After a pedestrian year from the Georgia Bulldogs on offense in 2019, Kirby Smart wasted no time making scheme changes, bringing in Todd Monken from the Cleveland Browns to take over for James Coley as offensive coordinator and play caller.
Monken has coached all over the football landscape, including 23 years of college coaching experience and eight years coaching in the NFL.
Most recently, Monken spent a season as the offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and before that, three seasons as the offensive coordinator and receivers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State from 2011-2012, Monken coached Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and the air-raid Cowboys offense to record breaking seasons, averaging well over 500 yards a game.
So, how does Monken’s air-rade scheme fit with a Georgia team built for defense and a power run game?
In 2019, the Bulldogs struggled with the deep passing game and the blame can’t be all on Coley, as Jake Fromm had issues with his deep ball and other than George Pickens, receivers either struggled with injuries, getting separation from defenders or dropped passes.
In 2020, there will be no shortage of depth or talent on the Georgia offense and in the light of recent off-season moves, it seems Kirby is planning to be more aggressive offensively.
The Bulldogs bring in a great arm in Wake Forest transfer quarterback Jamie Newman, paired with returning receivers George Pickens and Dominick Blaylock and added five receivers in the 2020 recruiting class.
Georgia will have the ability to stretch the field on anyone and that is exactly what Monken’s offenses do. Still, the traditional Georgia run game can only benefit from the space the air-raid creates.
As Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator in 2019, Monken led an offense that saw former Georgia great Nick Chubb run for nearly 1,500 yards, so we can expect that running backs Zamir White and James Cook will get their fair share of touches in 2020.
Bulldog fans should be excited to see what 2020 will bring for this young team. In Monken’s system, expect to see much more complex route trees than in previous years, as well as a more aggressive approach to offensive strategy because of the security blanket that is the Georgia defense.