JT Daniels' impact, since being installed as the starting quarterback, has been plain for everyone to see.
Teams are now forced to respect Georgia’s passing game. His two games qualify only as a small sample size, but the idea of having Daniels for a full season in 2021 is certainly an intriguing one.
Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart said the final two games, Saturday at Missouri and the scheduled home finale next week against Vanderbilt, will be perfect opportunities to continue making strides.
“Good decision-making. That's the most important thing, to continue to make good decisions. If it’s not there, take off and run with it, throw it away—which he did (at South Carolina),” Smart said. “He threw it away one time. There will be times when you don’t have the perfect call, or maybe they get the perfect defense into a call, and hey, you have to punt, you have to throw it away. That’s what I want to see him do and continue to get better at.”
Wide receiver Kearis Jackson said he agrees.
Daniels, by all accounts, has picked up Todd Monken’s offense splendidly. But having two games and a bowl for continued chemistry-building for 2021 will prove invaluable.
“I feel like, with the time we’ve had, we’ve come a long way. But we’re still not there. We still have room for improvement,” Jackson said. “Because we haven’t played with the same quarterback all year, there’s going to be some issues with timing and things like that. This off-season is going to be very important for us.”
The idea of further bonding with wide receivers George Pickens and Jermaine Burton also bodes well for the future of the Bulldogs’ passing game.
Targets have increased for each, since Daniels assumed command.
Before Daniels, Pickens was averaging 3.2 catches in the four games he played. With Daniels, that average has shot up to 5.5.
Ditto for Burton. After catching 10 passes in Georgia’s first six contests, he’s caught a combined 11 in the last two.
Smart also believes Daniels’ ability to recognize on the fly what opposing defenses are attempting to do is helping the offense in other ways.
Take his performance in Georgia’s rout of South Carolina.
Fans have been anxious to see if Daniels could repeat his performance from the week before, when he threw for 401 yards against Mississippi State. Smart said it was more important for Daniels to understand what was working and avoid unnecessary chances that could lead to mistakes.
“He had some RPOs that he actually threw; some were complete, and some weren’t,” Smart said. “If you're having success running the ball with an extra hat in, you don’t have to call the RPO. You don’t have to throw the RPO, because there are bad things that can happen—balls batted and things like that—and you could have had five yards on a run.
“You have to weigh out what your success ratio is on extra people in the box versus throwing the ball. If you give JT the choice every time, he's probably going to pull it and throw it. But, if you're having success running the ball, you don't have to do the other. It wasn’t more that they dictated anything; it was more that, hey, this is what was working and that is what we stuck with. We certainly have confidence in JT to be able to throw the ball.”
Smart said both Daniels and the rest of the team still have plenty to play for.
Although any dreams of a fourth-straight SEC East crown ended last week with Florida’s win over Tennessee, the Bulldogs remain in prime position to play in their fourth straight New Year’s Six bowl, providing they beat Missouri on Saturday and Vanderbilt next week.
Per Smart, that's a huge deal, and why you won't see any crazy experimentation with the offense, looking ahead to 2021.
“It’s not experiment time. We've been out of control of our destiny for a while. There's not a lot we do differently and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this or this.’ I think you owe it to the best players on our team—not necessarily the oldest players on the team, but the guys that are the best players; that practice the best and prepare well—to go play the game and play the game to win,” Smart said. “You always want to play in the best bowl game you can against the best competition you can. To do that, we have to try and handle our business this week. That's really all I think about. How are we at our best for each and every game this year? Not towards next year.”
