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Todd Monken credits 'culture' at Georgia in move to NFL

Palmber-Thombsby: Palmer Thombs02/21/23palmerthombs
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Michael Allio | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Former Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken was incredibly successful during his time in Athens. That’s why after three years, Monken is headed back to the NFL, accepting a job in the same position with the Baltimore Ravens last week.

On Tuesday, Monken was introduced by Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, and he spoke highly about his time with the Bulldogs. In fact, the reason he felt comfortable in taking the job with the Ravens was because it had a lot of the same traits as Kirby Smart’s Georgia program.

“It’s a great question and probably very similar to how I felt about going to Georgia when I did which was, ‘Okay, a culture that’s already set, a team that’s really good on defense. What can you do to potentially build on what they had done previously offensively?’ That was one of the biggest things: stability in a head coach, culture, organization,” Monken said in a sit-down interview with the team website when asked what the contributing factors were for taking the Ravens job over other potential landing spots in the NFL.

“The challenge to do it against the best in the world, I think everybody aspires to have that challenge. If I was going to do it, it was going to be somewhere that was parallel to Georgia,” he continued in his press conference. “Part of the reason I went to Georgia, one of the main reasons, was culture, head coach, winning, really good on defense and obviously trying to find a way to do it better on offense. I thought that was a parallel that fit me (in Baltimore), so irrespective of who was or wasn’t going to be on the roster I felt like it was something I really wanted to do and I’ve always wanted to do. That doesn’t mean that I’m not grateful for Kirby Smart and the coaches that I worked with there. I get way too much credit for our success. I came in there and the culture was already set, the players were already recruited, the staff that we put together was tremendous in terms of our success, but this is what was next and you can’t be two places at one time. That’s just the way it is sometimes in life. That was a great job, and it was hard. You get close to the players, but you can’t be two places at once and this is what’s next.”

Under Monken’s direction, Georgia’s offense finished No. 4 in the country for scoring this past season, averaging 41.4 points per game, while also being top-five in total offense at over 500 yards per outing. He arrived in Athens on the heels of a year when the Bulldogs tied for 49th in the country for points per game and helped build it into a unit that finished top-10 in the country for the same statistic each of the last two seasons.

Monken’s job with the Ravens isn’t his first in the NFL. Prior to coming to Georgia he worked as the wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2007 to 2010 before being the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2016-18) and Cleveland Browns (2019). Other stops in Monken’s coaching career have included Grand Valley State (GA: 1989-90), Notre Dame (GA: 1991-92), Eastern Michigan (WR/DB: 1993-97, Offensive Coordinator/WRL 1998-99), Louisiana Tech (RB/WR: 2000, WR: 2001), Oklahoma State (Passing Game Coordinator/WR: 2002-04, Offensive Coordinator/QB: 2011-12), LSU (Passing Game Coordinator/WR: 2005-06) and serving as the head coach at Southern Miss from 2013 to 2015. He was named Conference USA Coach of the Year during his final season at Southern Miss after inheriting a program that went winless in 2012. He helped Georgia win back to back National Championships including the program’s first title in over four decades in 2021 and 2022.

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