georgia football Dan Lanning

ATHENS — When Dan Lanning smiled when asked what will be the million-dollar question for every Georgia opponent: “How do you match up with those tight ends?”

It was a telling smile: Lanning has ideas, but the truth is there is no clear answer.

There will be many matchups within the game when No. 11 Oregon travels across the country to play the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Georgia tight end room, however, was key to last season’s CFP Championship run with FWAA Freshman of the Year Brock Bowers playing the role of offensive MVP with his record-breaking numbers.

Lanning, of course, had a front-row seat for all of it as the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator and was also around enough to understand how much Arik Gilbert and Darnell Washington can be game changers.

First things first, Lanning wants to make it clear that with Bowers, Gilbert and Washington, defenses must be ready to account for them as they would wide receivers.

“You can call them tight ends, but the reality is they are a matchup issue as wideouts, as much as they are at tight end,” Lanning said. “One of the big decisions is, how are you going to match their personnel?”

The speeds of Bowers and Gilbert, along with Goliath dimension of Washington present challenging physical and athletic matchups regardless of scheme.

“If you decide to go big and play physical, which Georgia (offense) can do, you might be outmatched in how you can cover,” Lanning said, explaining the defensive dilemma.

“And if you decide to go smaller and put yourself in position to cover, then you might not match them in bully-bully ball, and they are able to run it.”

Georgia outside linebacker Nolan Smith has seen enough of the UGA offense in practices and scrimmages to know what his former position coach will be dealing with on Saturday.

“It’s a three-headed monster: you go from covering Arik to having to fight Darnell in the box, but then they’ll split Darnell out, too,” Smith said.

“Coach (Todd) Monken is having a field day just because they do all types of things with our tight ends and they’re all really good. In space, out of space, inside the box, blocking with their hands.”

SEC analyst and former Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers explained what Lanning and future UGA opponents are up against.

“I think it’s really scary with Brock Bowers, Darnell Washington and Arik Gilbert if he’s on the field and healthy, and you’ve got Ladd McConkey outside,” Rodgers said.

“I mean, they can get in 13 personnel (one back, three tight ends) and go five wide (formation) and they say, ‘Okay your linebackers, your nickelbacks, try running. Try running with Gilbert.

“I mean, you just can’t do it. They’re a matchup nightmare, so they’re going to pound the football, they’re going to play action pass. That’s who they are.”

Former Alabama and NFL safety Roman Harper sees Stetson Bennett’s completion rate going up via many short, high-percentage passes to the tight ends this season.

“The tight ends to tunnel screens will play a big factor in everything they do,” Harper said. (Bennett’s) completion percentage may even be higher, because I don’t think they’re going to throw it down the field as much.

“I’m thinking they’re going to hand the ball off, they’re going to do a lot of throws to all these tight ends right over the middle of the football field.”

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Lanning knows Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken will be paying close attention to Lanning’s personnel groupings each snap and adjust and play call accordingly.

Specifically, how many defensive backs will the Ducks deploy on the field?

Lanning explained how the flexibility in Georgia’s offense, and Monken’s play-calling genius, can quickly cross teams up.

“Coach Monklen is an elite player caller and does a great job of recognizing what (personnel package) you are in,” Lanning said.

“And it’s creating open sets when you are big (less defensive backs), and creating condensed sets when you’re small.”

So if Lanning wants to use linebackers to cover players like Bowers and Gilbert, Monken and the Bulldogs will split them out wide to give them more space to operate in, as they do receivers.

And, if the Ducks opt for lighter, faster defensive backs, then Georgia brings their tight ends into the line and plays power football.

Former Ole Miss and Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said that formation flexibility is pivotal.

“The versatility of being able to stay in personnel that works on first down, second down and third down is more critical than you might think,” Cutcliffe said.

“I’m thinking they could come out with 20 formations with these guys, and you can pack it in or go empty, there’s that ability of unpredictability.”

Lanning said it’s not as simple as just taking away what the Georgia pass game does best, those short, high percentage passes to Bowers.

“Brock is a really talented player and if you make the focus strictly Brock, there’s enough other good players on that side of the ball that are going to beat you,” Lanning said.

“The teams that had success (against Bowers), they still losetthose games, so I’m not going to necessarily follow their plan.”

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