Tim Tebow, Marcus Spears assess Georgia’s ‘vanilla’ offense, play-caller James Coley
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Georgia is off this Saturday, but the Bulldogs were still talked about on the SEC Network pregame show “SEC Nation.” Tim Tebow and Marcus Spears shared their thoughts on the UGA offense under new coordinator James Coley.
Spears sees an unimaginative offense.
“You know what Georgia has become? Vanilla, offensively, that’s what they’ve become,” Spears said during Saturday’s show. “The creativity has left. They’re leaning more on the fact that they have good players as opposed to schematically. Look where we are today (LSU). A scheme changed to get them to where they are today.”
Tebow said the issues on offense begin with Coley.
“It starts with play-calling,” Tebow said. “I think you have to put the defense on their heels. You have to take shots. You have to spread it out. On first down, it doesn’t have to be a dive run every time. Be able to be versatile. Be able to be mobile. The guy that they lost (former offensive coordinator Jim Chaney) that’s now down the street at Tennessee, they’re probably looking at him now saying, ‘Wow – we didn’t appreciate him as much as we probably should have.’”
Tebow shared more thoughts on Georgia, focusing on how the offense has looked in key wins and the loss to South Carolina.
“Georgia is still a really good team, but it’s not smooth,” Tebow said. “They’re not running on all cylinders. Jake Fromm, he’s not playing badly, but he’s not playing within the system. He’s not playing to the best of his ability. This team, if you look at the running game, it’s not what the running game should be. Their receivers are not playing up to par. They’re not efficient and effective. What’s crazy is you could actually tweak some things and be really good, really fast. The South Carolina game, Notre Dame, Kentucky, you did not look like a team that was playing up to their talent or their ability or even close.”
Fans get tired of hearing about a team controlling its own destiny, but it is true in UGA’s case. Perhaps the bye week came at the right time, as Tebow believes the Dawgs can turn it around heading into a key November stretch.
“It’s not too late for Georgia,” Tebow said. “They haven’t looked good, but they’ve only lost one time. Everything is still in front of them with the Florida game and the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff. It’s all in front of Georgia. They can get there. They have the talent, but they have to play up to their talent level.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
