The single best decision Kirby Smart has made in nearly a decade at Georgia was hiring an assistant coach he had never worked with and had no previous connection to the Bulldogs program.
That coach was Todd Monken, and the offense he brought to Georgia was dynamic and relentless. It was both physical and creative. It kept opponents off-balance because it was so multiple that teams struggled to prepare. Most of all, it made sure Smart’s defense didn’t go to waste – and the national championship-winning results spoke for themselves.
But now we must ask if Smart followed the best decision of his tenure with the worst: Did he screw up by replacing Monken with his close friend and veteran playcaller Mike Bobo? After watching Georgia lose to Alabama 41-34 on Saturday, it’s fair to wonder if the Bulldogs have what it takes offensively to turn this around should they meet again in the SEC championship game or the College Football Playoff.
Yes, Georgia scored 34 points and finished with 519 yards. And yes, Georgia came all the way back to briefly take the lead with 2:31 remaining.
If you dig even a little bit under the surface, though, most of what Georgia accomplished offensively came in the fourth quarter when they had no choice but to chuck it and connected on a handful of huge plays.
It made the game chaotic, and it improbably gave Georgia a chance to win after trailing 28-0 early. But if you are calling that a good offensive performance by the Bulldogs, you’re missing the big picture.
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As has been the case all season, Georgia struggles to run the ball these days. It came into the game ranked 39th nationally in yards per rush and averaged 3.1 on 26 attempts against Alabama. And though quarterback Carson Beck ended up with 439 passing yards and three touchdowns, he threw three interceptions – including on Georgia’s final drive – and missed more throws than you’d like to see from a 22-year old who has been on campus for five seasons.
What do you believe about Georgia’s offense right now: The stats or the mistakes?
Which brings us back to Bobo, the former Georgia quarterback who called the Bulldogs offense under Mark Richt from 2007-2014 and had a handful of other jobs before returning to his alma mater as an analyst in 2022.
Georgia fans were nervous when Smart elevated his good friend to offensive coordinator in 2023, and with good reason. They’d seen this act before. “Run the dang ball, Bobo” isn’t just one of the great college football memes of all time, it’s the manifestation of every complaint fans had about him as the playcaller during a decade when Georgia couldn’t quite get over the line.
Sure, it’s hard to run the ball when you fall behind 28-0. Fair enough. But what about two weeks ago when Georgia ran it 30 times for 102 yards against Kentucky in a 13-12 escape? What about last season in the SEC championship game when Georgia needed to beat Alabama to make the College Football Playoff and only managed 78 rushing yards on 31 carries?
Yes, this is a trend. It’s a problem. And it’s one that is going to hound the Bulldogs all season unless they can get another shot at Alabama and show the kind of complete, ruthless offensive arsenal that they remember from the national championship runs in 2021 and 2022.
All of this is relevant because it has happened within the context of a coaching tenure that began with serious concerns about how Smart was handling the offensive side of the ball.
Before Smart plucked Monken out of the NFL where he’d been an offensive coordinator for the previous four years, Georgia’s offense was heavily criticized. Sure, they had the physical talent to mash most teams up front, but there was usually something missing against the truly elite opponents.
For a couple years there, fans and opponents questioned whether Smart was just too conservative or too tethered to his defensive identity to evolve offensively the way Nick Saban had. Don’t forget, Smart had Justin Fields on his roster in 2018 but had no real feel for how to use him. Ryan Day didn’t have that problem after Fields transferred to Ohio State and became the two-time Big Ten offensive player of the year.
But all that changed once Smart made a leap into the unfamiliar and handed everything offensively over to Monken. In both 2021 and 2022, Georgia finished No. 4 nationally in yards per play and were in the top 10 in points per game. The Bulldogs had four running backs that averaged five yards a carry and a receiver room deeper than anyone in the country. Smart recruited big-time playmakers, and Monken made sure the ball got into their hands.
After the second national title, Monken went back to the NFL. And Smart went back to a friendship dating back decades.
It’s not the same.
Beck looks under-developed and mistake-prone. Trevor Etienne, the transfer from Florida getting most of the running back carries, can’t get loose. Outside of Dominic Lovett, the receivers Georgia’s relying on have been more second-tier guys who stuck around long enough to become first-tier guys.
Coaching staff atrophy happens to programs that win the way Georgia won in 2021 and 2022, but it looked like Smart had this thing rolling to such a degree that it wouldn’t matter much who he plugged in at offensive coordinator.
After watching Georgia through four games this season, that’s no longer the case. What Monken brought to the table made a real difference in two national title runs. Now he’s gone, and there’s a clear drop-off.
Bobo won’t get the benefit of the doubt from Georgia fans much longer. His history with the program is too long, and his flaws as a playcaller have been well-known not just at Georgia but South Carolina, Auburn and Colorado State.
If this season doesn’t live up to expectations for the Bulldogs, there’s no doubt who’s going to get the blame.