Georgia offense shows growth on Rocky Top, but Kirby Smart will use bye to hammer need for improvement
By Sam Ranson
Published:
First of all, big-time kudos to Mike Bobo — Georgia’s much-maligned offensive coordinator — and to Gunner Stockton — Georgia’s much-doubted, first-year starting quarterback — and to the entire Georgia offense for a gritty, explosive, big-boy performance up in Knoxville.
The Vols came out on fire. Transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar hit on chunk play after chunk play in a scintillating 14-for-14 start that saw Tennessee head coach and play caller Josh Heupel finally catch Kirby Smart and his defense off-guard with an early-game script — and Tennessee caught Georgia squarely on the jaw in front of a raucous crowd on Rocky Top.
But what’d Stockton, Bobo and company go and do? They, and specifically Stockton, did exactly what we said they needed to do in our preview last week: Stockton took his drop, made a decisive read, and let that thing rip down the field. Georgia’s first offensive play of the game was a 45-yard dime down the sideline to Colbie Young, who took advantage of a freshman corner filling in for an injured starter.
(Can we admit that Stockton throws a nice deep ball? The kid throws a damn beautiful deep ball.)
That’s intelligent, if not exactly earth-shattering, game planning, and that early haymaker, and a series of other early shots down the field, allowed the Bulldogs’ offense to immediately answer Tennessee’s explosiveness with some explosiveness of its own. Just showing that gear got Tennessee’s defense on its heels, and that allowed the Bulldogs to do what they do best for much of the second half — maul your ass in the run game.
The Bulldogs’ balanced attack, and — if we’re being honest — the stellar play-calling of Mike Bobo, from deft oscillations between shot plays down the field and a 90s-looking power run game to perfectly-timed quarterback run calls, allowed Georgia to fight its way back and ultimately win an all-time thriller in Neyland.
Big-time credit to Tennessee as well. That’s a good team, with a dangerous quarterback, a talented game-planner and play caller, a defense that has warts (partially due to injury, partially because they may just be a little light up front…) but that can also get after you in pass-rushing situations and will make plays this season.
The Vols are going to be a tough out in the SEC.
I’ll cop to it: I expected Tennessee to take a step back this season. The Vols lost a ton of production off last year’s 10-win Playoff team. But Heupel has this program on steady ground for the first time in what feels like decades, and the folks up in Knoxville have to be thrilled about that.
For Georgia, the Dawgs head into their pre-Alabama bye week at 3-0 and undoubtedly in a much better mood than they were following rather uninspiring tune-ups against Marshall and Austin Peay…but if I know one thing about Kirby Smart, it’s that he’s not about to pat these boys on the back and tell them they’re doing swell. He’ll look to use this success as a springboard to demand more, to dangle it as an example of what this team could accomplish if it continues to work, to learn, and to strain.
It’ll be a tough film review for young defensive backs like Ellis Robinson and Daniel Harris, and there’s plenty to clean up in pass protection, particularly on an unsettled right side where veteran starter Earnest Greene tried to give it a go in Knoxville but ultimately had to leave. On top of all that, the reality is this was one (admittedly great) performance from Stockton and the offense. The Dawgs will need to prove capable of stringing several of these performances together in order to accomplish what they want to accomplish this season, and Kirby and defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann aren’t the types to accept that their side of the ball looked like this team’s liability in its first big test of the season.
Alabama also gets a bye this week as the Tide prepare to defend their uniquely stellar record against Smart’s Bulldogs, and they’ve looked considerably better since getting bloodied in Tallahassee in Week 1. Quarterback Ty Simpson, emerging star Germie Bernard, and former 17-year-old Ryan Williams are going to love some of the tape they see from the Tennessee game.
But Smart will be looking for some blood of his own this week — the Dawgs go good-on-good in high-level, physical, “Bloody Tuesday” practices during game weeks, and in this case, they’ll do it on a bye week — and you can bet he’ll be looking to shore up his defensive backs’ understanding of their pattern-match principles, as well as their technique and confidence in playing deep balls in 1-on-1 situations down the field, as the Dawgs prepare to meet their nemesis (well, one of their nemeses…) from that state to the West.
Georgia bagged itself a massive road win against a dangerous team last week, but the hallmark of Smart’s Bulldogs has been a tenacious mentality that sees them improve throughout the season. We’ll see next Saturday if this team is built the same way.
