ATHENS — Having won four of the last five SEC East crowns and coming off the 2021 national championship, Georgia would seem to be the epitome of stability and success. Then you think about a rising senior such as Warren Ericson and you realize he’s working under his third offensive line coach in four years this season.
The Bulldogs’ men up front this season are under the guidance of Stacy Searels, who follows Matt Luke, who followed Sam Pittman. By all accounts, Georgia’s offensive line has received expert tutelage from all three. But transitioning from one coach, then another and another, is not always seamless.
The Bulldogs, one week into their spring practice, can’t know yet how painstaking, if at all, their latest adjustment will be.
“That’s kind of crazy,” Ericson said of working under a third position coach. “But I still take stuff from coach Pitt(man), I still take stuff from coach Luke, just different techniques and stuff like that.”
On the Power Five football level, similar to the NFL, blocking schemes and offensive line technique are generally interchangeable. Rarely is a team just a zone-blocking offense, or a gap or a man team. Often that will change weekly or series to series, depending on the defense and the personnel they’re facing.
What varies significantly is terminology and philosophy.
Different coaches will try to communicate the same things, but they’re using a different language, essentially, to get their point across. That’s one of the primary things coach and pupils are trying to come together on this spring.
Then there are invariable differences in coaching philosophy. Some are more tacticians and technicians, while others are all about motivation and effort. Some prefer quickness and agility to size and brute strength.
“He set the tone with ‘physicality and aggressiveness' right away. That was the first thing he brought up in the meeting room. He wants us to be disciplined and know exactly what to do."
“I think the biggest difference is coach Luke is more of a motivator,” said redshirt sophomore center Sedrick Van Pran, comparing Luke and Searels. “He definitely wanted to coach technique, but he was mainly a motivator. I think coach Searels is more straight to the point. That can be good or bad, depending on the player, honestly. But I think the ultimate thing is to just take the message and figure out what’s best for the team.”
Ericson said Searels made his priorities clear in their first position meeting.
“He set the tone with ‘physicality and aggressiveness’ right away,” Ericson said. “That was the first thing he brought up in the meeting room. He wants us to be disciplined and know exactly what to do.”
Searels, 56, has done nothing but coach offensive line since he played the position at Auburn. He learned the game from head coach Pat Dye and line coach Neil Callaway while earning All-American honors with the Tigers and certainly has carried that base philosophy with him in a 30-year career that has included 10 different stops, including two at Georgia.
But Searels also has had to adjust his teachings to the wants of the head coach and offensive coordinator. Generally, he’s known for preferring that his charges be a little trimmer and well-conditioned. That runs congruent with Luke but contrasts with Pittman, who wanted his linemen as big and burly as he could get them.
Searels hasn’t been available for an interview since accepting Georgia’s position Feb. 28, but his comments on offensive line play in the past indicate Van Pran’s thoughts are probably on the mark.
Searels said in a 2019 interview at North Carolina that he preferred simplified assignments. “So we can really hone in on being technically sound and playing very violently,” he said. “We’re going to run basic inside zones and outside zones and gap schemes. But every play has different outlets, and the quarterback has different choices to make.”
Because of its reputation as “Running Back U” and a run-first offensive team, Georgia more often than not faces a plus-one defensive tackle box. This requires either backs to evade extra defenders or the quarterback to read-option an unblocked defender or to check out of the run game. This was an area quarterback Stetson Bennett excelled in last season, both from a read-option and run-threat standpoint. It is also the reason he ultimately held down the position even after JT Daniels cleared injury protocol.
The thought is Georgia can be even more effective in that regard this season, with Bennett back at the quarterback controls, little or no drop-off in the backfield and possibly an improved offensive line group.
Long forgotten after the Bulldogs’ masterful 14-1 season and run to the national championship is the fact that they dealt with myriad injuries up front. They had to change centers in preseason camp, right guard from the first offensive series of the season and left tackle for the middle third of the season due to injuries.
This year, in coming from North Carolina to Georgia, Searels has to feel like he went to sleep and woke up in O-line heaven. Redshirt sophomore Broderick Jones seems solidified at left tackle thanks to all the experience and exemplary play he logged last season instead of assuming only a backup role. Same with Van Pran at center. Fourth-year junior Warren McClendon seems entrenched at right tackle.
The main questions, then, reside at guard. Ericson was a 14-game starter there on the right side but was subbed out more than any other lineman. Meanwhile, Georgia has stockpiled some talented prospects and massive human beings who should be approaching their optimum playing window as far as development.
The presence of individuals such as Amarius Mims (6-foot-7, 330 pounds, So.), Devin Willock (6-7, 335, R-So.) and Micah Morris (6-6, 330, R-Fr.) lend a whole new meaning to the phrase “point of critical mass.”
Georgia’s average offensive line size actually has trended downward since the departure of Pittman, when it was 6-5, 332 pounds, to last year’s 6-4, 314 under Luke. A big question under Searels is which way he might want to go, faster and sleeker or bigger and bulkier.
He can have his preference.
“It’s been interesting,” Van Pran said of the early competition at guard. “We’re running a lot of guys in and out to try to create the best possible lineups for the team. It’s been competitive, but everyone’s holding their own, and I think everyone’s competing at the highest level.”
All might not survive. Georgia is well over the 85 maximum number of scholarship players allowed on the roster. That will have to be rectified between spring and fall semester. Some casualties may come from among the 16 scholarship offensive linemen who entered spring practice.
Senior Owen Condon (6-7, 310) already took himself out of the mix by announcing last week that he was entering his name in the transfer portal. And while the Oklahoma native hadn’t played a lot in his Georgia career, he was a regular in the two-deep and was an academic all-star to boot.
So, things are anything but quiet and settled in the Bulldogs’ O-line meeting room. And that’s mostly a good thing for all involved.
“I think that kind of comes with every single spring,” said Ericson, who is experiencing his fourth one. “Spring is all about bringing in competition, improving yourself. And now, especially with a new coach being in the aspect, it’s that way as well. …
“He just wants us to continue the tradition of being the dominant offensive line that Georgia has always had.”
