Welcome to Gimme 5, a weekly Q&A where one member of the DawgNation team answers your questions about the Georgia football program. To ask questions, simply check out the DawgNation forum and your questions could be featured in a future edition of Gimme 5.
Brandon Adams answers this week’s questions, ranging from the lack of statues honoring the program’s all-time greats to lingering concerns about the Bulldogs’ 2023 recruiting class.
NOTE: Questions have been lightly edited.
Brad Weiser asks: Other college football programs celebrate their great players and coaches with statues. We have nothing other than the Vince Dooley statue that you need a GPS device to find on the absolute edge of campus. I mean nothing for Herschel Walker, David Pollack, or Frank Sinkwich?
The answer to this question was featured in the Gimme 5 video for this week -- which can be found below.
Kelby Holbrook asks: How do we become RBU again with the scales tipping towards a more pass happy offense? I know the ground game will always be important but we also want to keep our wide receivers and tight ends happy and show recruits they can flourish at UGA.
There’s no doubt a lot of curiosity surrounding the future balance of UGA’s offense.
It’s true that the Bulldogs have had the reputation of being “Running Back University,” and that nickname was supported by a ground attack that led the SEC in rushing yards in 2017-18. However, while superstar running backs such as Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and D’Andre Swift were making names for themselves for the Bulldogs during that era, the sport they played in was undergoing a bit of a revolution.
Offenses -- especially for the country’s best teams -- were becoming much more explosive. Clemson won the national championship in 2018 while averaging 44 points per game. The next two national champions -- LSU in 2019 and Alabama in 2020 -- both averaged more than 48 points per game during their championship seasons.
All the sudden, the idea of being RBU didn’t seem quite as fashionable in a sport that had become defined by stellar quarterback and wide receiver play.
This is almost certainly a big reason why Kirby Smart brought in Todd Monken as offensive coordinator, and Monken’s results through two seasons speak for themselves. UGA was eighth nationally in scoring last season at 38.6 points per game. That’s about a touchdown more than the Bulldogs scored per game in 2020 and 10 points per game more than it scored in 2019.
Yet as UGA’s offense has evolved, maybe it seems that the Bulldogs could be in danger of becoming stuck between two identities. Even while winning the national championship, UGA wasn’t quite as explosive last year as previous title teams were, but as it has passed more in pursuit of more points, it’s also seemingly sacrificed some of what once made it famous.
The Bulldogs haven’t finished better than 5th in the SEC in rushing yards over the last three seasons.
Furthermore, a stat that’s probably surprising to some: UGA had far more passing plays of 10 or more yards last season (145) than it did 10-plus yard rushes (88).
So does UGA need to return to a ground and pound offense to improve its rushing numbers?
I don’t think so. UGA doesn’t necessarily need to rush more, but it might need to rush better.
The analytics website Football Outsiders tracks what it calls offensive line yards. The basic premise of the stat is that the first four yards on any running play are to the credit of the line because they open the hole, and beyond those first four yards, it becomes the running back’s responsibility to turn open holes into big gains.
According to Football Outsiders, UGA’s offensive line ranked 11th nationally last season in offensive line yards per rushing play (3.06).
What that stat suggests is that opportunities are there for more big gains, and running backs -- such as Kenny McIntosh, who has earned a ton of praise so far during the preseason, could have a chance to return the Bulldogs’ running back position to its former glory.
JD Brandon and George Armstrong both ask about the current state of UGA’s recruiting class.
The Bulldogs currently rank fifth in the 247Sports composite team ranking, and that would be considered great at most programs. However, UGA isn’t like most programs.
UGA has finished No. 1 in the recruiting rankings twice since Kirby Smart became UGA coach in 2016, and hasn’t finished worse than fourth since 2017.
Yet it isn’t the current ranking that has some of DawgNation concerned. It’s more about the ongoing narrative of last minute surprises that haven’t gone the Bulldogs way.
Earlier this summer, five-star quarterback Arch Manning chose Texas, in-state running back and UGA legacy Justice Haynes chose Alabama and a few other less-heralded prospects have seemingly drifted away from UGA just prior to announcing their commitment.
There’s also only one five-star recruit -- cornerback AJ Harris -- currently committed to the Bulldogs, but there are still others who could join the fold prior to the recruiting cycle’s conclusion.
UGA is a factor in the duo of James Smith and Qua Russaw’s recruitment, two defensive standouts from Alabama who say they plan to play together in college. The Bulldogs have also been in the mix for wide receiver Hykeem Williams and edge rusher Samuel M’Pemba.
There is, of course, a chance that UGA doesn’t earn a commitment from any of those prospects, but they’ll have a shot at each of them.
The bottom line is that two things can be true at once.
On the one hand, when Signing Day arrives, UGA will probably once again have a class that is the envy of most of the country. But on the other hand, the Bulldogs are no different than any other program that’s trying to navigate the new landscape created by NIL and numerous other recent changes.
Smart and the Bulldogs might not quite have it all figured out, but that just makes them like everyone else.
Barry Watkins asks: Has Kirby Smart surpassed Vince Dooley as the greatest UGA coach ever?
Dooley and Smart are, of course, the last two UGA coaches to win national championships. Yet both coaches found their success in completely different eras. The argument for Smart is based around the challenge of the SEC in modern times. He faces a 12-game regular season schedule -- including eight conference games each year. Not to mention the SEC championship game and the College Football Playoff. The schedule in Dooley’s era looked quite different from that.
However, Dooley coached at UGA for 25 years and won 201 games and six SEC championships in the process. That’s a degree of longevity that’s not easy to match.
I think winning a national championship is unquestionably more difficult in 2021 than it was in 1980, but Dooley’s consistent success for a quarter century isn’t anywhere near as easy as he made it look.
There’s a reason is name is on the field, after all.
So Dooley would still rank No. 1 on my list for now, but the assumption is that, if he continues the pace he’s on, Smart will one day have the honor all to himself.
Jim Jarrell asks: Who will be UGA’s toughest regular season opponent?
Using the traditional Associated Press preseason top 25 poll as a guide, the answer to this question is Oregon. The Ducks are ranked 11th to begin the season, and are one of only two UGA opponents to be ranked in the preseason -- the other being Kentucky, which is 20th.
However, what if we used a different rating system?
The ESPN Football Power Index is one of those analytics-minded formulas that isn’t always easy to understand, but is at least somewhat interesting because it is based on more than just someone’s opinion and rates the entire country and not just the top 25.
According to ESPN FPI, UGA’s toughest opponents is Kentucky -- which FPI has 18th.
The Wildcats are followed by Oregon (23rd), Mississippi State (24th) and Tennessee (25th).
If we assume that UGA could benefit from playing Oregon in its home state, and Tennessee in Athens, then the safest bet for a regular season challenge for UGA would probably come from either Kentucky or Mississippi State. These are both road games in November.
The maroon version of the Bulldogs put up a fight against UGA back in 2020, losing 31-24 as a 26.5-point underdog in Athens. Kentucky has also covered in each of its last three meetings vs. UGA.
So if there’s a close call for UGA, it could come in one of those two games.
