No. 12 Tennessee (2-0, 2-0 SEC) will travel to No. 3 Georgia (2-0, 2-0 SEC) in Week 3 of a 10-game SEC-only schedule (3:30 p.m. EDT, CBS).
Georgia is two games into its season with first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
Monken specializes in an Air Raid offense, something Vols Wire previously went in detail about with Allan Bridgford. Bridgford played quarterback for Monken at Southern Miss.
Ahead of the Tennessee-Georgia game, Bridgford joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days,” alongside Valdosta head coach Rush Propst to preview the contest.
Propst mentioned “the key to the game is how well Jeremy Pruitt defends Georgia.”
“It’s a chess match,” Propst said. “It’s a chess match between Todd Monken and Jeremy Pruitt, Derrick Ansley and his staff. Then there is a chess match going on with Dan Lanning, Kirby Smart and Jim Chaney that it is going to be fun and kickback and watch it.”
The Bulldogs have continued to have a strong presence in the running game this season. Georgia totaled 202 yards on 45 attempts in its 27-6 win against Auburn last week.
During the offseason, Georgia had a pair of quarterbacks transfer into its program in JT Daniels (USC) and Jamie Newman (Wake Forest). Ahead of the season, Newman opted out and will not play, while Daniels is still recovering from an ACL injury taking place at USC last year.
Not having Daniels or Newman playing has paved a way for 5-foot-11, 190-pound Stetson Bennett to become Georgia’s signal-caller. In wins against Arkansas and Auburn, Bennett is 37-of-57 for 451 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He has been sacked twice.
Through the first two games, Monken has been able to run Air Raid concepts with Bennett, while maintaining a physical ground game. Monken has featured Y-Cross off play-action instead of in a straight drop back, along with mesh early on this season.
“In the system, whether it be Y-Cross or Y-Sail, it starts with that guy,” Propst said of Air Raid concepts and the signal-caller. “So what they did against Auburn, they did a lot of that off play-action to protect the quarterback and they were wide open. When Auburn had to sell out to stop the run, it left the play-action.
“The scheme stays the same, whether you are in the gun, taking a three-step drop, playing 90-game, or you are under center and play-action — the concepts are not going to change a lot. I did see mesh in a third down deal. There are about seven or eight concepts in the 90-game which is a three-step drop out of shotgun and then it is 60 protection which is quick game stuff. There are tons of things he can do out of that to get the ball out to the wide receivers very fast.”
Safety play is critical when defending Air Raid concepts as they determine if it is needed to come over the top, crash or play down.
In the Air Raid, wide receivers have the ability to post in a direction they feel a safety is not headed. There is a lot of freedom within the Air Raid offense to make these decisions, placing a large burden on defenders as they need to be able to cover in open space.
Freedom in route-running for Georgia’s wide receivers were on display against Auburn last week to go along with the Bulldogs’ running attack.
“Monken did not come in to blow things up, he came in to add bits and pieces to make it better,” Bridgford said. “They have had tremendous success running the ball the past few years with pro-style concepts. They are only going to get better when they are adding these spread-type concepts that Monken brings in.
“Every quarterback loves play-action. There is nothing better than making a play-fake then looking down the field and seeing all of the linebackers that have been brought up from that play-fake because there is actually a threat there. You just have guys that are on crossers, dig routes and running naked because you can just throw the ball in there without having to maneuver around anybody. The spread concepts can still remain with a pro-style-type set under center with play-action – you can still run Y-Cross and Y-Sail. I think it is a good combination for Georgia.”
“Monken has a strong background in coaching wide receivers. He is as good as it gets when it comes to coaching receivers. He obviously played quarterback, so he has that perspective and quarterbacks know what they like. Certain guys give certain indicators better for when they run their routes than others. The best thing he does is teach.” — Allan Bridgford on the freedom wide receivers have under Todd Monken
Part of the Tennessee-Georgia matchup is Jim Chaney being in his second season as the Vols’ offensive coordinator. Chaney served in the same capacity at Georgia from 2016-18 under Smart.
Since Chaney’s departure from Georgia, Smart has been searching for an answer for his replacement.
After one season without Chaney, Propst viewed Georgia’s offense last year as one that “needed freshening up” with someone like Monken coming in.
“He is a smart guy and knows how to sort of integrate it into what they are doing,” Propst said of Monken arriving at Georgia. “It needed freshening up. I really think Georgia is going to make it very difficult on people to defend them.”
Propst is familiar with both Monken and Pruitt and views Saturday’s matchup as one where Tennessee will have their “work cut out this week” in preparation, as UT “is going to have to determine what Bennett can do in this Air Raid offense that can affect him.”
Pruitt served as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Hoover High School from 2004-06 under Propst. Propst has ran Air Raid principles since his Hoover days, allowing for Pruitt to coach against the scheme before it was widespread throughout the sport.
Propst’s offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey at Hoover (2007) coached under Monken at Southern Miss from 2014-15.
“You take Jeremy Pruitt, I know what defensive strategist he is, he has his work cut out this week,” Propst said of Tennessee preparing for Monken and Georgia. “He is going to have to defend, not only the throw game in the Air Raid stuff that he knows — Jeremy knows it because he went against it in practice, against me, everyday. He knows what hurts it, where you are vulnerable in certain coverages, certain things, how to blitz it, how not to blitz it, whether to drop eight and rush three, whether to rush four, what coverages hurt certain things, but now you have to get all of that stuff taught with run fits.
“There is only a certain amount of time during practice that you can spend on run fits, plus all of the other stuff, as far as whether you are zone blitzing it or man blitzing it, or whatever Jeremy brings. It has only loaded his plate double the amount. Jeremy is not a dummy, I promise you that. He has been knowing this quite sometime when Todd was hired.”
The entire show with Bridgford and Propst can be listened to here or below.
Understanding CONE, STUMP, SMASH, POSTER and FIT within the split safety coverage
Understanding Jeremy Pruitt’s split safety coverage: CONNIE
Understanding Jeremy Pruitt’s split safety coverage: STUBBIE