On the eve of preseason camp, Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was asked what he thought his group might look like this season.
“We’re going to have to see how we unfold offensively and what our best personnel groups are and what our identity becomes for us to move the ball,” Bobo said. “That changes year to year.”
A quarter of the way into the season, the Bulldogs’ identity is starting to come into focus. On offense, Georgia looks like a team that is going to run the football at all costs and limit mistakes.
“It’s who we are,” Bobo said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t say we’re just a running football team. We’re still striving for balance. I think we’re about 60-40 (run) now. It may be a little skewed because we ran it a lot in the second half of the last game. But we feel like the best chance to move the ball is to get it in our backs’ hands.”
The Bulldogs enter Saturday’s game against Tennessee with a strong turnover margin of plus-4 and have the early makings of being good on special teams. On defense, Georgia remains a work in progress, though it has displayed some positive traits.
“I think we’re kind of doing what we think we do best right now, doing what we think we need to try to win a game,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “Defensively, we’ve stopped the run pretty good. We haven’t given up a massive amount of big plays, but people have been pecking away at us a little bit throwing and catching. … I think we have hopes of getting better as we go.”
Georgia has gained notice throughout the SEC for its ground game. The Bulldogs’ average of 7.7 yards per carry is second only to Wisconsin in FBS national statistics. Tailbacks Todd Gurley, Sony Michel and Nick Chubb all have averaged 9.5 yards or better per attempt, Gurley leads the SEC with 134 yards per game, and only built-to-run Arkansas has rushed for more yards (324.5) than Georgia’s 304 per game.
“I mean, it’s Georgia. We’re always going to run the football,” Gurley said. “We’re always going to have pretty good backs. Everybody knows we’re going to run. Just look at who we have in the backfield.”
That rate of production could be discounted for the level of competition if it didn’t included a pair of Top 25 opponents. And one of those teams — Clemson — just held No. 1-ranked FSU to 13 yards rushing on 27 attempts.
Said quarterback Hutson Mason: “I don’t think it’d be a surprise to anybody to think we’re probably going to be a run-first-oriented-play-action-throw-when-we-need-to-throw team. I’d say that’s going to be our identity. We’ve got a stable of running backs, and that really benefits us and really helps Todd in the long run, too.”
It’s no secret that teams that run the ball extremely well tend to win a lot. The Georgia record for yards rushing per game over a season is 303.4 in 1971, and the Bulldogs were 11-1 that season. Auburn, last year’s SEC champion, averaged 328.3.
The Bulldogs still have work to do on defense. They haven’t been terrible, giving up 318 yards and 19.7 points per game, and they rank among the SEC leaders in sacks (8) and takeaways (5). But they’ve endured long stretches where they can’t get opposing offenses off the field and have been particularly vulnerable to intermediate passes in the middle of their zone.
“We’re trying to create an identity,” defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt said. “Have we established one yet? No, we haven’t. We’ve got to sustain and play at a high level for four quarters and we have not done that yet.”
Tennessee comes in with one of the more dynamic young receiving corps in the country, led by 6-foot-4, 220-pound sophomore Marquez North. Covering them will be a supreme challenge for Georgia’s young secondary. While the Bulldogs may not be able to wow them with their results to date, they figure they can impress with effort.
“If someone wants to turn on that film and look at us, they’ll know that the Bulldogs are going to play hard every down and they’re going to get peppered every time they have the ball in their hands,” senior safety Corey Moore said. “We want to create that identity. Going into Tennessee I think we have a chance of making that mark.”
