Todd Monken weighed pros and cons, changed his mind, debated every angle as he weighed the possibility of leaving Georgia, where he’d overseen offenses that helped the Bulldogs win consecutive national championships.
Monken realized he couldn’t be in two places at once. And at age 57, he wanted to right a wrong in the NFL. Monken left Athens to become offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens in February.
“I wasn’t going to leave Georgia for any place,” Monken said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I had a great job. It took a special place, and I was lucky enough to get to a place that I felt like it was time. You can’t be two places at once. It wasn’t just that easy to say I was going to leave. It was a great ride.”
Georgia’s defense was the headliner of its titles, but its offense under Monken likewise became monstrous. His first season required Georgia to play three quarterbacks, part of the odd 2020 campaign, but the team still went 8-2 and finished No. 7. Georgia hit its stride with Stetson Bennett IV and Company the past two years.
Monken’s offenses averaged 38.6 and 41.1 points per game, respectively, over the past two seasons. The Bulldogs had 11 offensive players drafted over that time. Georgia went 29-1, with Monken largely credited for Bennett, a former walk-on, developing into a Heisman Trophy finalist. Monken’s scheming drew rave national reviews as the Bulldogs continued their onslaught.
Monken lauded the offensive success as a group effort. And he speaks glowingly of coach Kirby Smart, who hired Monken after he was let go as part of a regime change in Cleveland following the 2019 season.
“First off, I owe a lot (to Georgia),” Monken said. “Coach Smart hired me when I didn’t have a job. I know people don’t think of it that way. But you know, when I got let go in Cleveland, I didn’t know what my next step was. Did I have other opportunities? Of course. But I owe a lot to coach Smart for the opportunity to come into a place that the culture was already set, recruiting was already set. I just tried to hold up my end of the bargain and work as hard as I could to do the things he wanted me to do, which was – he didn’t want to have to worry about the offense at some point.
“Now, did it take us some time to get it going? Yeah. And there a lot of people to help along the way. We had an elite offensive staff. All of those guys were a big part of game planning. Dell McGee, Todd Hartley, Matt Luke, Stacy Searels, Cortez Hankton, B-Mac (Bryan McClendon), Mike Bobo, Buster Faulkner, all the other guys. We did it collectively.”
Monken had a perfect situation in Georgia. Smart fully trusted him with the offense. He had some of the nation’s most talented recruits at his disposal. He was the highest-paid assistant coach in college football. The team was rolling along. It’s a fickle business, but it’s hard to imagine better job security for a coordinator.
The elephant in the room, though, was the NFL. Monken had coached with three teams in six seasons, most recently serving as offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers (2018) and Browns (2019). When Monken spoke publicly ahead of the Peach Bowl last year, he acknowledged his open mind about returning to the pros. He began interviewing with teams months later, his name one of the hottest in the cycle following Georgia’s master-class performance against TCU in the national championship game (65-7).
As Monken pondered his options, he knew his next step would need to share traits with Georgia. He believes he found that in the Ravens, who’ve long valued toughness and defense as the core components of winning. The team is also led by Super Bowl-winning coach John Harbaugh and former MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, giving it stability at the two most important spots.
“People asked did you leave because you felt like there was no more you could do? No, that wasn’t it,” Monken said. “At the end of the day, it didn’t finish the right way at Cleveland when I was there. And there was some unfinished business there of wanting to do it again. Do it, give it a shot. But it had to be at a place I thought mirrored Georgia. A great organization structure. Head coach, right? Structure. Security’s not the right word, but where you had a head coach in place, years of success, a mentality. In a lot of ways, a similar mentality, toughness, defense. The way you structure things, how you win. I think that’s important to coaches. Like yeah, he’s a defensive coach, but he wants to be damn good on offense. But there’s a certain mentality of the way you’ve got to play at University of Georgia, and I felt the same way here.
“So yeah, it was hard to leave. It was. It wasn’t easy to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to pick up, leave a great job.’ I went back and forth at times with it, but I can’t be two places at once. At the end of the day, I had to take one more run at it. I didn’t know when that opportunity like this would come around again. It might’ve, but I didn’t know that.
“And I had to live with ‘don’t look back.’ It is what it is. There are certain things that I do miss about Georgia. There are certain things that I missed about being in the NFL. So I’ve been really lucky people thought enough of me to hire me, and hopefully, wherever I’ve been, I’ve fought to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Monken’s Ravens are a potential contender. Jackson is back healthy, armed with the best receivers of his career in Zay Flowers and Odell Beckham Jr. Georgia promoted Bobo to replace Monken and opened the season No. 1, so it should continue thriving.
But whatever success Georgia has moving forward, Monken was the OC for the most memorable two-year run in school history. He was the OC when they finally toppled Alabama and broke a four-decade drought. He was the OC for the encore, which concluded with the biggest blowout in championship history.
And whatever Monken’s future holds, he’ll always feel grateful to Georgia.
“I owe a lot to the players, the staff that we had there and (Smart) because it was pretty cool,” Monken said. “I’m sure it’s probably still too fresh to even think about it now, because it’s just ‘OK, onto the next challenge.’ I’m sure in a few years, it’ll resonate in terms of what we accomplished and the guys you did it with. Debt of gratitude to so many people because I wouldn’t be where I’m at now without it, without going to Georgia with coach Smart entrusting me with the offense. And then the guys around me, the players and the coaches.
“It was not that easy (to leave). You do miss the players. You miss the structure. You miss the winning. There’s a lot to really like about University of Georgia, as many people will tell you. But this was next. This was the next challenge and I’m not getting any younger. You know, (co-defensive coordinator) Glenn Schumann, I think he had another opportunity, but the guy is 35 or however (expletive) old he is (33).
“I’m 57. It’s a little different. You’re going to be 60 in three years. So if not now, then when? When are you going to have a situation where you think you get your quarterback back (Jackson) and think you can do some certain things that give us the chance to do it at the highest level.”
