Todd Monken leaves Georgia for Baltimore Ravens
Georgia will forge toward a third National Championship in as many seasons in 2023 and it will do so with a new offensive coordinator. Todd Monken has been taken the job as the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens after three years in Athens.
Under Monken’s watch, the Bulldogs had the nation’s No. 9 scoring offense in 2021 en route to the program’s first National Championship in 41 years. They averaged 38.6 points per game. Georgia improved to No. 4 nationally in scoring offense in 2022 as it went back to back on the title front. It averaged 41.1 points per game and became the second offense in school history to average more than 40 per contest.
“My job was just to try to do the best I could to make it better the best way I could,” Monken said prior to the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in December. “Fight my ass off to help make it better. Hopefully I’ve done that. When you have a good job and they pay me a lot of money. We all know that. You have to be careful. The grass isn’t always greener and money isn’t everything. Now I value getting paid. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t do this for nothing, but the reality is you have to be careful because your happiness is in winning. It’s about winning. It’s the fight song in the locker room. That’s what it’s about.
Monken helped develop Stetson Bennett into a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2022 and designed the offense that led to Brock Bowers winning the 2022 Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end. The Bulldogs were also finalists for the Joe Moore Award in 2021 and 2022, an honor that goes annually to the nation’s top offensive line.
Baltimore will be Monken’s fourth job in the NFL. He was the wide receivers coach in Jacksonville from 2007 to 2010. He then went on to become offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State for two seasons before being named head coach at Southern Miss in 2013. He spent three years there, taking the Golden Eagles from a winless campaign in 2012 to a 9-4 record in 2015.
He left his post at Southern Miss for a second stint in the NFL. He was hired as the offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in Tampa Bay. He didn’t call plays there for the first two seasons but was given the opportunity in 2018. The Buccaneers finished No. 3 in the NFL in total offense that season but the entire staff was fired at the end of the year.
Monken’s next stop was Cleveland where, again, he didn’t call the plays. The Browns struggled and that staff was let go as well. That’s when Kirby Smart came calling and Monken took the job at Georgia.
The NFL interest really ramped up for Monken this offseason as he was pursued by Tampa Bay for its offensive coordinator job. Baltimore interviewed him twice with the latest coming last week.
