WATCH: Georgia football early offseason breakdown, Brock Vandagriff addition

On The Beat host and Georgia beat writer Mike Griffith

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Posted 4 months ago

ATHENS — Kirby Smart is typically pretty transparent, but the Georgia fifth-year head coach didn’t let on the sort of overhaul or the extremes he was prepared to go to in order to improve the offense.

“We’ll look at it,” Smart said on Dec. 18, asked about the Bulldogs’ offensive philosophy. “But we want to score points.”

A month later, Georgia had landed the highest-rated (PFF) grad-transfer QB on the market, the OC from the NFL’s most prolific pass game in 2018, and a quarterbacks’ coach Smart knew first hand from his Valdosta State days.

The Bulldogs still have work to do, and the Feb. 5 National Signing Day will certainly be worth tuning into.

Georgia went 12-2 last season with a 5-1 mark vs. Top 25 teams and a third-straight SEC East Division title.

But Smart, who insists on setting the bar at a championship level each fall, has continued to reach higher and push for more on his coaching staff and within his team.

Complacency, Smart said, is the enemy of the team’s aspirations and played a role last season.

“When you’re not hungry, you become average, and some of that, I think, has affected us in the past,” Smart said after the 26-14 Sugar Bowl win over Baylor. “And we’ve got to find a way in this program to not let that creep in and keep that same hunger you have as a young player because we’ve had it happen to several guys that were really hungry, and then they become full.”

Nobody in Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall will be getting too comfortable anytime soon.

Indeed, incoming freshman QB Carson Beck is probably just now growing comfortable with the competition ahead of him on campus, and UGA has already added a 5-star in the 2021 class.

Brock Vandagriff, a 5-star prospect from nearby Bogart who is the No. 1 -ranked Pro Style quarterback in the 2021 class, made his verbal pledge on Tuesday.

Mike Griffith and Connor Riley discuss the repercussions of Smart’s latest moves and additions on Tuesday’s “On The Beat” show, and what it means for the program.