Todd Monken’s offense taking shape for Georgia. His impact felt on X’s, O’s and more
Nothing looks the same as it did a year ago for Georgia.
Practices are different. Team meetings have a new, socially-distanced flavor. In-person classes have the same restrictions or are being held online.
As if that weren’t enough, the Bulldogs are also dealing with the unenviable task of installing a brand-new offense during a pandemic. How’s that for an offseason?
Georgia hired new offensive coordinator Todd Monken in January. He spent 2019 as the offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns after three years holding the same position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Around two months after Monken’s hiring, the sports world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That wiped out spring practice for the Bulldogs, a time that’s normally critical for a new offensive system.
“That’s really hard to sit here and say what it’s going to look like because you have nothing to base it on,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “Not only that, you don’t have a lot of your freshmen that are going to make up some of that offense.”
Learning moved from the practice field to the virtual realm, as the team held Zoom video meetings to stay in touch and go over aspects of their game. Redshirt sophomore Kearis Jackson said he wasn’t a fan of the virtual meetings at first, but managed to start picking up the offense and build a bond with Monken along the way.
While spring practices were wiped out, however, the Bulldogs did have the chance to spend more time together than normal over the summer.
Players returned to Athens on June 8 to begin conditioning workouts. The workout schedule was ramped up July 15 with coach-supervised workouts, and the NCAA also allowed an extra two weeks of walkthroughs along with the typical video study periods.
“All we’re really allowed to do is walk through, at least able to see formations, guys go out and do some position work, meaning they get to go work with their position coach and do kind of conditioning by position,” Smart said. “Those things have been good for us. We’ve been able to teach and learn and do things in walkthrough and go against a defense and pick things up.”
Even though he’s only had a week to work with his players, Monken’s presence is already being felt.
His offense calls for more downfield passing and stretching the field vertically, a feature that has been lacking for the Bulldogs in recent years. Georgia averaged 12.24 yards per completion in 2019, good for 69th in the country.
The system can also affect the gaps between offensive linemen, making the splits a bit wider to spread the field and open lanes to both run and throw the ball. However, senior center Trey Hill said the team’s base scheme stays true no matter the splits.
“Football is football, in my view, as far as pass blocking and the techniques,” redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Warren Ericson said. “We’ve been able to adjust to them in his offense, and he’s done a great job coming in and teaching his offense and getting in our brains.”
That scheme, according to Smart, is simple: Do whatever it takes to score points. There’s no set “Georgia way” of doing things that he will force Monken to adapt to.
“I’ve never got on an offensive coordinator’s headphones and said, ‘Please run the ball right here, please run the ball right here,’” Smart said. “That’s never been the case. Unfortunately, I think some people might believe that.”
The Monken effect has gone beyond just the X’s and O’s. For one, he’s brought an energetic and demanding coaching style to the offense.
He also sports a meticulous attention to detail that seeks to make his players better in every facet of the game.
“What he loves doing is trying to do each individual job better than the next guy,” Smart said. “Can we do one thing? Can we run a curl better than the other team can run a curl? Can we run a dig route better than the other team can run a dig route? Can we coach those things better than the other team?”
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 11:15 AM.