Georgia begins preparations for yet another uptempo offense in TCU

Georgia’s defense has faced quite a few high-octane spread offenses in 2016.

Whether it was North Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky or Auburn, the Bulldogs went against a slew of teams that play the new-age style of offense. In this year’s Liberty Bowl, Georgia will once again go against this kind of attack in TCU.

“I’ll be honest with you, it seems like everybody we play is uptempo,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s a matter of how far uptempo they go.”

The Horned Frogs have made a name for themselves over the years as a team that can put up a ton of points quickly. TCU averages 475 yards of offense, which is good for 23rd nationally. This is actually a stark decline from the third-best number of 562.8 yards per game it posted a year ago.

A lot of this contributed to TCU being a young team as only 14 players on the roster are seniors.

The Horned Frogs will look to do some similar things other spread teams Georgia's faced do. The formations, however, will be a little different as Smart said TCU employs more four-wide sets.

Smart also noted that the Big 12 is a conference known for its fast-paced offensive style. While the Bulldogs have gone against a number of spread teams, TCU’s style may actually be faster.

“Their league traditionally goes a little faster than our league,” Smart said.

Georgia began bowl preparations Wednesday with final exams over. Having gone against some uptempo teams should benefit the Bulldogs, given that it’s a style they’ve seen throughout the year.

Then again, TCU may offer a different enough attack to where it could present a new challenge. And replicating this kind of offense is never easy in practice, no matter the number of days of preparation allowed for it.

“We’ve played some fast teams this year. We practice (against) ourselves to try and simulate it,” Smart said. “You really can’t simulate some of the things they do at the pace they do it without going out there against it. I certainly think some of the teams we played have been close to it but I wouldn’t say the same tempo at which they’ll go.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Georgia begins preparations for yet another uptempo offense in TCU."