Blaming the SEC Championship loss entirely on James Coley is unfair and misguided

Who knows? Had Tyler Simmons caught that first pass from Jake Fromm, instead of letting it slide right through his arms like it was coated with grease, then maybe Georgia would have struck first and seized the early momentum against LSU.

Or if Demetrius Robertson had managed to get his hands under the football on that deep pass.

Or if Dominick Blaylock did not get injured.

Or if George Pickens had not been suspended for the first half because he lost his mind the week before against Georgia Tech.

Or if Matt Landers had secured the football in the end zone to give the Bulldogs a touchdown when they still had a chance despite all of the above.

Or if Kearis Jackson, maybe Georgia’s second-best receiver in spring practice, had not been hurt before the season and hurt again in the LSU game.

Or if D’Andre Swift had not been limited to a decoy due to his shoulder injury.

Or if Lawrence Cager had not injured his ankle in practice before the Tech game.

Or if Jeremiah Holloman had not been kicked off the team last spring.

All of the above certainly contributed — directly or indirectly — to Georgia’s 37-10 loss to LSU in the SEC Championship Game. Mind you, change all of the above and LSU still probably would have won. The Tigers are just the better team. Probably the best team in college football. The College Football Playoff selection committee certainly thinks so as they moved LSU ahead of Ohio State in the rankings.

None of the above had anything to do with Georgia’s play-calling or offensive scheme. So to lay the blame for this loss or this season solely at the feet of offensive coordinator James Coley would be unfair and misguided.

That’s not to say changes in the offense don’t need to be made. Now more than ever, football is an evolving game. In one of Kirby Smart’s first press conferences as Georgia’s new head coach, he was asked about the apparent continuity of the defense he would install, given that the outgoing defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt had helped Smart run the same system at Alabama just three years earlier.

Smart agreed that seemed logical, but not factual. He estimated that Alabama’s defense was “about 50 percent” of what the Crimson Tide was running when Pruitt left for Florida State.

Changes in offenses dictated changes in Smart’s defensive philosophy. Speed, endurance and tackling in space became more critical than dominating between the tackles. But Smart didn’t get away from his core defensive philosophy of being stronger and tougher than opposing offenses.

Likewise, Smart needs to tweak the offense. But it’s not as if the Bulldogs are running the power-I offense of a decade ago. They’re running pretty much the same offense as everyone else with run-pass options. They just need to spread defenses out more and use the entire field.

“Our ability to run the ball has not been consistent this year, and people will say, well, Coach Smart wants to play man ball,” Smart said. “Coach Smart wants to win, and we threw the ball 42 times. Now, you can say it was because we were behind, but we threw the ball early in the game, and we had some drops, we had some misses. It’s not a matter of what’s your offensive philosophy. It is what is the best way to win the game.”

The offense was good enough to take the Bulldogs to the national championship game two years ago and take them to within one play of going back to the playoff last season. Yeah, that was under Jim Chaney, not Coley, but it’s essentially the same offense. Firing coaches isn’t necessarily the answer. But since we’re on that topic, why is all of the blame directed at Coley? Why has receivers coach Cortez Hankton been immune from criticism? Blaylock and Pickens were two of the highest rated recruits in the country. Both were slow to develop.

Bringing back Mike Bobo to run the offense, as many have proposed, won’t change a thing if receivers don’t catch the football. If anything, maybe the former Georgia player that Smart needs to bring home is Bryan McClendon, whom South Carolina just demoted from offensive coordinator back to receivers coach.

More than anything, though, Georgia just needs to recruit better receivers and hope for better luck than it’s had since last April.

Apart from all of that, though, there is this truth. LSU just may be the best team that Georgia has played under Smart. Many will say that’s due to the offensive scheme after Joe Brady was brought in to revamp the passing game.

“There’s a combination of a lot of things, and it is scheme oriented,” Smart said. “But it’s a lot more than scheme. They have plays that they’ve run all year, that we’ve run all year. Our plays haven’t looked like their plays because a lot of time we might not have the same guys doing those plays.”