Kirby Smart doesn’t just accept that Monday's national championship game might be a shootout — he practically expects it. And Georgia has evolved to the point where the Bulldogs are built for it, writes DanWolken.
"It’s important to me that we’re good on defense and we’re explosive on offense,” Smart said. “Do those things lend themselves to each other? They can. They do for us.”
This isn’t to suggest that Georgia has backed off its commitment to defense or sacrificed something in the way it operates. The Bulldogs are still the most physically imposing team in college football, ranking 18th this season in yards per play allowed and fifth in scoring defense . “I think Coach Smart has done a good job of seeing the trend where college football is going, what needs to happen if we’re going to continue to stay relevant and compete for championships,” said quarterback Stetson Bennett, who first arrived at Georgia in 2017 when they ran a much less dynamic system.
But there was a clear pivot, at least philosophically, when Smart hired Todd Monken to run his offense. Starting with his time under Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State a decade ago, Monken built a reputation as one of the most creative playcallers in the sport, turning around Southern Miss before going to the NFL where he spent four seasons with Tampa Bay and Cleveland.
Smart said he did not have a eureka moment where he realized that Georgia’s offense needed to be more explosive, When he had Nick Chubb and Sony Michel in the backfield early in his tenure, it made more sense to build everything around running the ball.
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