Smart wants the o-line to play with 'a chip on their shoulder'

By Georgia standards, the Bulldog run game was not good in 2024.

Georgia’s average of 4.06 yards per carry tied for 84th in the nation. The per game average of 124.43 yards ranked 102nd in college football, behind schools such as Georgia Southern, Georgia State, and Miami (OH).

So what does Georgia head coach Kirby Smart want to see from his offensive line heading into this year’s fall camp? It all goes back to his new mantra of “fire, passion, and energy.”

“I think (seeing) them gel, them play with a chip on their shoulder,” Smart said. “We talk about playing with an edge. Passion, fire, energy, right? PFE is one of the things we’re looking for. No greater position that you possess passion, fire, and energy than O-line. There is something about breaking someone’s will or saying, ‘I have to move you from point A to point B,’ and movement is exactly that. Movement is what creates run game.”

Smart made sure to note that he doesn’t measure the success or failure of his running game on pure yardage totals.

“We’ve talked about it a lot in our messaging about what the standard is at Georgia in terms of, it’s not the number of runs as much as it is the efficiency of the runs,” Smart said. “Our best teams since we’ve been here, they’ve been able to run the ball when they have to run it, and they’ve been able to stop the run when they have to stop it. And that looks different in every game.  So, what do I want to see out of those guys? I want to see improvement, I want to see buy-in. It’s a culture thing. It’s like, you get what you demand, and we’re going to demand that we stop it and that we’re able to do it and run it.”

That sounds just fine to offensive linemen like Micah Morris.

The redshirt senior, now the elder statesman of the Georgia offensive line, said he enjoys hitting people. The offseason focus, however, has gone beyond just popping pads.

“Just pretty much just taking it day by day, focusing on technique, the little things, the hand placement, linebacker location, things like that,” Morris said. “Then as an offensive line unit, making sure that it’s five people moving as one so we’re all on the same page every time.”

There are also new voices to be heard. Phil Rauscher, for example, is a new offensive analyst after coming over from the NFL.

“Just him being a guy who coached in the league for so long, All-Pro guards, All-Pro tackles, All-Pro linemen in general, his insight on the game is irreplaceable,” Morris said. “It’s amazing to have somebody like that whose brain I can literally pick every day, like constantly just getting so much better. I feel like that helps the offensive line as a whole, being able to go back to the base of us having five people moving as one unit, making sure we’re on the same page, whether it’s landmarks, combinations, stuff like that.”

Morris, as well as expected tackle starters Monroe Freeling and Earnest Greene, was part of last year’s unit that struggled to open holes at times. He’s hoping a fresh slate will do the group wonders as it prepares for another SEC gauntlet.

“We can’t really focus on the past or the future,” Morris said. “All we can do is just try to get better now because what happened in the past, we can’t go back and change it. Just trying to make sure that to get the outcome that we want, we’ve got to get one percent better every day.”