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Georgia

New Georgia support staff hires bringing 'irreplaceable' value to run game

On3 imageby: Jake Rowe07/31/25JakeMRowe
Phil Rauscher Georgia
Jaguars offensive line coach and run game coordinator Phil Rauscher gives his players instructions during the second day of an NFL football training camp practice session Thursday, July 25, 2024 at EverBank StadiumÕs Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville, Fla.

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia used the offseason to bolster it’s support staff with a couple of experienced coaches. Former Jacksonville Jaguar offensive line coach Phil Rauscher and ex-NFL and college tight ends coach John Lilly were tapped by Kirby Smart join the program.

The objective in adding both of those coaches was to improve a Bulldog run game that struggled mightily in 2024. Georgia battled injuries to seven of their best nine offensive linemen over the course of last season and the run game suffered.

It was the least efficient rushing attack that Smart has fielded in his time as Georgia’s head coach. It also couldn’t run the football in the first quarter, ranking No. 124 nationally with 3.11 yards per carry in the first 15 minutes.

This entire offseason has seen the Bulldogs place an emphasis on improving the run game for the 2025 season. Rauscher and Lilly’s presence seems to be having the desired effect.

“Both of those guys have great ideas in the run game,” Smart said to open Georgia preseason camp. “It may not be a new run by design, because you can’t reinvent the wheel. There’s inside zone, outside zone, there’s gap scheme. There’s different ideas. We have a quarterback who allows us to do more. They both have been around systems that involve that. And they both, technique-wise, have different ways of doing things maybe than we do. Some part of it is who you play. Some part of it is what you call. Some part of it is how hard you play. So all that’s a factor. And those guys have been great assets and will continue to be to help us improve that.”

Rauscher, a 39-year old coach from Carlsbad, Calif., has 16 years of NFL experience. He served as the offensive line assistant for Denver, Washington, and Minnesota. He also worked as the offensive line coach at Washington, Minnesota, and Jacksonville, where he coached for the three seasons prior to UGA. He was the Jaguars’ run-game coordinator in 2024.

Lilly is a familiar face in Athens. He was Georgia’s tight ends coach from 2008 through 2015, when Mark Richt was fired. There, he worked with Mike Bobo, Georgia’s current offensive coordinator; Todd Hartley, the Bulldogs’ tight end coach; and Stacy Searels, UGA’s offensive line coach. He also served as the Bulldogs’ interim offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs’ bowl games after the 2014 and 2015 seasons. He called plays for UGA’s 37-14 win over Louisville and then in its 24-17 win over Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl.

Since leaving Georgia, Lilly has served as the tight ends coach with the Los Angeles Rams and the Cleveland Browns where he worked with ex-Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken for one season. He has also held posts at Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Tennessee. He left North Carolina in February of 2023 to become the tight ends’ coach for the Carolina Panthers, where he spent one season.

Micah Morris, a fifth-year senior who is projected to start for Georgia at left guard, understands the value of having another voice in the room. He has already worked on tapping into what Rauscher brings to the table.

“Coach Phil is in the meetings with us a lot,” Morris said on Thursday. “Obviously just him just being a guy who coached in the league for so long, All-Pro guards, All-Pro tackles, All-Pro offensive linemen in general. His insight on the game irreplaceable. It’s amazing having someone like that whose brain I can pick literally every day, like constantly getting so much better.”







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