Earlier this week, senior safety J.R. Reed was asked what kind of differences he was already starting to see between former defensive coordinator Mel Tucker and new defensive boss Dan Lanning.
His answer may or may not surprise you.
“Coach Lanning is a lot younger than Coach Tucker, so he’s going to bring a lot more fire,” Reed said. “I think you’ll see him get a little rowdier than Coach Tucker was, so there's a lot more fire, a lot more energy.”
Reed wasn’t being disrespectful to his former coach. On the contrary. It’s just with change comes a different way about doing things.
Co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann is described in much the same way.
“I had a lot of confidence in Dan and Glenn even last year. Not everybody knows what goes on behind the scenes, and I think that's okay that not everybody knows that. But as the head coach, you're in all these meetings, you're in all these decisions. You know how involved Dan Lanning and Glenn Schumann are in the game-planning process,” Head coach Kirby Smart said. “Mel will tell you he leans on those guys heavily, so I have a lot of confidence in those two guys, which is why they got hired.”
Energy is also a word Reed uses to describe his new position coach, Charlton Warren.
“Coach Warren is definitely the same,” Reed said. “I’ve only seen him in a practice setting, but I definitely think he’s going to bring a lot more energy and demand a lot out of us. “He’s very strict on different things, but I think that’s going to bring a lot of discipline on our part.”
On offense, there are obviously personnel changes, too.
Todd Hartley is the new tight ends coach, but the biggest change is the fact James Coley is now the offensive coordinator after sharing that title last year with Jim Chaney, who left to become the OC at Tennessee.
So, what might that mean for the Bulldog offense?
According Smart, probably not as much one might think.
“Look, we've been really successful at running the ball. That's who we are at Georgia. We're not going to go recreate the wheel and say, okay, now we're going to open up and be an empty spread team every down, and go high tempo,” Smart said. “You do what makes you successful, and he had a meeting with the offense yesterday, which I sat in, and he talked about balance. What is balance? People think balance means 50/50. Balance is not 50/50. Balance is being able to run the ball when you have to run the ball, and being able to throw the ball when you have to throw the ball.”
Quarterback Jake Fromm said he’s ready for whatever Coley may have in mind.
“We’ll have to see. Coach Coley called plays for me in the spring game my freshman year, but that was a long time ago. I can’t write down exactly what he called, but I think he will be great,” Fromm said. “I can’t way to see it. We’ll get a taste of it this spring, and see how it goes.”
Smart just wants his offense to be versatile enough to take advantage of whatever an opposing defense is willing to give away.
In Coley, Smart believes he’s got his man.
“I've known James Coley for a long time, and I've got a lot of respect for him. He worked with Jimbo (Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher) for a long time, had an opportunity to go with Jimbo the year before,” Smart said. “Right now, at the end of the day, when you have coordinators on offense and you have two guys that are doing it like Jim (Chaney) and James did, they share a lot of that responsibility; and a lot of that responsibility will be passed down now with Dell (McGee) and Cortez (Hankton) being involved.”
