Kirby Smart, Kenny McIntosh assess Georgia run game

Georgia’s run game has been a topic of discussion all season in Athens. The Bulldogs, typically known for their ground and pound style, have seemingly had more success passing the ball this year than they have had running it. Through four games, Georgia has nearly double the among of passing yards as it does rushing. That’s not that crazy, but considering the split favors putting the ball in the air (146 passing attempts to 133 rushing attempts), it’s worth the conversation.

“We think we are successful in the run game. I’m not talking about perimeter passing. I’m talking about we evaluate each and every carry independent of itself. And we think we hit our run goals,” Kirby Smart said on Monday. “When you start looking at that the way we calculated it, we did that.”

“Now, being explosive, we certainly could be much more explosive in the run game and improve in that area,” he continued. “But, you know, when you have the number of explosive plays we’ve had on the year, you have to weigh whether that’s a run, a pass, a screen, what — who are you and who is your identity. And I think that’s starting to play itself out for us a little bit. And I think we’ve got a really physical offensive line. And I think teams play us a certain way. And we’re going to do off how teams play us.”

Smart has said in the past that he considers an explosive play to be anything longer than 12 yards. That finds a happy medium with run plays where he aims for 10+ yards and passing plays of 15+. He’s also previously said that the goal for his team is to have at least one play in every eight offensive plays be explosive. Right now, of Georgia’s 56 explosive plays this season, only 11 (19.6%) have come on the ground. In fact, it took until the second half of the second game to get the first explosive rushing play.

OPPONENT	TOTAL EXPLOSIVES (GREATER THAN 12 YARDS)	PASS	RUN
Oregon	15	15	0
Samford	13	11	2
South Carolina	14	10	4
Kent State	14	9	5
TOTAL	56	45	11

Despite the lack of explosive plays out of the run game, Smart has been happy with how the running backs have performed overall, especially against Kent State with a season-high 257 yards rushing.

“All our backs played really well in that game,” Smart said on Monday, recalling their day against Kent State. “They play a different front and we had some tough looks. So I think if you just go merely off statistics, it’s hard to go because sometimes they don’t get the same looks, meaning the defense is not the same. Sometimes the play call is not the same. And sometimes they stunt or move and a guy might miss something. But I’m very pleased with all three backs and the things they’ve done. And to be honest with you, Branson, we’ve got to keep trying to bring him along and get him ready because he’s got a physical skill set that we need.”

“I think we’re doing pretty well actually,” Georgia running back Kenny McIntosh added. “We’ve been able to run the ball, I wouldn’t say how we like to run the ball but we’ve been able to run the ball in between the tackles and outside. I think we’ve been doing really well catching, stuff like that, doing our job. That’s what we really need on this team, for everyone to do their job so that we can go back to where we were last year.”

McIntosh also added that there are areas that they can improve. Like Smart, he was to see some of the longer runs come to fruition but noted that plays like that come with patience.

“Just being able to get those long runs, stuff like that. That has to come with patience,” McIntosh said. “It’s going to come, definitely. Definitely by the way we practice and compete throughout the week, it’s definitely going to come soon. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

“We’ve been having decent runs, it’s just about being able to finish them,” he added. “It’s not really a vision thing. It’s more us getting downhill. That’s what we’re trying to do, get downhill and vertical. That’s all it is. We’ve been hitting holes, we’ve been hitting the gaps that are there. Getting vertical and downhill, that run game is going to be what it should.”

No. 1 Georgia goes on the road this week to take on Missouri. The game against the Tigers begins a stretch of seven straight SEC games for the Bulldogs between now and the final week of the regular season when they play Georgia Tech. Kickoff time for Saturday is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.