Kirby Smart impressed by innovation from Todd Monken, Georgia offense

Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken was announced as a semifinalist for the Broyles Award this week, and if Kirby Smart were the one handed it out, it’s safe to say that Monken would win it. Smart, the 2009 recipient of the award himself, gave his pitch for Monken when speaking with media Tuesday after practice.

“He’s been incredibly innovative with our offense,” Smart said. “When you think about a guy that’s had arguably one of our best wide outs out the entire year, to do what he’s done – he’s had backs banged up, he’s had guys in and out of the lineup at receiver and still do it and do it the way he’s done it, what he’s done with Stetson. Offensively our numbers kind of speak for themselves, especially when you play in the league we play in which is a tough, really physical league. He’s done a tremendous job, and he recreates it each and every week, and I think if you polled the coaches he plays against, they’d be the first to tell you he’s really hard to prepare for because there’s run and pass involved, and he does it with an NFL style. Kids like to play for him, so the fact that he’s up for that award, I can’t think of anybody better to win that with what he’s done offensively, especially with what he’s had to work with.”

Georgia players have spoken several times this season about the innovation that Todd Monken shows too, implementing new ideas offensively each week. Quarterback Stetson Bennett and tight end Brock Bowers, probably Monken’s two most important pieces, each have praised his ability to get creative.

“It’s fun,” Bennett said after a game earlier this season. “That’s what happens in anything you do when you make your boss – or your offensive coordinator in this case – comfortable. Little things that they take, then you start opening stuff up. … We’ve got good players, and they know what we’re doing. It’s tough to play defense because they’ve got to react and we know what we’re doing. When you’ve got players like this and a coach like Monken, you just the ball in good players’ hands.”

“It’s awesome. Every week, Monken puts in something new,” Bowers said. “He mixes in new stuff, stuff we ran last week. It’s always fun.”

Georgia ranks top-10 in the country for total offense averaging 496.3 yards per game – on track to be the highest total in program history – while being just outside the top 10 at No. 11 in scoring. The Bulldogs have put up 38.4 points per game in 11 outings so far this season. Meanwhile, Bennett became the fifth Georgia quarterback to top 3,000 passing yards in a single season this past Saturday joining Aaron Murray and Eric Zeier – each of whom did it multiple times – as well as Matthew Stafford and David Greene.

Georgia offensive numbers took a hit after this past Saturday’s 16-6 win over Kentucky, a game that featured windy conditions and cold temperatures. Prior to that the Bulldogs ranked top-10 in the country in both total offense and scoring offense. They could have a chance to get back on track this Saturday against Georgia Tech who ranked No. 83 in scoring defense and No. 87 in total defense in the country.

Last year former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning was a finalist for the award. Lanning become the head coach at Oregon after the season was over. Of the 26 winners, 21 have gone on to become a head coach in College Football. Georgia has only had one assistant win the award coming back in 2003 when defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Brian VanGroder was named the winner. Finalists for the award will be named next Tuesday, November 29th with the winner being both announced and recognized one week later at a ceremony featuring the finalists.