Stats Crunch - 2020 Offense Review

Offensively, the 2020 season was a mixture of highs and lows for the Bulldogs, as Kirby Smart and newly hired offensive coordinator Todd Monken had to replace six players drafted last April. The team also had no spring practice for Monken to install his offnese, and then, just before the season started, the intended quarterback opted out. Even so, there were a number of positives offensively for the Dawgs.

Georgia's points per game average was not as sexy as some of the previous seasons. Then again, the Bulldogs faced only conference foes, and the Vanderbilt game was never played (Vandy finished 112th out of 127 teams in scoring defense). Just like we offered in our stats crunch on defense last week, here's a breakdown on scoring season by season under Kirby Smart.

This season, the Bulldogs started three different quarterbacks throughout the year for the first time since 2006, when Joe Tereshinski III, Matthew Stafford, and Joe Cox took the initial snaps in Georgia games. This season, D'Wan Mathis started the first game, followed by Stetson Bennett IV in the next five, and JT Daniels finished out the season. Once healthy enough, Daniels emerged as the full-time starter to help lead the Dawgs to four straight victories, including the Peach Bowl win over Cincinnati. In the bowl game, Daniels completed 26 of 38 passes for 392 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. The 392 yards passing was the third most by a Bulldog in a bowl game.

On the season, Daniels completed 80 of 119 for 1,231 yards, with ten touchdown passes and two picks. His completion percentage of 67.2 was the third highest of any Bulldog in school history behind Hutson Mason (67.9 in 2014) and Jake Fromm (67.3 in 2018). Daniels also averaged 10.34 yards per attempt in 2020, but his 119 throws left him short of the qualifying mark. If he did qualify, he'd have finished sixth in the nation ahead of notable names such as Kyle Trask, Trevor Lawrence, and Justin Fields. However, he did qualify for the Georgia list, in which he finished second all-time.

Other notes from Georgia quarterbacks -

- Daniels' 401 yards passing in his Bulldog debut was Georgia's first 400-yard game by a Georgia signal caller since Aaron Murray threw for 415 yards against Auburn in 2013.

- Daniels' season totals on 3rd downs: 19-for-27 (70.4 percent), 279 yards, six touchdowns and zero interceptions.

- Bennett finished second on the team with eight touchdown passes, and was third on the team with two touchdown runs.

- Georgia averaged 249.9 yards passing per game last season—45th in the FBS.

On the receiving end, Georgia had a major setback when Dominick Blaylock injured his left knee for the second time last August and was out for the entire season. Other Bulldog receivers were hurt throughout the season as well. The receiving corps will be seen as a strength heading into 2021.

Other notes from Georgia receivers -

- Seventeen different Dawgs had at least one reception, with seven of them having at least ten or more.

- Eight different players had 100 yards receiving during the season, while four times a player did it in one game (George Pickens twice, Jermaine Burton, James Cook).

- Cook had 104 yards receiving against Alabama, including an 82-yard touchdown reception. He was the first Georgia running back to have more than 100 yards receiving in a game since Tyson Browning vs LSU in 2003 (regular season). His 82-yard touchdown was the longest since Reggie Davis set the Bulldog record with a 98-yard touchdown against North Texas in 2013; the longest in an SEC game since Justin Scott-Wesley's 85-yard touchdown against South Carolina—two weeks earlier than Davis' big play.

- Burton had 197 yards receiving against Mississippi State. This was the third-most ever by a Georgia Bulldog in a single game, following Tavarres King and Fred Gibson. The 197 yards in a single game was the third most by any freshman in the nation this season.

- Pickens loves bowl games: Georgia's "Mr. January" has 19 receptions for 310 yards and two touchdowns in his two career bowl games.

Switching to running the ball, the Dawgs had a plethora of running backs, and they all averaged over five yards an attempt in 2020. Zamir White was the lead back with the most attempts (144), yards (779), and touchdowns (11) on the ground. The other four backs also saw big moments, as you can see in my weekly graphic on how the Bulldog running backs fared quarter-by-quarter this season.

White ended up with a team-high 11 touchdown rushes this season. He had at least one in every game this year, except against Mississippi State. He did have two in the Auburn and South Carolina games. He was tied for fourth in this category in the SEC. In terms of Georgia, his 11 was tied for the seventh best season mark in the 2000s. Check out the top 11.

Other notes from Georgia rushers -

- Not only did Cook have a 100-yard receiving game as mentioned above; he also had a 100-yard rushing game when he set his career-high 104 yards against South Carolina.

- Daijun Edwards also had a 100-yard rushing game when he ran for 103 against Missouri. Zamir White had 126 yards rushing in that same game. It was the first time Georgia had two players rush for over 100 yards in the same game since D'Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield did it against Kentucky in 2018.

- In that Missouri game, four separate running backs each had one touchdown rush, as White, Cook, McIntosh, and Edwards scored.

- As a team, Georgia averaged 174.2 rushing yards per game last season—56th in the FBS. That was the lowest average by the Bulldogs since 2013.

- The good news is that Georgia twice had over 300 yards rushing in a game (against South Carolina and Missouri). The bad news is the game before that, UGA had eight net yards, while in the game after those two outings, the Dawgs had 45 in the Peach Bowl against Cincinnati.

The offensive line was a big question mark coming into the season. O-line coach Mat Luke put together a good group. For actual PFF grades, check out previous articles by UGASports writers Brent Rollins and Paul Maharry. In the meantime, here are the eight different players with at least one start on the offensive line this season.