Morning, y’all!
We heard from Georgia coordinators and assistant coaches Wednesday, which is always a unique opportunity for media. We very rarely get to speak with them, and likely won’t hear from them again until bowl season, so we always try to soak up all the information we can.
Both offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann enter this season with a fair amount of pressure to deliver.
Whether it’s needing to get the most out of quarterback Gunner Stockton and the receiving corps after losing Zachariah Branch or managing a defense that could boast multiple All-Americans but must bounce back after tallying the fewest sacks (20) in the Kirby Smart era, we had plenty to ask about Wednesday.
Let’s dive in:
Bobo discusses his way about the lack of a go-to pass catcher
Georgia placed a premium on retention this offseason. The Bulldogs had the fewest number of transfers in the SEC, and thus brought back a number of contributors on both sides of the ball.
If there was one position that did experience significant turnover, it came with Georgia’s pass catchers. That includes receivers Branch, Dillon Bell, Noah Thomas, Colbie Young and tight end Oscar Delp.
Branch set a Georgia record for single-season receptions last season. When quarterback Stockton needed to make a big play, odds are Branch was getting the ball.
With Branch now on the Atlanta Falcons, it’s fair to wonder who that player might be for Stockton in 2026.
“We lost a lot of experience last year with some skill players, the four receivers and the tight end. That’s what we’re in the midst of doing right now,” Bobo said. “Trying to find out who we are, the best way for us to move the ball offensively, to control the game, to be explosive.”
Bobo understands nobody on this year’s roster is currently projected to become the next Branch or Brock Bowers. They’re special players for a reason.
But the Bulldogs still need explosive plays, even if they don’t have someone who can play hero ball.
The Georgia offensive coordinator said it can be nice to have someone who overwhelms a defense individually. But the better option is having a quarterback who can spread the wealth around the field to really put pressure on the opposition.
“It runs through the quarterback sometimes,” Bobo said. “And if they’re good at distributing, the defense has to defend everybody. You might have that one guy that they put a little more attention to, but the quarterback does the right thing. You’ve got players at all these positions that you talked about; you gotta trust them to go make that, go make plays. And I think when you can do things, do a lot of different things well, I think you’ve got a chance to be real successful.”
Read Hunter DeLauder’s full story here.
Everything else Bobo said on state of Georgia football’s offense
Bobo knows that every year is different in Athens.
Last year, he was able to lean on Branch as the focal point of the offense.
With Branch now an Atlanta Falcon, Georgia’s offense will look different.
But this time around, Bobo has an experienced quarterback to work with in Stockton, along with a talented rushing offense.
Bobo knows he’ll have to find a number of answers for what opposing defenses throw at him.
The Georgia offensive coordinator took questions for over 15 minutes on Wednesday to share his thoughts on the outlook of the Georgia offense for this season.
Below are a few of his responses to questions from media, but be sure to check out the full story from Connor Riley, too.
On the keys to making this offense more explosive this year …
“It comes down to a lot of things. Identifying playmakers that make plays. We call it competitive excellence. When the opportunity presents itself to make a play, make those plays. A lot of times you can’t script those in camp. You’re installing, offense is installing, defense is installing, but opportunities are going to come your way.
“When that opportunity comes, you make that play for the offense to be explosive. But a lot of things go into that, not just playmakers. We’ve got to protect. We’ve got to see things better at the quarterback position. I think all of that has been improving since the spring the older we’re becoming at that position.
“Then being more aggressive at times to push the ball down the field. We had a young, first-year starter last year at quarterback, and we wanted to protect him some with a run game and some easy outlets to Zach Branch. I think the more he matures, the more we’ll be able to evolve as an offense.”
On Stockton taking more chances down the field and how he’s doing knowing when to do that …
“Well, I think it’s experience. I think it’s having confidence in what you see, and throwing on time tells you a lot as a quarterback. But you can’t be so much so risk averse you’re afraid to push the ball down the field. Now, knock on wood, a really good thing about Gunner is that he didn’t turn the football over a lot, which is huge. When you push the ball downfield and you’re a little more aggressive, sometimes turnovers happen. So there’s that fine line.
“Through spring practice and these six practices, we’ve talked about pushing the ball downfield, being aggressive, and you learn what you can and can’t do. Right before I came in here, we were watching NFL scrambles of guys making plays, scrambling the pocket, keeping their eyes downfield. And Josh Allen makes this unbelievable throw. And my quote in there to those guys was, ‘Don’t overestimate your ability. You’re not Josh Allen. You can’t make that throw.’ So you gotta know what you can and can’t do.
“And there are chances for explosives on broken plays. Gunner had a lot of those last year on broken plays where he scrambled and made plays. But sometimes he didn’t give enough space between him and the defender and took some wicked shots. And a lot of that’s on Gunner. I told him that: ‘A lot of that’s on you.’ That’s who he is to some extent. He’s gonna, to the last minute, hold onto that ball to try to make a play. And we’ve been working on trying to extend plays and be a little safer in and out of the pocket.
“And he’s done a good job of that. And it’s something we’re working on hard with him. Day in and day out, we’re getting examples of that. We’ve tried to create more scrambles in practice, and then I’ve tried to call more plays where we can push the ball downfield. Now, sometimes we call that play, and they play a coverage, and the right play is to check it down to the back. And we gotta do that too as a quarterback.”
Trivia time
Since 2008, two of Georgia’s annual scoring leaders have been players other than kicker. Can you name one? (Bonus points if you can name both)
Everything Schumann said as Georgia DC talks pass rush hopes, head coaching opportunities
Schumann has been at Georgia for 11 seasons.
By comparison, Smart was with Nick Saban for nine seasons before he left to become the head coach at Georgia.
Schumann knows that everything he’s doing now will prepare him for whatever comes next. If that’s a head coaching job, he’ll welcome it.
For now, though, Schumann is focused on getting the most out of this Georgia defense — one that has a lot of talent but has some questions that need to be addressed.
Schumann spoke with reporters for over 15 minutes on Wednesday.
Here are a few of his responses, but make sure you check out the full transcript here.
On the defense being “simplified” …
“I think the defense becomes simpler, like the older guys get, the simpler it feels. So there’s a reality there of, people always use this expression about, well, the game’s going to slow down. Well, that’s kind of an unfair statement because then guys just sit around and wait for it to slow down for them. Then they feel like if the game’s not slowing down to them, they’re like, ‘Well, there’s something wrong with me.’
“So that statement always, it’s a coach’s job to speed the players up so that they’re playing faster. The game’s moving the same speed, they’re playing faster. So in some ways, I think when it feels simpler, they have now sped up in terms of their processing. We do evaluate, one of the things we’ve done every year since we’ve been here, when we go and do self-scout, we don’t just evaluate, hey, well, this call gave up this many yards per rush and this many yards per pass and it created this much havoc and gave up this many explosives.
“That’s the hard data. But we look at it from a standpoint of, ‘Hey, what about this terminology?’ It might be the same call and when we’re talking as a staff, there is an inconsistency in how we’re verbalizing what we’re teaching. So it’s the same call, but we’ve changed names of calls from year to year to make it more digestible for the next guy. So I think some of that happens where you try to compartmentalize the vocabulary into families so that it’s digestible.
“But it’s not the same, it’s not a different defense. It’s not different rules to that defense, but it’s how it’s being communicated to them. It’s always our job to teach the players and allow them to play fast while still creating problems for the opponent. So I think there’s a little bit of their experience that they’ve gained. Then with each year, we try to streamline the terminology more and more where there’s hiccups.”
On Zayden Walker …
“Yeah, it’s immense progress in terms of, you know, there’s an element too for anybody that comes out of high school, OK? There’s the change from being on the field where, hey, you’re the best player, OK, to now being in a place where, hey, there’s lots of good players and everything matters. Like your stance matters, your alignment matters, where your eyes are matters, like how you do things, like the details of each piece of your job are really important.
“And I’ve just been really proud of how much that he wasn’t able to go through spring. So he had to be really intentional in how he went through the meeting time and his prep without being able to do it live. Everybody’s gonna grow the most by getting to do it and practice it. And then, so how he approached this summer in terms of both mentally and technically, and then how he’s approached camp.
“He’s been really diligent in the way that he’s worked, and he’s making progress. Obviously, we saw that he could help in terms of some things last year down the stretch, third-down wise, he was able to go play ‘Jack’ some. When he went to ‘Jack,’ then we moved Chris (Cole) around a little bit, because Chris was playing ‘Jack’ on third down. And then to get Zayden in the game, to get our best 11 on the field, which is what you wanna do, we started moving Chris around some.
“And then, but the more Zayden can grow as a complete backer, OK, because we blitz those guys we cover with, and they line up all over the place, which he has, and he needs to keep doing. The more he can do, the more he can help us, OK, and so, we look forward to seeing where that goes.”
Trivia answer
Knowshon Moreno in 2008 (108 points) and Todd Gurley in 2012 (108 points)
