Todd Monken on job offers and more
ATLANTA – When you have success like Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken has enjoyed, you’re naturally going to have suitors.
Over the past few weeks, Monken’s name has been linked to any number of vacant positions around college football, most of which have already been filled.
Suggestions that Monken could one day return to the NFL have also been bandied about.
Wednesday, Monken was asked about those other opportunities and whether he’d one day consider taking on another new and different challenge.
“Well, first off, no one wants my old ass, so that’s usually why that’s the case,” Monken said. “I’m joking, in general. First of all, I have a great job. I’ve said that many times.”
Under a recently reconstructed contract, Monken is currently signed to be the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator through the 2024 season with a deal that pays him over $2 million with built-in raises each of the next two years.
While Monken has certainly bounced around over his career, he has no complaints about his current position. The reasons are many.
“I fell into this job, and the culture was already set. I landed here with good players; the culture was already set. My job was just to try to do the best I could to make it better the best way I could and fight my ass off to help make it better,” he said. “Hopefully I’ve done that.”
A quick look at Georgia’s offensive numbers indicates that he has.
The Bulldogs have been one of the nation’s better offenses, averaging 39.2 points per game (11th nationally) with a total offense averaging 491.1 yards per game (7th nationally).
“When you have a good job and they pay me a lot of money, you have to be careful. The grass isn’t always greener, and money isn’t everything,” Monken said. “Now, I value getting paid. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t do this for nothing, but the reality is you have to be careful, because your happiness is in winning. It’s about winning. It’s the fight song in the locker room. That’s what it’s about.”
Winning indeed matters to Monken, make no mistake about that.
“Anybody that says, hey I’m at school A, and boy the city is great, I love it. It’s great for my family, and we’re 4-8 and I’m happy as hell. That’s not me,” Monken said. “I’d rather be winning in Alaska than losing in San Diego. The reality is, this is what it’s about. This is about winning; this is the fight song in the locker room. It’s about feeling self-worth. Money becomes a big part of that, I get it, but if you take a job for money, you’re still sitting in that chair and you’re not happy.
“I don’t control what’s out there in the media. I don’t control what gets put out. The majority of what gets put out there I have not been involved with. I don’t get it. That’s OK. It’s fine. People think I am, but that’s fine.”
While Monken did not rule out one day making a move, it does not appear it will be anytime soon. Throughout his interview Wednesday, the veteran coach stressed how happy he is in Athens.
“I would never say no to anything, but I love where I’m at, because I believe we’re going to win, and I believe in the head coach,” Monken said. “No one has ever heard me say publicly, ‘Hey, I have to go do this or I want to do this.’ At one point, yeah, I went to go be the head coach at Southern Miss. At that point I thought maybe being a head coach, I don’t know, somewhere else, is important. But I don’t know that, and every year brings different challenges, and every year brings different thoughts and different jobs bring different excitement."
Monken said his relationship with head coach Kirby Smart has never been better—and he understands his responsibilities as well.
“Let's not kid ourselves about what we do. I'm paid to score points and run the offense, and that relationship only goes so far. And I don't want it any different. He’s my boss. My job is to work my ass off and for us to be as good as we can be on offense. The moment I don't see it that way [is] the moment I'm wrong. This is a business,” Monken said. “I've done organizations where 'this is a family.' This isn't a family. You're going to fire me if we suck, so don't say it's a family. This is the way it is. This is what we choose to do. This is a business, and I get it that way my job is to do the best job I can for Kirby Smart and our players. That's hard. It's a hard job. It's hard to win a lot, and that's part of it."
