You’ve probably heard this before.
Win or lose, Georgia has a 24-hour rule to allow for celebrating a win or taking in a defeat. Typically, it also applies to coaches. Sunday is that "free space" before the future crowds out the past.
Yet no free time is available during Thanksgiving week. Georgia Tech and the triple option are next on Saturday’s docket (Noon, SEC Network), and head coach Kirby Smart is already up to his visor in preparation.
“As soon as I can turn that tape on, I’ll be doing so, because what they do is so different for us,” Smart said in his post-game press conference. “I try to have a 24-hour rule (for myself), too, but this one is different. We don’t have enough time to prepare for them. You always feel crammed preparing for this offense, because you so rarely see it.”
Past seasons of prep don't count. There are new players, new twists. That's why the Bulldogs must be masters of time management for the next few days.
“You can’t practice it every week. We got too much stuff to do. We try to work on it in the off-week. We work on it during the off-season, and we work on it in-season on some Mondays, when we feel we’ve got a simpler game plan for whomever we’re playing. But it’s hard to do every week,” Smart said. “We do a lot of weeks to keep it fresh in our kids’ minds. You’ve got to remember they’re (Georgia Tech) "doctoral experts" in it, and we’re one week a year. So, you’ve got to be smart about what you do, and you’ve got to sell your team on being able to play the right way against it.”
Quarterbacks TaQuon Marshall and Tobias Oliver are the straws that stir the drink for the Yellow Jackets. Starter Marshall hasn’t thrown much—40 of 88 for 755 yards and four touchdowns —but he does lead the team in rushing (857 yards and 11 touchdowns). Oliver has thrown even less: 6 of 10 for 166 yards. However, he’s just as dangerous running the football, as he’s chipped in with 808 rushing yards and leads the team in touchdowns with 12.
Backs Jordan Mason (637 yards), Jerry Howard (522 yards), Nathan Cottrell (324 yards), and Qua Searcy (324 yards) also figure nicely into a potent mix.
“I think you see it across the country. If you watch teams play the triple option, it’s extremely different, and so extreme that I don’t think you guys can understand. There’s not one call in our defense. The only common theme is, you’ve got to tackle the man with the ball," Smart said. “Outside of that, there’s nothing like it. You can cry over it. You can say it’s a challenge. I don’t know how many games they’ve won in a row—four or five—but a lot of them. They’re playing at a high level. They’re playing better on defense, and really coming together at the right time.”
Smart also has other concerns.
Besides some key injuries, like the one to inside linebacker Monty Rice, this year's defense has less experience playing the triple option than the one that beat the Yellow Jackets last fall in Atlanta.
“It’s hard to prepare for, hard to stop,” Smart said. “It will be a challenge for us. We were very fortunate when we got here, and there were defensive players who'd played against it. I think eight or nine guys that played against that offense for three straight years graduated last year. That’s not the case this year.”
