one chance to QB at UGA and he is all business. I'm sure he knows the system. Now it's just doing it to where it's like waking up and putting on your shoes in the morning.
@THEDEC
No offense, but I can't really connect a lot of what you wrote to the point I made, which is that the QB position is a top 3 priority for UGA football headed into 2023 season. It is the most important position and we're replacing the most prolific QB in UGA history.
BTW - 40 yard times
Tim Tebow - 4.71
Trevor Lawrence - 4.78
SBIV - 4.5s (per ESPN https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35393434/georgia-qb-stetson-bennett-win-another-cfp-championship)
Article wasn't about how SBIV will stack up against other QBs in the NFL in the future, right? It was about top 3 priorities for UGA and you left off the QB position because you somehow know the QB room is stacked and that translates to no questions/issues/concerns going into 2023. Just about every UGA position room is stacked, including the RB room. Until they play, it's an unknown. And of all the unknowns at positions, QB is most important (it is by your own writing the most important position on the field) since you have the LEAST number of game starts and/or snaps at the position coming back - unlike every other UGA position going into 2023.
MG, your article is just another back-handed way to ding/minimize the talent level and success of SBIV.
MG - "Kirby's system of "complimentary football" protects all the positions, accentuates the strengths and minimizes weaknesses."
As opposed to what other system - the one that doesn't protect all positions, doesn't accentuate the strengths and minimizes weaknesses"? Doesn't sound like a successful system if it doesn't.....
Yep, I think Bennett is significantly faster than Tebow or Lawrence. He is much quicker and more elusive, too.
@doubledawg1990 There are plenty of offenses that hang their QBs out to dry .... but UGA's ability to establish the run, and a dominant defense that keeps putting the offense out on the field and in situations where you aren't often playing catchup -- really makes it all go together.
The offense responded late vs. Missouri and Ohio State -- but it also took the defense stiffening in the fourth quarter of both games.
Monken's offensive efficiency was impressive, but having a championship defense and a one-of-a-kind player like Brock Bowers and a Swiss Army Knife back like Kenny were also key.
MG - "There are plenty of offenses that hang their QBs out to dry", Can you name one that ended up in the Top 5? Top 10? Or that are successful year over year?