Scoring is up in the SEC, led by Alabama. What UGA’s Kirby Smart said about the surge
The SEC is evolving.
For years, the league has been for defense what the Big 12 has been for offense. The opposition found it tough to find the end zone against physical, bone-rattling defenses.
That’s starting to change.
The league has seen scoring rise so far in 2020. The median scoring average for teams through three games is 28.5 points. There have been contests with combined totals of 86, 84 and 83 points in the first three weeks. The 63-48 Alabama win over Ole Miss set an SEC record for points in regulation and for total yards with 1,370.
In 1998, the last year as a player for Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, the median points per game for SEC teams sat at 25.6 points. Since then the offenses have progressed more and more, with medians of 29.8 points in 2007, 30.35 points in Smart’s first year at Georgia in 2016 and 27.4 last season.
Smart attributed this to several factors.
One, he said the rules in college football skew more toward offense with linemen being allowed more downfield in the RPO game. Speaking of linemen, Smart said those who play that position in college football are better built to handle up-tempo offensive attacks.
“Those NFL teams, their linemen aren’t built to go tempo,” Smart said. “They’re not built to go 100 plays a game and go really fast. Well, a lot of the teams that have the most success statistically are tempo teams in college football.”
Those speedy offenses can affect defenses in their fundamentals. As the game speeds up, Smart said defensive fundamentals such as tackling suffer, allowing for bigger plays and more points.
As an example, Smart pointed to that Alabama-Ole Miss game. The Rebels and head coach Lane Kiffin went fast more often than normal, causing some breakdowns for the Crimson Tide.
When offenses go up tempo, they have to convert first downs and stay on the field. If they don’t, the approach can backfire just as quickly.
“Where you get in trouble with Alabama is when you can’t sustain a drive,” Smart said. “You go three-and-out or four-and-out or five-and-out, you can’t wear them down.”
There are counters to offenses going warp speed, however. Junior defensive lineman Jordan Davis said Georgia’s main focus is limiting the opposition’s success on first and second down, and controlling the line of scrimmage.
In the event that doesn’t go as planned, Davis said he takes extra conditioning reps during the week to make sure he doesn’t get too winded on the field.
Smart also said the coaching staff tries to build in a period or two into practice every day dedicated to fundamentals. He’s seen some defenses around the country that appear to have given up on that, instead focusing solely on turnovers and tackles for loss.
He doesn’t want that for his unit.
“We’re just trying to take little small things each day and get better at them for the kids so they can enjoy them because they show up in games,” Smart said. “We show a clip of a drill, and then it happens in the game. We’re like, ‘Hey, I’m glad we did that drill. We didn’t just go rep plays.’”
The Bulldogs his season have been strong as far as the fundamentals go. This weekend, however, will present their toughest challenge.
Alabama is third nationally in total offense with 560.3 yards per game. Georgia is second in total defense, allowing 236.7 yards per contest.
Alabama is the SEC’s top scoring offense (51 points per game), second-ranked passing offense (385 yards per game) and third-ranked rushing offense (175.3 yards per game). They have a massive offensive line that will make things tough for a talented Georgia front seven.
The strength of the Alabama offense may be its elite receiving corps. Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith are both future first-round NFL Draft picks who are always one play away from finding the end zone no matter where the offense is on the field.
“We’ve got to know for a fact that we’ve got to be on our P’s and Q’s,” junior cornerback Eric Stokes said. “We cannot bust in the back end, we cannot do a lot of little things like that. I know for a fact we’ve got to tremendously just watch film. I know throughout this whole week we’ve got to continue to watch film, do all the little things that we have been doing so we won’t give that up.”
Combine those two with bruising running back Najee Harris and quarterback Mac Jones, who’s completing just under 75 percent of his passes this season, and the Bulldog defense will be in for its toughest test of the entire season. It will be made even tougher with the RPOs and the up-tempo offense employed by Alabama, as well as every other team in the SEC nowadays.
If they are to do what teams in recent years have struggled to do — contain the Crimson Tide — Georgia will have to stick to the fundamentals that have made them one of the best defenses in the country.
“It’s not a magic potion. It’s good players, and it’s playing sound, fundamental defense,” Smart said. “But we’ve got to do it this week, and tackling will be the challenge this week because you’re not tackling your average players anymore. You’re tackling some really good ones.”
About the Georgia-Alabama football game
Who: No. 3 Georgia (3-0) at No. 2 Alabama (3-0)
Time: 8 p.m. Eastern
Place: Bryant-Denny Stadium (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
TV: CBS
Line: Alabama by 6