Kirby Smart wants to improve Georgia offense's big-play potential
Explosive plays can change the complexion of a football game, and Georgia coach Kirby Smart knows this.
That’s why, coming into the year, he stressed big plays under first-year OC James Coley. So, how have the Dawgs fared in that pursuit?
On Monday, Smart said the Dawgs want to hit a big play 1 time in every 8 plays, adding that they came up just short of their goal through the first 5 games of the season (via 247Sports):
“Some teams may have they want 1 out of every 5, but we want 1 out of every 8 plays is our goal, and we were 1 out of 8.3,” Smart said. “So we just missed it. In some of that, they did a good job of — you take one or two blocks downfield and one more play is explosive, and you make that goal. But we’re always looking to improve.”
What constitutes an “explosive play?” Palmer Thombs of 247Sports went back to some of Smart’s preseason comments for clues:
While it is hard to define exactly what an explosive play is by Smart’s standards, he has given insight into that definition before. In preseason camp, Smart said that an explosive play was one over 12-13 yards. By our count, Georgia had nine plays of 14 yards or more against Tennessee on 70 plays from scrimmage, a 12.86 percent success rate of hitting on explosive plays.
With QB Jake Fromm and RB D’Andre Swift leading the way for the offense, the potential is there to be even better in the next part of the season.
If the Bulldogs can hit even more big plays moving forward, they’ll be really tough to beat.