The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bulldogs seek balance
Smart, Chaney hope players can deliver mix of run, pass.
The main problem with Georgia’s offense last season, when boiled down to a pure play-calling perspective, was a philosophical clash: between what
Kirby Smart and Jim Chaney wanted to do, and what talent they had.
They inherited an offenline that was small, perhaps more suited to quicker plays and passes. But what the coaches had hoped to do was install what at heart was traditional Georgia football: Pass the ball, sure, but when it came down to it, you had to run the football. And even with Nick Chubb
and Sony Michel, Georgia couldn’t do that.
Georgia hopes to fix the personnel problem this year, going with bigger men on the line, especially at guard, which maybe would make it easier to run between the tackles. And maybe with a second-year quarterback, and what they hope is an improved receiving corps, the play-calling will be that much easier overall.
Assuming, of course, that “what Smart and Chaney wanted to do” was the same thing. Chaney, in a rare
media appearance Saturday, at one point said it was his
job “to work within Kirby’s philosophy to score enough points to find victory.”
Chaney, the coordinator who came under much criticism his first season, was asked how much Smart affected the team’s offensive philosophy.
“Every bit of it! He writes the checks,” Chaney said, laughing.
But wait ... Smart’s background is defense. He was a defensive coordinator, a safety in his Georgia play
ing days. So how involved should he be?
“That’s a misnomer because even though you grow up coaching on defense doesn’t mean you don’t develop a philosophy of offense,” Chaney said.
Which Smart has done, influenced by what he’s seen work against him, what he’s seen nationally, and what he still fundamentally believes. The short, one-word version: balance.
“I know you can say that’s coach-speak. But if you can
not run the ball in critical situations in the game, you’re usually not going to win the game,” Smart said. “Does
that mean you need to lead the SEC in rushing to win? No, not necessarily. But that means you have to be able to run it when you have to.”
Smart referred to it as “must-run, situational football.” Short yardage: fourthand-inches, third-and-inches, goal-line, in the red zone. “If you can’t run the ball in the red area, then you’re going to get beat,” Smart said. The ability to run out the clock when you’re leading is also vital, he added.
“Thirty-three percent of SEC games, we’re going to have to be able to run the
ball,” Smart said. “So that toughness and that mentality has to be there.” Then Smart pivoted. “But we all know the spread element has taken over college football, and
being able to make looser plays, and making it harder on defenses to defend is much better ,” he said. “Between those two things you want to have balance. You want to get your football players the football. Who are the best guys with the ball in their hands. Who are the best blockers in space to get
those guys the ball.”
Smart’s embrace of the spread may sound begrudging, but it’s an embrace nonetheless. It’s an embrace of reality. Much like his mentor Nick Saban, who has gone from overseeing a purely physical, pro-style offense at Alabama to one that also incorporates the spread and a dual-threat quarterback. Chaney came to the same
balance the opposite way: He started out at Purdue airing it out, and doing so successfully, from 1997-2003. But he also came to believe you had to run the ball well to win. The same things Smart talked about. Situational football.
“I would never go anywhere and work if physicality wasn’t a cornerstone of your program,” Chaney said. “That’s what I personally believe in. At age 55, that’ll probably never change.”
So ultimately the head coach and the offensive coordinator agree about their philosophy. They want to be versatile, perfectly comfortable to spread out and air it out, but ready to ram
the ball down the middle when necessary.
“We have never debated,” Chaney said. “If I want to do something that’s a little crazy, I’ll go and ask him, but I’m too old to be fighting over little teeny things. Because we believe in the foundation of what we’re building here,
and we’re collectively 100 percent behind that. Physicality, balance, get your good players involved, good situational offense, don’t turn the damn thing over. All those things are a cornerstone of who you are, and there’s never a debate on that.”
The first year of this union, between veteran offensive coordinator and rookie head coach, it didn’t work as well as they wanted. There wasn’t any clash in styles or philosophy that was evident. Their stated shared philosophy just didn’t fit the personnel.
Now, as they think they inch their way toward more ideal personnel, Smart and Chaney hope they’ll see an offense that is freshened up, to use Chaney’s term.
“He’s been very versatile in his past,” Smart said. “He was not able to do that last year. We were not in a position to be that. That’s not who we were. We were in transition. It was tough.
“I think he’d be the first one to admit to you that we
didn’t live up to the expectations we wanted last year.
That’s not the standard we expect at Georgia. And he recognizes that. We acknowledge that. We had to do a good job of analyzing why was it that way, and what are we going to do about it.”