What Todd Monken brings in Georgia’s quest for an ‘explosive’ offense
Todd Monken’s personal coaching tree runs deep. The newest branch puts him as Georgia’s offensive coordinator, but not with many experiences preceding it.
His roots were planted as a graduate assistant at Grand Valley State in 1989 and have quickly grown over a 30-year tenure. Monken worked alongside Les Miles at LSU and helped orchestrate an offense centered around toss power plays and star running back Jacob Hester. That came after two seasons at Louisiana Tech, where the offense never huddled and had a pass-heavy playbook. His first offensive coordinator position came at Oklahoma State in 2011, where he followed Dana Holgorsen’s air raid offense that was learned from the heralded Mike Leach.
Monken has also been a head coach at Southern Miss. Two NFL stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns followed it and eventually led him to Georgia, his 13th different program. Monken has been around.
“There’s a number of things that I liked — the things I’ve done in the past and things that other people did,” Monken said. “You put together what you think is the best way to move the football and score points.”
Georgia added Monken in January with an exact goal in mind — score points. The offense suffered many lulls throughout a two-loss season in 2019, and head coach Kirby Smart mentioned the need for explosiveness and offensive change ad nauseum throughout the struggles. It just wasn’t clicking under James Coley, who served in the role for one season and is now the tight ends coach at Texas A&M.
The Bulldogs’ offense ranked 49th in scoring at 30.8 points per game (two spots below Georgia State). An average of 408.1 yards per game ranked 61st nationally. Georgia’s unit sparingly had rhythm, and the talent didn’t fit Coley’s scheme.
Monken has watched tape of the previous offense, but made a point to not make comparisons. He searches for consistency, and not the high-scoring games on every occasion. For example, a 60-point game followed by a 10-point outing results in an average of 35 points per game, but it lacks consistency. To Monken, that’s not a strong offense.
“How do you score each week to put yourself in the best chance to be successful?” Monken said. “You’ve got to find a way to be explosive consistently. You’ve got to be able to score touchdowns in the red zone. It’s really pretty simple that way. Once you get down (in the red zone), find a way to score touchdowns.”
Monken has a personal definition for “explosiveness.” That’s his leading mission at Georgia, and what the Bulldogs are on the hunt for. Monken sees explosiveness as ranking in the top-10 of offensive categories. In terms of plays, he sees it as a 12-yard run play or a 16-yard pass play. Monken believes that a proficient offense needs an explosive play once every eight snaps. He wants about 12 or 14 per game to become one of the nation’s top offenses.
Georgia has its share of playmakers in 2020 with George Pickens, James Cook, Zamir White, Kenny McIntosh and a few freshmen — namely tight end Darnell Washington and wide receiver Jermaine Burton. Monken’s goal is to find numerous ways to get them in space. That’s an objective for most coordinators, but the Bulldogs see it as a priority for explosiveness.
“We have the guys to do it,” Monken said. “The proof will be in the pudding once we start playing games. I do like what I see.”
Monken faced an immediate challenge when arriving at Georgia. He watched tape of the offense, but most of those players are gone. Georgia is in search of a quarterback to replace Jake Fromm. The leading running backs from 2019, D’Andre Swift and Brian Herrien, have departed. The only returning starter on the offensive line is center Trey Hill.
He didn’t have a spring practice with his new-look group due to the coronavirus pandemic. All instruction and opportunities to know his players came over Zoom. The new faces bring plenty of questions as to whether Georgia’s offense can be strong in an altered system under Monken.
There are no excuses within the Bulldogs’ offensive meeting room.
“This is a ‘get it done’ business, and the good news is we have talent,” said Monken, citing the advantage of working against Georgia’s strong defense. “We’ll work hard to get our guys better and figure out what they can do, and that’s probably the biggest thing.”
The changes have made Georgia’s players endure a learning curve, too. A playbook installation period and gaining knowledge of Monken’s new tweaks haven’t been easy over Zoom calls throughout the summer. After an extended period of in-person meetings and a few weeks of preseason practice, the playmakers are excited.
“I love the way he’s bringing in the offense. He loves to see guys make plays,” Georgia wide receiver Kearis Jackson said. “If you can make plays, you can play for him. So far, the whole offense has been doing a good job.”
Georgia gets another shot to reach its goal of a national title starting Sept. 26. Once the opening kickoff is booted at Arkansas, the Bulldogs get a clean slate offensively. Monken gets to place his own footprint in Georgia’s level of success this season.
Monken has a wealth of knowledge. Georgia wants his deep coaching roots to result in a new brand of explosive offense.
“The reason Monken was hired is he’s a really good football coach,” Smart said. “We’re going to use his experiences and his strengths and the players’ strengths. We’re going to put those at the forefront.”