Georgia, Lambert ready to go fast on offense

ATHENS -- Greyson Lambert wants to go fast.

He’s drawn to pushing the tempo of Georgia’s offense, working to move it as quick as possible. Although he operated primarily out of the shotgun at his previous school, Virginia, he didn’t run it nearly as fast there as he has thus far at Georgia.

Georgia’s offense has come long and far from the early days of the Mark Richt era, when the offense would huddle up in between plays.

In the past few years, beginning during quarterback Aaron Murray’s tenure, Georgia’s offense picked up the pace to the point where it wants to run up and down the field constantly.

And with Lambert on board and running the show, this is what he prefers.

“We’re trying to go at breakneck speed, as fast as we can,” Lambert said. “As the knowledge progresses and we get a little more comfortable each and every week with the offense, the faster we can go and make our calls. Hopefully we’ll be going faster every week.”

This week, Lambert said the offense was executing its high-tempo package in practice to the point where time would be left over during certain periods of team drills. If the offense gets through a set number of plays within a given time frame, it gets a break before the next period of practice begins.

“If you get it done, and you get it done correctly, then you may get a little break in the action and then we’ll go on to the next period,” Richt said. “There’s an incentive to not only go at a good tempo but to execute. Any play that isn’t executed properly, we re-rack it and do it again.

“If they have good tempo and don’t make a lot of mistakes, they will get ahead of the schedule and a little break.”

Georgia’s no-huddle attack is a bit different from others around the country, in that it’s a multiple pro-style offense hurrying up. Normally, no-huddle offenses are associated with the spread -- whether it’s an air raid attack or option-based.

The Bulldogs, instead, are hurrying to the line of scrimmage but still running elements of power football, play-action and pro-style concepts. The object is to run more plays, which mean more chances to score.

Interestingly, opposing teams have run more plays than Georgia this season. The Bulldogs have run 181 plays with opponents totaling 205. But where Georgia has the advantage is that it’s getting 7.9 yards per play as opposed to the 4.4 for the opposition.

“I think we’re getting better every week and that just comes with more experience, people getting to know each other, receivers and the quarterback being on the same page,” senior tight end Jay Rome said. “We have gotten a lot faster since the first day of camp, and I think week by week, we’ll keep on increasing in our speed.”

One advantage to running an offense as quick as Georgia’s is it keeps the defense in its base personnel. Defensive coordinators aren’t able to substitute as freely and don’t have as much time to disguise pressure packages.

The advantages of running a no-huddle offense this way have resonated with Lambert, who has bought in with running the offense as fast as possible.

“We’ll be moving at a tempo where it makes them decide really quickly and gives us an advantage, hopefully,” Lambert said.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 9:59 PM with the headline "Georgia, Lambert ready to go fast on offense ."