Why Todd Monken was the best assistant hire of the Playoff era
The wheels were set in motion somewhere during the 2019 SEC Championship.
Georgia was taken to the woodshed by an LSU team who became one of the most dominant offensive forces ever after Ed Orgeron brought in Joe Brady to implement modern spread passing concepts. Brady went on to win the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant during LSU’s title season before jumping back to the NFL.
What was clear that day as LSU fans took over Mercedes-Benz Stadium was that Kirby Smart needed his version of Brady. It’s not that Smart needed a 20-something wunderkind who was plucked out of obscurity to run a high-profile college offense. What Georgia needed was the right offensive mind to maximize the gobs of talent that Smart brought to Athens. It wasn’t acceptable that the Dawgs scored just 20.8 points per game against teams who finished in the AP Top 25, and with Jake Fromm moving on to the NFL, UGA got a chance to turn the page. That meant a philosophical change to hire someone who could utilize more disguised looks with a bit more tempo.
That meant hiring Todd Monken.
Like Brady, Monken came from the NFL. Unlike Brady, he wasn’t some young up-and-comer. Monken was a 53-year-old former offensive coordinator who wasn’t retained by the Cleveland Browns new coaching staff and he was in search of his next opportunity after working for 5 different teams (3 NFL, 2 college) in the 2010s alone.
Fast forward 3 years later. Monken’s offensive play-calling fueled Georgia to its best unit in program history for a Dawgs team who clinched a repeat national championship with a 65-point outburst in the title game.
Even the most optimistic, message-board posting Georgia fan couldn’t have predicted Monken would put together that type of run. Dare I say, Monken has not only proven to be a slight step above Brady because of the whole “repeating” thing, but I’d argue that he was the best assistant hire of the Playoff era.
Here’s what my list would look like:
- Todd Monken, Georgia OC
- Lane Kiffin, Alabama OC
- Joe Brady, LSU WRs/passing game coordinator
- Steve Sarkisian, Alabama OC
- Ryan Day, Ohio State OC
You’ll notice a trend at the top of that list. All 3 of those coordinators were brought in to overhaul their team’s respective offenses, and ultimately, they had a major say in teams who won titles.
As great as Sarkisian was — he led Alabama to its 2 most prolific offenses in school history — he wasn’t tasked with the schematic overhaul that Kiffin had when he was hired following Alabama’s frustrating end to the 2013 season. Kiffin’s spread concepts established the new standard, and he had a major contribution to the Tide’s second wave of its current run under Nick Saban. But of course, Kiffin’s Year 3 at Alabama ended awkwardly with him leaving for the FAU job and not calling plays in the title game during the repeat bid in 2016.
Monken, on the other hand, was very much calling plays during Georgia’s repeat bid on Monday night.
We probably should’ve known that Monken was saving his best for last when we saw that creative little screen to manufacture Brock Bowers a touch on the first drive. It was actually a concept that was utilized in the Kentucky game but Dominick Blaylock couldn’t hold his block and it was stopped short of the sticks.
After hearing about Bowers’ lack of targets for the majority of the Peach Bowl, Monken dialed up looks that were specific to the All-American tight end. Watch this video and count all the ways in which Bowers was utilized:
Georgia TE Brock Bowers is the best tight end in all of college football. He was the lone bright spot in an otherwise boring championship game last night. All of his touches here for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/NHIMHyUpxP
— Brandon Lejeune (@DevyDeepDive) January 10, 2023
You’ve got a screen, a couple skinny posts, a reverse handoff, a drag, a wheel route after lining up inline, an end-around handoff, a misdirection play in the flat and that back-shoulder route to the pylon. That’s 8 different ways that Monken got the ball into Bowers’ hands.
Remember the pre-Monken days when Georgia’s best passing game play was a low-percentage back-shoulder throw? Or better yet, remember when it was all about who “the next great Georgia running back” was?
Now consider all the misdirection and window-dressing we see from Monken concepts. You’ve got plenty of 12-personnel (1 receiver, 2 tight ends) bunch-receiver sets, 5-wide sets, etc. Georgia’s offense found more versatility than ever before, and while Stetson Bennett IV deserves a ton of credit for that during a year in which he became the program’s first ever 4,000-yard passer, so does Monken.
They shared on the ESPN broadcast on Monday night that the duo actually had a bit of a love-hate relationship. Whatever disagreements they had clearly yielded the best possible Georgia result. Beating elite competition with a versatile, high-octane offense was always the goal.
Monken inherited an offense who struggled in those spots in 2019. To say that he turned it around drastically would be a wild understatement:
That last number — 46.6 points per game vs. AP finishers — was the best in America and it was only boosted by 1 non-offensive touchdown.
Regardless of how things play out for Monken in the post-Bennett era, you can’t take that away from him. Coordinators usually don’t stick around for title No. 2. They often use title No. 1 as the stepping stone to take the next opportunity, just as Sarkisian did. Shoot, I guess you could argue say that same thing about Kiffin’s awkward pre-title game exit.
We don’t know what the plans are for Monken. We do know that he rebuilt Southern Miss and then jumped back to the NFL after Year 3. If there’s any sort of itch to run his own program — and not just run his own high-powered offense — one would think that he’ll have opportunities. But there aren’t any FBS head coach openings, so one would think any sort of decision to leave Georgia would be about considering a return to the NFL.
Then again, he saw with the Browns how easy it was to be a casualty of a bad situation. Brady learned the same lesson with the Carolina Panthers when he turned down a significant raise at LSU to join forces with Matt Rhule. Monken certainly has more stability in Athens, where he’ll continue to get to work with elite talent and have total autonomy to run his offense.
Oh, and that raise is coming. Obviously.
Monken became an invaluable piece of the Georgia machine. If he were to leave, he’d be the new, remarkably high standard for all future offensive play-callers to live up to. The combination of a revamped scheme and top-tier talent worked wonders, just as it did at other elite programs in the Playoff era like Alabama and LSU.
But none of them yielded the result that Georgia got on Monday night. Monken did everything and more that Smart could’ve hoped for back in 2019.
All Smart can hope for now is that Monken isn’t finished dialing up his magic in Athens.
I hope Brock Bowers has one more year. That will help out the new QB quite a bit. I also thought the play calling was terrific. They seemed tight vs OSU but really dialed up last night.
Bowers is a true sophomore. He does. Also, I can’t imagine Kearis Jackson and Dominick Blaylock jumping to the NFL unless they are itching to become undrafted free agents, which pays worse than UGA’s NIL collective will.
I hope Monken stays until he retires (although that won’t happen) while teaching the other offensive position coaches what he knows so one can take over for him when he leaves. He’s the best OC UGA could ask for.
It might happen. Monken has moved around plenty in his career, has recently turned down lucrative offers for other OC positions and has turned down HC interview requests. He does not appear to want to break away from the OC world where he can solely focus on his “first love,” which is scoring points. (His own words). He has a generational thing going at UGA right now with raises almost every season because of his reaching new heights. So why ruin a good thing?
He might bolt, but I’m wagering on him being in Athens for a bit yet.
Monken has said that he likes winning . . . there’s no better place to do that than Georgia right now. He also said he likes how Kirby runs things. With a big pay increase and a lot of wins with next year’s schedule, maybe we’ll get at least one more year (and hopefully many more) of Monken.
This is absurd.
How many of these guys were more important than BRENT VENABLES AT CLEMSON? Answer: none of them.
Ryan Day? ZERO NATIONAL TITLES. As a head coach or coordinator. Are you mistaking him for Tom Herman maybe?
Those are just the two most egregious. Continuing …
Joe Brady was important … for one year.
Lane Kiffin: won 1 title in 3 tries and everyone treats him as if he is Bill Walsh.
Sarkisian: even less than Kiffin. Took over a system that was already in place and coached a bunch of players that the previous staff developed, won 1 title and was out in 2 years. No more important than Locksley and Daboll. Probably less.
And … pretty much no one on this list is more important than Will Muschamp, who is UGA’s co-defensive coordinator (who served in this role without the title in 2021 and was officially named as such this season).
That’s a pretty long winded way of saying “I don’t understand what the phrase ‘of the playoff era’ means” since Venables was hired in 2012.
Fine then. Tony Elliot and Jeff Scott. Hired in 2015.
Pay that man $5M a year.
No, I’m not joking.
You should be. There are tons of guys out there who would be just as good at coaching UGA’s immense talent AND who would be more help on the recruiting trail.
Man, all the idiotic c r a p you’ve posted in just the last two days has given gwhite a run for his money.
This is just more of the same.
thadec,
Maybe. But most likely, is is not that easy.
James Coley had immense talent when he was running point on offense at UGA, and his offense was nowhere near as dynamic. Jim Chaney had immense talent and his offense was boring and predictable. Going back to the Richt years, look at the absurd talent UGA had on offense during his tenure and the offenses run by Neil Callaway & Mike Bobo were one dimensional compared to what Monken is running.
Sometimes, it really is the man that makes the difference.
“All Smart can hope for now is that Monken isn’t finished dialing up his magic in Athens.”
Monken and Kirby = genius plain and simple.
I think Monken is the best OC in CFB. Someone will point to Tennessee, Ohio St. and USC, but the overall static’s are misleading.
Kirby almost always has Monken take his foot off the gas when GA is up 2-3 scores late in the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. That strategy is sound considering the Dawgs elite defense, but it also deflates the offensive output.
GA finished No.4 in Scoring Offense. If Kirby had a more aggressive 4th quarter offensive strategy, they could’ve easily added another 7 points to their scoring average, which would’ve easily topped UT’s No.1 SO of 46.1 points.
I hope Monken stays another 10-years. If he does, he may well be a part of the next CFB dynasty.
It is certainly logical to say Monken, but it is real easy to be a great offensive coordinator with a QB who has been playing college ball for 25 years and 5/4 stars littered all over the field.
1998
Shut up
It has been 8773 Days since Tennessee last won an NCAA Football Title.
one would think it’d be easy, but how well have the offenses at #4 a&m, #5 clem, #6 tx, #8 lsu and #10 nd done over the past several years? those rankings are those team’s talent composite ranking. talent doesn’t always assure success.
Yes to the question. Also, Sarkisian is a fraud; always has been, always will.
He’s a fraud as a head coach and a coordinator in the NFL.
As a CFB OC? Dude is great. Much like Muschamp as a CFB DC. Same situation.
Monk is a wizard at taking advantage of mismatches and creating explosive schemes. The beauty of his play-calling is that he runs the entire playbook out of several basic formations, but constantly uses motion to discombobulate the D. He almost never tips his hand and the opponent honestly has no clue where the ball is going 80-plus percent of the time. Defenses have to react to his schemes, and can rarely attack like they want to. Pair that with exceptional talent and you get what we saw last night.
Pay that man his money and keep him in Athens! What he might do with a truly elite QB is worth the price.
I think we just saw.
He is also a master of the muddle huddle. All night TCU defenders were pointing and yelling assignments to each other as the ball was being snapped.
As if Georgia doesn’t have enough talent advantages, the defense is confused at the snap. That’s coaching.
I think people underestimate the quality of life in Athens. All the former coaches still live there. Richt moved back after stint in Miami, Donnan still lives there, heck even Ray Goff still lives there. Plus as demanding as Kirby is, he’s still a family man at heart.
Monken is a very skillful and creative coach. People say it’s easy when you have talent, but the dimwit before Monken— Coley? — proved that isn’t so. Watching that TCU game, I felt like Monken schemed it up as if he had less talent, which led to a near perfect performance as instead of just trying to out-athlete TCU he outschemed and out athleted them. The varying tempos thing is also masterful and much better than just running temp all the time.
mtruth. Well said. With Coley, I felt like I knew what play was coming about half of the time. With Monken, If the alignment shows Bowers is getting one on one coverage, that might give it away. 90% of the time I have no idea where the ball is going. He keeps the defense guessing and uses his talent in so many varying ways.
I halfway agree about Coley. His play calling was frustrating at times. BUT…Kirby still had his thumb on the neck of the offense especially in the 2nd half of a game with a good lead. Manball was Kirby’s baby. Coley was handcuffed for a half of most games if not all the game.
Agree truth.
Interesting list of top 5 hires…goes to the question, is it the X’s and O’s or the Jimmy’s and Joe’s?
I’m totally fine with UGA paying anything with in reason to keep Monken around.
I knew some fans who were still mad at Muschamp when Kirby hired him. He’s a great DC and a constant reminder to the other guys on staff that not everyone is cut out to be an HC.
Definitely true and do you think Monken took it a little personal when matching wits against the Broyles Award winner (TCU OC). Riley had no answer for the Dawgs defense while Monken put on a clinic against a seldom seen, difficult to attack 3-3-5.
SicEm. great point!
Monken put on a clinic of how to destroy the 3-3-5 defensive scheme. You can bet that if TCU sticks with it next year they will have a much harder time of it in their own conference even with the reduced talent they regularly play against. Tuesday morning every DC in the Big12 was breaking down that tape.
I hope Monken and Smart coach until retirement at UGA, and I hope Muschamp does so as well.
Ah, the rings and glory.
That’s worth something money has no truck.