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From Staff Reports

With Southeastern Conference football getting closer to reality, one of the hottest topics is the quarterback position for the Georgia Bulldogs.

Head coach Kirby Smart and new offensive coordinator Todd Monken have some interesting decisions to make at the position with transfers Jamie Newman (Wake Forest) and J.T. Daniels (Southern California) joining the quarterback room.

Monken, previously offensive coordinator for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, discussed his quarterbacks, his offense and more this week.

On where he starts when designing a new offense and combining Coach Smart’s goals and the direction he wants to go to launch his offense:

Monken: “First off, being three different places the last five years there’s a number of things that we’ve done in the past, So, you start with what you’ve done recently, and then what you’ve done the last few years that you liked and want to carry over. Obviously, the games are different, the NFL compared to college football, there’s different various or, you know, of what you want to accomplish from a tempo standpoint, from a personnel standpoint. But, we are still in the process of building that. We went through the spring and did that — then the summer and we’re continuing to work on that as we speak.”

On what he and Coach Smart envisioned UGA’s offense to look like once he joined the staff:

“Scoring points and not turning it over. I know that’s really simple, but obviously that’s — when we spoke about his vision of the offense, was certainly what I think every coach wants, which is take advantage of your personnel, the players that you can recruit here at the University of Georgia, doing a great job in terms of utilizing those people, putting them in the best position to be successful. Obviously, as coaches we are paid to maximize our players measurable skill sets, so that’s probably the first and foremost — the talent that we get here is finding a way every day to develop those players, and then utilize their skill set to the best of their ability. Obviously, the most important part is moving the football and scoring points, whether that’s running the football or throwing the football. Being explosive and not turning it over — it’s a pretty simple game.”

On his assessment of the talent level in the quarterback room/what will ultimately decide who takes the starting position:

“Well, I really like our guys. We have a good number of players at that position. Starting from, you know, a couple of transfers that as we all know about, and then some young players that are on our roster. So, it’s been fun to be in the room because they all vary. They are different in terms of their personalities. They all want to be really, really good players. They all want to work at it. There is never an issue in terms of them understanding what they are trying to get accomplished, offensively. So, you know, obviously the difficulty of not having spring ball, and not going through some of those practices, there’s only so many things you can do in meetings without actually getting out there, and things they can do on their own. Right now, it’s an open competition. We’re looking at all of the players because they all have talent, and we’re excited about getting to scrimmage this Saturday and seeing where we’re at.”

On his overall impression of UGA’s receiver group, specifically from a pass-catcher standpoint:

“This is a group of talented guys who have truly been a joy to work with. They’re excited about the opportunities they have in front of them, with a couple of guys leaving last year. We’re still relatively young with certain guys we’re counting on, like George (Pickens) and some of the incoming freshmen, and even some of the older guys who still have work to do as developmental players who need the reps; guys like Matt Landers, Demetris Robertson. I know (Robertson) is one of our older players, but from a developmental standpoint, players like Tommy Bush and some of our older guys will push for playing time. Kearis Jackson has been a relative surprise in terms of his consistency and the ways he has played and developed. That’s what we’re paid to do. We’re paid to recruit really talented players and then develop them and maximize their measurable skill sets. That’s what coaching is, and utilizing what they bring to the table.”

On the running back situation and who will step up behind Zamir White and get a lot of carries:

“It’s hard to say. We really haven’t had a scrimmage yet. We’ve hit a little bit. The first day of pads was yesterday. Zamir I think has had a tremendous offseason, as has James Cook. Then you take into account Kenny McIntosh who came in last year and had a really good start to his career. (He is a) very versatile player who can do a lot of things running and catching the ball in the backfield, and then Kendall Milton who showed up in the spring and, like a lot of true freshmen, you’re excited to see. But, again, with that position, until you put on the pads, it’s hard to really tell. I really like our guys. Daijun (Edwards) as well — I think those five guys are an impressive group.”

On what skills set JT Daniels and Jamie Newman apart:

“It’s hard because it was only basically five days ago that, as coaches, we’ve been on the field with them throwing a football. I know it’s hard to envision, when you really think about it, that (the coaches) have not been on the field with our players, throwing a football, until we started camp without having spring ball. Everything else is on your own when you have a football on the field, so that made it a little bit difficult. The one thing I would say about Jamie (Newman) is that, (while) everybody talks about his athleticism, he’s a better thrower than people think. I think J.T . (Daniels) is a better athlete (than people think). Obviously, there’s film on both of those guys. Obviously, J.T. is a young player at USC throwing the football. There’s film of Jamie, obviously running Wake Forest his offense, very efficiently. Like I said, I think from the first five days that J.T. is a better athlete than we would have thought, and Jamie’s a much better thrower.”

On what he has seen from the other quarterbacks, D’Wan Mathis and Carson Beck:

“I’ve been impressed with both of them. Both of them are very talented young players. Obviously, D’Wan last year missed part of the season, but with Carson coming in the spring, and being here (and) obviously was here for the bowl game, you can see a lot of things that that you like from Carson’s end of it, from his throwing and his athleticism. D’Wan, (with) his athleticism and his arm talent, as he continues to develop, and they’ve been rotating like the other guys in terms of giving them an opportunity to compete for the job. So, their future is really bright.”

On whether he sees the potential of an explosive offense from the offensive group he has this season:

“Well I hope so. It’s a lot more fun that way when your explosive. It’s funny how it works. How do you get explosive plays? First off, your ability to run the football, put the defense and run past conflicts, is the number one way to gain explosives. Either hitting open space in the intermediate levels or over the top, and then the next part is, how do you get skilled players in space? How do you get really good skill players in space that can make people miss? So, that’s at every level. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish, and I think we have those guys to do it. Again, the proof will be in the pudding once we get to playing games but I do like what I see.”

On the characteristics and skills he looks for when evaluating quarterbacks:

“Well, first of all, accuracy is No. 1 because if you’re going to throw the football, you have to be accurate with the football. That would be number one. How are they accurate in terms of throwing the football? Mental toughness. I think that’s up there — that’s got to be a big part of it, how they handle it. Because quarterbacks are closely aligned with winning and losing as coaches, they’re the closest you’re going to get in terms of your players being aligned with winning and losing. So, those guys have to handle the ups and downs of the position. So the mental toughness part of it, the ability to sustain through the ups and downs of playing the position and the media scrutiny. The next part is athleticism, the ability to move and extend plays the game has become that so much more in terms of your athleticism. So when you’re talking about accuracy, mental toughness and the athletic ability to escape and make plays are probably the top three. I’m probably missing some but off the top of my head, those are pretty important characteristics. It’s hard to be a statue anymore and be consistently explosive and be able to move the football.”

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